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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: PHILADELPHIAMarch 23, 2013Gregory EcheniqueGrant GibbsDoug McDermottGreg McDermottPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA Q. I'd like to ask Doug and Greg about your defensive match‑ups tomorrow and how you expect to handle Duke's big men, Kelly and Plumlee. GREGORY ECHENIQUE: I mean, it will be‑‑ I think it's going to be a good match. I'm looking forward to it. We watched some film on him and he's obviously very athletic, very skilled. So I think, like I said, I'm excited about it, and hopefully the refs will let us play and give me an opportunity to just go one‑on‑one on him. But yeah, like I said, it's going to be a good match‑up. Like I said, I'm just excited and can't wait to go against him. Q. Did you see Plumlee's sky hooks at all on film that he did yesterday against Albany? GREGORY ECHENIQUE: Yeah, I think I seen one. It's a good move. I don't know, like I said, I'll be ready for whatever comes. DOUG McDERMOTT: Yeah, I mean, Kelly is one of the most skilled players in the country. I got a chance to see him this summer. He's really good, pick and pop, and then Plumlee, one of the most athletic bigs in the country. We're going to have our hands full but we're going to be ready. We've got a good plan put together and we're just going to have a good practice today and get ready for tomorrow. Q. Doug, Ryan was talking about rooming together this summer. What kind of roommate was he? Was he a good roommate? And second, how much better and more fun does it make the game when it's small like that and you guys cross paths so often? DOUG McDERMOTT: A little bit. Ryan was a great roommate, always reminded me what time we had to be down in the lobby, what time we had to leave. So he was good for that. Got a chance to pick his brain a little bit because we kind of play similar. He's a little bigger than I am, I'm taller. When we got to the gym I saw some of the moves he would do and he kind of taught me some of them, so he's a good player, and it'll be cool playing against them. I never thought I would have played against him this summer, so it's pretty cool. Q. Where do you guys gain confidence from, and going into a game like this where do you look to draw confidence from? GRANT GIBBS: I think it starts with each other obviously. We've got one of the best players in the nation and we've got confidence in him, but he's got confidence in everybody on this team. And same as Ollie said from the coaching staff, collectively as a staff they've all played in big games. Coach Merfeld at Hampton knocking off Iowa State. So from within our team obviously, but the coaches, as well, kind of exudes that confidence for us. DOUG McDERMOTT: Yeah, we've got a lot of confidence in each other. We're all real close, and not a lot of people in the country think we can pull this off, but all of us believe, all of our coaches believe, and I think we'll have a good plan. It should be a great game, and we're definitely looking forward to it. Q. For all you guys, to build on that, the biggest game in program history for you guys. Just talk about this opportunity tomorrow. GRANT GIBBS: Well, we played Carolina in this game last year, obviously didn't play one of our better games of the season, and we've kind of worked all summer, fall to get back to this game, to get back to this opportunity to play against one of the nation's elite, and the opportunity is here. We're going to be well prepared and hopefully go after it. GREGORY ECHENIQUE: We are very excited about the opportunity that we have in front of us. Like he said, it's definitely a huge game for our program, and we have a lot of people that are following us. Some people made the trip here, and everybody on the team can't wait. We just want to make sure that we represent the school the right way and we believe we can do this. I know obviously it's not going to be an easy game, but we believe in ourselves, and we're just glad to be here, and this is a great opportunity for us. DOUG McDERMOTT: Yeah, it's a huge opportunity for our program, like Grant said, ever since we lost to Carolina last year we've been working for this moment, and we're finally here. So we're really excited about it. It's come really fast, but we're ready for it and definitely excited to get out there and play them. Q. You guys have talked about this game for so long after the Carolina loss. For all three of you, what's it like to be here now on the eve before the game that you guys had circled saying we want to get back to that second round match‑up where we lost it last year? GRANT GIBBS: Well, I think you look back on all the work we've put in to get to this point, and obviously you've got to kind of breathe in the moment a little bit for our program to get back here. We've had ups and downs this year, but collectively as a group for us to get back to this opportunity, it's extremely exciting, and for each individual person I think a great moment for us. GREGORY ECHENIQUE: Yeah, it means a lot. We worked hard after our season ended last year, and we knew we wanted to be back here. Now we want to go further. We just don't want to be happy