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NCAA MEN'S REGIONALS SEMIFINALS & FINALS: PHOENIXMarch 21, 2012Rick PitinoPeyton SivaChris SmithPHOENIX, ARIZONA COACH PITINO: We're very excited to be a part of this doubleheader. Obviously the Sweet 16 is very special, because it's two games away from the Final Four. And each bracket keeps mounting, the pressure keeps getting greater. And certainly we're going to be playing a great basketball team. We're very excited to be here. Q. Just talk about Draymond Green and just the match‑up problems he presents in his position. COACH PITINO: Well, that's just it, his position, I'm not sure what his position is. If they need somebody to run a pick‑and‑roll, if they need a post up, post up. If they need a guy to take a bounce, he does that. He's about the most complete player in college basketball in terms of all phases of the game. Q. I understand there's a pretty good point guard who plays here, and I understand you may have encouraged Peyton to watch some video of him recently. Could you talk about that a little bit? COACH PITINO: Well, one of the reasons why Peyton was struggling is he's so fast, he plays at one pace. And we've been trying to get him to change pace. And often if you show guys ‑‑ we showed him Theodore from Seton Hall, how good a year he was having. And I wanted him to start to change his pace, and also, if he didn't have anything, continue dribbling out in a circle and take another opportunity and nobody does that better than Steve Nash. And anytime you show them a great basketball player, they love to emulate that. Q.  When was that? COACH PITINO: It was about a month or so ago, maybe a little longer. Q. Obviously everybody knows the story about you and Billy Donovan, your first meeting when you became Providence's coach, Billy asked to be released from the scholarship and you said no. Can you talk about that first meeting and how he developed as a player? COACH PITINO: That's not exactly the case. But basically what happened is I was meeting with everybody ‑‑ just got hired and was going to meet with every player. The unfortunate thing for me is I had too many guys coming back, I had ten guys coming back, and not one of the guys were any good. So the best thing that happened to us were some people wanted to transfer. And the first meeting a young man waddled into my room and I remembered him, because I worked at the Five Star Camp and he put on a lot of weight, it was Billy. And he said he wanted to transfer. And I said, Where to? And he said, Northeastern or Fairfield. And I said, Okay, Billy, I'll call Jim Calhoun and Terry O'Connor, who was the coach of Fairfield at the time. I want to see the rest of the players. He left and I said a Hail Mary and thanked God he was leaving. Because he averaged four minutes a game as a freshman and sophomore. Well, I called up both coaches, I called up Jim and Jim was at Northeastern at the time, it was Northeastern, excuse me, I said I have a Big East guard that wants to transfer. I told him who it was. And he said, Rick, he can't play for me, he's too slow and doesn't shoot it well enough. I called up Terry O'Connor and he said, We've got much better guards. He never should have gone to Providence. And I went through the whole gamut of players. Billy came back, and he's such a nice young man, I couldn't hurt his feelings. He said, Coach, which school wanted me more? I said, Let's forget that, Billy, they're both very interested in you. I said, Tell me, how are you so out of shape? How did you gain all this weight? He said inactivity, wasn't playing. If you're not part of the top ten in Joe Mullaney's system, you stay on the sidelines. I said, Tell you what, Billy, we're going to run and press, play 10 or 11 guys a game. I want you to lose 30 pounds. You're 191, I want you to get down to 160. I want you to do the following drills, I showed him what to do, and then come back Labor Day and be in great shape. He came back in awesome shape, was the third guard on the team that year. The following year he got so good, because I've never had in my life anyone work as hard to improve as him, in 35 years. We put him in a little cowboy hat, spurs and boots, and he wouldn't put it on, I made him put it on, they put him on the cover of the program. That was the first caption of "Billy, the kid, the fastest gun in the Big East." That was the start of his college legend. Q. The last time you played Michigan States was that '09 game, where things went wrong for you guys and really well for them. How much have you referenced that, talked about it? COACH PITINO: We actually haven't because we're so different. We had two lottery picks back then. And it's a totally different team. They're a totally different team. We run totally different things today, so we haven't referenced it at all. Q. What were the benefits of coming to Phoenix straight from Portland? Does it compare at all to maybe around Christmas when you kind of have all the guys to yourself for a week when they're out of class and everything? Are there big benefits of just keeping them isolated? COACH PITINO: Well, just fatigue. We played four games in the Big East. So to go home for one day of class, or day and a half of class and then come back, we had the tutors