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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: LEXINGTONMarch 21, 2013Vander BlueBuzz WilliamsJamil WilsonLEXINGTON, KENTUCKY Marquette – 59 THE MODERATOR: We have Marquette with us. Coach Buzz Williams and players, student-athletes Jamil Wilson and Vander Blue. We'll begin the news conference with an opening statement by Coach Buzz Williams, then we ask you to direct your questions to the student-athletes. Coach. COACH WILLIAMS: March Madness, we're thankful to still be standing. The utmost respect for Coach McKillop, for their style of play, for their players, the competitiveness, the fundamentally sound skill guys that they always play with. Really enjoyed preparing for them. I don't know that I've ever said that in my career. Very tough-nosed game. We're thankful to be where we're at. Q. Vander, how would you compare the last second shot to the exact one you hit to beat Saint John's? VANDER BLUE: Obviously the shot meant a little more because it was in the NCAA Tournament, but I'm just grateful. It was all starting with Davante. He set a great screen. We got their 5-man to stand up a little bit. It was a foot race to the basket. I'm just grateful that Coach has unbelievable trust in me to take the last shot and all my teammates wanted me to shoot the ball. Just our preparation, all the hard work that our whole team has put together -- put in to get to this point is the only reason why that shot fell down, because we've been working on that all summer and all year. Q. The fact that you hit one just a couple weeks ago exactly like that, how much did that prepare you for this moment? VANDER BLUE: I guess could you say it prepared me a little bit, but all I was thinking was if I get to the rim, I got to finish, because if I probably don't make that, we probably lose. I'm not ready to go home. I know our team wasn't ready to go home. Just have to put the ball in the basket for us to win and do whatever it took. It was a -- it was everybody contributing, because we got down like 7, like 6 minutes left and nobody ever panicked, everybody stayed hooked up. We kept doing what we do. We work on the plays, all of our league game situations, that came to life. Nobody missed a beat, and we just knew that the game wasn't over until the clock hit zero. And we are more than grateful to be in this position. I'm just grateful and give all praise to God for hitting that shot. Q. Both of you guys, how frustrating was it at halftime? Because you guys were 1 of 11 combined in the first half, both were in foul trouble. What was it like at halftime to get back into it like that? JAMIL WILSON: It's always tough when you're in foul trouble to sit and watch the game and -- when things aren't going good for you, when you can't make a shot, and, you know, you collectively as a team things aren't going too well, you're still trying to hang in there, I mean it's always tough. When I got my second foul probably about 6 minutes and I was just sitting on the bench watching those guys battle, I have faith in my team that they're going to pull through whatever we do. We practice together as a unit every day. So, if one of us goes down, you know, I have full trust and faith in the next guy that's up, you know, they're going to do what they have to do. VANDER BLUE: My situation, it was hard for me to watch my team as well knowing I can't get out there and help them, because wouldn't be smart to put me back in and pick up a third foul. We have faith in everybody on our team from the starting lineup to players that don't play that much. Everybody does the same thing, nobody gets -- everybody is held accountable every single day. Me and Jamil, I came out earlier, so I told Jamil he got to pick it up. That's what they did, they kept us in the game to get back out there and finish the deal. I was frustrated I had some fouls, but I was never worried about our team giving up the game and not staying in it. Q. How did the lid finally come off for those 3-pointers when nothing was falling all day? JAMIL WILSON: I think it just resorted back to our defense. All year we've kind of been a defense predicated team. Our defense dictates our offense. Early in the game we're kind of stagnated. Our offense was lagging. Later in the game when things were turning bad, our back was in the wall, we went back to what we know, getting stops, taking the team out of what they wanted to do. And once our defense started to pick up, guys gained confidence, you know. After my first 3, you know, I felt like things were going good. You know, Van put the ball in the basket. So it just opened up to going to back what we know best. VANDER BLUE: I wouldn't call myself a 3-point shooter anyway. You have to take over the shot. And I guess Jamil was one of our leaders on the team as well as Junior and Trent. We had to take the shot. It was win or go home, do or die. You have faith in yourselves. I shoot shots like that every single day in practice, Jamil as well. We know Coach Buzz would want us to shoot it. We had to shoot it. We were down. We wanted to take the best shot. I wouldn't say that we were hunting 3s, but whatever became available, we were shooting to try to set up our defense and get the ball back. Q. Guys, can each one of you sort of take us inside a little bit, what are the huddles like in the last three, four minutes? What's the atmosphere inside that group? JAMIL WILSON: Today it was a little calmer than usual. Buzz kind of said it after the game, said he was just kind of relaxed all day