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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: SALT LAKE CITYMarch 21, 2013Brandon AshleyNick JohnsonMark LyonsSean MillerSALT LAKE CITY, UTAH Arizona – 81 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by the Arizona student‑athletes and Coach Miller. We have Mark Lyons, Nick Johnson and Brandon Ashley. We will start with an opening statement by Coach Miller. COACH MILLER: Well, we're very excited to still be in the tournament. It's very difficult to make the NCAA Tournament. It's even more difficult to advance. In particular, for us, we have incredible respect for Belmont. Rick Byrd is one of the great coaches in our game, and their style is a nightmare when you watch it, because they have such an ability to shoot the three and that's not all they do, top‑10 in the nation in steals. They had a great backcourt and they ended up scoring. But I thought from our perspective our players locked in on what we were trying to do, played great defense, especially in the first half. As the game wore on we really got the ball inside, and as we got the ball inside a lot of good things followed. I guess the stat that is overwhelming when you look at it is our rebounding 44‑18, and I think that shows the effort level that we played with and whether it was defensive or offensive rebounding taking advantage of our strengths versus Belmont. IÂ’m proud of these guys. Thought they did a great job, and we're excited to be playing on Saturday. Q. Nick, can you tell me something about Mark Lyons that you really appreciate? Something that we don't see, what he does on the floor? NICK JOHNSON: I said it all year long. It's confidence, that's the biggest thing he brings to this team, brings to me, a young player that has gone through some issues. So I mean, that's my big brother and that's the best thing. Q. Nick, in your video study of Ian Clark, what do you think you had to do to limit him? NICK JOHNSON: He's a great player, great scorer. He gets his baskets a variety of ways. So trying to limit his good touches and make him work for every point. I think Jordin Mayes came off the bench and did a great job, also. Q. Mark, what do you think of your size advantage and how significant that was? MARK LYONS: That was a big factor going into the game. Coach made it a big issue for us to get the ball inside. Our size advantage was significant. That's why our rebounding advantage was large today. Brandon, Kaleb andGrant did a great job rebounding and Solomon too. Q. Brandon, can you talk about your first NCAA Tournament? BRANDON ASHLEY: It was definitely a great atmosphere, being on the west coast we had a lot of fan support and the upperclassmen gave me a lot of confidence going in. Q. Nick, their coach said you guys looked different tonight than you do in the scout. What do you think was the difference? NICK JOHNSON: Tournament team, getting back to the defensive end, and we approached this week with great focus on the defensive end. We had a few great practices, so just tournament, staying in. Q. Coach, Coach Byrd said this was a different team, meaning a better team than he had seen on tape. I'm wondering what you maybe saw that you have been doing better today than you have? COACH MILLER: I need to ask him what games he was watching. That will help me. I could see his point. You think, the one thing about our team that's deceptive is we're bigger and more physical than we get credit for. Kaleb Tarczewski has developed. He's not the same player in March as he once was, and we're physical on the wings with Solomon Hill and Kevin Parrom. Those guys are in their senior year. Not only are they 6'6", but they are physically strong, Grant Jerrett and Brandon Ashley. We can come at you that maybe you can't see on TV until we're in person. The key is for us to utilize that length where we have an advantage rebounding and defensively and on offense where we can get in and around the rim like we did tonight and get fouls and score. I think we played a good game. I've been saying, though, it's a little deceptive. The last four games we played coming in, starting with the second half at UCLA, Arizona State at home and Colorado and UCLA in our conference tournament, we played very well. Unfortunately, we were 2‑2. But that says a lot about our conference, playing Colorado on a neutral court, UCLA, those are tough games and I believe they made us better. I believe we came into this tournament feeling good about the level of play that we came in playing. Q. Sean, after the game, Mark referred to you as the only father figure he has had in his life. I wonder if you could talk about the journey and how you feel going into battle with him in his senior season. COACH MILLER: I'm very motivated, not just Mark, but Solomon and Kevin, those guys mean a lot to us‑‑ to me because a long time ago when we ventured out to Arizona we needed people to believe in us without a lot of evidence. Solomon Hill and Kevin Parrom were two of those players. Mark had a lot of choices last spring. He could have joined a lot of teams and he decided to join us. With that, we have a strong bond. We really do, and I believe that's part of the strong bond that I hope can continue to let us play. Clearly, we started this process a long time ago. We have worked hard as a team and we have had some great moments. But it all builds toward this tournament, but I believe that relationship, you can feel it in moments like this. Q. Wondering if it helped you guys in a sense that a lot of people were picking Belmont in a sense that not just you had to warn this team about them? COACH MILLER: I don't blame people for picking Belmont. They have a great backcourt. They earned the seed that they got. You look at them on paper and they're scary. I don't know if anybody relishes seeing them in their bracket. But we were ready to play tonight, and we rebounded the ball and did the things we needed to do to win. But it's notextra. That's what makes the tournament so great. The guys on TV have to pick one thing. The other guy is offended. The team they pick is happy. For us, I'm just happy we have an opportunity to play on Saturday, and the longer you stay in this tournament the more you want to get back here year in, year out because it's so special for the players. It