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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: PITTSBURGHMarch 15, 2012Dylon CormierErik EtherlyJimmy PatsosPITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA Ohio State – 78 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Loyola. Coach. COACH PATSOS: Great game. Really proud of Loyola university. A couple years ago our president changed the name from college to university. That's really important for our school because it helps everything: students, student‑athletes, recruiting. I thought we played really hard, which is what we do at Loyola university. I'm proud of my kids for playing. We set a school record for wins. The MAAC had two teams going to the NCAA. We're not growing just as a program, but I think the league is growing. To play Ohio State, one of the best teams in the country, you're not going to win that game without having everything go right. We didn't have everything go right. We played hard and competed and the guys had a great experience. At the end of the day, Loyola University played Ohio State Buckeyes in the NCAA. I'm so glad my kids got to go. Dylon, even though I get on him, he's my captain, he's only a sophomore. He's is a transfer. Grateful to coach them. It was a great game for us. For all you media people, I said I was worried about Deshaun Thomas, he had 31‑12. Jimmy doesn't just bar tend, he knows basketball, too. Because I was with Gary Williams. I let the media get away with that because it's a great story. But I've been coaching for 25 years, and Deshaun Thomas is a great player. I expect to see him all Big Ten. Thanks. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Erik, the first couple of possessions you had a couple of blocks against Sullinger. Thomas took over toward the middle of the game. ERIK ETHERLY: That was part of the goal. Shane Walker did a good job of slowing him up, forced him to take forced shots. Q. What about Thomas? ERIK ETHERLY: Thomas is a great player. Enough said. Q. Dylon, you guys got it down to 11 going into the break. They were able to push it back. How crucial do you think those first couple minutes of the second half were? DYLON CORMIER: They were crucial. We tried to get out after halftime to break the lead down a little smaller. They had the better hand. They executed well and extended the lead. Q. Erik, seemed to be confident inside. You got your buckets early. You continued throughout the game. Talk about what that was like, that you weren't intimidated. ERIK ETHERLY: We came into the game just looking at it as though all the pressure was on them. There is no pressure on us. They're the 2 seed. We're the 15. They're supposed to win that game. Go in there with nothing to lose. Q. Is this the end or is this really the beginning for Loyola basketball? DYLON CORMIER: I think this is the beginning. This is our first year making the tournament in a long time, so we look forward to making it next year and the year after. ERIK ETHERLY: It's definitely the beginning. Like Jimmy said, we did a few things the school hasn't done in a while. We're looking to do the same thing next year, have a lot of people coming back, so... Q. Dylon, Justin and R.J. were in foul trouble most of the game. How much pressure did that put on you and take you out of your game to score? DYLON CORMIER: I mean, the foul trouble, it messed it up a little bit. I wasn't usually the one. I tried to just manage it as well as I could. I think they played hard and got in a little foul trouble. Some bad calls didn't go our way, so we had to make up for it. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you. We'll continue with questions for Coach Patsos. Q. The foul trouble on the guards, R.J. early in the game, how did that throw you off? COACH PATSOS: By the way, there was no problem with the officials. They were very good at chatting with me. I get my team fired up. I thought what happened was a microcosm of what happened in the game. Guys were excited to play. You listen to the game plan. I said, Press, but don't foul. We were fouling. I said, Run a play, he's going to be wide open. They were wide open. We shot it. Young kids, they want to take over. Their friends probably Twittered them and said, Don't listen to Coach Patsos or something, then they got it on Facebook, the play they should run. That's why coaching is really fun these days. But I do love coaching because it's a lot of challenges. That being said, I thought guys tried to do things they shouldn't have done. They wanted to press and reach, we could steal the ball from them. All of a sudden we were rushing shots. I thought the foul problems, as Joe Boylan who hired me, my AD who hired me, grateful for him, we weren't doing anything wrong, we were just too excited trying to do the right things. Is that fair to say? We kept fouling by being overenthusiastic