|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S REGIONALS SEMIFINALS & FINALS: LOS ANGELESMarch 30, 2013Malcolm ArmsteadCleanthony EarlyCarl HallGregg MarshallLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA Wichita State – 70 THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome the west region champion Wichita State Shockers. Far right will be Cleanthony Early, Carl Hall, Malcolm Armstead and Coach Marshall. Coach, can you make an opening statement for us, and then questions for the student‑athletes? COACH MARSHALL: I just want to congratulate these young men to my right. Ohio State had a marvelous team and a great run, well‑coached, and they made a huge push in the middle of the second half towards the end and cut our 20‑point lead down to just a few points. That takes courage and toughness. I didn't know if we would score against them, but these guys found a way and made the plays when they had to down the stretch to give us a chance to go to Atlanta and compete for a National Championship. Q. When Cleanthony went down with the ankle sprain you're up by 20, all of a sudden the wall started collapsing. How did you guys hold it together until he got back and kind of ebbed the flow there? CARL HALL: We were just trying to stay positive and stay together. Malcolm just told everybody just hold their composure, and we'll get the W at the end. MALCOLM ARMSTEAD: Carl pretty much summed it up. Stay together, stay positive, and everything else‑‑ good teams are going to make runs. So it's just a matter of staying confident and just weathering the storm. Q. I'd like a couple of the players to chime in here. At the last two and a half minutes of the game, Cotton made a couple of very big plays. He made the three‑point shot after he got it down to three, and he got that offensive rebound that allowed you guys to get the clock under a minute. Can you describe how you felt about the impact of what he was doing for you at that stage of the game? CLEANTHONY EARLY: Well, we appreciate every single one of our teammates, including Tekele Cotton, and he made a couple of big plays which were crucial and it helped us get the win. CARL HALL: I kept telling Tekele to come rebound, because I knew their guards would rebound and down a lot, and he did it at the end. It helped us get the win. Q. Carl, can you just talk really quick and I apologize if you've been asked this about the elbow. You went back to the locker room, I think, and what was going on, and how were you feeling after that? CARL HALL: I felt good. I just got an elbow to the jaw. My jaw kind of locked up, so it was a big play. I was just glad I did it for the team, really nothing else to say. Q. Take us through the ankle injury, and how does it feel now? CLEANTHONY EARLY: It's still a little sore, but I'm going to go back and ice and elevate and do all the things I need to do to get it better again. Q. Did you land on it wrong? CLEANTHONY EARLY: I kind of was stepping back. I don't know if I stepped on someone's foot. The Kobe's are pretty low top, and I have a high ankle. I thought I had my ankles taped so I thought I'd be fine, but clearly not. Q. What is the mixture of celebration against what's ahead? What is the focus of what's ahead? CLEANTHONY EARLY: I just think it's a mixed emotion of feelings. We're excited. We're happy, and we're just ready to play. We've got to continue to stay focused, work hard and get better. Q. Carl and Cleanthony, what does Malcolm's leadership mean for this team in this game and everything that he's done this season? CARL HALL: I told him before the game he's our quarterback, and if he doesn't like things we're doing on the court, then just tell me, and Clea, what we need to do and how he wants to set ball screens and do certain things. He's very important to our team, and I don't know what we'd be if we didn't have him. So we're just glad to have Malcolm. CLEANTHONY EARLY:  I think Carl summed it up. He's our floor general. He sets the tone, and he gets things going. If he doesn't like something, he has to let us know, and if he thinks there is something we can work on and get better at. He sees everything. He's pretty much the quarterback. That's what he does. He runs the floor for us. Q. Ohio State's ability to turn teams over and score in transition, score off turnovers was a big thing in their 11‑game winning streak. How were you guys‑‑ Craft said you guys do an incredible job of taking care of the ball. How were you able to do that against a defense that had been as hot as theirs? MALCOLM ARMSTEAD: Keeping him on his heels. When he tried to get you on the sideline, he tried to corner you and speed you up a lot. So I knew if I was keeping him on his heels and attacking him, and my teammates were doing the same, then there