just by being here. Like I said, we accomplished that already, so we just want to do a little more, and that's why we did all the hard work in the off season, and now we have an opportunity to accomplish that. So we're looking forward to it. DOUG McDERMOTT: Yeah, there's been some ups and downs this season for sure. We went on a three‑game losing streak there in February and some people started to question us a little bit. But what this team did, we never stopped believing with each other. We've got some great leadership, great coaches, and we just continue to get better every single day at practice, and that's why we're here today. Q. Doug, Coach K had some interesting thoughts on your game. I'd like to get your reaction to it. He said that a lot of times you make shots before you catch the ball with your movement, and he called you a counter puncher, who if one move is taken away, you go straight to the next option. Have you thought it out that far in advance? Is it just instinctive now? DOUG McDERMOTT: Yeah, a lot of it comes natural to me, just trying to play hard every play. I like to move without the ball just because sometimes I'm playing against stronger, taller guys, so I've got to be able to have that advantage of making cuts, and I've got a lot of great unselfish players that I play with that allow me to get some easy buckets like that. And when I'm in the post, if I don't have one thing, I definitely have some counters that I look to go to. I mean, I've worked on those moves my whole life, so it kind of just comes natural once the game time hits. Q. Greg, you talked about this after the game yesterday. I just want to go back to it. It seems like there maybe is a perception that you guys are a finesse team, but watching you and Doug kind of bang inside yesterday against a very physical team, do you think that kind of opened some eyes, a game like that, that you guys are pretty physical in your own right? GREGORY ECHENIQUE: I would hope so. Like I said, we proved to some people that we can play physical, and like I said when we talked, every time we've been challenged I feel like the guys step up to it and bring it. I'm sure that tomorrow we'll need some of that. I'm not sure how the game is going to turn out. It might not be a pretty one, I'm not sure, but obviously there's always‑‑ we need to bring that toughness back, and I think playing Cincinnati the first game will definitely help us carry that for tomorrow. COACH McDERMOTT:  Like everybody else that gets to meet with you today, we're excited to still be around. There's only 32 teams as of this morning that are still alive, so we're excited to be one of those. Obviously we've got a huge challenge ahead with Duke. They've got a lot of guys that can score the basketball and score it at a very efficient rate. And in a lot of ways, mirror us in what they attempt to do. They spread you out with the three‑point shot, they've got guys that can score inside, they've got a stretch 4 in Ryan Kelly, and really have had outstanding guard play, as well. It will challenge our defense more than any game we've played this year, but we're excited to be back on this stage. This is what we've strived for, and hopefully we can put our best foot forward tomorrow night. Q. You guys have circled, talked about it all season long, getting back to this point, this opportunity to get into the second weekend. How fired up are the guys right now and you yourself? COACH McDERMOTT: Well, they're a little tired right now and a little beat up. That was a physical game yesterday. But they're thrilled with the opportunity that's in front of us. Obviously we all have great respect for Duke and their program. They have one of the premier elite programs in the country for a number of years, and we faced one of the other ones last year. We've been on this stage before. I don't think our guys will be in awe of the situation having experienced what we did a year ago playing Carolina in Greensboro. I know they're ready, and I know they're excited about it, and I know we'll give a great effort. Whether that'll be enough or not, I don't know. We'll look at the scoreboard when it's over. Q. Can you talk about coaching? I know the guys are ready for this opportunity, but to coach against a guy with as much history as Coach K, what does that mean to you? COACH McDERMOTT: I've coached against him before, so I'm part of his, I don't know, 1,500 wins or whatever the heck he has now. It seems like he's got a lot. But I coached against him when I was at Iowa State. It was not a pleasant experience. The most pleasant part of it was probably shaking his hand before the game. After that it wasn't that much fun. They put it on us pretty good. But obviously he's been great for college basketball, a great ambassador for basketball in general with his role with team USA and what he's done at the collegiate level. He's been a‑‑ there aren't many that have had the impact on college basketball that Coach K has. It's an honor to know him and certainly stand on the same court with him. Q. Can you just talk a little bit about recruiting and how that might change, A, going into the Big East, and B, if you win this game tomorrow, it's going to be a huge win on