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NCAA MEN'S 1ST ROUND: DAYTONMarch 14, 2012Anthony CollinsStan HeathVictor Rudd, Jr.DAYTON, OHIO South Florida – 65 THE MODERATOR: We'll be joined by head coach Stan Heath and Victor Rudd and Anthony Collins. Coach, an opening comment. COACH HEATH: I'm not sure Cal was at its very best tonight. But some of that might have been them. Some of it might have been us. But I really, really liked for 30minutes the way we played. I liked the way we guarded. I liked the way we shared the ball. I liked the way we managed the clock. And I like the fact that guys were playing with great energy and passion out there on the court. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. For both of you, you have to have a belief, but if we said back in December South Florida was going to win a NCAA Tournament game, would you have believed it? VICTOR RUDD: Yeah, I would have believed it. We're a good team, I think. We don't expect to lose any games. ANTHONY COLLINS: I think so, too. We play great defense. So we just take our time and get great shots on offense. I think we can beat anybody. Q. Anthony, everybody is talking about your defense coming in. You guys were very assertive shooting the ball. Hit a couple floaters early. Just talk about the aggressive nature you guys had on offense, especially early. ANTHONY COLLINS: We always talk about getting in the paint, getting in the paint, close shots, high percentage to make it, so basically put pressure on the defense and just attack, attack, and don't settle for jump shots. Q. Victor, how did you play defense against Crabbe the times you were on him? What was your general approach to someone who is capable of getting in a good shooting rhythm? VICTOR RUDD: I like what Coach said about getting in your breath and making you uncomfortable. That's what I tried to do to him. I shadowed him wherever he went, and I didn't want to give him a good look off of it. Q. Anthony, do you guys take offense when people talk about your offense and how you guys can't produce and you're inconsistent offensively? Do you take offense to that? ANTHONY COLLINS: Not really. I know people have their opinions. So they can say what they want. But we're just going to play our style of play and take our time and get whatever shot we want. Q. Both teams last night had big leads. One was up 15 with seven to play. One was up 25 and lost. Were you thinking about that when it came down to the second half and not being content with the lead kind of building on it at least for the ten minutes in the second half? ANTHONY COLLINS: Yeah, we just wanted to come out and stay aggressive. And last night, you know, the teams, when I watched them play in the night before, that the teams played up and down real fast and was scoring the ball. But then they kept‑‑ when they had the big lead, they still was coming down and shooting fast shots. We wanted to go down also. But also take a good shot so the other team couldn't come right back down fast and get a better shot. So we just tried to‑‑ if we had a break, then take it. If not, take the ball out and just run some clock and get a better shot. Q. Victor, can you talk about what it means to beat a team from your home state and playing the way you did tonight? VICTOR RUDD: It means a lot. When you want to play‑‑ when you play against somebody from your city, from where I went to the Pac‑10 first, I want to win. And it means a lot to me, especially me playing as well as I did, that I can go home with bragging rights. Q. Victor, can you talk about winning on this stage and now getting to travel tomorrow and play Temple on Friday and letting everybody see USF basketball? VICTOR RUDD: Yeah, we're having a great time. It feels good to win on this stage. People didn't expect us to be here. So we just want to make our point proving that we deserve to be here. And we want to keep going. Q. Victor, can you expand on that philosophy? You said something about getting in your opponent's breath or something like that. Can you talk about that defensive philosophy? VICTOR RUDD: Coach really said it. But I read it, and I used it to myself. But we get mad when people score, no matter what kind of bucket it is. And that's what makes us have people scoring in 50, 40, because we don't like it when people score at all, not even a free throw. So we get mad at each other, and that's how we play great defense. Q. Anthony, the fact that you guys were able to get a lead, that Coach was able to play the bench a little more, can that be a benefit for you guys since you know you have a game coming up in 48hours? ANTHONY COLLINS: I think it is. Because you want‑‑ it's our first time in the NCAA Tournament in a while, so it's good so everybody get in, get their feet wet. So when it comes the time, just in case something happens, then everybody has the experience to get in and play. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. What do you know about Temple? Just for your information, Fran Dunphy said your team was the team that he pretended to be a fan of, just watching games this year, never thinking that he was going to have to play you guys. What do you know about them and what do you know about Fran? COACH HEATH: That's a heck of a compliment. And I know he's a terrific coach. And his team is outstanding. And I have not‑‑ I'll be honest, I have not watched anything on Temple. One of my assistants is going to fill me in quite a bit. I'll watch some things tonight. I did see them early in the year. They beat Villanova, and I remember watching a tape on Villanova when they played Temple. And I know they have very good guard play. That's the thing I remember, good guard play that different guys can handle the ball and make plays and score. So I know we're going to get challenged that way again. But I have a lot of respect for Fran Dunphy and the job he's done at Temple and the coach he is. Q. Can you talk about getting the program's first NCAA Tournament win and doing it with your style and just the way you all play? COACH HEATH: Well, we're all thrilled. Our president, my athletic director, it's always great to keep your bosses happy, and we're thrilled. And we didn't want to just come here for one game. We were excited to get in here. But we did want to prove a little bit that we deserve and we belong and we're legit. And I think the kids took that to heart. But it's a building process and we took a big step in the right direction today. But we want to take some more steps as well. Q. Anthony talked about wanting to get the ball into the paint and that being a big part and not settling. But you guys made a lot of jump shots tonight. Can you explain why it worked out tonight that you would shoot the ball as well as you did, obviously not something that had been going on the last two, three weeks? COACH HEATH: I think what's happened is the majority of people that maybe start following us a little bit probably saw last two weeks of basketball. And if you go back in time, you'll see we were among the top three field goal percentage offenses in the Big East. We're also one of the top five or six 3‑point shooting teams in the league as well. But the last four or five games it went down the tubes, it really did. And I think a big part of that was‑‑ I told this to my team. I thought since maybe somewhere around mid‑January we were playing for our lives. We felt like almost any game we lost was an elimination game. And I think in some ways it might have been my fault that we put a lot of pressure on ourselves and maybe I coached that way, where just every possession was just so important. And I felt once we got in the tournament and we talked about this like, hey, we're in a new season. Let's relax and play. We've got some talent out there. They've got some guys that can play. And I think you'll see us play more like this the rest of the way, that you'll see us be able to score a lot easier than we did before. We have more weapons. Gus Gilchrist, when he wants to be, he's as good as a post player as you'll find around the country. Ron Anderson didn't have a great game today, Fitzpatrick, but when my front line is playing well, and you saw what Rudd can do and Poland has some talent. We have some weapons. If things aren't there, we've got a little guy right here that can make it happen by himself if he needs to. Q. Talk about Ron Anderson how he was when he went down with the injury in the second half. COACH HEATH: We'll get him evaluated. It was good to see him walk off the court and get back in the game. I think it will be sore and stiff, we've got a great medical staff. We've got two doctors and trainers, he'll get all the attention he needs. He's a tough, tough, hard‑nosed kid, so there's no way in the world he's not going to play, and he's got some relationships with Temple, too. It was one of the schools he was looking at before he came to USF. I know he's going to want to play well there. Q. Stan, you guys started so fast and with such energy. As a coach, are you one of the guys who can tell when you're going to get that kind of passion from your team, and were you impressed with it as well? COACH HEATH: Well, we've been having some pretty nice starts. We start off fast against Notre Dame. It might have been 20‑6 against them or something like that. But we've always seemed to have this lull, where it seems like for about four or five minutes nothing's happening. And today we did a much better job of still attacking, still being aggressive and putting the ball in the basket and continuing to be consistent defensively. So I think that was the difference in our team. We didn't let up. We didn't have our let‑up until the last seven or eight minutes of the game. So it came at a time where we were a little bit safer than normal. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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