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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: ALBUQUERQUEMarch 14, 2012Tommy AmakerKyle CaseyOliver McNallyKeith WrightALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO THE MODERATOR: Questions for the Harvard student‑athletes. Q. Kyle and Keith, does this team represent as big a challenge for you two as front‑court people as any team you played, UCONN included, when you look at the number of big guys they have that can really play? KYLE CASEY: Yeah, I think this team's front court is a good front court. They're big, they're strong and athletic. But I think we're prepared. We've played teams this season who have had a good front court. I think if we just stick to our principles, we'll be fine. KEITH WRIGHT: This is going to be challenging. It's going to take a team effort from every position, but I think we've put in the work this season in order to deal with talent like Vanderbilt, and I think we'll be fine. Q. Oliver and Keith, for those of us fascinated with Harvard, could you explain to us was it always Harvard on your radar to go there, why you ended up there, if there were any other schools in the mix? OLIVER McNALLY: Yeah, so, no, it wasn't on my list at all until Coach Amaker was hired. I actually was never contacted by Harvard until my late spring of my junior season. I was high on West Coast‑‑ I'm from San Francisco, so I was high on West Coast Conference and Big West schools, and I was talking to a lot of them. But after I was coerced into taking a trip to the East Coast by my parents and some people around me, I didn't have great experiences at other Ivy League schools on my unofficial visits, but I loved Harvard. I loved Coach Amaker, and I really believed in the vision he was pitching to me. KEITH WRIGHT: The Ivy League as a whole wasn't on my radar at all. When I was looking at schools I was looking at William & Mary as a great academic school, and just looking at life after basketball. When I got a call from Harvard and I started getting calls from the Ivy League, it caught me off guard. I knew I had to take advantage of the situation and use basketball in my advantage. Then listening to what all these coaches have the Ivy Leagues had to offer and the family that I would be spending my time with, the players, after evaluating them, I felt like Harvard was the place that was the best fit for me. Q. Oliver, can you talk about the pressure you guys might have faced all season with all the expectations and having to win the Ivy League? Can you talk about that and is there relief that you're done with that and now it's on to the tournament? OLIVER McNALLY: Yeah, it was definitely a different situation than what we faced in our first couple years. But when we started to get my sophomore year, Jeremy's senior year, we had a lot more success. Then with sharing the title our junior season, we still were never the frontrunner. But this year we were picked pretty much consensusly to win our league. So we had a bullseye on our back the whole season. Still were able to, I think, not be totally respected by some of our bigger non‑conference opponents. But as we piled up wins and wins, and definitely in the Ivy League we were getting people's best shots at all times. But we relished it. We knew that we were going to beat everybody, and when we beat people, we were going to beat their best effort. So if someone was going to take us down here or there, that's their best effort and we've got to move on from there. But we enjoyed getting people's best shots every game. I wouldn't say relief. I think it probably was a little relief once Penn lost on Tuesday and we had the solo crown, which was something we definitely wanted. We didn't want to share anything like we did last year. But every tournament there are seeds and all of that, but seeds don't really matter as much because you roll the ball out and play one game and the winner goes on. That's pretty much what it boils down to. Q. Keith and Kyle, piggybacking on the question in terms of Harvard not being on your radar. Why wasn't it on your radar? Was it the academics? Did you think you couldn't afford it because of the scholarship thing? And how much did the financial ability that they were able to offer entice you guys to come to Harvard? KYLE CASEY: I would say it wasn't on my radar because they hadn't contacted me and I hadn't really heard of their basketball tradition or anything like that. I knew in a school that I was going to go to I wanted a good academic school and a good athletic school. Academically, Harvard obviously speaks for itself. But their basketball tradition before we really started what we're doing here has been pretty poor. So I think that's the biggest reason that it wasn't on our radar. Just hearing Coach Amaker and how he believes in his vision for what he wants Harvard to become and seeing the players that he's getting to come here and things like that, it really opened my eyes up to what could happen. Once I bought in, it was pretty much a sealed deal after that. KEITH WRIGHT: Harvard wasn't on the radar because I didn't think I could get into an Ivy League school. I wasn't raised growing up to dream of Harvard or Yale or going