and laid back. Usually in those game crunches like that, it's kind of riled up, takes us awhile to calm down. Today everyone went over, looked at the board. Coach always says listen with your eyes. Everyone is in tune, everyone is engaged trying to figure out what's next. No one really panicked. Everyone just kind of had a calm sense of themselves to get back in the game, because we play 4-minute situations games every today in practice most of the time. Something like that wasn't really new to us. VANDER BLUE: I agree with what Jamil said. Late in the game when you see Coach Buzz smiling, you can't really get angry at yourself when you see your head coach smiling when you're down 7 with 6 minutes to go. It just shows the confidence he has in us and everybody was engaged. We weren't drawing up one play, we were drawing up five plays so we could have plays -- we were thinking more than just the next possession, we were thinking the possession after that. Trying to think ahead and make sure everybody stay calm and execute. Because at the end of the game, if you don't execute, you can't win. Q. What is your lasting memory of last playing Butler in Maui? VANDER BLUE: For me the last shot. Rotnei Clarke hit it. I would say everybody would say that. JAMIL WILSON: The last free throw almost got my hand on the rebound and shot the ball up the court and watching Derrick Wilson zigzag Rotnei Clarke all the way up the court and him just jumping, the ball releasing and going in. Q. What can a win like this do going forward starting this Saturday? JAMIL WILSON: Builds camaraderie more as a team. We've been in games like this all year. Like they said, the Butler game, the Maui game at home, our first Big East opening game. We've been in games like this all year. We've never denied the challenge. So, let's just go through adversity as a team and know we can depend on each other yet again, and we're going to keep doing it and it's us to the end. VANDER BLUE: I think it's going to help us in further games, because that's when the team has the first game of the tournament came down to the last second shot and the different type of atmosphere. So if we do it get into another close ballgame with any other team, we'll know how to respond and handle it. Can definitely help us that way. But, at the same time, it just shows our team this is the NCAA Tournament and nothing is coming easy and if you want to win, you got to take it. It's all about that. THE MODERATOR: Vander, Jamil, thank you, congratulations. We'll continue with Coach Williams. Q. Buzz, how did you use that bonus timeout that you didn't have that you got because they checked the clock? COACH WILLIAMS: It definitely helped. Never like to get into that late on the game situation and not have a timeout. And would say other than throughout my tenure at Marquette, I've never been in late game situation without a timeout other than when we played North Carolina in the Sweet 16 three years ago and they were just obliterating us in the first half and I had to use three timeouts. I mean, our guys knew what we were going run and probably helped us to calm down somewhat. They had been changing man to zone, zone to man. We were going to run the same play, but I would say emotionally it probably helped more than strategically. Q. Yesterday you quipped that your team can't shoot and everyone knows it. With one minute left, they had three contested 3s. Did they prove you wrong? COACH WILLIAMS: We played 38 and a half minutes and made one. So, I don't know how you bet in Vegas, but typically they keep building casinos because they bet on the house. And so we played 38 and a half minutes and made one and then I think we made three in the last minute, like you said. One thing that I would say to that point is, I think all three of those needed to be 3s, right? So it was like we didn't have a choice. Q. We know you're a stat freak and probably look at everything possible. You look at almost every stat, maybe not offensive rebounds. You guys shouldn't have won the game. Was it late game experience with those guys hitting those 3s, or what do you think it was that kind of pulled you guys back at the end? COACH WILLIAMS: I thought the lid was on it for awhile and I don't think that we can shoot, and that wasn't me being sarcastic. I'm very transparent. I think that we do a good job in late game execution. Part of that is because we've been in so many of them and not just this year. I think that's -- sometimes you get caught up in the moment. I mean, they make commercials on Rotnei hitting that shot against us. You know what I mean? So sometimes you get so caught up in the moment, if you rewind to Vander's career, Junior's career, we've been in more one or two possession games, I would stay, than any BCS team in the country. And so it has helped me, it has helped our staff, it has helped our team, not necessarily that we've won or lost, but we've had a lot of game life big stage reps in being down and maybe be being ahead. But it's a one or two possession game. I would attribute it not to necessarily today or Saint John's or UConn, I would attribute it to longstanding. I believe this as a person, I believe this as a coach: It's not what you have done, it's what you have overcome. And so for me, for our program, for our team, it wasn't about beating Davidson on a last second shot. It's about what we've overcome to even get to that point. I think that probably matters more than anything. Q. Buzz, when nothing was going right, Otule, Chris, was doing some things for you. It