with us, and then to make the trek. It was a tough trip getting to Portland. It was five‑hours‑plus. And we had to get over the shock of being sent out West, because we were told that it would never happen because we were hosting ‑‑ they would never send us out because we were hosting the first round. So that was misinformation. Then we traveled out. We weren't going to travel across the country and back again. We were able to get a lot of practice, a lot of film work in, did a little bit of rest. Q. Could you share one more story about Billy, when you kind of encouraged him to stay in Wall Street instead of going into coaching. At what point did you realize that he was going to be a pretty good coach? COACH PITINO: Well, you have to understand the transformation, not only of what I just said with his body, but then he started believing he was Billy the Kid. He really started ‑‑ in a humble way. He's always been extremely shy as a player and extremely humble. So he started believing it on the court. And he had an incredible season. He's from St. Agnes High School in Long Island. He went to Wall Street, I thought it was perfect for him to be on Wall Street. And then he called me up one day and said, Coach, I'm really unhappy, so I'd like to go into coaching. And Billy never said anything as a player. He did what he was told and never said a word. Yes, coach, no, coach, that was it. The last person I ever thought would go into coaching would be Billy the Kid. I said, Billy, you're going to make a lot of money on Wall Street. Stay put. Coaching is not for you. And I said, I'll tell you what, that was a Tuesday, I said, Call me back on Friday, think about it for three days, speak to your mom and dad. If you're still unhappy, call me again. He called me back and said, Coach, I really want to get into coaching. I said, Okay, get in your car, come to Kentucky. We made him a graduate assistant. And overnight his personality changed when he became a coach. He immediately changed everything and he was very confident in what he was doing. There was no question in my mind that all my coaches, I said some day you're going to be ‑‑ I always tell my son Richard, some day you're going to be a Billy the Kid. And I have a great picture at home of Richard on Billy's lap in my basement. And then Richard had the great opportunity to work for him. So he's quite unique, quite special. I think he's one of the premier coaches in our game because he let's the players play. He teaches them. He's an extremely humble guy, still to this day. He has not changed one iota, except he talks more today than he did back then. He's one of my favorites of all time. Q. I think in past years you mentioned that this is really when the tournament gets fun. And you also referenced that with each step in the bracket becomes more pressure. Is it different when you get to the Sweet 16, different kind of pressure, different feel and preparations? What changes when you get to this point? COACH PITINO: Well, the first two games is pressure of getting to this point. Once you get to the Sweet 16, in one sense, for me and this team, it was awesome to see ‑‑ we probably had the greatest celebration I've ever seen in Madison Square Garden. You would have thought we won the National Championship when we won the Big East. They were so excited. Now they get to this point they're so excited. And I'm trying to get them to realize they're just two games away from the Final Four. But I don't try to speak about it too much because this is a group that doesn't have a whole lot of tournament experience. So I felt that it was so crucial, because of that, to win that Big East tournament, because they needed to get that. And I think it helped us tremendously in getting here. Now we're going to play one of the best teams in the country, the No. 1 seed, a team that doesn't beat themselves. So we're going to have to be clicking on all cylinders to come away with a victory. Q. When Tom was being courted by the Cavaliers, you two spoke and you advised him to stay at Michigan State. Why did you tell him that and is the tournament, the opportunity to go in the Final Four, is that all part of it? COACH PITINO: The Coach Ks of the world, the Tom Izzo's of the world, the Billy Donovans, they're a true treasure for these kids. I mean, just the life lessons these coaches teach these young men. I don't suggest any college coach to go to the pros. There's a misconception that college guys can't coach in the pros. They can coach in the pros because they get the horse shit jobs. Excuse my language, horse something else (laughter.) They don't get good jobs. And Phil Jackson is one of the best guys in the game, but he's always smart enough to take great jobs. Leonard Hamilton gets the Wizards, so they're never going to win because they never get good players. And that's what wins at the pro level. I also tell everybody don't ever go to the pros unless you experience the pros as an assistant coach. I got a great indoctrination because I worked two years under Hubie Brown. And that was the two greatest years of my life in coaching. Not only learning under him, but learning what the pro game is all about. I couldn't have coached in the pros unless it was for those two years, I would never suggest