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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2012Scott DrewBrady HeslipPerry Jones IIIKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Baylor – 82 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Baylor coach Scott Drew and Brady Heslip and Perry Jones III. Coach, an opening comment. COACH DREW: I think this is a better press conference than last year after the first game. So glad we're here a little longer. Pleased with how the guys played. I thought we took much better care of the basketball. In the two previous games against K‑State, we had 18 turnovers and 18 turnovers. Maybe it was the uniforms; we saw who we were passing to. But I was going to say that was a big part. Defensively I thought we did a pretty good job for most of the game. K‑State's a very good team. I think they're going to have a lot of success in the NCAA Tournament. Coach Martin does a tremendous job and their guys always play extremely hard. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Perry, it's been‑‑ maybe fair or not, it's been an up‑and‑down season and for you personally. How pleasing, I guess, is this for you to have the game you did on this stage? PERRY JONES III: It's pleasing because I got my teammates to give me the ball in the right position, my teammates encouraging me to shoot shots I don't normally take. And they told me to do it like I did in practice. I opened up my whole arsenal. They told me: We got one game. If we lose, we're out, so just give it all on the floor. And that's what I'm doing. Q. Perry, was it something you saw in the K‑State defense or were you just in the zone today? PERRY JONES III: I guess I was just in the zone today. Just being aggressive and more assertive. Just looking for my teammates when I can find them. If they were open, they told me to make a play, and I would do my best and make the best play I can. Q. Perry, yesterday you talked about getting to the free‑throw line. Can you talk about how the offense developed for you today and what you saw from the Kansas State defense? PERRY JONES III: Just being aggressive going to the hole. Not really looking for the foul, but just going into the body, hopefully I'll get the foul, hopefully not. But just being able to finish, and convert and‑ones. And it's postseason and you won't get that many foul calls, you gotta be aggressive, you gotta be tough, and just attacking the glass, attacking the basket. Q. Perry, you said that your teammates encouraged you to take shots you normally wouldn't take. Why would you not? With your ability, why would you not normally take those shots? PERRY JONES III: Just being in the offense, Brady is a 3‑point shooter, giving him the ball at the 3‑point line, things like that, wanting to be on the inside more. But my teammates said‑‑ they told me to open my whole arsenal, meaning do what I know I can do. I've been shooting a lot after practice, making consistent shots after practice. So it only felt right to take the shots I was taking in the game because I made them in practice. Q. Perry, did it at all enter your mind before this game what your situation was, almost exactly a year ago today, you couldn't play in this thing? PERRY JONES III: Say it one more time. Q. Did it ever enter your mind what your situation was a year ago almost to the day? PERRY JONES III: Yeah, my teammates reminded me when I got on the plane. They all gave me a round of applause for being able to show up here and being able to play in this tournament. But, I mean, other than that, it was all laughing and jokes. It wasn't nothing serious. Q. Brady, could you talk about the three‑guard look you guys have gone to I guess since the Texas game and why that's worked so well for you guys? BRADY HESLIP: I think it works well for us just because we're all different, and we all bring something different to the table. Those guys can really play defense. And Coach told us we really gotta guard today, and that's what we did. And the three‑guard lineup allows us to be fast, but also guard at the same time. Q. Perry, if you guys most likely are going to play Kansas, what do you guys need to do differently to beat them in the third try? PERRY JONES III: Defend. Defend and rebound. They're a great offensive and defensive team. They rebound really well. We've got to be able to rebound and get a lot of stops, as many stops as possible, because they can get on runs and it can get ugly. So just play defense. