|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2014Branden FrazierTom PecoraBROOKLYN, NEW YORK DAYTON – 87 COACH PECORA: Well, I think we started the game like we had run out of gas. We were tired from last night and once we convinced them that that wasn't the case, in the second half, we played with great energy and we made some of the plays we are capable of making. I think they just wore us down. I know at one point we got it to five, the three‑pointer obviously is a tremendous weapon, and we went on a little bit of run making those and that was key for us, but gosh, they shot the heck out of it. They really made some great shots and they are a heck of a basketball team. Archie has done a great job with them. They have gotten better as the year's progressed, that's for sure. So I think Branden was exhausted, too. He's playing ‑‑ we've allowed him a lot of minutes and we just don't have the depth against an opponent like that to go deep into our bench right yet, but that will come as we get into future years. I wasn't satisfied with just one win here. I don't think they were. I know Branden is not. But I think in one sense it's poetic that he ends his career here in Barclays Center in Brooklyn, a kid from down the block. I think that's a great story, so write about that. Q. Ending your career in Brooklyn, just talk about the 30‑point performance and what it's like to go out in your hometown? BRANDEN FRAZIER: It was good to go‑‑ I mean, I didn't want to go out but it was good to be home, growing up down the block. I just felt comfortable playing and had a lot of friends and family here. So, I mean, what you said with the numbers, the 30 points, it's good that I had 30 points, going out in your career, but to have a loss; I'd rather take one point for a win. I mean, it's bittersweet. Q. With a few seconds left and the hugs, how much did that mean coming off the court like that, because the Fordham family loves you especially? BRANDEN FRAZIER:  It means a lot. I know Coach wanted to do that, he said in the huddle before, and I have a group of guys on the team that love each other. Those are like my brothers. So to go out, to have everyone stand up for me and clapping, even people who were not Fordham fans, meant a lot to me, just to go down and hug every single person that I went to battle within every game is special. Q. To be down by 19 at the half and come and fight back as a senior, what were you telling the team, and what does that mean, how much fight is there in the team this year? BRANDEN FRAZIER: Just have to keep your head up at all times. It's there's going to be runs in the game, so I knew coming out at halftime we would make a run, and it was for us to put the foot on the gas and they was going to throw a couple purges back at us and that's what they did‑‑ we couldn't go down and get a stop. You could see the effort on the team that we have, and over the next couple years, you'll see the fight and the fight is going to begin now. Q. Coach talked about moving forward and now you've got like John and other guys like that. What do you leave with this team as they move forward and you finish your career? BRANDEN FRAZIER: I guess my competitive spirit. Just going out there and just leaving it all out on the floor. Try to be a good leader to them, as well. I know John is going to be good for Coach next year and also the guys coming in, supposed to be a good recruiting class. They have a lot of young guys and I know they are going to fight, Bryan Smith and Mandell is the next leaders for our team, hopefully they get them together. Q. Are you looking forward to the draft? BRANDEN FRAZIER: Yeah, I'm looking forward to the draft I think. Q. I know it's hard to the minutes right after but is it possible for you to sum up what he means to you both personally and professionally and what he's meant to this program? COACH PECORA: Yeah, you know, I mean, you're all familiar with the story that he was coming with us at Hofstra and when I decided to make a move and come to Fordham, it was one of the first phone calls I got. I was getting a lot of phone calls and not taking them, but his name came up and I picked it up. And before I could say anything, Branden said, "Coach I'm with you if you'll have me." You know, there was a lot of people that didn't think he was an Atlantic 10 level player. There was a lot of people that he should say stay and just play in CAA. I believed in him. He was ‑‑ Bobby Leckie, long‑time New York City coach from Bishop Loughlin who at the time was working as an assistant said to me‑‑ "Tom, he's going to score a thousand points wherever he goes," because he's going to get bigger and stronger, and he did that; he's going to compete, and he's done that; and we moved him from a wing to a point and he's done that. He means a lot. He gave us the credibility to go out and get Bryan Smith and Jon Severe and get involved with other good players. We are recruiting good point guards now and we showed them his stats and his growth as a player over his four‑year career with us, and you know, we showed him the same stats for some of the great players that we've coached over the years, and some that have gone on to the NBA and grown as players. So he's grown as a player, he's grown as a person, he's graduating, he's a fine student, and you can just see the way people react to him here and everywhere. He's just a wonderful