to an Ivy League school. So when I started getting calls, it was surreal. It took me back. I realized that I was actually smart enough to get into these schools. From there, it was just hearing what the coaches had to say. But overall, the players that I was going to be playing with and spending most of my time with, just evaluating those guys and how I mesh with them, and that was the overall decision. Q. How important was the Florida State victory in establishing in your own minds collectively that you could play with anybody? OLIVER McNALLY: It was huge. You can come into the season saying we can play with anybody and we can win games. But when you see that power conference and someone who is predicted to finish at the top and did finish at the top of the ACC, and you beat them on a neutral court, no advantage is really given to either team. It's a big confidence boost. I think it did a lot for us going the rest of the season. We lost at UCONN, and we lost some games. But we walk into every game thinking and believing that we can win. It's one thing to say that, but I think as a unit we do believe that. We're going to face a really talented team and hot team in Vanderbilt, but we're not just happy to be here and win our first solo Ivy title and just throw in the towel. We're here to win, and that's what we're expecting to do. Q. Keith, when you look at this Vanderbilt team, how difficult, or are they impossible to zone for 40 minutes? KEITH WRIGHT: To zone? What do you mean? Q. Focus on defense. KEITH WRIGHT: Like them playing zone or us? Q. You playing zone against them. KEITH WRIGHT: We're a man team. We're not going to‑‑ I don't see Coach instructing us to do anything differently. We hang our hat on our defense, and we're not going to do anything differently when it comes to that when we face this Vanderbilt team. I don't envision us doing any zone. I think we're going to man up and help each other out, help side defense like we've done all year. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Amaker. Q. Obviously, when you came to Harvard, your first concern had to be competing with the Ivies on the recruiting front. But a school like Vanderbilt is someone you've gone toe‑to‑toe with. Can you talk about that and what it was like breaking into the players they get to? COACH AMAKER: Certainly it's a challenge for us to put ourselves in those categories with some of the great institutions with playing in the larger conferences. When you think of Vandy and SEC and Stanford, and the Pac‑10, Pac‑12, many other schools around the country, Northwestern and the Big Ten. That's kind of a goal of ours to see if we can get involved in those circles. We've been able to do it. Our staff has worked incredibly hard to identify those prospects and try to build relationships with those kids and the various individuals around them. Certainly having some success here with our program, I think, has allowed us to gain some traction and a foot hold to make our way and to identify the kids that fit the profile for Harvard. That's a neat thing for us to be in those circles with Vandy, and Northwestern, and Stanford and those schools with the kids that we're trying to compete for. Q. Talking to some different people involved in the interview process when you were first hired at Harvard, and correct me if I have this wrong, but I wanted to get your take on this as one of the things that was talked about was how you could relate‑‑ the opportunity facing you at Harvard, you could relate to because you sort of felt it was similar when you went to Duke with Coach Krzyzewski. He was a young coach. Pretty unproven at that point. A program that was sort of unproven at that point. But they said that you bought the coach and said that you could sell that at Harvard. Can you talk about that, if I've got that right, and talk about that? COACH AMAKER: I fell in love with Coach K. That's well‑documented through my time, but certainly recognize how great of an institution Duke was and is. That always was very appealing to me to have an opportunity to have a great relationship with my coach, be a part of a program that was trying to grow and build and have an identity in that regard, but also attend a great school in a great conference. All those factors fit together for me very well during my time as a student‑athlete. We have, at Harvard, with an institution, and that's what Coach K was able to provide as well, not to sell, but present the institution first. We certainly do that here with Harvard. We think we have something that can be unmatched in terms of our institution, the things that our school has been a part of, has done, the people that we've produced. It's unmatched in so many different ways. There are other great places and great alums and so on and so forth, but we think we have a niche there, and we wanted to present that as an option for the kids that we thought would be viable candidates for our campus. I was just excited to have the opportunity to represent Harvard and still am, and hopeful that we can continue to do what we've started and the journey that we've been on. It's been a lot of fun. We've been able to kind of take it in a direction that we have a lot of traction about