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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: BUFFALOMarch 19, 2014David BrownSteve HawkinsShayne WhittingtonBUFFALO, NEW YORK THE MODERATOR: We are joined now by student‑athletes from Western Michigan University. David Brown and Shayne Whittington joining us. With that, we'll get started with questions for either Shayne or David. Q. David, there's been some talk of this being an upset. Few people seem to like your chances against Syracuse. Clark Kellogg has been active a few times on Twitter saying he wouldn't want to face you in the NCAA Tournament. Can you talk about your chances for an upset. DAVID BROWN: I like it. We have confidence in ourselves. Syracuse is a great ball club. We're not going in thinking we're going to win easily. They're a top‑25 team in the nation coached by an amazing coach. We've got to stick together as a family and play our best brand of basketball that we can possibly play. Q. Shayne, teams in the past that have tried to beat Syracuse have tried to do it with a three ball. I'm wondering how much are you guys going to try to get it into the post, and how important will it be for you to get it inside there? SHAYNE WHITTINGTON: Our game plan against Eastern Michigan, who runs a similar zone as Syracuse does, we try to put the ball inside. It doesn't matter whether or not the big has it or the guards try to penetrate and dish. I think we'll have a similar game plan to that. We don't quite know yet. I mean, we do have an idea. But we'll talk to our coaches later on today and see what they really want. Q. This is a heck of a place to have to play Syracuse as well. I realize it's close enough for you guys to get here as well, but can you talk about the associated challenges with that. SHAYNE WHITTINGTON: We were told it's going to be a road game. From what I've heard, the venue sold out really quick. I'm not sure how far away it is from Syracuse's campus, but I know it's not too far. We have huge fans that travel, but I know it's going to be very orange in the arena when we play on Thursday. Q. Is this the sort of team that you guys relish that opportunity? You've been to Buffalo this year, but it will be a little different. SHAYNE WHITTINGTON: It will be a little different. I think we play a little bit better when we know there's a little more adversity. We like that kind of environment. We thrive on that. So it will be fun. Q. David, you've overcome a couple of knee injuries in your career. At what point did you start to feel like you were completely back? Was it this year or the year before? DAVID BROWN: I would probably say the start of this year, the summertime when I was told I didn't have to play with my brace anymore. I felt I'm back to normal. Then just getting out there and playing some open gyms and doing some stuff without it, without the brace, it made me think that I'm possibly back to normal. It feels good to be back and playing the game that I love. It's even better being able to play in the NCAA Tournament. Q. Follow ‑up real quick. What did it feel like when you were finally able to play without the brace? DAVID BROWN: It was a blessing. It just felt like God gave me a second chance. You know, it's something that many people can't come back from, and many people are playing with their brace now. So having that chance to play without the brace and the doctors having faith in me and my coaches having faith in me, playing without the brace, it was truly a blessing and something that's touched me deep in my heart because many people can't really come back from two knee injuries like that. Q. Shayne, could you describe a little bit your style of play. David, could you maybe augment that with the description of Shayne's style of play. SHAYNE WHITTINGTON: Well, I guess I developed over the five years that I've been here. My style of play coming in as a freshman was a little bit of an outside kind of presence because I wasn't really thick enough or strong enough to bang in there with the post players. So I had to develop my outside game a little bit when I was younger. That kind of helped me out throughout this year. When I redshirted, I gained a little bit of muscle, and I was actually able to play in the post, and I've started to develop my post‑game as well. So I'd like to say that I am an inside‑out big. I can go inside. I can go outside. I can play in the post if I need to, and I can hit a few 15‑footers if I need to as well. DAVID BROWN: I think Shayne, I've been saying this all year long, is probably in my mind one of the top big men in the nation. Many people don't give us credit for being such a small school, mid‑major school, we don't get as much attention as the high major schools. I think Shayne's up there with the top big men in the nation. I think he can play with any big man. He has confidence in himself, and we have confidence in him. So he just needs to bring the confidence in himself to play with anybody because I think he's one of the most talented big men in the nation. Q. Both of you redshirted for different reasons in your career. Would you say that redshirting has helped make you guys the players that you are this year? DAVID BROWN: Yeah, a little bit. It gave me a chance to actually sit back and learn the system and see how other players play, and it actually helped me get stronger. I understand the game of basketball a lot clearer than I have before. When I first came here, I didn't really understand D‑I basketball and how quick the game was and how you had to play a certain way. When I redshirted, I sat back and was able to watch everything and how everything operates. So I would say, yeah, redshirting helps a lot. SHAYNE WHITTINGTON: I'd have to agree. Redshirting was probably one of the best decisions I've made in my career. It