kid. I have an 11‑year‑old son, and if he can be like him, I'd be blessed. Q. Give us a little bit of a scouting report, you've played both teams, why is St. Joe's giving Dayton some trouble so far this year? COACH PECORA: I don't know. I haven't watched it that closely to be quite honest. You know, so many nights it comes down to match‑ups. I think, you know‑‑ I think Dayton was a much different team‑‑ I'm not even sure when they played. I know they played last a couple weeks ago. Last night I watched the St.Louis game and the Richmond game Dayton played and then our first game with them, so I didn't see that. But so often it just comes down to matchups and where you are, what part of the year, where players are. They are 18‑ to 22‑year‑old kids; so where are their minds at that point in the season. Q. You mentioned trying to convince them that they were not tired at halftime. What was that chat like at halftime? COACH PECORA: I can't‑‑ I could‑‑ well, I wasn't over the top. I didn't even yell to be quite honest. I just said, look, I told them at pregame this morning, I said, look, we've got it all set up the LIU, after we win today, we're going for ice baths. Everyone is going to jump in the ice baths at the training room in LIU, so you can get those fresh minds, fresh legs, is the term I use all the time with them. Like I said, we didn't practice long on Monday or Tuesday; we practiced hard but for about an hour, hour and 15 minutes. I really think it was just mind over matter and they came out and hit us hard early on on those early shots, some that were contested and I think that put us back on our heels. But I really just talked to them about having pride. It's an old Bill Walsh term, the score takes care of itself. If you go out and you give the kind of effort you're capable of, the score will take care of itself.  Maybe we'll get back in this game and maybe we'll steal it. Q. You've played a lot of close games this year, and you're going to review this year, but how excited are you for next year, because there's a lot of good things happening with this program moving forward. COACH PECORA: No doubt about that. I'm very excited. We're going to hit the ground running. I am going to have dinner tonight with my family, and tomorrow I'm on the recruiting trail and we'll be all over the country doing what we have to do that way. The young man we have signed early is an exceptional player, he's a very good player. I'm always excited. I think when you're not excited about coaching college basketball, you're a fool. I mean, there's real jobs out there. And I'm blessed; young guys come in and they say, they want to coach and I say, guys, don't just see game night. You have to see, you know, 70‑, 80‑hour weeks; you have to see the traveling; you have to see driving at night; coming home, not seeing your family. But with all of that said, for me, to work at a university like Fordham, in my hometown, it's like I won the lottery twice. I've been a head coach now for 15 years or 14 years, whatever it is, and to do it at two schools in the town I grew up in, and now to do it at Fordham, it's so well thought of at every level, I'm blessed and I'm lucky. Q. Following up on that a little bit, considering how hard you guys played down the stretch of the season in games that got a way a possession here, a possession there, and the way they didn't quit obviously in this game, is there a tangible value to that in the off‑season when you're trying to build and you're trying to get this program going in the direction you want? COACH PECORA: Yeah, I mean, you know, people, especially friends and people you run into, they always say, what's the most important skill a basketball player can have: Is it shooting the ball, is it rebounding, defending, passing? It's competing. It's having the ability to compete and that is a skill, and it's a skill we really worked on with the number of guys on this team to try to elevate their competitive nature, their ability to play hard every possession. So yeah, I truly believe it's something we can build off of. Early in the year, I was saying, we call our mistakes experience, because they have gone through the gauntlet of the A10 now. This is such a good league. This league has gotten better every year I've been in it at Fordham and next year‑‑ I don't think you can ever underestimate how good this league is going to be, and we have to build off our ability to do that and how to play. That's one of the reasons why teams in this conference can go into the postseason and have great runs, because they play through the gauntlet. It's not a league where, you know, it's three or four cupcakes. The teams at the bop of the league are taking the teams at the top of the league to last possessions, to overtime games. So it's a heck of a basketball league. And I think that if you don't compete‑‑ good leagues eat their young, and we are still young, but next year we won't be quite as young. And we're moving in the direction of becoming a good program in this league and that's what our goal is when we walked on campus four years ago. Q. That might be the best quote of the tournament so far‑‑ COACH PECORA: Which one? Q. Good leagues eat their young. COACH PECORA: If you're an old ‑‑ if you have an old team, it's a good quote. Thank you all very much. We appreciate everything. 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
|