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PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 15, 2013Brandon AshleySolomon HillSean MillerLAS VEGAS, NEVADA UCLA – 66 Arizona – 64 THE MODERATOR: Coach, an opening statement, please. COACH MILLER: Well, it was obviously a great college basketball game. I want to give complete and total credit to UCLA. They fought hard. They have tremendous talent. They're very well‑coached, and they made huge plays. We went into this game determined not to let Larry Drew beat us the way he beat us in the first and second game; and really, mission accomplished. Not that he didn't play an excellent game, but they went about it a different way. Jordan Adams really stepped up, and they made big plays. That's what March is about, making big plays. By the way, we made quite a few of them. I told our team after the game that's all completely on me. If you're the coach of a team and you get a technical in this type of situation under 4 minutes, that's unacceptable. And he made both free throws, hence the difference in the game. The reason I got a technical foul is because I said, he touched the ball. He touched the ball. Like in other words, Mark Lyons dribbled and by the way when you show the replay here on ESPN in a few seconds, he touched the ball. He touched the ball. He touched the ball. He touched the ball. That's a hard one now when you work August, September, October, November, December, January, February, and here we are. My man over here, he's never coming back here again. His coach gets a technical foul. Didn't cuss. Didn't challenge him. By the way, it's my first technical foul of the year. That's what this is about. And by the way, full credit given to UCLA. They did a great job. Q. Frustrating loss, but can you elaborate more on the positives you take away from the game, particularly your success with dribble penetration throughout the game and how that opened up the offense a bit? COACH MILLER: We've got an excellent team. We're 25‑6, 25‑7. What are we? 25‑6. I don't know what seed we're going to get. We played well from start to finish, and we lost. It's hard when you lose to a team three times. But you know what, UCLA is really, really good. The respect that we have for them, Ben Howland, the respect that I have for him as a coach, you can't have any more respect. They do a great job. And tonight was just a heavyweight battle between two teams that are really good. And I'm proud of our team's effort. We played well enough to win, but we just at the very end didn't have enough plays. Keep in mind now, I gave them two points. They didn't earn those two points. Me, I gave them two points. The score was 66‑64. Q. Coach, second half you're up by 11, UCLA makes the run in the second half. What do you think was the difference that brought UCLA back in the game and eventually won it? COACH MILLER: We started to trade baskets. That's one thing we've worked hard to get away from. That lead was almost like a cushion to the very end. But you can't trade baskets with a team like UCLA because they're one steal away. They're so quick with their hands, nine steals. The deceiving part when you play them is when they steal it, they score. And those nine steals, if you track what happened after the steal, a lot of their points came off of their steals, our offense. But Jordan Adams shot more free throws than our entire team. We have two first‑team all conference players right here in Solomon Hill and Mark Lyons. They didn't shoot a free throw in the whole game. And credit UCLA for putting themselves in a position to get fouled. I think he got fouled three or four times in a row, couple over the back, couple of physical fouls that could go either way. Didn't go our way tonight, and that happens. But we didn't have enough defensive fortitude, hanging in there, being able to get that big stop when we really needed it. Again, when they're shooting free throws and they're making plays like that, it has a funny way. That lead going from 10 to 5, 5 to 2, that's what happened to us. And you've got to keep this in mind now. I gave them two points. The score was 66‑64. I gave them two. That's on me. Q. Sean, did you have to give up something to shut down Drew and Shabazz, namely Adams? COACH MILLER: No, we really didn't. And that's a great question, because sometimes when you take something away that really hurts you, then you gave something up, like Jordan Adams. But I felt like the game plan was one that other teams have used. Unfortunately, for us, it took us to the third game to use it. But to me, that is the way that we, Arizona, has to play UCLA. We picked Larry Drew up much closer to the basket, and I thought that helped our entire team. Not just the guy guarding him. Q. Brandon, you're a freshman. Can you sum up this experience, and what can you learn from this weekend that will help you in the NCAA Tournament next week? BRANDON ASHLEY: It was definitely a great experience coming out here and competing with my team. I mean, without the win and without the championship, it's definitely not what we wanted. And as far as what I can learn, just to keep playing hard and keep my head in the game. COACH MILLER: Brandon may have played his best game of the season today. Think about 7 for 8 from the field. He did a great job. Our freshmen have done nothing but get better and that's the other part about the tournament that I feel so good watching them out there. They're playing at a very, very high level, a much higher level now than they did earlier in the year. Q.  