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NCAA MEN'S 1ST ROUND: DAYTONMarch 13, 2012Kevin BurwellPaul CrosbySean WoodsDAYTON, OHIO Western Kentucky – 59 THE MODERATOR: Joining us are student‑athletes from Mississippi Valley State Kevin Burwell and Paul Crosby as well as head coach Sean Woods. We'll start with an opening comment from Coach Woods, then we'll go to questions for the student‑athletes. COACH WOODS: Wow. First of all, I'm so very, very proud of my guys. We've had a historical run. And it's unfortunate that it ended this way. We fought our hearts out for 35 1/2 minutes, and we just let it slip away. But I told my guys in the locker room the same thing that Coach Pitino told us when I lost to Duke back in 1992, and that was: Don't let this game define your basketball career, especially here at Mississippi Valley State University, because you've done‑‑ because you've gone over and beyond the expectations for a school of our magnitude and the trials and tribulations that we have. And it's a testament to you guys, to my guys, of what they've done. It's unfortunate the way it ended. But it's over now. We can't dwell on that. I'm still proud of these guys. The same guys that made the mistakes down the stretch are the same guys that helped me win 17 in a row. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Kevin, Western is known for their big comebacks. How much was that part of the planning going in when you guys had a good lead coming down the stretch? KEVIN BURWELL: Well, during the time I was just trying to tell my teammates to stay composed because they are known for making big comebacks like that. I was telling them to stay disciplined and the little things, free throws, and just boxing out, getting offensive and defensive rebounds like we was doing when we got that lead. I was just trying to keep reminding our team and keep them composed. Q. Paul, can you just talk about the experience of having President Obama right there and how that factored into the game and just your thoughts entering this game? PAUL CROSBY: It didn't play too much of a factor. We were pumped for this game anyways. But them guys, man, they wanted it more than us the last five minutes, and they deserved to win. Q. Kevin, you guys turned it over a lot late. What was going on there? You guys got a little frazzled. KEVIN BURWELL: Yeah, a couple turnovers can lead into that right there. I was really trying to compose our guys, getting into our sets before we started our offense. But, unfortunately, we couldn't do that. So that's what happened. We started turning the ball over. Q. Kevin, seemed like throughout the game you were kind of gesturing toward President Obama a little bit. Can you talk about that and just how his presence may have impacted things for you? KEVIN BURWELL: Well, you know, like we said yesterday, I think we had interviews, we were just putting on a show for him. But at the same time, like Paul said, we was up for this game. We was already aroused for it. So in the heat of the moment, I just pointed at him a couple of times. That's it. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Just in terms of the emotion of this, is it in any way similar to what you went through as a player? COACH WOODS: Highs and lows, man, that's college basketball. The difference is I'm not playing. But I'm proud of my guys. Man, it's been a heck of a run. I'm very disappointed how it ended. But they fought hard and did some great things to even put us in this position here. Q. Sean, how much of this was Western's ability to rally, and how much of it was your guys' inability to finish it off? COACH WOODS: It was a little bit of both. I thought it was just our guys got rattled, got excited, and got a little bit beside themselves. Normally in a situation like that, maybe it's one guy or two. But when it's all five, it was like a snowball effect. I called a timeout and settled them down. We beat it a time or two, got to the free‑throw line, and all of a sudden we went back to it. So guys were just trying to make plays. We weren't smart down the stretch. We had a two on one trying to take it to the rim instead of bringing it back out because they had to foul us, and we didn't. But that's how we play. We wanted to attack and keep on going. And it's hard to turn a team off when they were going so good. We had a rhythm that was pretty doggone good today, and all of a sudden that rhythm stopped. But you gotta give your hats off to Western. They kept fighting. Q. Sean, what did you do to prepare these guys for the stage with the president being here and obviously this being an NCAA Tournament game as well? COACH WOODS: You know, all year long we just take one game at a time. And you gotta know our situation and our school. Something always going on that distracts us from the actual game of basketball. I tell people all the time, you know, 20percent of our life at our place is basketball; 80percent is something else. We get here today and it was a normal situation. We had to stop. Had to get checked. Nothing went smoothly because the president's here and everybody's running around and things like that. When we got to the locker room, I said this is something we're used to. And for the most part we treated it that way. We came in confident, played great for 35minutes. I mean, we absolutely dominated them for 35minutes and let it slip out of our hands. Q. Can you put into words the chance you guys had to play on Thursday to the stage, the exposure, and all of that for your school that's now slipped away? COACH WOODS: Everybody knows I played at U.K., and there's a lot of history there and sentimental feelings there. I was only thinking about Western Kentucky, I promise you, I want to get this game, and then play the No.1 team in the country. And that was when we were going to have fun and let the chips fall where they may. But this is a game we thought we should have won, could win, and should have won, and then we were going to go against the No.1 team in the country. But this was the most important deal up until this point. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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