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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: SALT LAKE CITYMarch 21, 2013Roman BanksDerick BeltranJameel GraceJavan MitchellSALT LAKE CITY, UTAH Gonzaga – 64 THE MODERATOR: We welcome Southern University, Javan Mitchell, Gary Bell and Coach Roman Banks. We will ask Coach Banks to make a statement. COACH BANKS: I want to say to the Tournament and the organization, the NCAA, thank you for the invitation. Thank you to Salt Lake. You have treated us so nice. This has been an amazing ride for us. Just knowing a couple of years ago where this program has come from in a short period of time and the challenges ahead, to take 15 young men that decided to sacrifice themselves into believing in a vision that a young coach like me had and believe in the program's success, and to lay it on the line every night has been amazing. For them to pour it out tonight is exemplary of what they have been doing all season long. We are thankful and appreciative to these guys. And may we learn, future Jaguars in the locker room that we want to make this an annual invitation. So hopefully we can learn some lessons from this and get better. These guys, I think, will have great success in their endeavors from here because this is what I've been getting from them all year long. Q. Can you talk about the performance you guys had from the perimeter, shot over 50% for a good portion of the game, finished 10 of 23 from the 3‑point range. How much of a factor was the outside shooting in keeping things close and having a chance at the end? DERICK BELTRAN: It was big for us. We practice hard every day. That's something that the coach expects from us. It's nothing new. It's just unfortunate that we lost. Q. I guess this is for Javan. You guys had eight blocks and were meeting the Gonzaga guys at the rim. Can you talk about that a little bit and if that was the expectation? JAVAN MITCHELL: Coach Banks always talking to us that we got to play above the rim. We know a lot of intensity with the game, so we had to come in and play hard and do what we can to get the win. Q. Jameel, was there any point where you thought you were on the verge of making history, this has never been done before? And what did you guys say in the last huddle? JAMEEL GRACE: Coming into the game we thought we was going to make history. No one comes into a game expecting to loose. We always expected to come into the game and win the game. Q. Javan, what was it that allowed Gonzaga to get Kelly Olynyk going in the second half? JAVAN MITCHELL: I think the pick‑and‑roll with No. 4 on the team was getting us confused. We was trying to help and show more, but I think that got 'em going, the pick‑and‑roll. Q. Derick, when you hit that 3 it brought it within 2 with just a couple of minutes left. What do you remember thinking and feeling and what was it like having that entire arena except for the Gonzaga section on your side? DERICK BELTRAN: I don't know, man. I was just in the moment. I didn't think about it, because we was trying to win. No shot, no possession was bigger than the next. We was just trying to get the win. JAVAN MITCHELL: I knew once it left his hand I knew it was good, so I had confidence every time he shoots the ball. So I knew it was going to go in. JAMEEL GRACE: It was an exciting feeling. Might have been the biggest crowd we have played in front of for a long time; and unfortunately, you know, we just couldn't come out with the win. Q. Javan, you did a nice job against Kelly Olynyk, and in the second half he did a great job himself. Just general impressions of his play? JAVAN MITCHELL: He's a really good player and I really enjoyed playing against him. I told him to just keep working hard and keep battling. Q. Is there any sense of moral victory, having come so close to beating a No. 1 seed? DERICK BELTRAN: No, not at all. We came into this game trying to win the game. There is nothing‑‑ it's not a good feeling because we worked so hard all year long. It just don't feel good. JAVAN MITCHELL: Coming into the game, we play hard. We practice hard. We go through everything that a big‑time school go through; we knew we had a good chance of winning and we came up short. It's just a bad feeling. We just came up short. JAMEEL GRACE: We started, ever since the summer, we have just been working hard, playing against each other, whatever happens. You know, unfortunately, we just came up short today. The answer to your question is it doesn't feel good at all. No one likes a loser, and unfortunately that's what we were today. But we should be all right. Q. Coach, you took away any high‑low game between Kelly Olynyk and Elias Harris. Was that a key part of your defensive strategy? COACH BANKS: No question about it. We work hard defensively. We always own our defense, rent our offense. He we know those two guys were going to be tough for us. So we spent a lot of film time and workouts trying to get some weak side help. We felt like we had to guard them as a team. I think the beginning of the second half, they exploited us a little bit, was able to separate and it was tough climbing that mountain, trying to get back within a possession or two. With time on their side, and the clock running out, I thought the big guys did a great job. We had to make a couple of adjustments. They was pinning us in, where we couldn't roll over and after the media timeout we had to make an adjustment and from then on we played solid. A good team like them, the first media, put us under the gun. Q. Going back to the first half, Gonzaga scored the first 7 points and Miller comes out and hits a couple of threes to get you the lead. What did that do in setting the it will do for your team? COACH BANKS: Well, Malcolm has been delivering all year long coming off the bench doing that. So we always feel like we start a defensive lineup to try to get us going, put him in the ballgame. If we are within a possession or two that is okay because he can throw the ball in and make the difference up out there with Derick. Then we become a better offensive team. Sometimes it can hurt us, but we are definitely a better offensive team. When he's making basket, he's out there on the court a little longer. We had to go to a defensive lineup sometimes, and he had to come out. The 4s were so big. It's a difficult match‑up for him today. Usually in our league we can play him more at the 4 and keep him out there a little longer. Q. Coach, it's still fresh obviously, but when will you always remember about this game? COACH BANKS: From my perspective, I will always remember a group of guys in the Southern locker room that came out and expressed themselves well. Basically, an unknown ball club that proved to many people that they can play the game of basketball. I will also remember that, from a coaching perspective in this tournament, two or three bad possessions can cost you a ballgame. Obviously, we came here to win a ballgame not to play a ballgame. Those guys thought they had a chance in the locker room. They believed in our vision and our game plan and unfortunately we came up a little short. Q. Coach, when you were addressing us before it looked like you were getting emotional. How proud are you of this group of men that you were coaching? Are you just as proud of the fact that they weren't satisfied with just a good performance, they were upset that they didn't win? COACH BANKS: I think they might have been cultivated to expect to win. I came to Southern to try to build a basketball program, using Gonzaga as an example. To be playing these guys and using them as an example all year is special. To have a group of guys that come from the adversity that we come from as a basketball program and nobody in their wildest dreams in two years of having the job thought we would be here is emotional. But the thing that's more emotional to me is that those guys believed in me and believed in my vision and they never gave up. It's a sight to see what a group of young men can do if they believe. They have been a team and they have sacrificed a lot this year for the betterment of each other. Q. Coach, could you comment on how Kelly Olynyk compares to other big men your team has played this year? What do you think of his performance? COACH BANKS: He is obviously the best big man we have played. He has a lot of versatility. He can play 15 feet away from the basket. He has a postgame; he can put the ball down, get by and you score the basketball. He runs the floor extremely well. I think he's one of the top‑three players in college basketball today. We knew that he would be a handful. But we also knew that we want to contain him, but we know that they have a good basketball team. They had other guys on the perimeter if you helped and over helped that they would make some shots, and I think it was big down the stretch what their perimeter did in making the shots. You have to pick your poison with this team, and I give all credit to those guys. They've got a good ball club, and we know they have a very good coach and good luck to them. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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