it, because it's a different game. It's fascinating as I travel around, both in the NBA and NFL, when you listen to people, who they want to play for as free agents, they're always looking for the easy way out. I don't want to play for Bill Belichick or Tom Coughlin, I want to play where they don't practice that much. It's the same thing in the NBA. They don't want to play for the Pat Rileys of the world that are going to have a two and a half hour practice. College coaches, like Tom Izzo and Billy Donovan, they love practice. They love teaching the fundamentals of the game, and they don't realize that after training camp there's going to be very little of that, it's going to be mostly walkthroughs. And they miss it terribly. I tell all the guys. I spoke to Leonard, he was mentioning to me about Michael Jordan, I said, Michael can't help you anymore, he doesn't play anymore. And college coaches love to teach practice. And I feel that Tom would really, really miss that. And I just told him that. And if you don't experience the pro guys and the way they act, it's basketball suicide. Q. Peyton had a lot of preseason expectations dropped in his lap. I'm curious if you think that impacted his play. The second part of that would be is this run that he's on enough time to say that he's turned the corner of what was going on? COACH PITINO: He's definitely turned the corner, because he's very talented. Peyton is in the same line as I've been speaking so glowingly about Billy Donovan. He's the same type of person and very few guys like that I've met in 35 years. Peyton is extremely humble, extremely hard working, do anything. And he just had too many turnovers in the beginning of the year because he was playing at too fast a pace. Now he's got it back. I still think he's one of the premier point guards in college basketball. He's playing at the right time. Sometimes you can have a great regular season, and you play terribly in the postseason. Nobody is going to remember that great regular season. Q. (INAUDIBLE)? COACH PITINO: Yeah, I think changing his pace was the major, major key. Q. You mentioned Richard. How rewarding has it been the last three years having him along your side? What role has Richard played in this NCAA tournament? COACH PITINO: Well, Richard does 95 percent ‑‑ generally the way we break it up is the top assistant will do 60 percent, the next assistant 30, the next assistant do 10. All these guys came in at the same time. And they're foreign to the way we do things. So Richard has had to do 95 percent of all the scouts. It's been difficult on him. But also it's been great for us because he really does a fabulous job of that. I'm very, very lucky. I've had the greatest assistant coaches, you name it, that a coach could have, going back from Herb and Billy and Stu Jackson and Jim O'Brien, who's been in the pros. You name it, about 24 of those guys, they've all been fabulous. But Richard has had to do a little bit more and it will help him a little bit more next year when Kevin and Wyking do a little bit more. Going into this, if we're lucky enough to beat Michigan State, he'll finally have an easy scout, because he coached at Florida and we've played Marquette twice. It's a tall order to get to that point, because Michigan State is that good. Q. You played so many different styles this year, out of necessity. How much of an advantage is that in the postseason? If you had your way, what kind of pace would you like to see in this game? COACH PITINO: I don't think we're going to have a choice. A lot of people have watched the St. Louis game you'd say Michigan State didn't have the fast break going and couldn't play at their pace. Well, I use the analogy, we play South Florida, people want us to get them to play fast. You can't do it. In the St. Louis game every time they took a shot, they sent five guys back to defense. They didn't go to the offensive glass. They made Michigan State play slow. Well, Michigan State is as good a running team as there is in college basketball. And we got our guys to this point by pressing and running, and we're not going to change because the other team may be a little better on the backboard and try to take possessions away. We're going to let them go out there. We've been having an awesome time, just a lot of fun, and that's what really college basketball is all about this time of year is making sure you have a lot of fun for your guys, so they have a lifetime experience. So we're going to run with them. They obviously are the better backboard team. But we're going to make it that type of basketball game. So we do not want to play slow against Michigan State. Q. Peyton, your coach talked a little about you watching the Steve Nash video. I wondered how that helped and how much you watched of it? PEYTON SIVA: I watched over a hundred clips of Steve Nash moving around the court. Growing up he was one of my favorite players to watch. Coach P really had me watch more film on him and how he kept his dribble alive. It really helped me out by not forcing things and getting in trouble or making jump error passes. And it really helped me out probing the court, giving other guys open looks, and seeing the whole court a little better. Q. Talk about this run you guys are on. How has it sort