|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 16, 2013Derek KelloggChaz WilliamsBROOKLYN, NEW YORK VCU – 71 THE MODERATOR: From UMass, Coach Derek Kellogg, Chaz Williams. COACH KELLOGG: I thought that was a high‑level basketball game. I was proud of the way our guys came out and played. With very little time to prepare, I thought they did a very good job of trying to execute the game plan. They did a much better job against the press. You know in college basketball, a lot of strange shots will go in. We had a couple last night go in for us, and the three in the corner put them up seven. Chaz was draped all over him with four left on the shot clock, and sometimes in, I guess, big‑time college basketball games that happens. I thought we did a good job of playing hard. Our guys played well. They came out and competed. We just didn't win the basketball game. Q. Chaz, with 20 seconds left, there was a time‑out on the floor. Cady was bent over, and you seemed to hug him and slapped‑‑ hands. What was going on in your head? CHAZ WILLIAMS: I just told my guys I loved them. We fought and fought and fought, and we came up short. I wanted my guys to know how much I loved them and how much they meant to me. Q. Chaz, can you sum up being a Brooklyn product and playing here at the home of the Brooklyn Nets in front of friends and family. CHAZ WILLIAMS: It was a great experience. It would have been even better if we could have walked out with a championship. It was a great experience for me, for my team, and for us as a program. Q. Chaz, how deflating was it for you guys to have played defense as well as you did on that possession and have him hit that kind of tough angle three‑pointer in the corner? CHAZ WILLIAMS: Coach said after the game, it's one of them plays that happened. For T.B. it went yesterday. For Fred it went also. God was on their side today. Hopefully he's on our side tomorrow, Selection Sunday, and hopefully we get in. Q. There was a point where you stole a ball from Theus, ran down, and got the ball up. It was obvious you did a little talking with him. How much was it that the intensity of that game turned up for you, and what was the momentum at that point of the game? CHAZ WILLIAMS: I felt he was a little too comfortable. I wanted to get him out of his comfort zone. He would get a little flush with the ball. So I kept picking my spots, picking my spots, and I just went for it and got the steal. Q. Just how tiring was it, obviously, three games in three days, but also the pressure they put on, just all 40 minutes? CHAZ WILLIAMS: Not tiring at all. Coach Hogans did a great job pushing us in the off‑season. Coach push us every day in practice. It's something we're used to. We push. We run. It was nothing they did. It was just us executing our game plan. Q. In the first eight minutes, you only had two turnovers, rest of the game you had 22. What was the difference? Did you feel like they started to beat you guys up at all? CHAZ WILLIAMS: Yeah, they possibly sped us up a little bit. It was just us being poised, taking control of the game, and just slowing things down. They got better stops and caused a lot of turnovers. Q. Chaz, if you had one sales pitch to give to the Selection Committee in favor of you guys making the tournament, what would you say to them? CHAZ WILLIAMS: We're a very exciting team. I feel like everybody across the world would want to see us play, and we feel like we needed the opportunity. Once we get the opportunity and our feet wet, sky's the limit from there. You've got a bunch of young guys that's just hungry to win. Putting us in the tournament would be very great. Hopefully, they do. Q. Along those same lines, will you spend the next 24 hours looking at stuff on the Internet and watching TV, or will you try to get away from all that? CHAZ WILLIAMS: Not really. I'm not really going to pay attention to that. You can only worry about Selection Sunday. That's the truth right there. All the media and stuff people are saying, you play the game the first hour, things like that, the committees are what say you're in or you're out. We're just waiting for tomorrow. Hopefully, they find some things. Hopefully, they were here tonight to watch us play, and feel that we deserve to be in. THE MODERATOR: Chaz, thank you. Questions for Coach Kellogg. Q. From what you told Chaz, do you feel you're a tournament team right now? COACH KELLOGG: The question that I have is do we pass the eye test? You can take the BPI, the RPI, the ZPI, whatever you want to call it, when you watch us play against GW, Temple, Xavier, Butler, those teams, and a team in the top 25 on a neutral site, that's the main thing. I think the RPI is good enough for pretty close. We played 18 games away from the Mullins Center, which a lot of BCS schools won't do. We've been on the road with a great road record and had to travel a lot this year. I think we've improved. At this point in the season, I would say we're an NCAA Tournament team. Does that mean we get in? I'm not sure, but I hope we do. Q. Derek, you guys missed a lot of shots in the paint and a lot of shots in close. Is that haunting you at the moment? Is some of that from fatigue? COACH KELLOGG: I was just talking to Cady and Maxie. It felt like they were playing volleyball with the ball. They would miss and he got it and he missed, I'm not quite sure what it was. There was a lot of bodies in there hanging around. You've got to be a little more physical. A little bit was fatigue. A little bit was inexperience. I can bet you that those two won't be missing those next year. Another year of training and what not. I thought those were big plays, the one they missed, and then came down