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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: OMAHAMarch 17, 2012Robbie HummelLewis JacksonTerone JohnsonMatt PainterOMAHA, NEBRASKA THE MODERATOR: Purdue Boilermakers are here with us. We will go to questions. Q. For Lew and Rob, you guys have mentioned frequently that the NCAA Tournament is all about match‑ups, Coach Painter preaches that as well. You said you liked last night's match‑up, now you're going in against a team that has a completely different style of play with arguably the best "big man" in the country. Talk about the challenges that this presents. LEWIS JACKSON: I think it's an interesting match‑up, especially in the inside, I guess you compare them to Michigan State and "O" State, so our task is going to be limiting them in rebounds and go touches. ROBBIE HUMMEL: I think Lewis said it very well, Michigan State and Ohio State are good comparisons. We're going to have to box out Thomas Robinson and Jeff Withey, so with these two guys, their big bodies and their good players and you throw in their guard play and there is a reason they're a "2" seed. Q. Lew, this kinda goes along the same lines but since they have so much size on the interior, you guys have had success getting to the basket, is this the game where you have to make shots on the perimeter? LEWIS JACKSON: It's a combination of both.  We have to keep attacking. We can't be afraid of their "bigs", and we have to stay aggressive and make them feel challenged to get to the basket and with Robbie and others, hopefully we can kick it out and keep the penetration open for us. Q. Did you guys happen to peek your head into the arena last night at all? It was packed with Kansas fans. If you could, talk about going up‑‑ it's not a neutral court really, it's going to be an environment where it's going to be pretty hostile. TERONE JOHNSON: I would have to say it kinda became a home game for 'em, you look out there and see a lot of blue everywhere you look. They started filing in at the end of our game a little bit, but once we got to see that it's a tough environment to play in but I think we're ready for it. LEWIS JACKSON: It reminded me of my freshman year, second round game playing Washington, Portland, in the sweet 16, it's kinda like a road game and it helps the guys be a little more focused in understanding the crowd isn't in our favor and I think it's going to be a good test for us, because you know the crowd is leaning toward Kansas and we can maybe come out and keep that crowd quiet. Q. Kansas is historically one of the best defensive teams in the country and that is no different this year. What makes them so difficult to score against, the big guys, the quick guards, the combination? TERONE JOHNSON: I have to say they have good size every year, as we look at their guards, and also inside trying to draw to the basket, things like that, they have good size. Also they play hard, every single play they come out and pressure the ball. LEWIS JACKSON: I think it's a good combination of both. Obviously their guards understand what they have in the outside presence and it allows them to be more aggressive on the perimeter, forcing guys to force shots up and if you're going in too fast and not paying attention, Thomas Robinson and Jeff Withey are getting blocked shots and when it's a good combination because they understand how to play with each other on the defensive end. Q. Rob, you were part of the team that played Washington in Portland a couple of years ago, obviously you're auto used to playing in hostile environments but can you draw on that experience now? ROBBIE HUMMEL: I think so but really the only guys that are left from that team are me, Lewis and Ryne. So it's something we can talk about but we've played with this team 14 road games this season so we have played at Michigan State, Indiana, we have played in tough environments and tomorrow is going to be no different. I'm sure we will have our 400 fans and Kansas will have the rest. It's something we will be ready for and I think something that the season has prepared us for. Q. Robbie, when did you feel like you were getting your offensive rhythm this year? ROBBIE HUMMEL: Like when did I feel like‑‑ Q. Yeah, when. ROBBIE HUMMEL: I think I started feeling better the start of February. When we played Northwestern, and from then on I felt like I was in a good rhythm. Q. Your coming back, what was the most difficult, defense, offense? ROBBIE HUMMEL: Probably just readjusting to the speed of the game, I think it was tougher. Then probably defensively it was just moving my feet and trusting my knee, I think that was a big part of it, where you're plan and go pushing off to go another way. Really that was probably the most difficult part for me. Q. Terone, at that point in the season when you guys were struggling, you, Anthony and D.J., it seemed like, began to play well all at the same time. You guys are 7‑3 since that point. Talk about what collectively was the spring board and as you move forward how much that has helped and given these other guys some assistance. Lew, if you would answer that, too? TERONE JOHNSON: I just felt like, obviously, we needed people to step up bench wise. At the time I wasn't a starter and neither was D.J. but we felt like we needed to step up and help the team out and once we did that, we started getting confidence with the shots and the guys around us started getting us the ball and we were playing more in the flow of the game and that helped us to stay aggressive. LEWIS JACKSON: I think the cliche is once the middle of the season comes, the juniors become seniors, the freshmen become sophomores, I think with