of fueled itself to get you to this point? PEYTON SIVA: I think just everybody really just forgot about the regular season. Everybody just moved on from it. Coach really told us that nobody remembers it. I think it helped us by everybody getting healthier and it helps our team out. And our depth. We're able to press more and able to get on the break and able to run. We know we have fresh bodies to come in and give us a break, instead of slowing you down and running half‑court offense. Giving everybody a lot of confidence, because everybody has been scoring, everybody has been getting more steals, more rebounds, more blocks. It's been really helping our teammates in gaining confidence for everybody. Q. With the early season expectations, coming off the season you had last year, a lot of people were talking about you. Did that impact you at all, did you get a little too amped up early in the season? PEYTON SIVA: No, I really sat out a lot of the early season. I had a concussion and I messed up my ankle. Fred told me it was a 6‑ to 8‑week ankle sprain, and I wasn't going to sit out that long for any injury. So I tried to come back and play on it and it kind of hindered me from moving around on the court and being able to jump off of it. So it's just now been getting healthier, I'm able to move a lot better now, and I'm able to run a lot faster. It's really helped me out by getting a lot healthier. All our preseason expectations doesn't really mean anything. But getting hurt really hurt a lot. Q. Chris, your brother is with the Knicks. And Rick does a lot of pro kind of stuff with pick and rolls. Has your brother given you any useful advice playing a system like Rick Pitino plays? CHRIS SMITH: He told me pretty much play with a lot of confidence. Whatever he says to me, just take it like I'm in the pros pretty much, because coach ‑‑ he coached in the pros and he just pretty much knows ‑‑ a Hall of Fame coach, that's all I can say. Q. Could you talk about Michigan State, what kind of problems they present, what you think about Draymond and so forth after watching all the film. CHRIS SMITH: I believe he's a great player from watching the film. He can do everything within the court, really. He can dribble the ball, shoot the ball, rebound the ball, pass the ball. He's just a great player. But as a team, we'll have to match their physicality and try to throw the first blow, really. Q. You guys had a bit of a rough patch in January, you lost at Marquette and then you lost what might have been a winnable game to Syracuse. And then you got on this nice roll. Is that the ebb and flow of a long season or did something happen after those two games that turned it around for you guys? PEYTON SIVA: After the loss to Syracuse, our last regular season game, our team really came together. Like I said, we just tried to put everything behind us. We had a lot of injuries to the team that really hurt us. Mike Marra, Rakeem Buckles went out with ACL tears, we just got Wayne back from a shoulder injury, Kevin back from being ineligible. So it's good that everybody is coming back, getting healthier. Everybody just said that we had to play a new style of basketball. We can't continue to walk the ball up the court, we can't play the half‑court game, we have to push the pace. We have enough people to do that now. That's been the big key to our success, that everybody is contributing, and everybody has been healthier, that's been the turnaround for us. Q. To follow up, do you consider Louisville a physical team, playing in the Big East, did that help you get to that point, if you do? CHRIS SMITH: We've had a lot of road physical games, like Cincinnati. We played West Virginia on the road and we got a win down there. Playing in the Big East, pound for pound is the most physical conference there is. But for us going into this game, I feel in '09 they out‑physicaled our guys. Watching that film, we want to go out there and try to make everybody be on the same page, really, heart‑wise. Q. You watched the '09 film? CHRIS SMITH: Yeah, we watched the '09 film. Because no team really changes much throughout the years. Q. Could you talk about coach's enthusiasm for this, even though he's been through so many of these tournaments and Sweet 16's? PEYTON SIVA: He's been great through this whole process. Of course, he gets a little out of control in practice. He gets on us. But otherwise, other than that, he's been a great sport. He's been helping us a lot. He's a Hall of Fame coach. He's a great coach to play for. He teaches us a lot about how he's been to the Sweet 16's, how he's been in the Elite 8's, Final Fours and National Championships. And everybody grasps the fact that he has been there and knows what it takes to be successful. And I think that really helped us out and I think everybody just really bought into the system, bought into his teachings. Q. I'd like to make sure the whole country knows that you're the homecoming king. Which would be bigger? PEYTON SIVA: Definitely the Final Four would be bigger than homecoming king. The student body voted me for homecoming king. But I think the Final Four would be more memorable than homecoming king. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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