allowed me to put mass on. It allowed me to acclimate myself to the game and the speed. But honestly, I think it made me into the player I am today, being able to sit back. The transfers that we had, Matt Stainbrook, Flenard Whitfield, and guys that were really good in our program. I got to play with them every day. It just kind of made me better, being able to do that every day made me better. Q. Shayne, you and David came into the program together. As he's going through the injuries and the rehab, what was it like for you to watch him go through all that, and then over the course of the last year, to see him go through 11 points per game a year ago to your leading scorer this year? SHAYNE WHITTINGTON: I've said this a million times. It's really amazing to be able to watch your best friend go from being down in the dumps‑‑ I'm not saying he's down in the dumps, but down in the dumps with his knee injuries and being one of our best and the MVP of our conference tournament a few years later. It's an amazing feeling watching your best friend grow like that. Q. Shayne, could you talk about your development really from your sophomore year to this year because, obviously, with the playing time last year, you had a great year, and you took it up a notch. The next thing, you were talking about the transfers. Obviously, the big fella left for Xavier. Darius Paul left for Illinois. Talk about what Connar has meant to this club too. SHAYNE WHITTINGTON: I have said this before. Transfers really allowed me to thrive.  Coaches had faith in me and confidence in me to be the player that I had developed into, but Connar Tava makes everything on the court better. He's our leading assist man. You get the ball in his hands, and he'll make magic happen. Connar has been one of the biggest reasons why we've been successful this year. From a year ago, I don't know what he scored and what he assisted, but he didn't really get that much time because of Darius. Darius is a great player, but Connar makes things happen unlike Darius could at that time. So Connar's development and Connar's success this year has really helped us propel into the NCAA Tournament. Q. Could you also talk about playing for Hawk, and how he's helped your development. Same thing, David. SHAYNE WHITTINGTON: Coach Hawk really preaches on‑the‑court stuff and off‑the‑court stuff. He wants you to develop as a player and as a man. So being able to be in his program for five years, I'm really kind of squeezing everything, soaking up everything that he has to offer. It's developed me as a player and as a man. So Coach Hawk has really helped me out developing as a player and a man. DAVID BROWN: I'd have to agree. He bases our program off of Coach Wooden, and we all know how great of a coach Coach Wooden was. He takes a lot of things from Coach Wooden, and he incorporates it into his coaching style, and it works with us. We buy into what he has to say. We understand that he knows how to win because he has been to the NCAA Tournament before, and he knows how to put good coaches around you. With Coach Farmer, Coach Bates, and Coach Holland, they're terrific coaches. He understands what it takes to win, and he knows what he wants out of his players and his staff. Q. Shayne, if you look at some of the stats from Syracuse and their losses, you notice that they get outscored in the paint. How important is it to have an inside presence early in the game tomorrow? SHAYNE WHITTINGTON: I think in any game it's important to develop your inside game. We pride ourselves on our inside‑out game, getting the ball in the paint, regardless of whether it's big or guard driving the paint. So developing that and getting their mind on that early, maybe it will help them sink in a little bit so we can have a few three‑pointers. THE MODERATOR: Guys, best of luck tomorrow. We'll be back out here momentarily with Coach Hawk. We're joined now by head coach Steve Hawkins, Western Michigan University. Coach, welcome to Buffalo. You're not a stranger here. Glad to have you here to face Syracuse tomorrow. With that being said, Coach, why don't you make an opening statement for us. COACH HAWKINS: Sure. First of all, good to be here. We obviously have our hands full tomorrow. It's a very, very good Syracuse team that spent the majority of the year ranked number one in the nation and have some tremendous players and a hall of fame coach, and then we get them in Buffalo. So there are unique challenges that will go with that in the atmosphere of a road game as well, but we're excited about it. We're excited to be here and looking forward to the challenge. THE MODERATOR: With that, we'll open it up for questions. Q. Hawk, can you talk about being back to the NCAA Tournament? You made it in your first year. You probably thought, Oh, this is pretty easy. And now here you are ten years later. How gratifying is it to get back? COACH HAWKINS: The easy part, no, that never went through my mind. As a Division II coach for nine years before that, you have an appreciation for getting to postseason play no matter what it is. But the NCAA Tournament was a blast the first year. It's taken us ten years to get back, but we've played in every other tournament in between. A couple of times in the CIT and CBI, Final Four last year, and the NIT. So we've been in postseason play, but it's great to be back in this atmosphere. Obviously, everybody has the NCAA Tournament on their mind this time of year. It's great to be back here. Postseason play hasn't been foreign to us, and in a league like ours, it's very important that we recognize some of those other tournaments because we have some teams playing in those. I don't think we would be here today had it not been for being able to play last year in some postseason play. Q. I notice that, when Syracuse has been