it. We're hopeful that the momentum will continue to grow. Q. Along the same lines, we read all these stories week after week about programs in trouble and kids in trouble. Does it make it easier for you to coach at a place like Harvard, where presumably you're taking a lot of those issues out of the mix? COACH AMAKER: Well, I love coaching at Harvard. I love coaching and teaching. It's one of the greatest attractions that came my way to be part of this great community. The Harvard community, the Harvard campus, knowing that the kids that we're going to try to attract‑‑ like every program, Vanderbilt, Duke. There are a number of different terrific programs that do it in a way that you're attracting great kids. You love being around and teaching and coaching those kind of individuals. So we're not alone in that regard. But we certainly recognize that we have one of those special places and we're very proud to represent it. Q. What was your initial coaching reaction when you found out who your opponent was? COACH AMAKER: Very honestly, I thought right away how tough it's going to be. I've had a chance to peak on different game that's Vandy has played throughout this season, and certainly I think the marquis game was just played in terms of their upset of Kentucky. But I knew right away of a veteran team, a team that can score. Very athletic, more athletic than people give them credit for being in the SEC conference with incredible athletic teams that have been known throughout the years in that league. I think Vandy matches up with all those teams. So I knew right away how challenging this match‑up would be because of their coach, Coach Stallings. I've known him for a number of years and have a great deal of respect for what he's done and accomplished in his career. This team, I think this team has been built, in my opinion from the outside looking in. You can imagine this team being built for an opportunity to make a deep run with their experience, the veterans, their balance and their athleticism. So it didn't surprise me we were able to make that run through the SEC Tournament. We're just hopeful that we can match their intensity. I think they're focused. They'll be a team that having come off a few early round losses in the past, will be very motivated and very focused. I'm hopeful that we can match those things. Q. You talked about the athleticism. Lance Goulbourne in particular, a disciplined defender in terms of rebounding and block shots. What you see from him on tape in the short time that you've studied him? COACH AMAKER: Well, you've characterized it very well. He's very athletic, 6'8", an older player, veteran player and very experienced player. I think he's, from what I've been able to watch and see thus far is he's very comfortable and has embraced who he is and what his role is. That says a lot about a lot of players if you can do that. It's easier said than done. But he has appeared that he really relishes his role in being that, as you mentioned, setting screens, getting offensive rebounds, keeping balls alive, sprinting the floor, blocking shots, doing a lot of thing that's maybe most people, unless you're an a statute basketball person or coach, are sometimes overlooked. I think he's a big piece of the puzzle for their ballclub. Q. Can you talk about the vision you had for the Harvard program when you got to Cambridge and now here in year five how this fits or any rough vision that you had when you got there? COACH AMAKER: Well, you know, Scott, we're very excited about having the opportunity to represent Harvard and thinking of this as the possibilities and potential associated with our great name. We just felt were enormous. We just felt if there was somehow to bring some energy and excitement, present this option to a few kids that could see this as an incredible challenge and opportunity. I just thought that the vision could provide something that we're seeing right now, Harvard basketball being relevant, being national, playing in big games, winning championships, getting to the NCAA Tournament. We basically ask the question, why not? We just felt like our name and our school was as powerful as any. There are other great ones, obviously. But we felt we were as powerful as any name in higher education, and why not? Why can't we present this as an option for the correct kids that would jump on this and want to see this as something to do something different, to make history. All the wonderful things that I think many coaches and players that are come before us have worked on and tried, and we were just able to take it a little bit further at this point, and we're incredibly happy and excited where we are but also knowing that we think we have a long road ahead of us as well. Q. When you listed all the things that impressed you about Vanderbilt, you did not mention size. Are you not fazed by their size? COACH AMAKER: I'm sorry. I omitted that by accident. They are, obviously, athletic and big.  