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NCAA MEN'S REGIONALS SEMIFINALS & FINALS: ATLANTAMarch 25, 2012Quincy AcyScott DrewPierre JacksonPerry Jones IIIATLANTA, GEORGIA Kentucky – 82 THE MODERATOR: We'll begin with opening remarks from Coach Drew, then we'll take questions for the student‑athletes. Coach? COACH DREW: I think, when you get into coaching, you dream of having years like this from the standpoint sometimes you win and you don't really have a great time. Other times you win, and you just love the guys you're with. I think, because of the senior leadership we've had all year and the great group of guys we've had, it's been a blessing to coach them. Definitely, definitely one of the best years I've enjoyed being around a great group of guys. I think we're going to miss Quincy Acy with the intensity he plays and his great dunks, but we're going to miss him as a teammate. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student‑athletes. Q. This is for Quincy. Can you just talk about trying to defend that transition game. It just seems like they were just down there in a flash most of the time. QUINCY ACY: Yeah, we knew that coming in. I don't know, we didn't execute as well as we should have. It cost us the game. They're a very good team. They got off to a hot start. We came back in the second half and eliminated the transition points, but it was too late then. Q. This is for Perry. The second half was a different game, mainly, I think, because you played so well. Where was the aggression in the first half? PERRY JONES III: I don't know. Q. This one is for Quincy, then. Do you think your teammates matched your intensity throughout the game? QUINCY ACY: In the second half, we did a better job of playing hard and showing more effort. First half, we didn't do that as a whole. It's not a one‑player game. It's not based on my intensity. I've got to do a better job of getting guys going because I'm a senior leader. I've got to do a better job. I take blame for that. Q. Perry, was there a moment there in the second half when Coach looked at you and said, We're going to go through you? PERRY JONES III: No, he didn't. I just did my best to be aggressive for my team, because my teammates were telling me just do my best and establish a position on the inside and just have an inside game. That's what I did. Q. Pierre, you guys were whistled for a ton of fouls, and they took 44 free throws in the game. Did that ever get to you as a team? PIERRE JACKSON: We try not to let‑‑ COACH DREW: Are you trying to get him in trouble? PIERRE JACKSON: We can't do nothing about the calls they call. They did a good job of getting fouls and getting us to the line. We just had to play better defense. Q. Pierre, I guess you guys were trying to get the ball to Brady, but they located several defenders on him. How difficult was that with that athleticism they had out there on the perimeter to try to get him open looks? PIERRE JACKSON: They did a great job on Brady. That was just them doing a great job on the scouting report, knowing what Brady's capable of. We've just got to do a better job of getting him open, I guess. Q. Pierre, just how much problems‑‑ everybody talked about their length up front, but even their length in the back court, how much problems did that create for you guys? Especially from the defensive standpoint in the first half. PIERRE JACKSON: I don't think it's much of a problem. We just had some bad shots in the first half. That's all, I think. We had a problem with just taking some bad shots. I think we could have got better shots and got more paint touches. Q. This question's for Quincy. This is your final game as a senior. Describe your feeling. And has the reality of it, now that you've played your final game as a Baylor Bear, sunk in yet? QUINCY ACY: This university has done so much for me. I wouldn't have asked to go anywhere else. The coaching staff, all the players‑‑ I wouldn't trade them for the world. We fought hard. I'm happy to be a Baylor Bear. It hasn't really‑‑ you know, there's emotion after the game, but I don't think it's really set in. Take a little time to sit with myself, and I think it will set in. Q. How tough was this loss to take? You guys have been on such a good roll and just finally hit a wall here. PIERRE JACKSON: Every loss is horrible, but being that it's our last game of the season, it really sucks. It hasn't really sunk in yet, but we're just going to get back in the gym and get ready for next year. Q. Quincy, when you got it to 13, 15, with eight or nine minutes, are you still thinking this can happen, that kind of thing? QUINCY ACY: Definitely. We're not a team to just lay down. Even to the last second we thought we could come back. You saw Coach still out there coaching. It just says a lot about us and our university, I think. I think we have an ax to grind. I don't know. I'm just proud of my teammates. Q. Quincy, I'm just curious, your impressions of their front line, seeing them face to face as opposed to on film. QUINCY ACY: They're a great team. They've got some good dudes down there. THE MODERATOR: Guys, we'll let you go. Congratulations on a fantastic season. We'll take questions for Coach Drew. Q. Coach, have you seen a team as good as that Kentucky team? If so, who would win? COACH DREW: Well, I think in coaching you get done playing a team, and the first thing you think is are they what you thought. This team's actually better than I thought. I don't think we played our best game. I'm going to give them credit for causing some of that. But this team's better than I thought. Definitely, we haven't played a better team than them all year, and I don't know in the last couple years. When we lost to Duke, Duke was a very good team, but this Kentucky team is better in my opinion. Q. Scott, obviously their transition game was tremendous. What did you all try to do to stop it or to at least slow it down? COACH DREW: The goal is no dunks, and I think that was out the window four seconds into the game, it seemed like. I think first half we rushed and took some shots that we shouldn't have taken. Missed ‑‑ I mean, when you shoot 32 percent, you're giving a lot of chances for fastbreaks. Second half, we executed better. And because we scored and we didn't give up transition, it was a much better game. But first half, I mean, going in, that's what we knew we had to stop. When you don't execute on the offensive end, have nine turnovers, you're going to give up transition. Q. Coach, you talked during the year about how, especially against Missouri and Kansas, they get on runs and you guys aren't able to come back. Talk about the run they had, especially towards the end of the first half. COACH DREW: I think all year long we've had high expectations. Started out 17‑0. But at the same time, we're a young team too. Four guys, first NCAA tournament; three first‑year‑college guys starting. I think earlier in the year we couldn't handle the elite teams making runs on us. At the end of the year, we did. I think that's why we won