wasn't going to be a problem. Q. Malcolm, take us through the defensive strategy on Craft. Looked like you wanted to keep him from driving and turn him into a shooter. Would that be right? MALCOLM ARMSTEAD: Yeah, we wanted to eliminate a lot of his drives. So we were limiting a lot of his jump shots, but still contesting shots at the same time. Q. Malcolm, and Cleanthony, usually when a team from a conference like yours makes it this deep into the tournament, it's because either they have a lottery pick playing for them, like a Stephen Curry, or they are guys who played together for three or four years. Why are you guys able to do it? Many of you are in your first or second year of starting. CLEANTHONY EARLY: I just feel like we've got that same potential as those guys regardless if they know who we are or not. We just tend to work hard. We know we have potential to be pro basketball players, and we're just trying to continue to work hard. MALCOLM ARMSTEAD: Things off the court that carry on to on the court. A brotherhood, we say brothers every day, one, two, three. It's just a matter of everybody staying together and believing in one another. I feel like that just carries over on to the court, off of the court. Q. Malcolm, do you get to keep that basketball? If you do, what will do you with it? MALCOLM ARMSTEAD: I think this goes to the team. This isn't just for me, man. This is about the team. Q. Could you explain the joy you're feeling now of making it to the Final Four? CLEANTHONY EARLY: It feels very good, and it feels even better that I can experience it with these guys with their struggles and they overcame what they have to go through in life. It feels very good. But we understand the fact that we've got to stay hungry and humble because we've got two more games left to really be excited about. CARL HALL: It feels good, but I feel like this team, we aren't done yet. So it's on to the next game. We celebrate tonight, but tomorrow we're back to work again, so we're just ready to go and make a run for this thing. COACH MARSHALL: We'll probably take tomorrow off. MALCOLM ARMSTEAD: It's a blessing, man. Pretty much sums it up. Everything we've gone through and everything we're doing, it's just a blessing paying off. Q. Malcolm and Carl, similar to what you did against La Salle. You guys started very strong, very early in this game. How important was that to build that early momentum in this game? MALCOLM ARMSTEAD: You know, I think I feel like it started inside. First play kind of blocked my shot. So I got a feel for the big to know that I've got to change my speeds when I get in there a lot. But us being able to establish ourselves throughout the game is a big key, because then you're able to get a feel for it and calm everybody down and get what you want. CARL HALL: I was just trying to set the tone on the defensive end and trying to help the guards as much as they can because I know they were guarding, some good guards. I was just trying to come over and block shots and stuff, and I was pretty successful with it tonight. Q. When you were playing or the team was playing really well in the first half, it looked like you motioned over the bench to get the benches to calm down and Coach to calm down. Do you remember that? What was going on at that point? MALCOLM ARMSTEAD: I don't remember that. It was probably in the heat of the moment. I don't remember that. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Marshall. Q. Getting back to that play that Cotton made, that guy was 6'2" and he outrebounded a guy that was 6'8". Did that sort of epitomize your team in that moment in this tournament? COACH MARSHALL: He did. I don't remember the exact score or time. But it was a huge athletic play by a really tough kid who makes those kind of plays. Fred got a steal at half court on a sloppy, outlet pass when we were having a hard time stopping them. Just to have the possession back with a couple of minutes to go, that was pretty good. Tekele is a warrior; he's a free safety. He's a strong safety, whatever you want to call it. He would come up and run support. He is a defensive ace. The big three that he made and then the great rebound to give us another possession with, I think under two minutes to go was huge. Q. Coach, congratulations. Two questions real quick. The first one would be during that run, you obviously watched, I would imagine, watched the game last night. Do you have any feelings of maybe you're watching a repeat of last night when they were staging that comeback at all? COACH MARSHALL: What game are you talking about? Q. The Michigan‑Kansas game? COACH MARSHALL: I watched a little bit of that. The biggest fear I had was I recalled my first win in the NCAA Tournament in '07. We were an 11 seed, which was by