Ezeli in the middle. I don't know if I mentioned or not but another thing is they're balanced. That's something we talk about our ballclub a lot is having great balance. Well, they're incredibly balanced with front line, strength, athleticism, scoring and incredible perimeter shooting. There are no holes with this basketball team. There is no question about it. I think as many people are starting to talk around the country with teams that have a chance to make deep runs in the tournament, I think Vanderbilt is one of those teams that are at the forefront of everybody's mind. Q. You talk a lot about presenting Harvard, put you on the spot here. How do you present Harvard? Then your players are up here just a few minutes ago, and a lot of them were basically saying they didn't consider Harvard because they just didn't even think about Harvard. Is that maybe one of your biggest challenges is there are kids out there who just don't even think about Harvard? Maybe not because of basketball, but they don't think they can get in? COACH AMAKER: I think sometimes that we've found that prospects and families weren't thinking along those lines until we made the call or the contact. Then once we had an opportunity and just asked for a chance to present Harvard. Asked for the opportunity to explain who we are, introduce ourselves, and the opportunity for them to investigate a little bit further what maybe we could have provided as an opportunity. I think once they engaged in that, I think they recognized how unique and special of a place Harvard is, and possibly this opportunity could be for themselves or for their child. Even with the kids up here on our ballclub and the ones you spoke with, until we kind of made the contact and said, hey, you know, this is who I am and this is what we're trying to accomplish. I know it's kind of hard to see these things right now, but just bear with us. We're going to be incredibly honest about who we are and what we're trying to do. If it makes sense to you, we'll try to take it a step further. If it doesn't, thanks for the opportunity to share those thoughts. I think the families of these kids in particular were very intrigued. As I said before, the name of Harvard is a powerful name. It's very moving in a lot of ways, especially sometimes for the parents to have their child be recruited and have an opportunity to think about going to Harvard, I think, is a very proud moment for any parent. Q. Your ballclub had a tough end of the season with a lot of close games. Who are you looking to step up and carry you guys? Who should we really be paying attention to even in the individual match‑ups tomorrow? COACH AMAKER: I don't know that we had a tough ending. We won our conference. We're very excited about how we were able to do that and certainly be in this position to be 12‑2 in the Ivy League and 26‑4. We had a sensational year thus far, and I'm hopeful that we can extend it. I don't think we have any one person. That's been the beauty of our team all year. When we speak of our balance, that's the key for us. I like to think the game of basketball should be played in a way that the go‑to guy is open guy. We've adopted that in a lot of ways. We want to feel that way about our team. To be unselfish and pass up something good for something that could possibly be great in terms of a shot to help each other out on defense. That's what we've done. That's who we've been, and I'm hopeful we'll remain in that character. I think it's incredibly important for us to remember our identity as we come to this great tournament to participate. But certainly we're not looking for one specific person. You look through the course of our season and we've had a number of different players that have stepped forward and given us strong contributions and led us to victory from a senior down to a freshman. So our balance has been key for us, and hopefully, our bench will continue to do what they've done in the past too. Q. Your thoughts on Jenkins and the problem he presents along the perimeter? COACH AMAKER: He's as good of a shooter that we'll face in our tenure at Harvard. Certainly he leads the SEC in scoring. He's deep range. It's been talked about his quick release. They do a number of things to get him shots, get him open. He has good size. He's a terrific basketball player. You don't lead the SEC in scoring and win the conference tournament without being an outstanding player and one of the top players in the country. We're hopeful that we can make it difficult for him as we've talked about having awareness and trying to make it incredibly difficult for him to get easy shots. Q. It just came out that Mike D'Antoni had resigned with the Knicks. I know you said how much Jeremy's game really fit with Mike's system. Just any thoughts moving forward for Jeremy? COACH AMAKER: First I'm hearing of it is right now. But certainly I felt that watching Jeremy play with the Knicks and having coached him for three years at Harvard and recognize his abilities and his game, I just thought that the style and the system was ideally suited for him. I thought that's allowed him to blossom as well as did he and as early as he did. Obviously, that could be not only for Jeremy but their team and their organization, a tough blow because certainly Mike is a terrific, terrific basketball coach and has been incredibly successful everywhere he's been. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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