Anthony Johnson and A.J. and D.J. started understanding what they understood to do and it was a big help for me and Rob because you have guys like Terone Johnson stepping up, and scoring, and now guys are worried about those two and A.J. and it makes our offense better and they kept working with the struggles they had during the season and it's working out for us in the long stretch. Q. Are you as good as you were freshman, sophomore year? Better? A different kind of player? Kind of like a pitcher coming back? ROBBIE HUMMEL: I got you. It's a difficult question, when I've changed a lot, I was 6‑8, 195 pounds my freshman year, now I'm 6‑8, 220, so I think that is different. I think for the next year I will still continue to get explosiveness back and they say it's a two‑year process. I don't think I'm all the way back but I feel like I'm on my way to getting back to where I was. Q. Rob and Lewis, how difficult is it to prepare for a team like Kansas? You haven't seen 'em all year. How familiar are you with that team? Did you get a chance to look at 'em at all before yesterday? ROBBIE HUMMEL: Yeah, I think with teams in the Big 12, the ACC, the Big East you see 'em more, a team like saint Mary's, their games start when we're going to bed on a week night so with Kansas you're for familiar with their style of play, you see 'em on TV because they're always so good so I think we will have a good familiarity with them going into this game. LEWIS JACKSON: Piggy‑backing off what he said you get to see 'em more, you're familiar with their "go to" guys, so you can see highlights on ESPN, catch a couple of games so you have to learn a couple of sets in there but our coaching staff is tremendous and that's the big "MO" in the Big 10, we do a great job of scouting so our staff has gotten us familiar with the plays that they run. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. Best of luck to you. Head Coach of the Boilermakers is with us, Matt Painter. COACH PAINTER: Obviously we're excited to be able to advance and very fortunate. Beat a very good Saint Mary's team that had a great run there at the end of the game and took the lead from us and we were able to get a break and make some free‑throws and get a couple of stops to be able to escape with a victory but we know we have a huge challenge our next game in Kansas, very talented team, very well coached team, great defensively. But our guys are looking forward to the challenge so I think it's something. Anytime you get a chance to advance and shore up mistakes that you made in the first game and go out there and improve from it and get a chance to compete in the NCAA Tournament, it's great. Q. Matt, you talk to us all the time about match‑ups and how the NCAA Tournament is about match‑ups, and the guys last night, even though they respected St. Mary's, kinda felt good about that match‑up, now you have a couple of monsters to deal with inside. Talk about switching different kinds of match‑ups and how difficult Kansas is going to be for you guys. COACH PAINTER: Well, they're a very good basketball team and their interior players are just good players, obviously Jeff Withey has made improvements in the last year and his ability to defend and even though he didn't score much in the last game he's improved offensively and gave them another weapon to go with the best player in the country, Thomas Robinson, who has been consistent all year with his production and scoring in the interior and being a Jared Sullinger‑type guy, with the attention that he draws and those guys are good and physical. When you think about the physicality of the team they are physical on the interior but they do have guards that can get into and hawk the basketball so that's a concern, also, not just their big guys. Q. Your team has dealt over the last couple of years with a lot of adversity, be it injuries or other things, ten guys have started this year. How do you think that has helped your team grow or how has it hindered its growth? COACH PAINTER: Anytime you can get through the adversity, I think sometimes the adversity will hold you back and I think there were teams this year that had some injuries, had issues, and it keeps them from growing into the team that can have the potential to make the NCAA Tournament. We were able to have adversity with injuries that held us back a little bit and we weren't as deep in the past year with Rob's injury and this year with the suspension I think it helped our team come together, even though we're not as athletic as we once were. Keeping your focus on what you have and not being consumed with what you don't have is real important in college basketball but we have good guys in the locker room and we've taken guys out of the starting lineup a couple of times during the year but high‑character guys respond to that, low‑character guys don't, they think it's not their fault bought we have high‑character guys on our team right now. Q. Coach, your program has had success in the last 15 years, gone to four Sweet 16s, an Elite Eight, haven't broken through to get to the Final Four since 1980 what is the success? What is the ceiling of this program? What can you get done there? COACH PAINTER: Well then the success is to go to a National Championship, when Wisconsin went to the National Championship, they were 8‑8, or something like that, and no one would have predicted that and that was their way to win and take care of the basketball and get to the Final Four, no one would predict VCU, and Butler, the success they have had but they're playing their brand of basketball, those coaches. It's important to know who you are, you have to continue to recruit and work hard and stay