and got an and one on Sampson, I thought, was a big play also. Q. On that exact play you just mentioned, looking back, was that the turning point in your mind? CHAZ WILLIAMS: I thought it was pretty close, absolutely. We had two or three looks at it. There was a lot of body slamming down there, and they came down. I think it was a block, honestly. It's just a tough call in that situation. It kind of turned where I thought the momentum was going our way. I think we were down two, had three or four looks at it right around the rim, and they came down and got an and one. That's what happens in tournament basketball sometimes. All the breaks don't go your way. Q. Did you guys block out? CHAZ WILLIAMS: No, I thought it was a block and fall from my view on Sampson. But I'm not a ref. I would be a good one, though. Q. You're bigger than VCU. Many teams are bigger than VCU. What do they do to neutralize the size disadvantage they usually face? COACH KELLOGG: They do a great job of playing their style. They try to get you into an up and down game, where it takes away the size factor. I thought we actually did a pretty good job tonight of using our size. I thought we beat them on the backboards. I thought we were able to get the ball one foot numerous times. We didn't finish every one. Normally, they're able to get teams out of their style by getting you to play fast. And obviously the 24 turnovers. It's kind of the turnovers versus the rebounding. We've been in that situation before. How many times they turn you over versus how many offensive rebounds you're going to get. I think they were fortunate tonight to get a few more turnovers than we got offensive rebounds. Q. Just following up on that, it's difficult to prepare for this team with a few days. Can you talk about how hard it is and how you felt you guys did overall. COACH KELLOGG: I was really happy with our guys' preparation. We got back to the hotel at about 1:00 a.m., 12:45, whatever it was, had a quick sandwich for each guy, and I put them to bed. We got them up around 11:00 today. We had a film session, a walk through, and I thought their attention to detail and how they prepared for the press without‑‑ we actually prepared because we had played them once better one day than we were able to the last time because we hadn't seen it already. I was proud of the kids the way they prepared and the way they paid attention to detail. It wasn't perfect, as we all saw, but they gave it the best effort. Q. What are you going to be doing the next 23 hours, and where are you going to be watching the selection show? COACH KELLOGG: We're going to actually stay in Brooklyn tonight. We have the rooms for a night, so we're going to relax. Chaz is from here, and he'll probably maybe take a few guys to his house and hang out. A couple other guys are from the area. And then we'll get up in the morning, take the bus back to Amherst, and I'm not sure yet. I may set up a lot of candles in the basement and go hang out or may have the guys over. I haven't thought about that yet. For me, there's a great oyster bar I went to the other night. It was fantastic. I may try to go over there, if possible. Q. Derek, can you talk about the effort, especially defensively, in rebounding from guys like Sampson and Maxie, who have been inconsistent at times, and just really the past two games. COACH KELLOGG: That was one of our‑‑ I thought we played great defense tonight. I thought we did a great job. Sampson, Maxie, Cady plugging the lane. Overall, we gave Daniels some open looks and got him going. We turned him over and he got transition baskets, but when we sat in our half‑court defense, that was almost as well as we've done in a while. We had rebounding. It was the middle of the game where they got turnovers and had some easy ones. But I thought Sampson and Maxie played very well. Q. You touched on it already, but Shaka mentioned they chart every shot of every game. You said you do something similar, good, whatever, and you said the corner three was the worst shot of the day. COACH KELLOGG: For his team. He probably didn't see a few of my good shots. Q. When you saw it go up, were you thinking there's no way the shot's going down? COACH KELLOGG: You know what's crazy? I kind of thought it's going in. This is one of those, it's going in. I can't believe it. It was like Terrell Vinson's last night. In my head, I thought that's in too. The way he was draped on him, but he double clutched and shot a curveball. It looked good. It was unfortunate. If we rebound the ball and come down and score, it's a two‑point game, and it comes down to the end. Q. Derek, you guys got off to a good start, and Troy Daniels hit those three threes in a row, and VCU got the 11‑0 run. How big was it in the game in terms of a momentum shift? COACH KELLOGG: It was huge. That was probably the one small section of the game that we maybe didn't pay as much attention to detail as we probably should have. They got a couple of looks that got them going. I thought our guys responded pretty well. I've seen teams and coached teams at times that have played VCU, and that run extends itself. I thought we did a good job of calling time‑out, getting organized, and coming back out and keeping the game close. Not letting Daniels get off really any shots or as many from that point on. Q. Off topic, with the parity across the country, do you feel like 16 is any closer to beating a 1 at this time of year? COACH KELLOGG: I'm not sure. It's never happened before, so I probably wouldn't go against the odds. I guess the 15s are doing pretty well now. I think that would be tough to have happen honestly. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|