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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: DAYTONMarch 21, 2013Will ClyburnFred HoibergKorie LuciousDAYTON, OHIO THE MODERATOR: We're now being joined by Iowa State student‑athletes Korie Lucious and Will Clyburn. Q. Korie, obviously, you've got a tremendous amount of NCAA Tournament experience, but it's been a while. How does what you went through at Michigan State benefit you this year with Iowa State? KORIE LUCIOUS: My 2 1/2 years at Michigan State, in those two years, I did get to the tournament and go into the Final Four. It's just allowed me to be able to bring a lot of experience to the team. Playing in 11 tournament games, two Final Fours has just opened my eyes up to so much. It shows me what kind of focus you're supposed to have during the tournament because any game could be your last. But I'm happy I was fortunate enough to help this team get to the tournament too. So we're just trying to make a long run. Q. Korie, are there any specific instances or things you went through in the past, in past tournaments, that you can kind of tell those guys, hey, don't get so caught up in this, or, hey, watch out for this? Just the kinds of things that your tournament runs have been able to‑‑ anything specific? KORIE LUCIOUS: I think for the most part that we all just need to realize that any game could be our last game, bringing our complete focus, and not getting caught up in the atmosphere. It's a lot of people here, a lot of things going on around town and in the arenas and stuff. We've just got to make sure we keep our complete focus, if we're eating in the hotel or watching TV, we've just got to make sure we stay out of trouble and get our heads focused for every game. Q. Will, you and Korie both sat out last year, and you've only got one shot to make the tournament this year, and you made it. How much pressure is there in the one shot to make a run? WILL CLYBURN: I don't feel any pressure at all. We want to take one game at a time and not worry about future games. I think we'll be okay if we do that, just take it one game at a time and focus on the present. Q. Korie, you guys obviously love the 3‑pointer. Do you ever start to worry when they're not dropping early? KORIE LUCIOUS: Not really. Basketball, you just kind of go out there and play. There's been a couple games where we didn't shoot too well from the 3, and we found other ways to win, getting the ball down low, getting to the free‑throw line, and just trying to get stops on defense. So just got to put a complete game together. If the 3's not falling, we've got to find other ways to win. Hopefully, the 3s are falling because that's basically what we like to do. So we're just going to keep playing our game. Q. How nice is it to play for a coach that gives you guys that freedom to let it fly? KORIE LUCIOUS: It's great. At any position, any time of the game, all five guys have that ability to shoot the 3. Coach gives us all confidence. We all have confidence in each other to shoot the three. Whenever you get a coach like Coach Hoiberg that allows you to play that style of basketball, it's always great. That's what we like to do. So it's always fun. Q. For both of you, the differences obviously between the two teams are night and day. You guys are two ball handlers, Bubu's the other guy that will bring the ball up a lot. How do you control tempo during the game to make sure you're playing with Iowa State's tempo tomorrow? KORIE LUCIOUS: The main thing is we're going to try to play our game. If we get stops on the defensive end or rebound the ball, I feel like we can get out in transition and continue to play the way we're capable of playing and the way we're used to playing. I know they like to slow it down a lot, use a lot of shot clock. We've just got to be patient on defense, make sure we stay focused for the whole 30 seconds, however long it is they take to take the shot. As long as we stay focused on defense and get those rebounds, I think we'll be able to play our style of ball. WILL CLYBURN: Basically, just trying to get up and down, get rebounds, and try to catch the break and make the game in our favor, instead of the up‑tempo game and playing defense for 30 seconds on the shot clock. Basically, if we defend the rebound and get out on the break, we'll be fine. THE MODERATOR: Korie and Will, thanks for your time. Good luck tomorrow. We're now being joined by the head coach of the Iowa State Cyclones, Fred Hoiberg. Coach, if you like, you can make an opening statement, and then we'll open it up for questions. COACH HOIBERG: Thank you. First of all, I just want to say how excited we are to be part of this great event for the second straight year. Our team was picked very low. We were picked 8th in our conference for the second straight season, and I thought our guys went out and played with a chip on their shoulder and did a great job competing all year to put us in this position. When you lose your top three scorers, including Royce White, who did everything for us, led us in all five major statistical categories, and also Scott Christopherson and Chris Allen, guys have to step up. That's exactly what our guys did all year. Korie Lucious and Will Clyburn, who sat out a year ago, have a lot of experience, and we're excited to be back in this position. Q. Now that you've had a chance to look at ND a little bit, what do you see in them? What's going to be the matchup problems? COACH HOIBERG: I'm very impressed with Notre Dame's overall talent, with their ability to control tempo, and just their physicality. We give up size pretty much every night. We've been doing it all year, starting Georges at the 5 at 6'7" and Melvin at the 4 at 6'6". Will Clyburn gives us a little length at the small forward position, and he's really been able to help us on the glass. So the big thing for us, what we try to do all year is dictate tempo. We really try to get the thing up and down the floor. The thing that we have to do more than anything this year is compete on the glass. If we're‑‑ give up second‑chance opportunities, it's going to be tough for us to win this one. That and we need to limit turnovers. We need to get a good shot on the glass each and every possession. If we do that, I think we'll have a chance. Q. Coach, it seems like all your guys have the green light pretty much on 3s. Is that pretty much the case? COACH HOIBERG: Well, it would certainly appear that way, I guess. We do like to shoot the 3. We led the nation in 3‑pointers made this year, and it's a big part of our offense. Again, we've got five guys out there on the floor most times that can either make a play or make a shot. It makes it difficult, I think, on the defense, just with the randomness that we have on the offensive end and the freedom that our guys play with. You look at what we've done to Kansas in the two times in the regular season that we played, we scored 96 on them at our place and, I believe, 88 down at Phog Allen. It's a luxury to have five guys out there that can make that play. The biggest thing we try to do is space the floor properly. If we do that and draw two defenders, our guys have done, for the most part, a great job of making the right instinctive play. Q. Do you still have the best range on the team? COACH HOIBERG: Oh, yes, no doubt. Q. You guys aren't necessarily a one‑trick pony, though. You've beaten teams other ways. Do you get concerned, though, for your guys that are out there when the shots aren't dropping? COACH HOIBERG: Yeah, but we have won some games when our shot hasn't been there. The biggest one being the first round of the Big 12 tournament when we knocked off Oklahoma. We did not shoot the ball well at all that game and found a way to grind out that win by attacking the basket. We outscored a bigger team 36‑18 in the paint. So we have been able to win some games even when we haven't shot the ball well. And I feel our guys have done a pretty good job of when that shot isn't going to know when to attack, when we need to get to the free‑throw line, when we need to try to steal some free points. If our shot isn't falling, yes, we do feel we have other ways to win the game. THE MODERATOR: Fred, thanks for your time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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