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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: MILWAUKEEMarch 19, 2014Mike BrennanDarius GardnerJesse ReedTony WroblickyMILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN THE MODERATOR: This morning, Darius Gardner, Jesse Reed, and Tony Wroblicky. With that, questions, please. Q. Darius, with a new coach this year, a new system coming in, how long did it take you guys to get comfortable with the transition? DARIUS GARDNER: It took us awhile. In the summertime he came in, a couple guys wasn't there already so we kind of started then, and it took us awhile to -- I would say Christmas break, over the Christmas break, and after the Christmas break, I think that's when we started to really jell as a team. Q. Tony, for you, I guess the preseason prediction was for you guys to finish ninth in the Patriot. What were your expectations going? TONY WROBLICKY: I thought we could have a good team. I didn't know, you know, how it would all work out. I knew we had talent that other people really didn't know about. You know, obviously, you know, I could see it personally. We finished maybe third, fourth, something like that. So we obviously done very well for yourselves. Q. Tony, beyond thinking that you guys had talent, why you think you would be better an a ninth place finish? TONY WROBLICKY: Well, I mean, you just -- you have to believe that you're going to be better than the next to last place. You have some hope in yourself. You know, I was believing in the system that Coach Brennan was implementing with us and, you know, it worked out for the best. Q. Tony, again, a guy like Frank Kaminsky can shoot inside and out. What's the key defending him and having faced a guy like him that you can draw experience on? TONY WROBLICKY: He's a great player. He's very talented. He can -- he can obviously shoot very well and a creator. It's all about, you know, taking away his open 3s and stopping his touches in the post. If I can do that, I think we have a chance to limit his scoring. Q. Tony, you're a senior. What's the atmosphere being around campus after the Boston game? TONY WROBLICKY: It's been great. The students were on spring break that Wednesday when we played the game, so when we came back on school Monday everyone was very excited. The community has shown us a lot of support. Lot of pats on the back. Everyone is very thrilled for our school and our team. Q. Jesse, your coach brought in a new system. Obviously a little different. How difficult was that transition and what has it given you? Has it been a part of the revival of this team? JESSE REED: Yeah, it was very difficult to learn at first, but once we started over the summer, kind of learned the basic movements and then working our way up through the preseason, learning everything, we finally started to get it together as a team, figuring it out, learning how to play with one another in the system. I think it worked out really well, and it was able to give us new life from a team that struggled the year before and kind of give us a new look. Found a way to get all of our talents together and work together on the court well. Q. Darius, everyone talks about the offense you guys run, but your defensive numbers are outstanding. What's the key behind the defense? DARIUS GARDNER: Just helping each other, team -- team defense is a big key for us. Then we have to limit the guys for one shot. Taking away a lot of 3s. We're going at defending the three-point line. If we can do that and limit, you know, the 3s and taking away an easy bucket, I think we have a chance. Q. Last years Florida knocked out Georgetown. That was a 15-2 matchup. Two of you guy's names, your know, you saw that obviously being fans of the game. What does that make you think going into tomorrow? DARIUS GARDNER: I think anyone is beatable at this time. March Madness is just one of those times where anything can happen, but, you know, we can't compare ourselves to Florida Gulf Coast. We have to stick to the things we do and do the things we've done all season. Hopefully we can be the next team that can make an upset tomorrow. So if we stick to what we've been doing, I think we have a great chance of winning tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: As you study tape, what specifically impresses you about Wisconsin? DARIUS GARDNER: I would say they've been a top team all season. They have great offensive team, but people don't really talk about their defensive team. I think they're very physical, but, you know, we have to do the things that we've been doing all season, and then we do those things, defend and rebound, and, you know, do the things that we can control, which is those two, and limit our turnovers, I think, you know, that will be the key for us. THE MODERATOR: Jesse, does it make it harder that they're playing in their home state? JESSE REED: I guess a little bit, but we've been used to playing on the road a lot all year, so we're just going to go into it like every other road game we went into. We know we're the underdog, backs against the wall. Go out and try to pull out a win. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Q. Tony, how tough is it to prepare for this Wisconsin offense? They seem to have six, seven guys that can put it in the basket? TONY WROBLICKY: It's very tough. The offense is very fluid, and it makes it that much more difficult that all five guys usually on the floor can shoot the three-ball fairly well. So, you know, it's a lot to guard and they run it very well. It's going to be a definite challenge to stop them. Q. This is sort of a repeat of the question that was asked. How did you guys feel about knowing that you're going into the NCAA Tournament, you're playing Wisconsin, but basically it's in their own backyard? They're an hour and a half from the Kohl Center where they play, the fan base tomorrow will be obviously Wisconsin more so than American. How do you feel about that? DARIUS GARDNER: We have to tune it out, do the things we've been doing, playing together, you know, just focus on what we have to do. I'm sure it's going to be American fans there, too. It's not just going to be -- it's going to be our way, definitely Wisconsin fans. But, you know, in Boston we didn't think we would have that many fans. They showed up and supported us. We have our families, friends, and everybody around the country watching us. We know we have that and we have our team, everybody in that locker room and everybody came on the trip with us and our prep band and all the fans, that's a big key for us, getting that excitement for us and making sure that we have people there that supporting us, too. Q. You guys won at BU. I'm curious if an experience like that will carry over here, where you were not the home team, they were the home team, and it's probably going to be that way tomorrow. TONY WROBLICKY: Yeah, we hope that it does. We've played in tough environments all year. Playing BU on the road I think is a big step forward in our confidence on the road, and that was huge game that we played very well. So, hopefully those carry over. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for the student-athletes? Q. Jesse, going back to the defensive line of questioning here. As well as you guys have been playing, especially lately on that and the floor, have you noticed that opponents are getting a sense of frustration, knowing they're going only to have X number of possessions. Have they started to rush, anything along those lines? JESSE REED: Yeah. I'd say some opponents have gotten a little frustrated not being able to find the openings that we're normally used to. Wisconsin, they're a lot better team than what we've been playing in recent games. So hopefully we're able to cause that same frustration for them and stick to the tangibles we've been with all year. THE MODERATOR: Anything else? All right, Darius, Jesse, Tony. Thank you very much. American student-athletes. We'll have the Coach, Mike Brennan here momentarily. Coach, welcome to Milwaukee. Congratulations on the season. Maybe an opening remark or two before we open up for questions. COACH MIKE BRENNAN: Thank you. We're excited to be here, proud of what our guys were able to accomplish this year and, you know, it's a great group of guys, and we're looking forward to representing American United States and the Patriot League the best we can and come out and compete tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Mike, you've been in this role as an assistant coach. What's the difference being the head coach of a team in the NCAA Tournament? COACH MIKE BRENNAN: Well, being up here for one. But actually I'm lucky, I have good assistants. You know, I've had great help all year long. Obviously there's lot more decision-making, you're the final, sort of ultimate decision-maker as the head coach. I've been lucky to coach such a great group of players all year long and, you know, I have a great staff with me, so it's been a team effort. I'm lucky to have -- be surrounded by the people that I am. Q. Two seed, 15th seed, you're basically playing in Wisconsin's backyard, their home court. How have you prepared your team for this moment to go out and perform to the best of their ability? COACH MIKE BRENNAN: We've been preparing since we got here in the spring. The guys worked really hard. We knew we were going to play one of the best teams in the country. We knew it would be a difficult environment. We played in difficult environments all year long. I think the guys of that been pretty even keeled with their emotions. We've kept it simple and so they've competed. We won the championship at BU. It wasn't quite the environment that we'll probably see tomorrow, but at least it gives them a little taste of what to expect. Q. Coach, I know you had the great start in Patriot League play, but was there a stretch maybe in that run or at any other point where you started to feel like this team was getting it and could be a lot better than a lot of folks seemed to believe? COACH MIKE BRENNAN: Lot of close games in that run. You know, our league is very good from top to bottom. So, you know, the 10-0 record was a little deceiving because they were all hard fought games. And the league, every team we played it was a two-point win or three-point win. So, you know, the league was challenging. But our guys have embraced everything that we've asked of them