far the best that we had ever gotten at Winthrop. We got a 20‑point lead against Notre Dame, a team that was notoriously known for not pressing at all. We watched 15‑games and we never saw them press. Well, when you're down 20 in the NCAA Tournament, that's what you do. I didn't have my guys prepared for it, so it was on me. We had worked against pressure all year, but I think we thought the game was over. 12 minutes to go, approximately, up 20, and they started whittling the lead, whittling the lead. At this point, I'm 0‑6 as a coach in the NCAA Tournament. So I'm sitting there, the thought went through my mind, I could be the dumbest coach in America. And they end up taking the lead on a jump hook by Luke Harangody, a pretty good player. Now the lead is gone. They have the lead by one or two with 2 and change. And we came down and ran a pep play three straight times and got buckets. They were wide open. Guys executed beautifully, and we ended up winning by ten. So that's what I was thinking about. I was not thinking about Michigan or KU. I had no thoughts about that. I was thinking about the previous time. At least they never took the lead. But my guys made plays at the end which they had been able to do a great majority of the season. They just find a way. Q. Can you talk about the leadership that Malcolm has brought to the team, and specifically maybe the confidence? He comes here, and he pays his own way and he says he did this to go to the Final Four. Probably a lofty goal for a lot of your guys at that point, but obviously, he's helped make that happen? COACH MARSHALL: I'm not going to dispute him. I wish he would have let me know earlier on. I could have relaxed a little bit more than I do. If he had that in his back pocket the whole time, he could have really eased my anxiety and stress level. So, he just is dynamic. The way he runs a team, and the way he takes care of the basketball. We don't win at VCU early in the year. That was the first time I thought, wow, this team has a chance, because he handled their press, and we were able to score on the other end instead of kicking the ball to them and giving them lay‑ups, dunks, and open threes. He did it tonight. When he was out, we struggled against the press. Fred VanVleet is going to be really good. He was in there. Ron Baker, I thought did a good job against the press. Tekele Cotton did as well, other than when he didn't step in bounds quickly enough and they threw it back to him. In the end, we made enough plays. Q. They obviously made some big threes recently in their winning streak especially with Ross coming off the bench and the way Thomas can heat up. Did you, the way you packed your defense in and challenged them, did you think that was a risk at all, or was it most important to you to keep them out of the lane? COACH MARSHALL: Well, we didn't just let them shoot threes. We were trying to contest them. We were trying to‑‑ there were certain guys we were going under on ball screens, others that we were chasing over the top. Ross and Thomas were certainly guys that we were trying to chase over the top of screens. But I think our guys did a good job of contesting up top, forcing tough, contested jump shots. He did score 23 points, but it took him 20 shots to do it, and he had five turnovers. I thought Ross was really a key for them in their comeback. He was dynamic in the ability to make threes, put it on the floor. He got to the line ten times. I'm not sure he's done that all year. I don't know his stats. But he doesn't seem like the guy that's going to get to the line ten times.  But that's how they came back. They were able to drive it, get to the line. It's human nature, I guess, when you get up 20 to be a little more cautious and not be overly aggressive on the ball. But they were then using that to their advantage and getting to the hole. Q. Craft taking 12 shots, is that good for you? Did you want him to be in a position to shoot a lot? COACH MARSHALL: If he misses ten, it's really good. That's what he did. But he's a great player. I mean, that guy, he can play anywhere in the country and I hope he makes it to the NBA. He's really good. He and Malcolm is quite a battle. That is worth the price of admission, watching Aaron Craft and Malcolm Armstead going head‑to‑head. Q. Like I asked the players, they haven't played together for three or four years. They don't, obviously, have a NBA lottery pick in the group. What is there in this recipe to help us understand why this group was capable of doing what it's just done? COACH MARSHALL: First of all, they're very good people. They let us coach them. They have great character. I mean, there are times when it's not easy in our practice sessions. They allow us to coach them. The team comes first, and they bought