some of the games we've won. But a team like Kentucky, you can't let them go up 20, and Coach Cal does too good a job managing the game. It's very hard to get back into it. I still thought we had chances in the second half. It's one of those games where it just doesn't seem like it's meant to be. There's a lot of layups where people haven't seen us too much. We don't miss that many layups, I can promise you. Some of them, people weren't around either. It's just frustrating because you want to play your best game on the biggest stage. But, again, Kentucky is really, really good. Q. Coach, what did it mean to you to have that group of 150 neon fans up there? Do they stick out at all in a sea of blue? COACH DREW: Definitely, they stick out. I'm very proud and happy that all the Baylor fans could come down. Last time we were at the Elite Eight, we had over 45,000 in Reliant. That was a lot more enjoyable than today, I can promise you. But we're thankful for all the support. The only thing I do want to make sure that we talk about this team is it is a true student‑athlete team. We had six players with over 3.0, highest GPA in school's history, and most wins in school's history. So often we just look at we want college kids to be student‑athletes, and yet when they do well academically, we might not give them the praise they get when they execute on the court. I'm just asking in your articles, when you talk about this team, if you could talk about what kind of role models and people they've been as far as on and off the court, because it is a special group of guys. Q. Coach, great season, obviously. But this game in particular, were you happy with the team's effort? Especially in the first half. COACH DREW: I think, as a coach and a competitor, nobody's happy with a loss any time, and no matter who you're playing, you think you can win. You want to go back and do it again. Right now if we could say let's tip it up. Everyone says let's go. I think in the beginning of the game, we didn't make some shots, and when we didn't make shots, we had to stop transition, and we didn't. That opened the floodgates to them getting a lead. If we make some of those shots, then throughout the course of the game, they don't get those transitions. They don't get the big runs. Again, first half you asked about Perry, and first half, I think, they did a good job doubling them, but we were catching the ball out 12, 15 feet. Second half, he was catching it in the paint. So I think we did a better job getting them touches in the second half. But let's credit Kentucky because, at the end of the day, they were the best team, best‑‑ they're a No. 1 team for a reason. You've got to play your best to beat the best. We didn't do that because we missed some shots that we normally don't miss, but let's credit them for taking advantage of it and not really giving us a chance. Q. Scott, obviously, any loss at this level hurts. Is it tougher to take this one or the one two years ago or about the same? COACH DREW: When the two years ago game was much closer and it was in front of all your fans. So that's tougher when you lose a home game. When there's this much point differential, I mean, I hate to say it, but it's not as gut wrenching as a last‑second shot or anything like that. I think Coach Mac kind of summed it up best. He goes, When people think of our team, I wish people would have seen at 11:30 night Quincy Acy downstairs finishing up a six‑page paper for tomorrow. Q. On that subject, can you just elaborate a little on the seniors who won 100 games for you and kind of the big picture of how they managed to help the program, especially given where it was. COACH DREW: Thank you. I think, first and foremost, when someone asked Quincy Acy about our last win, I didn't realize it was their 100th win for the senior class. For them to care about that and to know about that without being told, I think that just shows you what kind of teammates they are and just how happy they are for one another and what they care about the school. Again, two out of three years we made it to the Elite Eight. One day hopefully we're cutting down the net, sooner rather than later. Q. Coach, on Quincy, there in the start of the second half I think he scored like your first eight. Was it intentional to go to him, or was that just him trying to say I don't want to go home? COACH DREW: I don't think he wanted to go home. For those who never saw Quincy Acy as a freshman, if he didn't dunk, there was no way he could score. And that's five on zero, one on zero. I mean, the old Mikan drill. He couldn't get two in a row. And the fact he's worked this hard to develop his game, it's a real credit and testament to him. I know he's got the beard and everything, but he's a year younger. He could have stayed in high school another year. And just to see him mature‑‑ that's why you get into coaching, to see guys come in‑‑ he was a little kid, and now he left a man. Q. Coach, I know Perry said that this didn't happen, but it really did seem like in the second half you guys started going through him more possession after possession. He got Anthony Davis in foul trouble. Did you not try and go through him at all, like he said, or was there an effort to do that? COACH DREW: I think credit their defense for not letting him get going. And the toughest thing for a young person to do, when they're not scoring, is to get down. I think with youth you get more of that than you do with older people. I think Perry, when he saw the ball go through the hole a couple times, it was much easier for him to be aggressive. He did a much better job posting lower in the second half, and I think we did a good job feeding him. Again, that's‑‑ when you coach younger people and youthful people, I think you get more inconsistency. Cal's done an unbelievable job with the youth that he's had. I can tell you why Anthony Davis and Gilchrist are projected 1 and 2 in the draft after watching them today. Gilchrist is a man child. He's got Quincy's toughness and heart, and he's a guard. Q. Coach, do you think in retrospect that‑‑ well, it seemed to me that you tried a little bit to match the athleticism of them because that's Baylor basketball, and you could probably be as athletic as 344 of the 345 teams in Division I. I know you say you missed a few shots and that put you in a hole, but in retrospect, are there aspects of the game plan that you would like to totally overhaul having seen them in person? COACH DREW: Yes. I think there's a lot of things we could have done different. We could have zoned them the entire game, seen how that worked. I think we could have come out and trapped ball screens from the get go. I think we tried to do more what Vanderbilt did and keep them in front, not foul them, keep them out of the paint. That didn't work as well for us as it did Vandy. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much and congratulations on a great season. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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