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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2012Andre HollinsTubby SmithRodney WilliamsINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA Minnesota – 75 THE MODERATOR: We'll have the coach make an opening statement, and then questions for Andre and Rodney. Coach? COACH SMITH: Well, it was a good win for us, certainly a gallant effort to come back and get a win against a very good team. Northwestern gives everybody problems. I thought we were able to do the things we had to get done. Hopefully they'll move on to the NCAA because they certainly deserve it. THE MODERATOR: Questions of student‑athletes. Q. Andre, Coach has been saying all last week that you needed a guy on the team to be that go‑to scorer. Is that a role that you thought, coming into this game, that you felt you needed to take on? ANDRE HOLLINS: Not really. It was just the opportunity to present itself where I had open shots and I just knocked them down, and I'm thankful my teammates passed me the ball. It's not just one person to go to. If you have an open shot, it's open. It's just everybody working together. Q. Question for Rodney. Once the game got into overtime, what was the mindset of the team? It looked like you guys were playing a lot more energetic, confident, thinking you were going to win. RODNEY WILLIAMS: You know, we've been in these overtime situations before and we didn't come out on top. We knew that we just had to go out there and shut down their 3s and get the stops we needed and get the shots we needed and then convert on offense. We were very confident that we could do that and we went out there and did it. Q. Andre, coming into the game, you looked pretty loose heading into this game. Any nerves at all, being your first Big Ten Tourney game? ANDRE HOLLINS: No, it was no nerves, it's just I was excited to get out there. And this is a great opportunity for us. Q. Andre, obviously your shots were falling today better than they have all season. Do you feel more comfortable in this game than you have all season? ANDRE HOLLINS: Yeah. It just coming into a new season. Like Coach said, this is a new beginning for us and we just‑‑ it's just an opportunity presented itself, and I thought I was just feeling good tonight. Hopefully I can carry that on this whole tournament. Q. Obviously, playing without Ralph coming into this game, talk about Elliot's performance. And you guys went small down the stretch there, but you were still able crash the boards and give the guys a chance to win. THE MODERATOR: Rodney, will you take that one, please. RODNEY WILLIAMS: Elliott came out early in the season, you know, Rob was out with the ankle injury, and Elliot had to start up, play for him, and did he a really good job. And we just reminded him of those games early in the season, and he came out here and he played tough out here for us tonight. THE MODERATOR: Additional questions for the student‑athletes? Q. You guys have played under a lot of pressure for the last several games down the stretch, and it seems like almost tonight, I guess you could have looked at it a couple ways, as if you have a whole lost pressure on you because you've got to win this and all of them, or you don't really have a whole lot of pressure at all because you're a low seed and not a lot of people expected you to win. Did you guys just feel looser tonight? ANDRE HOLLINS: I think we really didn't think about pressure and not pressure. It's just going in and playing our game and playing hard. We know that‑‑ I mean, we were well prepared for Northwestern. We played‑‑ this is our third time playing them. And it wasn't any nerves or pressure going in. We just had to be focused to come in and give a great effort. THE MODERATOR: Rodney. RODNEY WILLIAMS: Like Andre said, it wasn't really any pressure out there because like you said, nobody's really expected us to come out here and do anything. We just have to come out here and play our brand of basketball and we'll come out with w's. THE MODERATOR: Got time for a couple more for the student‑athletes. Q. It's been a long time since you've seen Michigan. It was right at the beginning of the Big Ten season. Is that something that it makes it harder to do or easier because you haven't seen them and you guys obviously look different than did you then? THE MODERATOR: Rodney, start with you. RODNEY WILLIAMS: It's probably a little hard for us because, like you said, it's been so long. But we know that they're a team that can shoot the 3 really well, just like this Northwestern team, and they run the same kind of offense and the defense as well. So we just gotta, like I said, we just gotta come out and play our side of the ball, get stops and run the floor, and we'll be all right. Q. Does that help? Having played Northwestern, you said they're somewhat similar to Michigan. Does it help with the short put‑up? RODNEY WILLIAMS: That definitely‑‑ I think that definitely helps us because they're a similar team, so we just gotta go out there with the same mindset that we had tonight and we'll be just fine. THE MODERATOR: Take one more for these guys and let them go back to the locker room. Anybody? Q. Have you guys thought at all about past the Big Ten Tournament, NC Tournament, NIT? Has that been talked about before this tournament at all? THE MODERATOR: Andre, take that one. ANDRE HOLLINS: Most definitely. We most definitely want to continue to play this. We get that from our coach, the pass before the game, and we just want to continue to play, play our hearts out. It's just the steps we have to take in order to get to that point, and we just have to take care of Michigan next in order to keep moving on. THE MODERATOR: Fellas, thank you. You can go back to the locker room. Congratulations. Now questions for Coach Smith. Q. Tubby, obviously Andre had a great night. Is this something that you just seen him slowly building up to be the kind of go‑to guy you've been looking for? COACH SMITH: Well, he's been that way all year. He's been a real‑‑ he's got the leadership characteristics that you need, and then he has the skill set. He's got great form on his shot. His ball handling is improving. His defense is the biggest thing that he had to