beat, especially this month, if you look at their stat sheet, they get outscored in the paint. How important is it, number one, to have a guy like Whittington? And talk about what Connar has meant to your team, especially since Darius transferred. COACH HAWKINS: The points in the paint can be misleading. One thing we've noticed on their little bit of a slide, they've turned the ball over a little bit more, or when they've missed shots, there's been a lot of long rebounds. I mean, Cooney hasn't shot the ball as well as of late. If you're going to miss a three‑point shot, generally speaking, a long shot produces a long rebound, and that has triggered some of these other teams' fast breaks, and that ends up being points in the paint. Not necessarily, Hey, we're going to grind it out against the two‑three zone and throw the ball inside and see how this goes. It would be very difficult for us to play that kind of game with the size difference that they have against us. Connar Tava is our point forward. He's kind of been our ace in the hole. He can rebound the ball. He brings it up himself. He led the team in assists from the forward spot. He's incredibly intelligent player, high basketball IQ, sees the floor well, understands the game plan. So he's been tremendous for us. As a matter of fact, the one game we've lost in this stretch at Toledo was in overtime, and Connar only played 14 minutes in that game due to foul trouble. If we'd have had him the whole time, I'm not saying we'd have won the game, but I would have liked our chances a little bit better. Q. Coach, do you think the MAC's gotten the right level of respect this year? You guys and maybe a team like Toledo too, the 36 RPI and a sixth seed in the NIT? COACH HAWKINS: No, I don't. Normally speaking, I wouldn't talk about something like that because everybody does a terrific job. I mean, there's committees and everything else that they're there to do these kinds of things. The one thing I was a little bit surprised about was the MAC's RPI this year has been higher than in past years. I've understood a lower seed in some other years. This year, with the conference RPI being 12, I thought that Toledo, in particular, deserved more credit than what they were receiving all year long. Their RPI was very high all year long. They played a good nonconference schedule. They ended up winning whatever it was, 26, 27 games, and they were never mentioned in terms of a potential at‑large team all the way through the year, and I never really understood that. Then to get the seed they got in the NIT, I was discouraged by that. Happy with the number of teams that got in total postseason play, but a little discouraged with the seeding that went on there. In terms of our seed, 13, 14, we knew we were going to be a little bit lower because of our nonconference RPI. This thing is all about matchups. You can get a 12 seed or an 11 seed and play against a team that would be a worst matchup for you than some of the teams that are getting a 13, 14, 15 seed that may be a better matchup for you. Q. Coach, can you just talk about the point guard matchup in this game and who's going to be defending who? COACH HAWKINS: We do so much switching, there will be different players on Tyler Ennis. He's a tremendous player, obviously. Their guards are a handful. Austin Richie will start out on him, but our transition defense is set up in a way where, when a shot goes up, David Brown could very easily end up taking him as he brings the ball up the floor. Then we'll get back to switching at the first opportunity we can. But there will be several people on him, and then the matchup for them to us doesn't really matter because they're in a zone. It's not like one certain player from Syracuse is going to be guarding Austin or Jared. Q. You guys are 26 in the nation at limiting opponents' three‑pointers. What allows you to be so successful at that? COACH HAWKINS: I didn't know that. You know, I think our guards do a pretty good job of applying some pressure. Our whole idea of defense doesn't have anything to do with steals and turnovers. We're always ranked towards the bottom of our league, if not dead last in our league, when it comes to creating turnovers. We try and protect the paint and make teams beat us over the top and hopefully take check threes. We try and be there on the catch. That's been our philosophy ever since I've gotten to Western. So it would probably be the answer is in there somewhere. Q. You already said that your game plan, obviously, nor has anybody pounded inside against Syracuse. Do you have enough firepower on the perimeter? And can you talk about Tucker's game of late? COACH HAWKINS: Well, we'll find out tomorrow afternoon in terms of your first question, whether or not we have enough firepower. I know the guys are capable of it. If Tucker shoots the ball the way he shot it in Cleveland, that certainly helps. Austin Richie and David Brown and Jared Klein are all capable shooters. The difference for them in this game, though, is the length of Syracuse. You know, when we look back at last year, I mean, Indiana had the firepower, too, but shooting over that length is a whole different situation.  