together and try to win that next game and build a championship team because when you have parity like we do in this game and you can get on neutral courts and you have guys that can play together and they care you can get to a Final Four and win a national championship, but you have to get away from staying up with the Jones and recruit your type of guy and that's important for us. Q. Matt, near the end of January, I think you mentioned a couple of times you were struggling, and it could kind of go either way. At that point it seemed like Byrd, Terone and Anthony elevated their game and are now playing well. One of your trademarks is people say "Matt Painter's guys always get better" how can you look forward and how they have come on for you? Talk about that. COACH PAINTER: It's good for your program when you have younger guys come into their second and third year and make those improvements when you're looking forward to coachin' them the next year and trying to build another championship caliber team because that's what you try to do every single team is try to build a championship caliber team. If you consistently do it you can call it a caliber championship program and I don't think we can say that even though the previous four years we have got either first and a second in our league.  But those guys have been able to play through mistakes and get more minutes in the second half of conference play. Each of those guys have done a good job for us and all three of them have scored for us, we need to be able to put guys out there that can score the basketball for us. Q. Following up on that, your last seven games you have scored well above your season average as far as points are concerned. Has it been those changes in the lineup or what do you think has been the key to your improved offense? COACH PAINTER: Just being positive with your guys in terms of what to look for. As a coach I haven't gotten too worked up, even though we talk about, about defensive lapses. We have struggled at times on that end of the court. But we just try to get them to understand to worry about what you can control. We can take care of the basketball, we have proven that, so don't turn the ball over, let's manufacture a quality shot and correct our mistakes on the defensive end. So that's how we have been able to score and it's who you play, too, we had teams that zoned us, and guarded our screens a concern way, or ball screen action a certain way and we had good match‑ups. Q. Coach, Travis didn't play a lot of minutes because Sandi was in that role. Are they both having to have to play significantly more minutes tomorrow? COACH PAINTER: I think our interior guys are going to have to be ready to play, all of 'em. They throw so many‑‑ not really guys at you, with Thomas Robinson and Jeff Withey, the way they come at you and how physical they are and how good they are in their high‑low offense, those guys are going to have to be ready to play. Q. Matt, Gene Keady is from Kansas and I wonder if you stay in touch with him and what his influence was on you? COACH PAINTER: I talk to Coach Keady all the time. In fact, I'm going to return a call, he called me today. He's been great, our biggest supporter. I think when you look at what he was able to accomplish at Purdue, it's short of amazing.  He's worked very hard as a coach but he's worked hard to help others. He's really helped me and he cares about Purdue. A lot of times you can't say that about a guy who leaves a program, he wants to see us be successful, see Purdue be successful but he's the best, one of the nicest people you will ever meet, I know he doesn't look that way during the games, but he is. He's a genuine, nice person that cares about others. It kinda shows you how he is and his make‑up, going to help Steve Lavin at St .John's, because he just wants to be around the game. I think it's great he's there helping out Steve. Q. Coach in terms of size and atmosphere, Robbie compared tomorrow's game to the games against Ohio State and Michigan State this season. Is that a fair comparison and how are you going to turn it around to more of a favorable outcome for you? COACH PAINTER: You talk about those teams, they're all 1 and 2 seeds, they're very good teams. They're in that position for a reason. So we have to do a better job of rebounding the basketball and do a better job of being efficient on the offensive end and understanding what we have to do to get a good shot. We have to be smart in terms of our game plan and how we're going to handle their size. Q. Coach, are you going to have Robbie Hummel match you have with Thomas Robinson and if so are you going to have him more playing the perimeter, guard him out? COACH PAINTER: We'll mix it up, some, with guarding those guys, they do some interchangeable things with their bigs, they'll slip out of ball screens or roll and replace at a ball screen and sometimes you end up stayin' low or high or returning high or doing different things in your responsibilities so he will guard all those guys. I would think they have guys match up on him and they'll kinda do the same thing. We keep him out a lot, we like to bring him in and out and stretch the defense and do different things but that's how we play in general. We're not going to go up against anybody that can change what we do because of who we're playing. When you got a 6‑8 guy that can dribble, pass and shoot, you want to put the ball in his hands and have space and stretch things out to put guys in a good position. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach, best of luck tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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