was his first double-double of his career. What did the matchups favor for him? COACH WILLIAMS: He's so big and number 15 is so skilled, and I told him throughout the week, as I did Davante, if it's a skill game, they win, they win that matchup. I thought that Chris's physicality, Chris's length, his strength all were really important. He made really big baskets to begin the second half, and I thought his offensive rebounds were absolutely critical. And there were two or three offensive rebounds, Michael, that turned into scrums for loose balls, that turned into alternating possessions. So happy for him, considering all that he has had to overcome. Q. Buzz, you have such a gift for articulating the emotions of all this. What would you say to Davidson people? You've been on the other side of this. COACH WILLIAMS: Yeah. I don't ever open, whatever the opening statement is, I never say anything, and it's just because in my 170-odd games at Marquette, I think that everybody I'm talking to already has the slant on the story they want to write. So I think me just giving an opening statement is a waste of time and I'm really anal about time. The one thing that I wanted to make sure that I mentioned initially, I have the utmost respect for Coach McKillop and I have the utmost respect -- I think maybe because it's Davidson, maybe because it's Coach McKillop, I haven't been there so I can't say, maybe it's Stephen Curry. But you don't win 17 games in a row exclusively based on you have the best players. It has to be a lot deeper than that. They say we win because we play hard. Well, it has to be deeper than that. It's the same thing with Davidson. You can't just say, well, they beat App State, this school, that school, because they have the best players. Consistency is one of the greatest signs of toughness, and those guys are extremely tough from head coach down. THE MODERATOR: One or two more. Q. At the end when they turned the ball over, your players said you guys were trying to foul 24. Did turnover enter your mind right before that, that you thought maybe you could get them to make a mistake? COACH WILLIAMS: I'm not exactly sure. I've got a lot of voices in my head. With one minute to go, when I called the last time out, I said, guys, we're not going to foul. They lead the country from free throw percentage. If we foul, that 3-point game is going to you turn into a 5-point game. And because we didn't have any timeouts, we're lengthening the game instead of shortening the game, and I would say by and large typically wouldn't do that. We wanted to play that possession out without a foul. Now, prior to that we were trying to foul 24 and we never could, and Juan Anderson fouls somebody. He fouled 12? I don't know their names. Fouled 12. He can't do that. I don't know if I answered your question. Q. At the end when they turn it over and give you possession, five seconds to go -- COACH WILLIAMS: We were just trying to trap. If 24 got the ball, yes, we were going to foul. Q. You've talked all season about how Trent makes winning plays and the hustle play at the end. He had 11 rebounds. It didn't seem like it was his first game in the NCAA Tournament. COACH WILLIAMS: Isn't that something? So proud of him. So thankful that he's here. Just have such admiration for the diligence and the consistency of who he is as a human and who he is as a worker. I mean, I can't take him out. I'm looking out there at him and the pace of the game obviously was a grind, but they're just literally knocking his head off on every down screen and he just keeps going, keeps going, offense rebound, loose ball, scrum, our possession, their possession. Are he had more rebounds than he had shots attempted in 38 minutes. Them two kids that were here, they were 9 of 28. How about that? Q. Buzz, your point guards had one turnover throughout the whole game. How important was that to even give you a chance to come back? COACH WILLIAMS: Well, you can almost say since 2013, that when we've lost it's because our turnover rate has been too high. 24 percent of our possessions we turned over in our last game. That's not saying that they've necessarily been unforced. I'm not saying it's all us. It's been a lot of Villanova and Georgetown defense in our high turnover games. I think we had three turnovers in the second half. I don't know what our points per possession were in the second half, but it was pretty good. We need a shot or possession, then we start the game with three consecutive turnovers. That's great for your confidence. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for Coach Williams? One more. Q. Buzz, how much does that game back in November with Butler even matter right now? Is that fresh in your guys' minds with Butler waiting? COACH WILLIAMS: I would say it's fresh in their minds because they've seen the commercial countless times on ESPN. You know, the other thing that I would say is Butler hasn't been to two Final Fours because they're the same team they were in November. I haven't studied them. I've spent all my time studying Davidson. Coach Stevens is a genius and they made a shot, they made a commercial out of the shot. But I would say 24 hours from now, when I talk to you again, they're a completely different team because they're going to get better. They continue to improve. That's why they are the program that they are and he's the coach that he is. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you, Coach. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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