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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: ORLANDOMarch 20, 2014Tad BoyleJosh ScottXavier TaltonORLANDO, FLORIDA Pittsburgh – 77 TAD BOYLE: Well, we're obviously extremely disappointed with our performance today. Credit goes to Pittsburgh. I don't want to take anything away from them. They're a great team. They've had a great year. They're good players and a very good coach. But the Buffaloes for some reason or another did not play the way we're capable of playing. As a coach you take responsibility for that, which I do, but we're just very disappointed. I believe in all of our guys. These two guys sitting to my right, Josh and Xavier, are terrific young men with a high degree of character and they're going to bounce back. The two I feel worst for are Ben Mills and Beau Gamble, our two seniors who don't get a chance to play much. They come to practice every day and battle and they don't get a chance to come back, but these guys do. The Buffaloes are down right now but we're not out. We're disappointed and we're better than the way we played today, but that's water under the bridge. Q. Josh, obviously the start couldn't have gone much worse for you guys. Talk about how disappointing that was but then also the fact you couldn't get the ball inside and that contributed a lot to that. JOSH SCOTT: Honestly, I wouldn't say it has anything to do with getting the ball inside to me. Defensively we were breaking down. They were getting lay‑ups, and we weren't getting the stops, and so yeah, it was a nightmare start. Q. Josh, as you're trying to come back into that game, was the way Pittsburgh played defense on you, kind of doubling you a little bit harder and rotating back out, was that something that you had to struggle to overcome as the lead was growing and trying to get back into the game? JOSH SCOTT: You know, it's something I've had to work on all year, and they were a good defensive team and they rotated out of it. They covered a lot of space. So credit to them. Q. Xavier, can you talk about their defense? Seemed like every time there was a loose ball they were right on you guys, three, four guys swarming. How does their defense compare to like Arizona or what you've seen this year? XAVIER TALTON: I think they're pretty similar, actually. I know they were getting to the ball. They were getting 50/50 balls, as well. It just seemed like they wanted it more. Q. Josh, what did Talib present today that maybe you didn't see on film, and what did you see from him that made him so tough to guard today? JOSH SCOTT: You know, he was scoring a lot off of rotation help, and so one thing he showed me that I really didn't think he was going to do was he hit two jump shots or two, and when you're feeling it and you get a couple baskets, everything goes in, and I think that's what happened there. Q. Can you talk about what your feelings were as that game went on and the lead is getting to 30‑7? Did it feel helpless? XAVIER TALTON: I didn't really doubt us. I mean, you've got to believe in each other all the time, and I thought we could get back into it. We just had to get stops, and we didn't do that. JOSH SCOTT: You know, I agree with Xavier. We just didn't get stops. There's no helplessness on our team, we're just frustrated with ourselves for not doing what we came here to do. Q. Tad, I guess the same question for you. I saw you towards the end of the first half kind of shaking your head. Was it hard to come up with any answers today? TAD BOYLE: Yeah. You go in at halftime down 28, there's not a lot you can say to your guys positively. Other than the fact that we had to come out and compete, that's what‑‑ you shouldn't have to ask your guys to do that. I was proud of our guys in the second half. We never gave up. These guys just kept battling and battling. It just wasn't our day. You look at every statistical category you want to. When you have five assists and 17 turnovers it's hard. You talked about that start they got off to. A lot of that was our own undoing. It was turnovers on offense that led to easy baskets for them, and then they got the juices flowing and the jumpers started going. Young hit that three‑pointer, which he doesn't normally do. It was just one of those days for Pittsburgh where they had it going and we didn't. But you look at our defense, you look at our rebounding, we're down 15‑8 at halftime on the boards. They're shooting 62 percent and we've got zero assists and 10 turnovers. It's pretty simple. We've got to take care of the ball better and we've got to guard better and we've got to rebound better. We didn't do any of those things today. I don't know what Colorado team it was. Q. On that 13‑0 run to start the game, was Pittsburgh players, defenders, getting in lanes or doing anything different? TAD BOYLE: No, they're a great defensive team, and we knew that coming in. They're very well schooled. They're a great rebounding team. They got their hands on a lot of balls. I think the evidence to me was Pittsburgh is night and day better than us passing the basketball. They're really good passers, and we knew that coming in, as well. Coach Rohn did the scouting report. We knew off their ball‑screen defense we needed to have high hands, we needed to get some deflections. But they were getting the deflections that turned into steals, we weren't getting the deflections and we weren't rotating on the ball screens, and they're getting lay‑ups. I don't know how many they ended up with. I think they had 17 made lay‑ups at the last media time‑out. I mean, I don't know what‑‑ the defensive effort and focus and intensity we had today was pathetic. Q. Did it feel to you, like Xavier Talton, was one of the only guys that second half‑‑ you said everyone was battling ‑‑ but he was really trying to put his all out there. Have you seen enough from him to give him a solid look for next year? TAD BOYLE: Yeah, Xavier has been a starter for us for the last 10 games, so yeah, I mean, I believe in Xavier. He wasn't the only one battling, but again, he's got a high degree of character. I thought Xavier Johnson battled the second half, I thought Josh battled. We've got battlers on this team. Some of us didn't have our better days, but yeah, I believe in Xavier. He's started for us the last 10 games, so in terms of next year, he's got the opportunity. Q. Your players talked about how Pitt seems similar to Arizona. You've seen some teams are really good guard play. What did you see out of Robinson and Newkirk today that made your team struggle? TAD BOYLE: Yeah, like I said, I think Pittsburgh is a great passing team. They really move the ball. They come off those ball screens and they make the right decision and they get the ball moved side to side. They get you in rotations. We guard ball screens like Pitt guards ball screens. Arizona guards ball screens like Pitt. We all show hard and get over the top. The difference is they are very, very consistent in it, and offensively they do a great job of getting in rotations. Robinson is a good player. Zanna is a good player. They've got good players, there's no doubt about it. We thought maybe we'd get into their depth, and shoot, their depth came in and played well. It was Pittsburgh's day today, it wasn't our day. That's for sure. Q. What does the future look like especially for next year? TAD BOYLE: The future is bright for our program. We doesn't lose one guy. We got to this point because we've got good players. Our program is on the assent, it's not on the descent. We lose two seniors who weren't in the rotation, terrific young men. But if this can't motivate our guys going into the off season, for getting in the weight room, working on their game, whether it's passing, whether it's dribbling, whether it's shooting the ball, whether it's defense, rebounding, toughness, if this can't motivate them, I don't know what does. But I think it will. I know it will me to become a better coach. I've got to help them more offensively so we don't have five assists and 17 turnovers. We've got to keep‑‑ we've shown the defensive aptitude in the past. We didn't have it tonight for whatever reason. Q. You called a couple timeouts early in the run. What kind of adjustments were you trying to make that just didn't work? TAD BOYLE: I was trying to stem the tide, just get a good shot every time down, guys, and we were trying to go inside early and we knew they were going to double the post. They did double the post. We didn't handle the doubles out of the post. It wasn't just Josh, it was all of our guys. We handled it a couple times, I think Tre'Shaun got fouled going to the bucket. But Dustin Thomas handled it in the second half, finding an open man a couple of times. But that's something we have to work on as a program and as individual post players because going inside is a big part of what we do and getting to the free‑throw line is a big part of what we do. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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