improve on, and he's done a good job there. So, yeah, we saw it, and that's what happens over the course of a season. You expect them to get better, and he's gotten better and he showed it tonight. Q. Coach, which was the biggest difference for you between the game today and then the game in Evanston just last month? COACH SMITH: Well, we were‑‑ you know, played extremely well there, and it was on the road. It was‑‑ I don't know. Looking back, you know, it was a John Shurna night. I think he was just passing. He had a great game, and he's an excellent player. He's hard to defend. That was one our problems, just defending‑‑ and we gave up a lot of easy baskets in the back door, and that's‑‑ that was a real problem for us. And when you get behind like that on the road and you're a young team, you just‑‑ you're inexperienced and trying come back. Today we're behind, we came back and did a good job. So I think that was the major difference because we did a good job on the boards there and everything else, but we didn't take care of the ball. Today we did a better job up there. I think we had 21 turnovers and here we only had 14. Q. I wanted to say, seems like we saw more fight in your guys tonight. Do you feel like you saw more fight? COACH SMITH: You know, I told them all that you want to respect your opponents, but you don't want to have no fear, fear no one. And I thought that's one of the things, don't go out there fearful of the one‑three‑one and, you know, because I think that was just a tact. So we wanted to go with that type of mentality. And in the second half, that's what we did. We changed our defensive scheme and that paid off. It took away some of their 3s. We were able to keep pressure on as far as full court pressure is concerned, and that was huge for us because I think it kind of gets us going, gives us some confidence, you know, that Coach believes in us and we gotta keep attacking and not‑‑ play to win and not play to lose. So that's what I saw in them today. Q. We noticed that after a while, you went with a smaller lineup. You guys were able to‑‑ after a while you were able to go with a smaller lineup and still be effective, pressuring and causing some turnovers, getting in transition. COACH SMITH: Well, we were‑‑ we thought that the rebounding edge was to us and we just felt like we needed to have better defense on the perimeter. So even though Elliot had four fouls on him also, Rodney had four fouls. So it was just‑‑ because of that situation, dictated us going small. We had to get Julian because we needed good ball‑handling, better ball‑handling, and wanted to get Chip in the game because he's a pretty good ball handler so that was‑‑ that's why we went to a small lineup. It paid off. Q. Tubby, John Shurna never really got comfortable out there. End of the second half, went into overtime. What was the key to shutting him down or not letting him get going? COACH SMITH: What was the key‑‑ well, we wanted keep the ball off him as much as possible, make him put it on the floor in the second half. He's a great spot‑up shooter. And they set a lot of screens for him. So wanted to run him off the 3‑point line as much as we could, and I thought we did a better job of that in the second half, making him drive the ball to the basket. And that was our game plan. It was our game plan from the beginning but it wasn't working. We changed that defense against the zone. They were just carving us up and lighting up us from outside, so we went away from the zone the second half and primarily played nothing but man to man. Q. Julian was back in there after two games. How do you think he responded to having that extended layoff? COACH SMITH: Big time shots. He made a big 3 today. I thought he played tough. He especially had a‑‑ really hadn't worked out much at all. Both he and Andre Ingram. He was pretty well fatigued. He was only out there for a few minutes and he was gassed. And I think that's when Julian hit the wall a little bit. And that's what happens when your shelved and not able to play and you have an jury injury. The conditioning part goes first. And I think he showed a lot of toughness and good conditioning today and that was important. He did some good things for us, and I was impressed with how he contributed. THE MODERATOR: Time for two more. Q. Tubby, Michigan, everyone says that Michigan has a tough press. Is what Rodney said effective, that it's easier to do that in one day, or Michigan is tough regardless? COACH SMITH: They're tough regardless. They're just playing with a lot of confidence. They've got some talented players. We haven't seen them in a long time, since early in the season. But, again, there are some similarities in their offensive style and their defensive style, but it's two different teams, and they're very athletic in key positions with Burke. So we really‑‑ we have our hands full, but it's always tough to prep for a John Beilein team. Q. You guys obviously put the ball in Andre's hands for the last play of regulation. Even though he missed it, it seems like guys were looking to him in overtime as well. Does that just speak to obviously how well he was playing, but also how much trust his teammates are giving him? COACH SMITH: Yeah, he's got that ability. I said it earlier. He has all the traits, and that's why we recruited him. Sometimes as coaches, we can‑‑ you're looking for other things and you're open ‑‑ but he's more serious‑minded now. I think he's matured a lot, and that's helped a lot. He's always been an outstanding shooter. It's just more when to shoot, when not to shoot, and that's the biggest challenge for players. And I think he's learned‑‑ and when to pass, when not to pass. But yeah. The guys, I have a lot of trust in him, a lot of faith in him that he can make plays for us. We were having problems with too many turnovers, so we thought maybe we just put in one guy's hands. Wasn't so much‑‑ it was pretty much to kind of cut down on the turnovers, to be honest with you, because we'd been a little shaky, but we were better in the second half and that helped. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. COACH SMITH: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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