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NCAA MEN'S REGIONALS SEMIFINALS & FINALS: ATLANTAMarch 23, 2012Kenny FreaseTu HollowayMark LyonsChris MackATLANTA, GEORGIA Baylor – 75 THE MODERATOR: Coach Mack, if you'll start with an opening statement, and then we'll take questions for the student‑athletes. COACH MACK: I don't know if I've ever been in a locker room as down as the one I just left. Coming into the game, we had talked about not falling behind early, which it plagued us against Notre Dame and Lehigh coming into the Baylor game. It's easier said than done. Baylor is extremely talented. They did some things that were out of character in terms of how they play, how they score. Everybody on‑‑ any questions I got were always like how are you going to take away Heslip? Make sure he doesn't catch and shoot. I thought we did that. He goes 1 for 3 from three, and the first couple buckets, he gets on and drives to the basket. Quincy Acy on film, I never saw him hit a 15‑foot jump shot, and he does that in the first four minutes of the game. Our plan was solid. I give Baylor a lot of credit and also credit the kids in my locker room for refusing to quit, for being resilient and shown the competitive character that I know they've had all year. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Tu, can you talk about just how resilient you guys were in the sense that you had that big deficit, but you pulled it within three there down the final stretch. TU HOLLOWAY: We've been through it a lot this year and down in big games and coming back and being able to pull out the victory or pull the game close. Baylor is a really good team. You can't get down much points on them and come back. We fought all the way through to the end of the game, but we just couldn't cut it today. Q. Tu, you missed that big 1‑and‑1, and then you come right back and score seven points. How did you kind of get past that and keep yourself in the game, knowing you still were going to have to make some plays? TU HOLLOWAY: Exactly that. I know I had to continue to make plays for my team. I had to have the next play mentality. I missed the free throw, but there was a lot of game left, and I tried to make the most of it. Q. Kenny, it looked certainly for you, but it looked like for the whole time, that flagrant foul when you were down like 17, it really was kind of a wake‑up call. Did it seem like it kind of woke everybody up? KENNY FREASE: Yeah, it was definitely a turning point. Being able to score four points within whatever it was, 15 seconds, that definitely is a boost. I think we sort of woke up on the defensive end too. We were able to make a really good run. The guys in the locker room are really tough. Unfortunately, when you get down that much to a team like Baylor, a lot of times you're not going to be able to come out of it, and today we couldn't. Q. Mark, you scored, I think, all but three of your points in the second half. What was the difference for you to be able to come out and be that productive in the second half? MARK LYONS: I just felt like I was letting my team down. The first two games, I really didn't play well, like my seniors and our bench really picked us up. I just wanted to be a little bit more aggressive and focused on my shots in the second half so I could put my team, our team in a better position to win the game. Q. Tu, do you mind talking about the defensive pressure they put on you with all their different guys they came out with and how much you had to fight through that. TU HOLLOWAY: We were prepared for it. It's a tournament, so teams are going to throw their best shot at you. They switched up a few guys on me. I believe they were in the triangle two for a minute. We were expecting things like that. Q. Just for Kenny, were you surprised at the way Baylor came out today? KENNY FREASE: They're a really good team. They've got a lot of talent. They got a lot of athleticism, and they got a lot of toughness. They came out, and they were ready to play. They jumped on us early. I don't think any of us were surprised. They're a really good team. Q. Tu, with this being the last game of your collegiate career, what kind of emotions or thoughts are going through your head? TU HOLLOWAY: You know, I'm very disappointed. This is the furthest point I've been able to go in my college career. I've never been past the Sweet 16. I told the guys in the locker room I'm really happy. After everything we've been through this season, everyone counted us out. People said we weren't going to make the tournament, and we made it here. This isn't the end of the road for a guy like Mark Lyons, who's going to be someone to lead the team this year. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Coach Mack. Q. Coach, again, just with the press, you're so successful with it there at the end of the half, you really made it a game there at the end. Is that something you wish you could have gone to a little earlier, or is it just a matter of not having enough guys out there? COACH MACK: Not necessarily. I think it's easier to press when one team is holding the lead and trying to wind seconds off the clock versus they're not trying to attack it. If we would have pressed them in the first half, especially with a kid like Pierre Jackson, you start to‑‑ you put him in the open floor, I think it's a recipe for disaster. They have guys that can finish with lobs if you help up. It's a lot easier to lose a guy like Brady Heslip. It's a little bit easier on the defensive end to run around like a chicken with your head cut off if you know they're not trying to capitalize but basically trying to take seconds off the clock. Q. Coming into this game, Des had the toe issue, Andre had the migraines, but they were both able to play tonight. How did you think they kind of pushed through their injuries? COACH MACK: They gave it their best shot. They wanted to be out on the floor. In truth, I didn't think Des was going to play or should play, but it just shows the kind of desire to be out on the floor with his teammates Des has. He wasn't as effective. He got to the rim a couple of times. He left a couple of finishes short. We were playing with a little bit of a different team. Make no excuses. You have to play next man in. But I just wish Des could have played healthy tonight, and I wish that for Andre. But that's part of the tournament. That's just the breaks of the game. Q. Coach, you talked about it a little bit in your statement. You expected them to be big, physical, outrebound you, all those things you heard in press conferences through the week. It seemed like you guys sort of did everything you needed to do to win the game. Where was the difference other than just the run? COACH MACK: Well, obviously, they came out, and they knocked us back. They put us on our heels early. As I alluded to in my opening statement, when they're that talented, you can only do so much. We wanted to really play off kids that we felt like were drivers. Quincy Acy being one of them. Sticks a 17‑footer. We definitely didn't want Brady Heslip to get any catch‑and‑shoot 3s. He hadn't taken a dribble and scored the entire tournament. What does he do? He goes two chase dribbles to the basket for his first four points. So you got to give credit to Baylor. We wanted to make sure that we kept them out of transition. For the most part we did that. They had 11 fastbreak points, but they're capable of a lot more. In second‑chance points, they lead the tournament, and they get 9. We let them shoot a little bit too well from the field. Quincy Acy, Perry Jones, those guys are really good players. Q. You referenced Quincy Acy hitting the outside shot. When he does go inside, when he dunks like he did a couple times, did you kind of sense that changed momentum a little bit? COACH MACK: Yeah, he's a cage rattler. We knew that. He's just‑‑ I want to see his birth certificate. He's that kid, when you're coaching AAU and you look over, and he just looks so much bigger and stronger than everybody. We knew about him a couple of years ago. He was terrific in Orlando when we lost to Baylor. More of the same today. I can take some of the offensive rebound put‑backs, but when he starts facing up and hitting jump shots, it's not what the doctor ordered. It's not fair. Q. Coach, did you think that‑‑ did you believe that there was a talent disparity between your two teams? If so, did you feel like the margin of error for you guys was smaller than you would have liked? And might that have been the reason for the loss? COACH MACK: They are more talented than us. I was honest with my kids. I told them that last night when we went over the scouting report. But last time I checked, effort beats talent. We just didn't‑‑ we weren't quite ready from the beginning to handle the athleticism and the talent that they brought. You get down against a team like Baylor, I wasn't surprised that we came back because I think we have very resilient kids. But, again, you get behind the eight ball against a team like Baylor's, it's really tough to overcome an 18‑point deficit. We were right there. We missed a couple shots, and it became a one‑ or two‑possession game. Give credit to them. They're a really good team. You don't win 30 games without being a good team. Q. Seemed like there were times there where maybe one three‑pointer could have given you a lift there. Was it tough shooting luck? Was it something Baylor was doing to you in terms of the outside shot until the final couple minutes? COACH MACK: Well, their length, I think, bothers everybody. They've got great size. They went to a triangle and two in the second half, so our two better three‑point shooters weren't going to be left. No, it wasn't anything they're doing. It's just the fact that they're really long. They can cover ground quickly. Thought they had a good plan. They executed it. Missed a couple of open looks, but for the most part, I thought Baylor did a great job in covering our shooters. Got to give them credit. Q. Talking more about what Tu said, just about the season, you guys went through so much adversity. Can you just talk about, even though you have lost today, just to have come this far this season. COACH MACK: I'm really proud of our guys. I really am. The low point of December 10th was probably more than anything you could prepare for as a coach, prepare for as a team. But I knew what type of spirit we had in the locker room, and despite the outside world, I knew that we had kids that believe in one another. They were good kids that represent Xavier the right way. We lost some really tough games, and at times we didn't play real well, but at no point did I ever feel like guys were waving the white flag. I think that was no more evident than the scene I just witnessed in the locker room a few moments ago. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. We appreciate it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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