from the very first day that we got here. And I told them early on we weren't going to necessarily, you know, judge our progress on wins and losses at the beginning of the year, you know, as long as we're improving, getting better every day in practice and a lot of the early losses were close games, but we were competing and we were getting better. So, you know it was a gradual process. It wasn't necessarily one moment. Q. You talked about your situation here, the underdog playing Wisconsin. Do you want your guys to feel like underdogs or do you want them to take the court with a different attitude tomorrow? COACH MIKE BRENNAN: I just want them to compete. I know they will. We've worked hard all year to get to this point. You know, they've put in a great effort on a daily basis, and we just take it step by step and day by day. So, we're just going to continue to do what we've been doing, be prepared for the -- we've prepared for the last couple days knowing we're playing Wisconsin. We've got one more practice right after we're done here, and I'm confident that our guys will come out and compete. Q. Mike, what are your impressions of Bo Ryan and can you just fathom what it's like to have somebody get 700 wins in a career? COACH MIKE BRENNAN: No, it's incredible. We have so much respect for Coach Ryan and his program and everything he's done, everywhere he's been. His teams have always been one of the most disciplined teams on the country on both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively, and they compete. It's going to be -- we knew it was going to be a very difficult game on both ends of the court. So, we're looking forward to hopefully -- we know what we got to do, play almost a near perfect game and do so many things right just to be in the game. So, we know it's a big challenge, but like I said, our guys have worked really hard to be here. So, we're looking forward to competing. Q. What's going to be the biggest challenge facing a team with so much balance offensively? COACH MIKE BRENNAN: That's probably the biggest challenge right there. I mean, you can't key on one guy.  They're all very good offensive players. They can all sort of score on their own, and then they work obviously very well together, you know, collectively as a group to get a good shot. So, it's going to take a team effort defensively and they're very physical. They're scoring a ton of points this year, they're getting out in transition. It's more than just the offense that everyone talks about, the swing offense. They're multifaceted and do a lot of things well. Q. I don't know how American played before you got there. How radical were the changes you made on offense and defense and how did that transition go? COACH MIKE BRENNAN: I think it's pretty different for a lot of guys, probably especially for Tony Wroblicky, our senior. Probably asking him to do a lot of things that he wasn't necessarily asked to do before. But the guys, you know, as soon as we got here, everything that we were asking of them they embraced. They were the most coachable group I've been around. We couldn't have couldn't have been here if it wasn't for that. We have awesome leadership from John Schoof, Peewee Gardner, and Tony from the very first day and the rest of the group just followed suit. They've picked things up. I give Tony a lot of credit. It takes time to sort of pick up the things that we're asking guys to do. It takes more than a year or two, and he's done it, you know, very quickly. I give him a ton of credit. THE MODERATOR: How many game tapes did you study of the Badgers? COACH MIKE BRENNAN: You can get tapes pretty easily these days. We're watching as much as we can. THE MODERATOR: Just the most recent? COACH MIKE BRENNAN: You go as far back as you can and try and -- things what you need to do, what you need to see, and obviously all the assistants are watching tapes. So we've watched a ton of Wisconsin. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Yes. Q. Can you flip around what you went through with the Florida Gulf Coast upset last year and use it as an inspiration for these guys? COACH MIKE BRENNAN: I'm not much on the bulletin-board-type stuff or anything like that. This is a different group and different team. They had nothing to do with that game or experience. We're just going to rely on experiences that we've had, you know, this year in practice and in games because that's what's probably the most vivid in their minds. Q. There have been three 15-2 upsets the last couple years. Does that indicate anything to you in a big picture how the tournament may be changing? COACH MIKE BRENNAN:  It's more competitive. There are no bad teams, you know, in this tournament, and I guess there's still sort of descriptions of high major and mid major, but I think those lines are being blurred a lot more. Lot of good players out there, lot of great coaches. So I think, you know, there's -- there are no bad teams. When you look at the scores in everybody's leagues, the leagues everywhere just so competitive all year long. THE MODERATOR: Anything else? Coach, thank you, good luck. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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