They're not going to allow you to just play horse out there. That's what makes it difficult. Tucker's game has been developing all year long. He's a very confident kid, confident player, and he loves the big stage. Q. Coach, I'd just like to get some thoughts on your origins as a coach. You worked at UCLA for a while? Is? COACH HAWKINS: No. I worked for Coach Wooden at his camps. That's probably what you're referring to. It was called the head counselor, which is kind of an assistant director of his basketball camps. We have a pretty heavy UCLA influence and Coach Wooden influence on our staff between myself and the years that I was able to do that. You may have heard about the stories. I've been doing a lot of interviews. Part of my job was to pick up Coach in the morning and take him home in the afternoon. So spent a lot of time with Coach Wooden. And then Larry Farmer is one of my assistant coaches, who played for Coach Wooden. Winningest college player in the history of the game, went 89‑1, and former head coach at UCLA himself. Q. What influence did he have on you in your coaching and on your life? COACH HAWKINS: Immeasurable. Coach Wooden was my mentor. Our whole philosophy of our program is based on his definition of success. We have taken heavily from him. In my early years coaching at the Division II school at Quincy University, I used to talk to Coach all the time about not so much Xs and Os, but more about player management, situations like this, how to handle big stages, whatever it is. I've relied very heavy on Coach's words, and it keeps you grounded. The biggest influence he's had on me is it keeps you very, very grounded in terms of what it is that we do. I really consider myself an educator first. That comes from Coach Wooden. This is all fun, and the NCAA Tournament and everything we're going to go through tomorrow, and everything's all about win, win, win, win, win. Coach didn't feel that way, and that has had a huge influence on me. It's all about giving your best. I could go on and on about the things that Coach has meant to me, but it keeps me grounded, realizing no matter what happens here, I've still got to take out the trash on Thursday night. Q. Steve, could you talk about what it was like for you and what it meant to you to watch David Brown come back from the two knee injuries and get to the point where this year he's your leading scorer. COACH HAWKINS: It's a great question. It wasn't a situation where in the middle of it we were thinking, Gosh, I hope he can make it, I hope he can make it, because we were convinced he was not going to make it. On top of the ACLs, he actually missed the great part of his sophomore year with an ankle injury. If you take X‑rays of his ankle, the ankle looks like a road map. It's awful. So we thought it was going to be the ankle. As a matter of fact, when he tore his ACL, we thought he went down with another ankle injury. We found out later on it was the ACL. So the time away from basketball meant a lot to David because he was in a situation where the first couple of years, he was a challenge to coach. I tried to get him involved in the system, and he wanted to get out and gamble. There was an earlier question about defense. He wanted to get out and gamble and get a lot of steals. He'd miss, and now they'd be playing five‑on‑four. And we're trying, David, that's not the way we do it. When he was forced to sit out, he had a chance to sit and watch not only our system come into play, but also probably reflect on how much he missed the game. So when he came back last year, he missed the entire nonconference portion of the schedule. His first game was our first conference game last year, and then he went on to become sixth man of the year. What I noticed right away, he took the floor with a smile on his face. He was able to play basketball for the last year and a half with a smile on his face. You know, he realizes that this is a privilege, it's not a right. I think he had a real appreciation for college basketball. It's been an inspiration to all of us, though, to see that and for him to bring that. He'll say it every once in a while to the guys. Guys, there's nothing guaranteed here. We're fortunate to be able to practice today. Let's make a good one of it. Q. Hawk, how helpful is it to have played Eastern Michigan twice? How similar is the zone that Murphy uses to the one you'll see tomorrow? COACH HAWKINS: The zone is very similar. You know, we hope it's a help, but the zone is very similar. The players are different. Now, Murph has done a terrific job of bringing in‑‑ very similar to coach Boeheim. He recruits to that defense, recruits to that zone. They actually at times could be as big as Syracuse. The defensive player of the year in our league was Da'Shonte Riley, a transfer from Syracuse. And then on one wing, a transfer from Arkansas. So they could be very long. The difference with Syracuse is, when Eastern Michigan went to the bench, they're bringing in a 6'5" guy. When Syracuse goes to the bench, they bring in a 6'7" guy, then they'll bring in a 6'10" guy, then they'll bring in a guy that's 8‑foot tall. It seems like it's a never ending. It's just an onslaught of size and length and length and length and more length. Some of the spots you try to get to in the zone are similar, though. Q. Coach, you mentioned it briefly in your opening, the challenge of playing Syracuse here in Buffalo. Are you preparing your team like this is going to be a true road game? COACH HAWKINS: We have. I don't know about prepare. We've certainly talked about it. I don't know how you could prepare them for it, but we've talked about it. I mean, Syracuse, it's nationwide. Everybody knows about the Carrier Dome. You can watch it on TV. You certainly understand what their fan base is all about and then how well they travel. Basically, this will be a road game. I'm certainly concerned about that and how our guys are going to handle that. I'm probably more concerned about the NCAA Tournament atmosphere than I am that. We have played fairly well on the road. Our kids are pretty tough and the mindset is pretty tough. What's at stake in the NCAA Tournament and everything that's involved there, all of this, is what I'm more concerned about. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for your time. Best of luck tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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