to play the game that. Caught up with us. R.J. Williams has been our leader all year. When he's not in the game, it's a little bit more chaotic. That's how it goes. He's playing against Ohio State. They're really good, you know. Q. You did a pretty good job on neutralizing Sullinger after the first few minutes of the game. Thomas had 13 in a row there. What was your view of how he got off against you? COACH PATSOS: Well, we were running and jumping because as Gary Williams taught me, what are you going to do, keep it close? Didn't go over really well with him. You had to run and jump. The guys that runs and jumps is our 4 man who was covering Thomas. I liked his midrange game. I thought that he just made a great play of taking 10‑ to 12‑footers. That's how you beat the press. We want you to shoot threes or throw it out of bounds against the press. The midrange is very vulnerable. I just saw Gary in the back of my head saying, Go for it. Go for it. So we kind of went for it. But they did a great job of finding Thomas because Dave Dickerson knew who I was going to run and jump with because that's what we did at Maryland 20 years ago. That's how long I've known Dave, 18 years. We drew away from him, but he made some great blocks. It was a cool game to play. We needed to get it to six or seven, and we couldn't. Q. Now that the run is over, how much do you feel like this entire experience is going to help the core group of this team? COACH PATSOS: Yeah, it is. We're going to miss Shane Walker. Anybody wonders why I put Luke Wandrusch in, Shane Walker comes over to me and says, Put Luke Wandrusch in, our walk‑on. His parents make us brownies every trip. They're the best brownies ever, so I put him in because I like brownies. Shane Walker three years ago would never have said that. He came over and said‑ We call him Hans ‑ he said put Luke Wandrusch in the game. We're down like 16. C'mon, coach, put him in. I'm worried about losing Shane Walker. He knows every play they run, every play we run. He's an intangible guy. I'm really nervous about that. Yes, we have everybody coming back. I got some recruits. It's the MAAC. Everybody has players. They'll be good games. Did we build things? We're very pleased with the way things are going. Now I get to watch my friend Mike Lonergan do the same thing. He came to visit me. Thank you, Michael. Q. You just talked about everything you've got coming back. Can a MAAC school do like what VCU has done? Can it keep going? COACH PATSOS: Thank God for our commissioner. He saved the league 20 years ago. He has a creative mind. Rich Ensor thinks out of the box. We play on ESPN Fridays and Sundays. We have big time reps. My worry is we don't have the facilities. If we have Hofstra's facilities, I'm using them as an example. I thought Springfield was an ingenious move. I think we're close. Iona helped us. Everybody knows Siena does a great job. I feel bad for John Dunne because that's a hard job. He's a great coach, won a lot of games. They didn't have a good year this year. It's hard at our level. Because of Rich Ensor and the MAAC, ESPN, we got a chance. Now, if we're going to build 7,000, my friend coaches VCU, they have 7,000 season ticketholders.  It used to be small, medium, large. Now there's small, medium, large, extra large. VCU is large. George Mason, Gonzaga, they're not BCS schools, but they're close. We're not there facility‑wise. But I love our league. We got New York. Got great players from Washington to New York. It's all about the players. My answer is I think we're close. What do you do to take the next step? I'm not really sure. That's why I defer to Commissioner Ensor. He answers questions better than me. Q. As great a year as Erik had, a game like this against Ohio State, can he build off of that? COACH PATSOS: Yeah. I don't care about Player of the Year. I want him to be MVP of the tournament. I don't know if it was a thousand, but he paid money to go to a shooting camp himself. That's like impressive. Kids have to go. He paid and went and drove himself there. He worked on his game. That's really impressive these days. See, Thomas is his guy. He's close to that. Got to be him. A little more consistent, a little more inside. Sure, Erik can get better. But I want R.J. to get better. Justin Drummond just turned 19. If he was in hockey, a 22‑year‑old freshman. Justin is 19, a sophomore. He's got a big upside. Jordan Latham has a big upside. Julius Brooks can help us next year. We got some guys coming in that can help us. But I'm really nervous about Shane Walker. He was my coach on the court this year. The best part about him was him coming over and saying what he said. For him to give that much of himself says a lot about him. I'm really proud of him. Thanks a lot, been a great run. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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