into defense and rebounding. Defending and rebounding the way we just did and the way Ohio State does and a lot of teams in this tournament that are advancing is not fun. That takes hard work. They allow us to try to get them as a pretty good defensive unit. We held them to 31% and 20%. Maybe it's just them having a bad night. But I think our defense give gets some credit for that, that is number one. Number two, they're athletic. They're strong. They're physically and mentally tough. And they realize at some point, boy, this defense, we can win and shoot 37%, which we do. I don't know what it was when we beat VCU early in the year, but I keep referring to that. I'm pretty sure these guys right here would know. But we shot somewhere in the low 30s and won at VCU simply because we defended, rebounded, and didn't turn the ball over. Q. What was going through your mind when, first, Carl goes out, and then Cleanthony turns and then all of a sudden you've got to go small whether you want to or not? COACH MARSHALL: Right. We certainly did. I was a little concerned. I thought Carl took a shot to the chin. Now, I don't understand the rule, obviously, but I thought that was a flagrant one. They didn't call it. Then I was worried about a concussion, because the way he lurched back, and I thought he hit the back of his head on the floor; and the way he was kind of out of it when we went out there. Then Clea, I felt a little better about Clea, because it was like the little boy who cried wolf with injuries. I had seen that many times this season. I thought we'd have to call the ambulance or get out a stretcher or whatnot, and next thing I know he's back in practice. Yeah, I heard he was getting X‑rays, and next thing I know he's back in the game. He's an interesting bird. But it was great to get them both back in the game. Q. You didn't go to any of your big men. You just kept your guards out there. Did you feel like you needed to bring in the big men? COACH MARSHALL: But see, they had Ross and Thomas as their four and five; and I don't have a guy that can guard Thomas on the perimeter between Ehimen Orukpe, Jake White, and C.J. Lufile. Those three are not going to be able to guard him. He's an outside‑in player. Now if he just roamed down on the block. But chasing him along the three‑point line is not the strength of any of those three guys. Yeah, we countered their small lineup, with the small lineup ourselves, which did hurt us on the glass. Q. You're one who has delved into a little bit to the historical nature of Wichita State basketball. Have you been able to put that in any perspective what this means historically? COACH MARSHALL: Well, I understand they're shooting off fireworks in the city. So it's probably pretty special. It's been since '64. It's 49 years. It's big for Wichita State University. It's big for the city of Wichita. It's big for the Missouri Valley Conference. The last Final Four team was '79. Is that correct, Doug, '79? So I don't know who it was before then, but it's been a while. So to be able to go to the Final Four and represent all of us and try to win a championship. So, who knows? But it's great, and we've had a lot of people support us along the way in Wichita and at the University and in our community. They're the best fans in the world, and they deserve this. Q. I would agree that "Interesting Bird" is an apt description for Cleanthony. Could you give us a little longer description of why you say that? COACH MARSHALL: As far as just the injury or everything? Q. Just personality. COACH MARSHALL: Yeah, he's a fun person. He's got a great outlook on life. He's very, very positive. He's like a kid. He is like a kid in that he's so wide‑eyed and so eager; and I really believe he's going to be a huge success, hopefully for basketball first, and then the rest of his life. He's fun to be around. He's always chattering about something, whether you agree with him or not, you're going to hear it. He just has a joie de vivre that's really cool. His outlook is very much a positive, which a lot of these guys, they just continue to believe. They're a band of brothers. They talk about being brothers. They act like they're brothers, and they continually pick each other up. That's how we've been able to persevere and overcome so much adversity this season. Q. I have this feeling that you guys would reject the word Cinderella in regards to your run to this point? COACH MARSHALL: I don't think we're Cinderella at all. Cinderella's usually are done by this stage. If you get to this point, you can win the whole thing. You beat a No. 1 seed and a No. 2 seed, I think Cinderella just found one glass slipper. I don't think she found four. So that's just the way it is. 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
|