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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: LOUISVILLEMarch 14, 2012Brandon DavisDave RoseBrock ZylstraLOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome the Brigham Young University student‑athletes to the podium. Brock Zylstra, Brandon Davies. We will open it up to the floor for questions for the BYU student‑athletes. Q. Brandon, you guys just played last night. It's kind of a whirlwind 24 hours here for you. What's kind of everyone's emotions? What's your mindset at this point having to prep for another game tomorrow? BRANDON DAVIES: All of us are excited to be here. We're excited for a chance to play another game and do our best to get another win. Q. Could you all talk about what impact actually coming back and winning that game, what that does for you, the fact that you were able to come back and win. And tell the truth. Did you all really think you could come back and win when you were down 25? BROCK ZYLSTRA: Your last question first. Of course, I think any good team is going to think they have a chance to come back. Even though it was the largest deficit in NCAA history, as a team, you've got to believe you can come back and win no matter the deficit. It's been‑‑ what was your first question again? Sorry. Q. Did you gain anything out of it from having actually come back in this tournament? BROCK ZYLSTRA: A lot of confidence comes from it. A lot of confidence comes from coming from behind and winning, especially the NCAA Tournament. There's a lot of new emotions and adrenaline comes into play when you're playing in this tournament. A lot of confidence it gives us to know that we can play, and we can battle back from a pretty big deficit. BRANDON DAVIES: Yeah, Brock's right. We never gave up hope. We kept fighting. Coach stayed positive. We just kept believing and just made sure we kept fighting. Q. Brock, was it advantageous or not to play last and get the tournament kind of feel and atmosphere last night? Or is that offset by being a little weary today, that sort of thing? BROCK ZYLSTRA: I think you got both sides of the story. We feel it's advantageous for us because we know the feelings, especially we got a lot of young guys on the team. So we know the feelings that come from playing in a situation like this, an atmosphere like this. So we take it as an advantage for us as we have already got our legs under us after a long layoff, especially for us, a week off or even more off. It's more than we're used to playing. We're happy that we're able to play and come into this next game already having a game under our belt. Q. For both of guys, can you talk about your impressions of Marquette and the challenges they'll pose for you tomorrow? BRANDON DAVIES: Once again, we're definitely excited to play them. They're a very talented team. But a lot of great players. They have a lot of fire power. It's going to take our best effort to come out and play our best game to get a win. Q. For both you guys, how much Marquette did you see during the season, and how much did you watch on the bus, and how familiar are you today? BROCK ZYLSTRA: I'm sure all of us have seen them play on ESPN during the season. I think I saw them play against Louisville. I don't know about Brandon, but they like to run in transition, I think, at first. They're a real physical team. We've seen some film on them, just now actually before we came up here. Great team. Really physical. Just a Big East team that you would think, when you think of the Big East conference, they're just real physical, want to get a lot of rebounds, play tough. They're a great team. Q. Brandon, it's well‑documented that you missed the tournament last year. Can you talk about what it felt like to make those big free throws last night and to kind of carry your teammates a little bit after what happened last year. BRANDON DAVIES: First off, it felt great just to get the win. All of us were out there just trying to do whatever it took and just making plays for each other. We just did our best to help each other out through everything. That's on and off the court, as I've seen personally. I'm just glad we're moving forward and we're able to advance in the tournament. Q. How big of a factor is the travel? You guys were on the bus this morning, right? Is there any physical‑‑ hampered physically, or is that not a problem for you guys? BROCK ZYLSTRA: Actually, I feel surprisingly better. I can't speak for anybody. I think Noah is a little banged up. He's been like that basically all year. So he's fighting through it. We know he'll fight through it. The bus ride wasn't too long. We had a similar one when we came back from the West Coast Conference from Vegas back to Provo. But as far as the bus ride goes, it wasn't too bad. We'll be ready to go for this round, kind of get our wind back and get our legs fresh. Q. Brock, Coach Rose changed the lineup last night. He started instead of Anson after he had started seven straight games, something like that. Was that a surprise to you, and was there any explanation about why you got the start? BROCK ZYLSTRA: No, not really. I think it was just a decision that the coaching staff wanted to make. I guess me and Anson, regardless of if we're coming off the bench or playing, we play the same way. He was a spark last night for us coming off the bench and playing hard defensively and hitting some shots offensively. So we didn't get an explanation for why, but I think that's what's cool about our team is that whoever it is, who starts, who comes off the bench, we're going to play the same regardless. Q. What do you guys know about Big East Player of the Year, Jae Crowder, his ability to play both inside and out? BRANDON DAVIES: We know he's a great player. Like you said, Player of the Year. It's going to take a lot to get him stopped. We're going to throw a lot at him and just make sure we give him our best effort to get him stopped. It's not just him. They have a lot of other guys on their team that are serious weapons and serious threats. So he's a great player, but he's surrounded by a bunch of them as well. Q. You talked a little bit about the Louisville game that you saw. End of that game, Louisville was able to beat them through a lot of fast‑paced offense and things like that. That kind of plays into how you play. How much of that are you going to be able to implement, and how much of that is a strategy? BROCK ZYLSTRA: I think offensively we are more similar to Louisville than we are defensively. Their defense, they like to, right after they make a basket, they'll pick up full court and pressure. That's not necessarily us picking up full court and pressing like that. But offensively, that's something we like to do. You saw that in the Iona game last night. It was a fast‑paced game, and that's what we like to do. That's what's been, I guess, the motive of Coach Rose's teams every year he's coached. So that's something we like to do, and we're hoping it causes some challenges for them. We're just going to play our game and try to get it fast‑paced. Q. You guys threw a two‑three zone at Iona last night which stifled their offense and held them to 17 second half points. Do you guys anticipate doing that against Marquette? BRANDON DAVIES: We're going to have to try a bunch of different things. They're a great team, and whatever's working at the time. I'm sure we'll try a couple different things just to kind of confuse them a little bit and get them off to the wrong start and just play our game defensively and do whatever we can to get stops. Q. Brandon, obviously, last year you missed the NCAA Tournament after getting kicked off the team. You guys are back this year. You guys already won a game. What does this mean for you individually and personally to get another shot and be back in the NCAA Tournament as well? BRANDON DAVIES: It feels great just being on the team again and everything. I think I speak for all of us when we're kind of past all the issues of the off‑the‑court stuff, and we're all focused in on one goal, and that's getting this next game. