|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: LEXINGTONMarch 21, 2013Larry EustachyDorian GreenGreg SmithLEXINGTON, KENTUCKY Colorado State – 84 THE MODERATOR: We have head Coach Larry Eustachy and also up front here Dorian Green in the center and to my far left Greg Smith. We'll open with a statement from Coach Eustachy and then ask you to direct your questions to the student-athletes first so they can be excused. Coach, your opening statement. COACH EUSTACHY: Well, I thought it was a historical win for our program. Obviously we had broken the school record, we're adding to it. We had two, three days off, two good practices. We were ready to win this game. I told my wife we're not going to go home tomorrow morning, we're going to win this game. I believe in these guys. More importantly, they believe in themselves and it's quite a team. It's the best group of guys I've ever been around and I'm proud of them. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you, Coach. Questions for the student-athletes. Again, we have Greg Smith, thank you, and Dorian Green. Q. Dorian, why was Coach Eustachy and his staff such a great fit with this veteran team to allow you guys to take the next step this second season? DORIAN GREEN: With Coach and the staff, you know, their specialty is what we lacked the most, so I think it was just a perfect fit for us. You know, we got a little bit tougher and, you know, our defensive rebounding is where we lacked last year. So I think it was just the perfect fit. We couldn't ask for anything better. Q. Guys, he called this a historical win. You guys have been here from the beginning to seeing this through. How big was this victory for the program? DORIAN GREEN: This is why we came here, you know, to put this program on the map and make this an expected thing year-in -- each year. So this is what we set to do when we first got here on campus, and it's great to see the hard work pay off and, you know, we just got to stay at it and keep going, because, you know, now we only have 40 minutes guaranteed left. So I think it's huge for to us play with a lot of urgency, but, you know, I think it's just what we set to do since we first got here. THE MODERATOR: Greg, do you have anything? GREG SMITH: You know, it's kind of the same thing. We really set out to do this when we were freshmen, especially me and Pierce always talking about it when we were younger. This is what we want to do at this point. Now we're starting to do it. This is great to see all our work paying off and we're trying to get a win on Saturday. Q. Dorian, Greg, both you guys are seniors. How important was it to take -- to keep this season going and get beyond where you guys went next year? DORIAN GREEN: You know, we talked about doing something we've never done. We've played, you know in post season but we've never won. We've come to Kentucky three times and we finally won. I think for us to finally win and not just get there, so I think it's big for us just to continue what we're doing and be ready for the one on Saturday. Q. Dorian, I want to ask just playing Missouri, your background, how good did this one feel, was there really a point where you knew that it was going to be this kind of game? DORIAN GREEN: I wanted to be aggressive tonight. It didn't matter if we were playing Missouri or whoever. I wanted to be aggressive from the beginning. It feels good to be from Kansas and beat Missouri. I just wanted to be aggressive tonight. Didn't matter who we were playing, but, you know, it's good to beat them from where I'm from. Q. Dorian, obviously your ankle is feeling better. DORIAN GREEN: Yeah. When you make shots, it feels a lot better. Yeah. I feel fine. I think we've been doing treatment and stuff like that. So at this point I just got to play, and, yeah, it's nice to see the ball go in the basket. Q. Did you know that you were going to be healthy enough to put up a season high like this? DORIAN GREEN: Well, I just -- you know, I just want to be aggressive, like I said earlier. I just want to come out and be aggressive, and I got a lot of good looks. Credit to my teammates. We moved the ball well. We're such an unselfish team, any one of us can get it going. Tonight it was me. We've seen Colton, Wes, and other guys get hot. You know, when we play unselfish, we're really tough to guard. Tonight I just benefited from it. Q. Greg, talk about the lift you guys got from the bench, 25 points. Colton was in foul trouble early. You needed some of those guys to step up and they did. GREG SMITH: Our bench is unbelievable. The things that John, DB and Justin come off the bench and do is just incredible when their name is called. John stayed in front of Pressey on the break, you know, just was just phenomenal. Justin gave us some really strong minutes and DB came and made some big plays. They've been doing that all year. They should receive a lot more credit for it, but tonight was just a really good example of that. Q. Dorian, how best can you handle the pressure you're going to face Saturday against Louisville? DORIAN GREEN: Well, I think we just got to love it. You know, it's going to be a great atmosphere, something that we'll remember forever, and, you know, not everybody gets the experience for something like that. We got to, you know, enjoy it and, you know, come out and play 40 minutes and play together and be aggressive from the tip. So I think for us to just seize the opportunity and love the atmosphere and just compete. THE MODERATOR: All right. We're going to excuse the student-athletes. Dorian and Greg, thank you for joining us. Congratulations on the victory. We'll continue with Q and A for Coach Larry Eustachy. Q. Coach, Colton sat with his 4th foul with eight minutes