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NIT POSTSEASON: SEMIFINALS & FINALApril 2, 2013Scott DrewPierre JacksonCory JeffersonNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK BAYLOR – 76 SCOTT DREW: Well, to start out with, I tweeted this earlier, but I think the NIT committee does a tremendous job in making this a great experience for the student‑athletes that come here, and I know our band and the cheerleaders and everybody, they cheered for us all year but they were really cheering loud tonight because they didn't want to leave New York. Anyway, we're excited to be here for two more days, excited that we have a chance to play in the championship game, and we know whomever we play it's going to be a great contest, but I'm just happy we get to work with these guys a few more days. Q. Pierre, you kind of took over down the stretch there, how tough were they to put away? PIERRE JACKSON: Really tough. You know, they've got some great players on their team, some great shooters. As you seen at the end, Carlino caught fire a little bit. But we stuck to the game plan and executed well. Q. Pierre, there was no separation during the whole game. You had a 7‑0 run by yourself I think maybe capped with a three‑pointer to go up 10. Talk about that stretch there and how big that three‑pointer was to give you a double‑digit lead. PIERRE JACKSON: I was kind of frustrated the way my shot was going. I wasn't making shots I usually make. My teammates and coaches were just keeping me positive. I just had to stay focused on every shot after that, and I was able to knock them down. Q. Cory, can you just talk about the inside play? You guys did a pretty good job against Davies, probably better than last time. What did you try to do against him? CORY JEFFERSON: We wanted to mainly limit his touches in the post. We know he's a great player, and he has‑‑ he's a multi‑move guy, and our main goal was just to limit his touches and make him go the ways that we wanted him to go. Q. Pierre, you talked about yesterday coming here to Madison Square Garden and playing on the same floor as all your idols. You had a huge game. How does this feel for you? PIERRE JACKSON: I mean, it feels good. We've got one more. If we win on Thursday, I'll probably be shaking because I'm too excited. But I mean, it's a good win for us. We knew we were capable. We've just got to finish the deal. Q. Cory, the last three games, four games of the NIT you've just been going off. Big stage, do you like it? CORY JEFFERSON: Definitely. Just don't want to lose. We lose a game, that's the end of our season, and that's just one of the main things that has been motivating me. Q. Pierre, can you talk about the inside‑outside balance y'all showed tonight and getting Isaiah going with Cory because Isaiah hadn't had a couple good games but getting both of those guys going? PIERRE JACKSON: Coach emphasized a lot getting it into the bigs and playing off of them. Isaiah is young, he gets down on himself a little bit, just tried to make the game easy for him, getting him wide open jump shots, not necessarily making the plays for him, just getting in the right spots for him to score. Q. Pierre, how big would it be to win an NIT championship for Baylor? PIERRE JACKSON: It would be really big. This tournament isn't as bad as people think. Some great teams in it. A lot of competition. None of the games are going to be easy. Last time Baylor was here we lost it, so we still can make history. Q. There was a lot of hard fouls and charges and guys were scrambling for the ball. Can you talk about the physicality of this game? PIERRE JACKSON: We knew it was going to be a physical game coming in. We played earlier this year, and it was physical, and just like we didn't want to lose, they didn't want to lose, either, so knowing that, both teams are going to play their hardest and do whatever they could to win. Q. Can you talk about what this NIT run has meant to your program this year? SCOTT DREW: Well, I think any time‑‑ there's only two happy teams at the end of the year, the team that wins the NCAA and the team that wins the NIT. No Big 12 team has won an NIT championship. At Baylor we've been runner‑up, we haven't won a championship. So we want to be one of those happy teams. Q. Scott, like you said, very little separation throughout the whole game, three, four points. How big was that to finally get on a run and create a little separation? SCOTT DREW: It was huge. Saved me a little hair until Carlino started hitting threes from half court. Pierre is like a time bomb, you just wait for him to go off. He had a nice spurt there and that gave us a cushion, as long as we made free throws and didn't screw up things too much, at least we could survive a bad turnover or something like that. BYU, got to really credit them because they really compete hard. They never give up. It's a team that's used to winning. I don't know how many times they've had 25‑plus win seasons in a row. I don't know what they finished this year, but it's a lot of tradition. We have a lot of respect for them and knew it was going to be a hard‑fought game just like the last two times we played them were. Q. They've talked about BYU being a different team since the December meeting. Did you see that? SCOTT DREW: I thought they were a much better team overall from the standpoint that Zylstra was really giving them a lift, the guys off the bench were giving them a lift. Haws has always been good all year long, Davies has been good, but I thought everybody else picked up their game, which made them, especially during this NIT, watching film on them, when everybody is shooting 45, 47 percent from three and then you've got Haws scoring 29 a game at 54 percent, it's hard because you've got to pick your poison, and we were blessed inside to make it tough on Davies. He's a great player but he didn't have 27 and 16 like he had the last time we played or whatever he had the last time, which was huge. Q. You guys had obviously played three NIT games at home. Talk about the way you performed the first time‑out in the NIT. SCOTT DREW: It's a big advantage playing at home and playing in front of your fans. We had a great group travel out here, and I thought last time we were in the championship it was against Penn State, and I think Joe Pa came with about 12 buses or 15 buses. I think it's a little more even this time. Q. Kind of gets lost in the shuffle, but Isaiah picks up his third foul, Taurean comes in, gets a couple of buckets. How big was that? SCOTT DREW: I thought Rico gave us great minutes in the first half. I thought T.P.'s tip‑in was great at the end, but those guys all year long, our first year college players have gotten better and better and better especially now that it's crunch time and close games. They're playing good basketball and they're giving us something rather than hurting us, and that's because of experience. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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