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Scott, how gratifying was it to see Perry have this kind of performance, especially given what happened a year ago? You know everything he had gone through. So seeing him go out there and do that today? COACH DREW: Coaches always want to win and do what you need to do to win. But Perry's one guy I think our whole staff and team really felt good that had a great game. I think throughout the year he's received a lot of negativity and at the same time I think as we've all shared with him‑‑ and he's a positive kid. He's one of those guys that the more you build them up, the better he is. And I think tonight he saw or you guys saw a game in which he was feeling good going into it. And credit the teammates giving him the ball and doing a good job. And during the course of the year there's times where we didn't get him the ball as much as we should have. And that's my fault. At the same time, I think he showed his repertoire tonight shooting the 3. He spent extra time late in the season working on that again, where earlier in the year he was shooting them and we kind of got away from it. So I think he's confident right now, and I think he's playing well right now. Q. When your team has had the expectation it's had all season, you get to this point and you have this kind of game, is it more of a breakthrough or more of a wake‑up for your team in your mind? COACH DREW: I think the big thing is if you look at our losses, we haven't had a bad loss. The teams that we've lost to are all good teams and teams that are NCAA Tournament teams, are going to be successful. I think what drives coaches the most nuts is when you lose to teams that you shouldn't lose to. And the NCAA always calls them bad losses. And I think credit our leadership, we've shown up and every game we're supposed to win we've won. And I think we've gotten better. I'll throw Coach Knight a bone here. He did a great job a couple of weeks ago. I asked him‑‑ he always moves the ball so well when he coaches. And we were a little stagnant. We threw in his favorite drill to help with assist‑to‑turnovers. I don't think the guys liked it at first, but we're getting better. So I think we've handled the ball better and hadn't had as many turnovers lately. Q. Coach, what made you decide to go to man‑to‑man defense there at some point in the first half, and is that something you feel like you'll try to continue the rest of the tournament? COACH DREW: I think really the greatness of our team is we have versatility. The tough thing is finding out which is better. Because statistically a lot of games zone is better. I think sometimes man is better. And trying to figure out which works against K‑State's pressure, the three guards really helped us on the offensive end and helped us get some easy transition baskets. So I think that lended itself to that. And that's the great thing, is we can go vice versa. What's tough on players is one game you play 25minutes, the next game you might play five minutes. That's tough on everybody. But as long as we stay as a team, that can be our biggest strength. For the most part this year, for 26 games, we've done that. Q. What did you say to your players at the halftime? You've had some rough rolls the last six weeks, second half play, but really were the aggressor in the second half. What did you say to have them really coming out firing like that? COACH DREW: I think the common theme in all our losses is we haven't defended. You look at every game in which we've lost, we've given up over 50percent defensive field goal percentage. And tonight Kansas State is one of the best rebounding teams in the country for a reason. They're one of the best in the Big 12 if not‑‑ depending on I think they're first in the Big 12‑‑ so we rebounded and didn't give them multiple opportunities, which was great. The second thing, with that, was just making sure that everything they had was tough and earned, and for the most part tonight we did a pretty good job with that. Q. Were you pleased with just kind of the general toughness in your team tonight, especially against the K‑State team that really prides itself on that? COACH DREW: I think 11:30 games are always a concern for every coach because sometimes college kids don't get up that early. So I was pleased with how we came out, competed. I think K‑State came out and competed. Whenever we played them, they're good games. And we're glad to get the win. Q. Can you talk about the contributions from A.J. Walton, four steals, three assists, 11points? COACH DREW: I thought A.J. was huge tonight. He was hitting the mid‑range jumper, which was great. But defensively he did a very good job and those four steals were huge. And he guarded without getting in foul trouble. And that's something that is important, because usually he's guarding one of the best players on the other team. So he did a very good job. Q. The way Perry played, did that seem to kind of rub off on everybody? Seemed like everybody kind of lifted their games. COACH DREW: I think Perry's one of those guys, the biggest compliment we can give Perry is as good a player, as good a talent as he is, he's a better teammate. Everybody loves Perry. You love coaching Perry because he's always got a great attitude. It's always team first. On Senior Night, he's one of the first guys to come up, Coach, can one of the guys start for me? And, I mean, here's a guy that might leave after this year and he's given up his starting position for the last home game because he wants to help the team. He's just a remarkable kid. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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