left, I believe, and Missouri went on that run and you put him back in with four, with five minutes left. Can you talk about your confidence in him and his importance to this team? COACH EUSTACHY: I told him if he got his third early that he was going to stay out there and it's just -- he's so big and he draws so much attention. This isn't the first time that this has happened, you know. It's what I really do not like about basketball is that you can be eliminated from -- I've always said this, my mentor said this: You pay to see Barbra Streisand sing and she doesn't get eliminated during intermission, you know. You get the whole performance. In our sport you can be eliminated. It's too bad. I remind the referees those guys are going to play in the NBA. This is a rare opportunity. Seems like guys like him attract fouls, and it's just part of the game. And I thought he handled it extremely well, because if you know Colton, he's emotional and he's come so far. It was neat to see him handle this similar situation once again. Q. Coach, would you just talk about Dorian's play tonight. Season high 26 points obviously coming off of an ankle sprain. COACH EUSTACHY: I think as big as anything he did a great job staying in front of Pressey. We decided we were -- if were going to lose, we were going to let Pressey beat us from the outside and stay in front of him and go through the screens and make him again shoot the ball from the perimeter, because if he gets by you and you're playing 5 on 4 with him, he's going to find the open man and when it happened, he did and we paid for it. So, more impressive than the 26 points was the, you know, the way he played on that ankle with the pain defensively and rebounding-wise. So, I told him you're not a hundred percent, but you're going to have to play 120 percent for us to win this game. And he had to and he did, and it's something that he'll always remember. You cannot have these moments back. I mean it sounds corny, but it's the Willis Reed type. Almost called Ronnie Lott and had Ronnie Lott talk to him about what he sacrifice he made to play. Almost had Jerry Sloan, you know. I got very good friends with Jerry, the late Merlin Olsen. I know how those guys -- I've drilled them and drilled them about how you play through this pain. Merlin Olsen missed three games in his career starting in junior high. But I thought it was best I just tell him, and I thought he responded. Q. The rebounding from both teams. How do you explain some dominance from your team on the boards? COACH EUSTACHY: You know, again, it's a long season and there were times when we were playing as well as anybody and you hit your highs and lows and we took three days off. We were just done after Vegas and we had to great practices, but that's what we do. We can throw those numbers up there when we're fresh and most importantly mentally fresh. I thought our team was tremendously fresh going into this game. I told my wife we're not going home and we're going to win this game and we'll see what happens -- we're not going to catch this charter on Friday. She had her bags packed and everything -- I'm joking, she didn't. You know, I told her to take more money out of the ATM because we're going to be here for awhile. I really did. Q. You've been in this position before. These guys have been in the tournament but not won a game. It's rare to see five senior starts. How much does that play into a game like this and win a game like this? COACH EUSTACHY: I think it's huge. It wasn't like they were just happy to be here, Andy, you know, and I think that was the case last year and I told them the case with me at Southern Miss last year. We had talked. You told me if you get to the NCAA, you've gone full circle, you know, in my comeback, personal comeback. I was just kind of excited to be there last year. We weren't excited to be here. We intended on winning the game, and I think that's a big difference. Our mindset was terrific, and you couldn't do that with freshmen. It took men to get that mindset into them and they bought into everything I've talked about. Q. You said you were really playing your best basketball this season. Do you think that was evident today? COACH EUSTACHY: Yeah. I think we can play better, I really do. You know, we had to score a lot of points to win and we're limited. We're not the most athletic and the highest jumping team. We've got a lot of heart and it took me awhile -- a long time, you've heard me say it: Give me time and I'll get my head around this team and we'll figure out our best way to play, and, you know, I had to adjust and they had to adjust, more importantly. So, we were playing our best. I knew it going into this game and it showed up and it sure helps, like Dorian said, his ankle feels a lot better when he makes three 3s. Q. Coach, I know it's fresh, any thoughts on your next opponent coming up on Saturday, the Louisville Cardinals? COACH EUSTACHY: I followed Louisville for years. Their athletic director and I were high school teammates on several teams, Tom Jurich, and I've got a ton of respect for their Coach. Apparently they're the best team in the country. They do the best job in getting teams to turn it over, and we had 14 turnovers and so we're going to have to really take care of the ball and handle their different types of full court pressure. We might as well go home like we hadn't planned on if we don't do it. I couldn't tell you who their best player is, I couldn't name a player on the team, but I do know that I've heard how they play and how they press and how they pressure, and we're going to have to handle that. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? All right. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|