Can you talk about UCLA's post defense? It seemed like they were doubling a bit. And also how the young guys, especially Kaleb and Brandon passed out of those double teams and made plays? COACH MILLER: UCLA traps the post. They do it every game. One of the things we wanted to do is not refrain from throwing it in there but giving it to multiple guys and playing out of it. I thought we did a good job. It's tough when you shoot nine free throws. We didn't do a good enough job getting fouled. That is the bottom line. I think if you look at the difference in the game other than the two points that I gave them on the technical foul for saying what I said, they were 17 for 21 from the line. We were 7 for 9. When you have one team that gets 21 free throws and does a great job getting to the line, and you take that from us, you start looking at the stat sheet, that, and their turnovers, they do a great job of not turning the ball over is the reason that we lost. That, and again, you've got to keep this in mind, I gave them two free throws. Q. For Solomon, when you lose the game the way you lost the game, and now you hear your comments from the coach, what kinds of things are going through your mind? What are you thinking? SOLOMON HILL: I thought our team played hard. I think we were an aggressive team when we started the game. We lost a little bit of our aggressiveness in the second half. We let the refs dictate our play in the second half and our tempo. When you start getting down on the refs and try to argue with the refs, you kind of lose focus on the team goals and what we want to do out there. A couple of guys lost their head. I think Mark was a little frustrated at times, key plays like when Kyle Anderson got the putback, it's a mishap, because when you slow down the game, and it comes down to little shots, everybody's watching the ball instead of being aggressive and boxing out and trying to get the rebound. Like Coach said, the free throws were the biggest difference. We can do everything we can to try to keep the ball in our hands. They like to turn people over. But the free throws, when you get a team that shoots 21 free throws and you shoot nine, it's kind of hard to pull out that win. Q. Can you talk about the last play, what you were looking at in that play? COACH MILLER: We were down two points. I think that's well‑documented right now. We didn't need a three. So we ran a play and put the ball in Solomon's hands like we've done so many times. I thought he made a great move. Almost took a three that could have been challenged, shot faked, got a good two off. I think Brandon maybe got a tip in. It's like sometimes you tip it in and it goes in. Sometimes you have a three, and it goes in. It's that single play that sometimes is blown out of proportion. It's almost like the last play of the game wins or loses the game. It's so many plays throughout. To me, us not being able to get those stops when we had the cushion, the lead, started to do us in. Q. Did you get an explanation from the officials? COACH MILLER: They don't talk to me. No, no. Q. It seems like something that's said a million times during the course of the game. "He touched the ball." COACH MILLER: They don't talk to me. So much of what happens is you're in March, and everybody's being super evaluated, the coaching box, the bench standing up. And everyone's really, really tight because there is so much at stake. It's just difficult, man, when you invest hundreds of hours, in Solomon's case, thousands of hours. And if I cuss and I'm out of control and I've been warned, shame on me. But when I say he touched the ball, he touched the ball‑‑ because quite frankly, I thought two of them could have maybe gotten together and explained that, in fact, he did touch the ball. That's what I was hoping for. That technical right there is hard to swallow. When you lose by two and you gave them two and you're the coach, you have to take that burden, and I've got that with me. Q. Obviously a tough loss, not the way you wanted this tournament to end. But what can you learn from this game as you regroup from the NCAA Tournament? COACH MILLER: Got to stay in the coaching box, and you've got to be real, real careful now as the coach what you say. That's what I've learned. SOLOMON HILL: I thinks as a team, just our defense has to be the tempo of the game. We have to continue playing defense the way we have been in this tournament. I think the sky's the limit for us. I think we need to be a little more aggressive going to the rim and trying to get fouled, if that's getting Brandon some touches down low and getting Kaleb some touches down low. But all in all, I think we have to stay as a team, continue playing as a fist and not letting outside sources dictate our play and just continue to keep playing hard. COACH MILLER: You can see what a great leader Solomon is. He's much more poised than me right now. But I think one of the things that our team has going for us in the tournament, and we've had it all season. We have a great blend of new players, young talent. And we have older guys that have been through the battles, Solomon and Mark and Kevin; and it's that combination that's going to take us as far as we need. No question. I think we've earned a good seed. We're excited to be part of the tournament. There is nothing more spectacular as a college basketball player than being a part of March Madness and the NCAA Tournament. There is a lot better than losing the game the way we lost today. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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