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thanks. Good luck. We'd like to welcome BYU Head Coach Dave Rose. We're going to open it up for questions for the coach. Q. Coach, could you just tell us what the schedule was after the game last night? When you left, when you got here, did you get any sleep, what you've been doing? COACH ROSE: It's been pretty busy. We got back to the hotel. We met last night with our players and tried to just let them know what today would be like as far as the schedule was concerned. I think that we've done a really remarkable job with the time frame that we've had as far as being able to get prepared for Marquette. We kind of talked a little bit about Marquette last night, what we knew, what some of our coaches had actually watched on them. And then got up early this morning, had breakfast in Dayton, then got on the bus and got here to Louisville about 2:30, checked in the hotel. We had our scouting report in the media room there. And then on the bus to the arena. So we'll get 35, 40 minutes of shooting around in here. Then we'll go back to the hotel and do a lot of film work. We'll walk through quite a few things. I think that the turnaround is quick, but it's exciting for our players. It's what you want to be doing at this time of year. You want to be preparing for the next team, advancing in the tournament. So we'll get ready for tomorrow. Q. Dave, can you give us an update on Noah Hartsock? How did he recover after last night's game? COACH ROSE: He was pretty sore, as you'd expect. He played a lot of minutes. He played really well. I expect him to be ready to play tomorrow. We'll see. It's kind of been that way for the last three or four weeks. You don't really know exactly how it's going to feel till the day of the game, and it's more his ankle right now than it is his knee. I think his knee is recovered remarkably from the fall he took. Q. Coach, can you describe how your relationship with Coach Williams started and just a little‑‑ shall give a little detail about what it's about. COACH ROSE: We've known each other since we were both assistants. I was the assistant here at BYU, and he was the assistant at Colorado State. We just kind of struck up a friendship and have been involved in quite a few things off the floor for quite a few seasons. He and‑‑ his wife Corey and my wife Cheryl have become really good friends. So it's nice to have friends in the business where you kind of relate during the difficult times, and it's really hard on families when you have‑‑ that's one thing that Cheryl's been really fortunate with is there's quite a few other coaches' wives in the business that she has a great relationship, and Corey's one of those. But it's difficult when it's time to play. I cheer for Buzz all year long. I've actually seen his team play quite a few times because I enjoy watching his team play. When it's time to play each other, it's a little different. Q. Coach, you went with Brock last night to start instead of Anson. Why did you decide to do that? Was that just a one‑game thing, or do you see that happening again? COACH ROSE: Well, I didn't think we played our best in the semifinal of the WCC tournament. And so practices became extremely competitive throughout that week, and we evaluated kind of our rotation as a staff, and that's what we decided to do. I thought we played better. We didn't play great last night, but we played good enough to win the game, and hopefully we can improve. That's what we need to do. We need to get better. Q. As a coaching staff, how do you guys prepare for a team you haven't faced this year or last year on such a short notice? COACH ROSE: I think you kind of rely on your strengths as far as the preparation is concerned. I think that our coaches do a remarkable job of being able to break down film and make it really concise as far as the strengths of our opponents. I think the preparation will be very similar to when we have maybe three or four days. The only difference is we'll talk about what we need to do a lot more than actually maybe walking through it and doing it live. That seems to be a real strength of our team. Our players really are engaged in our preparation. And hopefully, we can use that with this short turnaround. Q. You just talked about strengths. What do you see as your biggest strength coming up against Marquette? Conversely, your biggest weakness or challenge going up against this thing. COACH ROSE: I think that we're a good help defensive team. Our strength is not our ability to guard the ball one on one. I think we've got individual players who do that maybe better than others. But I think as a group, we do a really good job of helping. And what we'll have to do here, we're going to have to make Marquette shoot contested shots. It's a team that loves to drive the ball, loves to get to the rim. They're really patient offensively. It's a real interesting style because they'll push that ball really hard in transition and try to take a quick shot. If they don't that, then they're going to get the ball out, and they're going to work it and try to drive that thing and get a shot at the rim. They're really good at it. So hopefully we'll be able to contain dribble penetration and then be able to attack their penetration and keep the ball away from the rim. Q. Two questions for those of us doing a synopsis of the game. If you had to list three keys of the game, what would they be? For those of us doing probable lineups, do we put Brock in the starting lineup? COACH ROSE: That's probably a pretty good guess at this point. Transition defense is a huge key for us. We have to do a better job of getting that ball stopped early. Iona really kind of took us to school, especially the first 15 minutes of the game. So that's a big key for us. Making them‑‑ we can't give them easy baskets. This is a team that thrives on easy baskets. We're going to have to make them take contested shots and make contested shots and rebound the ball. It's a real physical team. They're very athletic. So trying to limit them to one shot will be a real challenge. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for your time. Good luck. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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