|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
DICK'S SPORTING GOODS NIT SEASON TIP-OFFNovember 25, 2011Aaron BrightJohnny DawkinsChasson RandleNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY69 JOHNNY DAWKINS: I thought it was a great game. It was hard‑fought. Give Syracuse a lot of credit. But down the stretch they made their plays. I thought the young man, Kris Joseph, stepped upped, made big shots. They defended well out of the zone, and it was‑‑ I thought it was‑‑ they gave a great effort down the stretch and was able to close the game. THE MODERATOR:  Questions for the players? Q. Either one of you, this game was there for the taking late. What's the feeling where you had the lead and had the chance before they were able to pull it out? AARON BRIGHT: It's awful. It's never good when you lose.  Especially when you have‑‑ when you're up the whole game. But give credit to Syracuse. They played great. They made plays down the stretch, and we weren't able to make those same plays. Give credit to them. Q. Aaron, did the game change for you when they started to go full court with their pressure after you got the seven‑point lead there at the end? AARON BRIGHT: I mean, yeah, that's when the momentum swung to their way. I mean, we work on that all the time in practice. It wasn't‑‑ I don't think it was really that big of a problem until this game. You know, we just got to get back to work, practice, starting Sunday or tomorrow or wherever we go, and just improve and just take this and build on it. THE MODERATOR: Anything else? Q. For either of you, how hard did you feel to get this game under control. It seemed like most of the game was sloppy. Both teams going back and forth and turning it over. How difficult was it against their zone to keep from turning the ball over and then you guys kept forcing turnovers on your defensive end? CHASSON RANDLE: Really, they have long arms, they're big inside. They really pressured us to make bad decisions sometimes. It was on us. It's what we have to work on and improve on. Q. For Chasson, they had (Dion) Waiters and (C.J.) Fair coming off the bench. What kind of difference did those two players make with their strength? CHASSON RANDLE: They brought a lot of energy. They got on the boards, made plays for Syracuse that helped them get the victory. Q. For Aaron, a lot of the time you drove inside and there was Melo there in the middle. Seemed like he had a big presence in this game. Do you want to talk about going against him? AARON BRIGHT: Definitely. He's a big guy, and when I was penetrating, he was right there. It was really tough to make plays, trying to jump down to JO or Zimmermann or whoever is down there. He had a presence in every pass I made and every shot that I took. Yeah, he's a great player, and he definitely had an impact defensively for them. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. Questions for the Coach. Q. Johnny, what feeling and what information do you feel you have about your team that you didn't know prior to coming to New York? JOHNNY DAWKINS: Before we arrived, it's so early in the season that you don't really know the make‑up of your team, how good you can be, because it's still early. I found out a lot about our guys during these last couple of days. I think we can be pretty good, watching our kids compete the way they did against a very good Syracuse team and a good Oklahoma State team prior to that. I think those things will help us continue to improve. I feel we learned some things we need to work on as a team about being in these situations the last couple of games. And I think that will help us to continue on the path of improving as well. Q. It seemed like you were able to keep Kris Joseph pretty much in check most of the day. And late in the game he got a couple of baskets either in transition or off a turnover or the press. Are those the kind of shots you get a player like him going? JOHNNY DAWKINS: Absolutely. First of all, a senior, great leader, terrific player for Syracuse. And he stepped up and made the big plays. And he's done that before. For us, we were trying to contain him as much as we possibly could. Trying to limit his touches. Trying to make sure he didn't get good looks. He had some tough shots. I credit him for making shots. Our defense was good on several of those situations. Even the ones off the turnovers. He finished plays around the basket through contact. About as good as any young man I've seen. He did a great job. Q. Talk about how tough the 2‑3 zone affected the interior play. JOHNNY DAWKINS: It limited us interior. They do a great job. They're long, they're active. That's their primary defense. They know their slides. We have to try to adjust to that. I thought for us, Josh Owens, who has been one of our best inside players, it was difficult. He's 6'8" and Fab is 6'11", he's long and big. We didn't get some of the things we normally get out of it. You credit them for playing well down there in the paint. They're physical, they're long. And it was difficult for us to score on them down there. Q. How much of an advantage is their experience‑‑ in the end of the game they are going down the stretch, they have guys that have been in this situation. You have guys feeling things out. JOHNNY DAWKINS: Absolutely. There is a process to it. Those kids, they've been in those situations before. They've learned from them and they've grown and gotten better in late‑game situations. We're still a developing team. That's something that excites me about what I saw tonight, was the level of competitiveness. At times I didn't think we executed as well as we would like. But those are things we'll have to improve on. I'm looking forward to working with my group on that. I thought we gave a great effort tonight 23rd. Q. You guys shot 60% in the second half, forced 21 turnovers. What do you think it takes to beat Syracuse? JOHNNY DAWKINS: Syracuse is going to be a terrific team all year long. I think to compete against them, first of all, you have to value the basketball. We had 24 turnovers. If you do that, it's difficult to beat them. And they force a lot of them. They're so long and so active with their hands. You have to be so sharp and crisp with your passes. Your ball movement has to be great. You have to value the basketball. If you value the basketball and you play solid defense, you will be able to compete some. But I tell you what, at the end of the day, they're a terrific team. They are definitely one of the best teams in the nation. THE MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|