the national stage but certainly going into the Big East. How might that change your recruiting? Do you think you'll try to focus a little more on the New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia area a little bit more? COACH McDERMOTT: Well, all this has happened in a hurry with us. It was just earlier this week that we were invited to the league and accepted, and we'd heard the rumblings for a long time, but when you're in the middle of a season you don't have really an opportunity to sit down and research the way you should what a move to a new league‑‑ how is that going to change things. Because we played Cincinnati the first game, I got to watch almost every team we're going to play next year play on film, so I've got a little bit better idea than I would have of maybe some changes that we need to make. But the reality of it is we're built on skill. That's the way we recruit. Do we need to be a little bit bigger at some spots, a little bit more athletic? Perhaps, but you look at Wichita State's win over Pitt and our win over Cincinnati, we're not that far away. I think we're close. We just maybe have to tweak what we do and we will look to the East Coast a little bit more. It didn't really make sense where we play now and where most of our games are played to spend a lot of time recruiting on the East Coast. But that will change in the future. Q. Coach K pointed out Sulaimon's defense against Grant as possibly being a key part of the game. Grant didn't have a typical grant game against Cincinnati. What are you looking at as far as that match‑up? COACH McDERMOTT: Well, Grant is important to us every game, and I think as far as we are into the season, any coach that hasn't played us before, when you watch it on film, it's easy to recognize that he's important to what happens with our team. Grant tweaked his ankle early in that game yesterday and wasn't himself. Hopefully we can get him healthy by tomorrow and get him moving a little bit better than he did yesterday. But he still impacts the game in a positive way. You have to look beyond the statistics to appreciate Grant Gibbs' value to our basketball team. There's a lot of important match‑ups tomorrow. That's one of them. But I can name five of them that I think are pretty important. I think there's going to be some great match‑ups, and we're going to have to have some guys really step up and answer the bell tomorrow. Q. Talk more about those match‑ups. Looking down the roster, we're trying to figure out who they're going to put on Doug. That's got to be a nice opportunity or a nice change obviously from what Cincinnati threw out. COACH McDERMOTT: Well, when you find out what they're going to do with Doug I'd appreciate it if you let me know. I'd sleep a little better tonight if I knew what was going to happen. They've got some guys they can bring off the bench certainly, but I would venture to guess that Ryan Kelly will guard Doug. They're similar in a lot of ways with their ability to shoot the basketball and score in crafty ways off the dribble and around the basket. You know, Plumlee and Echenique is a great match‑up. Gregory loves to play against big, physical guys, and Gregory is playing the best basketball of his career the last two weeks. That's a great match‑up, as well. Cook and Austin will be a great match‑up at the point. Austin, although he didn't have great shooting numbers yesterday, I thought he handled their pressure, didn't turn it over a lot, got the ball to the right spots, and that's going to be important against Duke's pressure, as well. Q. What is it about Jahenns? Not much is talked about his assists but he's playing his best basketball at the right time. COACH McDERMOTT: You know, he played great in the conference final against Wichita; shot the ball well, had a big basket at the end to ice the game. But defensively he brings energy to us every game, and he's good at chasing guys off screens, making their catches difficult, and he will be tested tomorrow as much as he has at any time this year. Curry is on the move a lot, he uses screens, he reads situations very well, and generally he's going to make you pay for every mistake you make. Some guys aren't good enough to do that. You can get away with one every once in a while, and I don't think with Seth you can. Q. Any update on Will Artino's ankle? He was a big component to what happened with the Valley Tournament for you guys. COACH McDERMOTT: Will is fine. He could have played yesterday, but the reality of it was Doug and Gregory were playing great. Ethan Wragge goes in and makes his first four threes, so I didn't feel there was room for him yesterday, and he hadn't shown me in practice that he was close to 100 percent yet, and I didn't feel in the game yesterday that I felt could come down to the end, which proved to be true, that I could afford to spend a couple minutes evaluating whether or not he was healthy enough to play in the game. We'll get another look at him at practice this afternoon to see how much closer he is to 100 percent. With their front line we're probably going to need a little bit more depth tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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