means the world to make it and when you start advancing it really becomes special. So we're going to get ready and hopefully play an even better game on our side on Saturday. Q. Sean, how much importance do you put on not just winning but winning impressively like you did tonight? COACH MILLER: We just wanted to one by 1 point. If we won by 1 point in triple overtime, we'll take it. It's about advancing. Sometimes you can play really well in this tournament and leave. The difference there is no more game ready and waiting for you. We focused in the second half. We finished well in the second half, no question we were trying to play well. Our defense slipped in the second half. But I tell you, Belmont is very difficult to keep up with for forty minutes. Q. The second half rebounds, do you attribute that to your height advantage? COACH MILLER: We have been a good rebounding team all season, if you put us under the microscope in our conference we got away from the dominant rebounding team that we once were and we talk about it a lot. We talk a lot about it, and we had a physical advantage in this game. It's one thing to have the advantage and it's another to take advantage of it. That's what we did. I don't know if we outrebounded a team, at least in my time at Arizona like that, 44 to 18 is pretty impressive, and it clearly was the difference in the game. Q. What was the deal with Solomon Hill's tech? COACH MILLER: I don't know. He may have turned and said something after the shot. This is a tournament you have to dot your I's, cross your T's, and be on it. I'm sure he learned his lesson. Q. Were you disappointed? COACH MILLER: No, I don't think he did it intentionally. He was emotionally charged up. That was the first shot that he made. Q. I think they started 1 of 11 from the field. How important is it when you're facing a team that might view themselves as the underdog, to stop them early and to take away maybe some of that belief from them? And second, how do you think Nick played Clark? Seemed like he had 11 points in the first half, but then he was quiet. COACH MILLER: Nick did a great job and Jordin Mayes helped the cause as well. When Nick wasn't on him Jordan was. Sometimes they score and you get the sense that tonight he earned the points, and that's what we want them to do is earn the points. I know he got a lot in the second half, but no question Nick did a great job as did our team. Q. Sean, the Pac‑12 went 3‑0 today. Your thoughts on what that means for the league? COACH MILLER: You know, it's‑‑ man, it's a statement that all of us who coach in the league were hoping that we could make. You get respect by what you do in this tournament. I know as a coach how hard that 18‑game schedule was. You add the two that we played in the conference tournament, you're playing against terrific players, some incredible coaches, and teams that can win. And I believe that we have the ability as a conference to continue to win here in March. It was a difficult January and February, and I know Rick Byrd made his comments. But I think in a sense it's really what he's saying is that it wasn't as easy to tell who we were on film because a lot of the games we played were dog fights, hard‑fought games, some of which we lost. And I think that's because we play in a great conference. Q. How was Mark able to get free? He drove often. COACH MILLER: I think Belmont's strategy was to pressure our perimeter, probably to prevent us from throwing it inside and they really got extended, as extended as maybe any team we have played. We tried to put Mark in a position to use the ball screen with the court wide open and he took advantage of it. It's something he's good at, and he did a really good job. Q. What went into your decision on letting Kaleb guard the guy that he ended up guarding? COACH MILLER: Well, we categorized their frontcourt players into two groups, group one was players that could shoot, almost like small forwards. And anytime they set an on‑ball screen we switched. The other group were guys, that although good players, weren't nearly as prolific shooting the three. We chose not to switch that. So Kaleb would have always been on one of those other players. There were a couple of times we took him out of the game because they had two of those frontcourt players in at the same time. We predetermined if they would go with that lineup that we would have to take him out because they're so skilled. Q. You talked so much about the difficulty of this tournament. Is there a word you can put on advancing beyond the first round? Is it relief, satisfaction? Is there anything that you can point to still being alive on that first weekend? COACH MILLER: It's definitely not relief. That's the thing you have to guard against. We have high expectations and when you're ranked from start to finish like we've been and sometimes you lose games, people on the outside can get down on you. Some of the best teams in Arizona's history got hot right now, and it's about being in this tournament, playing well coming into it. No sense of relief at all. I think just understanding how hard it is to advance for any of us. I think a lot of satisfaction and eagerness to get ready and play on Saturday because as monumental as it seems to be able to stay in the second round, going from the second round to a Sweet 16 is a whole new level. It's much more difficult. So we know we have to have a couple of good days here and play even better on Saturday, but I'm glad to have the opportunity. Q. Is there some benefit to your freshmen having their first NCAA Tournament game out of the way now? COACH MILLER: Yeah. But, again, I go back to our conference. They have played in some really meaningful games this season, played against frontcourt players, zones, man‑to‑man hostile environments. We played in an exempt tournament in Hawaii against San Diego State and Miami, Florida. I go back to those games. They were as hard fought games as I have coached in and that was a long time ago. I think part of what our guys were ready for in this tournament is we're battle tested, whether you're a freshman or a senior. We have played against good competition and played in meaningful games since November. Q. Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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