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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: AUSTINMarch 22, 2013Andre HollinsTubby SmithAUSTIN, TEXAS Minnesota – 83 THE MODERATOR: We'll beginning with an opening statement from you and then take questions for the student‑athletes. COACH SMITH: I thought we were pretty efficient tonight in the things we did. We really were on our game making shots and that's always a dream for a lot of things when the ball goes in the basket. But I thought our defense was outstanding both Andre and Austin really got us going making shots and when we're making shots from the outside we're pretty effective. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes, please. Q. Andre, they had made that run there at the start of the second half and got it to within five and then you hit the back to back threes in a span of 31 seconds. Could you feel the momentum go back to your team at that point? ANDRE HOLLINS: Most definitely when a team starts scoring on your defense and they start cutting the lead down you get a little more pressure on to you score. After I hit those threes, it relieved the pressure a little bit from us, and then from then on we picked up the defensive intensity. Austin and I hit shots and Joe Coleman, he played well, so we made shots tonight and that was the big difference. Q. Austin, you guys talked yesterday that you know pretty early on when Dre is going to be in a groove. Did you sense it pretty early on tonight? AUSTIN HOLLINS: He was hitting shots in warm ups. I'm not too worried about Andre when he comes out here. I know that he'll be ready to play whenever he steps on the court. So it was just a matter of going out there and playing and it started on defense. Our intensity was up and we were making shots tonight. Q. Andre, you guys have talked some in the past couple weeks about finding that guy on the team that can step up when you really need him and hit the clutch shots. That was you last year at this time, did you feel like you needed to kind of take that role again tonight? ANDRE HOLLINS: I guess so, yeah. My teammates believed in me and they know I can make the shot and tonight I hit it. I hit the shot. It was some clutch threes when we really needed them. They were trying to make a run and I'm thankful for my teammates for giving me the ball when I was open and I hit the shot. Q. For both guys, 11 turnovers, how important was it taking care of the ball now. I know it's been an Achilles heel and did tonight feel like the team we saw early in the year when you were 15‑1 or when you beat Indiana? AUSTIN HOLLINS: Yeah, that was huge. It has been an Achilles heel for us all year and we went out there, we weren't forcing anything, we were taking the open shots when they were there and we were taking care of the ball. We were being strong with the ball.  We had a few careless turnovers here and there, but for the most part I think we did a really good job of that tonight and that was one of the focuses just take good shots and take care of the ball? ANDRE HOLLINS: We took care of the ball tonight. In crunch time in games that could be your last game, every possession matters. And tonight we took care of the ball, we defended well, we got out in transition, and we shot the ball well. I think we shot 50 percent for the entire game, and, what, 56 percent from the three. That's a big difference. Teams can't really ‑‑ and also we stopped their offense by pressing today. And that was a key. Q. You guys obviously you look at the way you played earlier in the year up in the Bahamas, Andre, and where does this game stand with that game. That was a special moment for you, but being able to come on this stage and play like this, what does it feel like? ANDRE HOLLINS: It's huge. Growing up as little kid you just dream of these moments and I'm just so thankful to have a great team like we have and a great coach and great coaching staff to be able to have this opportunity. We're still, we have more games to go. We take it one game at a time, like coach said, and we have to raise our intensity in this part of the year and I think that's what we did tonight. THE MODERATOR: We'll let the student‑athletes go and we'll take questions for coach now. Q. How much pre‑work have you done on Florida already? Your staff and how much have you guys scouted them already? COACH SMITH: I'm pretty familiar with Billy Donovan, we played quite a few games against each other when I was at Kentucky. So he's a ‑‑ they sort of, like UCLA, they like to get the ball up‑and‑down the court. And Kenny Boynton, they have an outstanding guard there who can really motor the ball up the court much like Larry Drew can. And they have some people that can do some things. But we really haven't done much. I haven't watched them play. Part of the game we walked over tonight I thought Northwestern State did some good things. But Vince Taylor and Saul Smith and my staff, they have, they watched the game, so we probably have got film already broken down, probably have stuff already and then I'll concentrate on Florida tomorrow at practice. Q. You guys stuck with the zone for most of that game, was that something you game planned coming into this or was that more of an adjustment, in game adjustment? COACH SMITH: No, we planned to zone them a lot. I thought that was ‑‑ but the zone was going to be a byproduct of us pressing. We knew we were going to have to extend, we wanted to extend our defense, but we didn't want to ‑‑ so we wanted to wear them down and not wear ourselves down. So I thought tonight the press was pretty effective. We knew that would limit their number of‑‑ because they can get out in transition, UCLA is one of the best in transition and Shabazz is great. You saw what he did tonight when he gets out in transition. So we thought trying to slow them up with some soft pressure and then dropping back into the zone would be effective, keep us out of foul trouble and stop us from ‑‑ because we have had trouble guarding people one‑on‑one, everybody's taking you off the dribble, it's dribble drives and draw and dish and I thought that we would be more effective zoning. Q. Six minutes into the game I think you had already used 11 guys. Was it just an effort to wear them down? COACH SMITH: Yes. I thought that our bench was very effective. I can't say enough about how Elliott, Mo, I look down here, these guys, Elliott 3‑3, Mo was 2‑4. They had eight rebounds between them. Oto came in and gave us what we needed. That's what we expect from these guys. And I talked to them about having, me having confidence. It's one thing for me to have confidence, but they got to have confidence in themselves. And Mo has really gotten better. He's in shape now and I thought that was a huge, huge difference maker in the game. Even when Rodney got in foul trouble, I thought that Andre Ingram‑‑ but I was planning on playing a lot of people because we wanted to try to force the action, push the ball, and press. Q. Was this the most fun you've seen your team have in the last couple weeks is? COACH SMITH: Yeah, we're 0‑3 in the last three games, we haven't played well at all in a while. We haven't played well since the Penn State game. So it was good to see our guys having fun, playing the right way, sharing the basketball, taking care of the basketball. We have had a real problem with turnovers. But tonight UCLA really didn't press us, they played pretty much half court man‑to‑man and that probably helped us. But we'll see a different look against Florida. So we'll have to really concentrate and even at that we still turned it over too many times tonight. We would dribble off our feet, you know, not come meet the pass, it was really, really interesting to see. So turnovers that we had. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach, we'll let you go. COACH SMITH: Thank you. Good night. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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