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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: SAN JOSEMarch 21, 2013Markel BrownTravis FordMarcus SmartSAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA Oregon – 68 THE MODERATOR: We are joined now by head coach of Oklahoma State, Travis Ford, and student‑athletes Marcus Smart, a freshman guard, and Markel Brown, a junior guard. COACH FORD: Congratulations to Oregon. They deserve the game. They came out and really were physical and played a really good game. Two things we talked about, taking care of the basketball and rebounding. We did not do it in the first half. We gave them 21 extra possessions between the turnovers and extra shots. Seven minutes or so to go in the game they had 17 more shots than we did, with about seven or eight minutes to go in the game. And that kind of sums the game up. We got it back late in the game because they were letting us score. But we didn't play very well. Our offense for some reason the last couple of games has not been clicking at all. We were just a step slow for some reason tonight. But give Oregon credit. They really played to their strengths and did a good job of being physical around the rim and turned us over early. The first half kind of set the tone, really. We tried to fight back in the second half and played hard, but we just didn't get enough multiple stops. We never could get three or four stops in a row, never could get to that point. I think we missed four one and one's, that's a possible 8 points. We get no points. That's tough in a game where you're trying to fight and hang in there. But give Oregon credit. They played well, we didn't play very well. And they played to their strengths, rebounding and turning people over. They played to their strengths. Q. Marcus, what do you think Oregon was able to do to take you guys out of your offense? MARCUS SMART: Like Coach said, they played to their strengths, rebounding the ball. We made some costly turnovers at costly times and they capitalized on them. Q. In many ways this was a breakthrough year, you get back to the NCAA tournament. Do you label it a disappointing year because of what happened today? MARKEL BROWN: Not at all. Out of 38 teams, we was one of the 38 to make it to the NCAA tournament. This wasn't a bad year for us. But it was a good year for us. Q. Could you guys both, Marcus and Markel, talk about the slow start with the turnovers and you miss a bunch of free throws, is that an indication, those two factors, especially the slow start with the turnovers, that you guys were nervous, distracted, overwhelmed by the stage or the moment, anything like that? MARCUS SMART: Not at all. We all played on big stages and big games like this before. That's not characteristic of us. We are one of the best free throw shooting teams in the country. And like I said, it's uncharacteristic. Like Coach said, we missed four front end of the one and one's. That was a big momentum change for us and just a slow start. MARKEL BROWN: We just went up against a good Oregon team that's playing best basketball right now. They're coming off a PAC 12 championship and they're playing ‑‑ like Marcus said before, when Oregon play, what they do, they do it well. They turn people over, they got us in transition and offensive rebound. Q. Marcus, from the halfway point of the second half, about ten‑minute mark until, I don't know, three minutes left or something, I think you'd only taken one shot during that period. Do you wish that you'd been more aggressive offensively? And also, what is the extent of your injury to your hand or wrist there? MARCUS SMART: To answer your first question, you know, I definitely wish I could have done more for my team. I feel like I let my team down. I didn't contribute to my team the way that I usually do. And it hurt us a little bit. We had a couple of guys try to make plays for us, and we just couldn't. We couldn't get on a roll offensively. To answer your second question, we're not sure yet. I'm supposed to go get a scan right now when I'm done. But hopefully I'll be all right. Q. Marcus, when did you hurt your hand? MARCUS SMART: I don't remember the time, but it was the play where I got the foul in open court. It went behind my back, and they called a tripping foul and I landed on it wrong, and it's been killing me ever since. I tried to play through it. Q. In the first half? MARCUS SMART: Second half. Q. Travis, could you address the earlier question about nerves or slow start? When you're missing free throws and can't get an offensive possession in the first five minutes it looks like a case of nerves. COACH FORD: I thought we were. I thought we were. I didn't think it before the game. I thought we had a good preparation. But I thought guys were a little bit out of their comfort zone a little bit at the beginning of the game. Again, the things we have really stressed the last three days was disappointing to us that we didn't do those things early, taking care of the basketball, second shots. The two most important things we've been stressing and come out of the gate and not execute those things was disappointing. I thought we came out a little ‑‑ I don't know if it was nervousness, a little jittery, and the first half really set the tone. Hard to fight back. Q. Travis, what was their defensive game plan on Marcus? COACH FORD: Well, they picked him up ‑‑ they wanted to deny him the ball. We knew they were going to do that, that's why we had Markel Brown bring the ball up quite a bit. We figured they were going to try to wear him down as much as possible. And every time he tried to turn a corner they would have somebody there to help. But they used their smaller guards as ‑‑ and their quickness to try to get up under him a little bit. But we ran into a very hot team, a very hot team. I mean, I've watched a lot of games on these guys and how they've played the last three games compared to how they were playing two or three weeks ago, this was a hot basketball team. And I was impressed with Oregon, really impressed and they came in here playing extremely well. We had a great month of February, early March. And we just didn't ‑‑ our last couple of games we haven't played well, for whatever reason we just haven't played well. And we ran into a team that's playing their best. Playing their best. Really hot. Q. Not that it matters much now, but do you think that the selection committee misseeded Oregon pretty badly? COACH FORD: Oh, I think they would admit to that. I think they watch TV and every single person you run into has said the same thing. I think Joe Lunardi said it, he's never, ever in all his years made the mistake ‑‑ he had them as an 8 and they're a 12. He said he's never been off that much. I think they would admit to that. Not only that, we're the 5 seed and they're the 12. And we have to go two time zones over. I didn't care. It's part of it. But none of it really made sense to me, really, but it didn't matter. But I think they would admit at this point, not just because after today, but I think after they saw everybody else, and I think they made some ‑‑ I think they were saying about their schedule or something ‑‑ you know, to me that doesn't matter. The computer doesn't select it. You could see that they're a really good basketball team. 26 wins, win at UNLV, won the PAC 12 tournament. So I think they do. I think they would say that, just because every single other person that I've seen, and that's been the topic of the NCAA tournament. Every time you turn around that's the topic. I think they would say, hey, we did ‑‑ but it's really not a big deal. You have to play whoever they tell you to play and you go play it. I knew right away after watching them this was not your typical 12 seed. Q. You guys seemed to have an opportunity to come back in the second half, your defense played well. Oregon was kind of stuck in the mid 50s for a while. But you took a lot of 3‑pointers. Were you happy with the shot selection? COACH FORD: We had some good shots that didn't go down. We really did. We took some tough ones, too. But again, we never got into an offensive flow. Second half we tried to simplify things a little bit for our guys to try to get a little bit better shots than we did the first half. First half was all about turning over. We shot 45, 46 percent from the field. We kept turning the ball over. Until I watch film, I know we missed a lot of good shots. Q. May be tough to talk about right now, have you thought about whether Marcus is coming back, what you're going to say to him, any advice? COACH FORD: It's something we'll talk about and decisions to be made. A lot of people have been talking about it a lot lately. But I can tell you there's no decision been made. We'll sit down and see what he wants to do and talk about the pros and cons and the pluses and minuses, and where he's at and things like that. So that's something that will be coming up here obviously fairly soon. But we haven't made a big deal out of it at all, really haven't. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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