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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: MILWAUKEEMarch 21, 2014Dana AltmanJason CallisteJohnathan LoydMILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN THE MODERATOR: Please welcome Oregon student-athletes, Jason Calliste and Johnathan Loyd. Questions for the student-athletes, please. Q. While we wait for these shy reporters, just your initial thoughts about facing Wisconsin, what you've seen on tape? JOHNATHAN LOYD: I know that they play really fundamentally sound basketball, lot of shooters, versatile big man inside, good four man, also versatile, athletic, and they like to slow the game down and try to bang you inside. So we're going to have to play strong and try to speed them up. JASON CALLISTE: I know they're a well-balanced team, good offensively and defensively, real athletic. So we have to pay attention to detail and I think we'll be okay. Q. Johnathan, have you been in a lot of tempo games like this where you expect it to be a battle of tempo? JOHNATHAN LOYD: Yeah. Since running our is our strength, a lot of teams trying to slow it down. We've going to have to try to speed them up. Q. Was yesterday's game a typical game for you guys? JOHNATHAN LOYD: Both us and BYU both like to run, so we tried to cut off their transition while keeping ours still going. I don't think it was a battle of tempo. We wanted to limit their transition. We both wanted to play fast. THE MODERATOR: Jason, from your experience, what do you need to do to get the pace you want when a team doesn't want that pace? JASON CALLISTE: We just got to stick to our principles. As long as we rebound and run, I think we'll be fine. Q. Johnathan, with you, I guess, you guys went through a similar stretch as Wisconsin, really good start and went through some bumpy times and then fought your way through it. What was the difference, what allowed you guys to get things straight after you lost a few there? JOHNATHAN LOYD: We just battled through adversity. We were -- we tried to pay attention to rebounding. We know our offense will come every day. We try to focus on defensive rebounding, and it paid off for us. Q. Have you played a team as well balanced as Wisconsin offensively and especially defensively that you can compare them to that helps you at this point, or are they so unique to themselves it's a whole new entity? JASON CALLISTE: We haven't faced anybody like this in the PAC-12. We'll be ready for them with practice today. Whatever the coach wants us to do, we'll do. We should be fine. THE MODERATOR: Both of you, maybe Johnathan and then Jason, as Mercer showed today, you can beat a team even if they're playing in their home state. Facing Wisconsin in Milwaukee, does that add to the challenge? JOHNATHAN LOYD: Definitely going to be a home game for them, away game for us. You know, going to try to keep the crowd out of it, get our fans rocking a little bit, and, you know, it's tourney time. Got to try to survive and advance. Can't worry about this. JASON CALLISTE: Got to keep the crowd. As long as we play the way we're capable of playing, keep the crowd out of it, we'll be all right. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for the student-athletes? Thank you very much. Good luck. Up next, Oregon coach, Dana Altman. Please welcome Oregon Coach, Dana Altman. Coach, maybe a few opening words about facing Wisconsin and the we'll take questions, please. COACH DANA ALTMAN: It will be a difficult challenge for us. Bo does a great job, got a great, talented team. Lot of guys who can score. Their ability to shoot it from three will spread our defense out a little bit more than we're comfortable with. It will be an uphill climb for us. I'm sure the atmosphere, you know, will not be neutral. So, it will make the challenge a little bit tougher. We'll have to be more focused. We won't be able to waste possessions offensively or defensively, but our guys are going to swing away and we're really excited about the opportunity. THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. People talk about this being a little different Wisconsin offensive team, but is it still a tempo battle when you play them? COACH DANA ALTMAN: You know, we've never played -- in the years that I've coached, we've never played against Wisconsin. I've had an opportunity to watch them over the years. It is maybe a little quicker paced team than what they've had. They spread the floor a little bit more. Other than that, you know, you don't change your identity. We've always pressed, we've always run, you know. Bo has always grinded it out, pick the heck out of you, put their hands all over you. That's just the way they play. It's a physical game. He recruits to that. We recruit to our style. We recruit quickness, and we've always run, we've always pressed. That's just the way we play. So, I don't think you change your style. But it will be two different styles tomorrow, and it will be interesting, you know, how they react to ours. It will be interesting to see how we react. You know, Arizona has kind of played that style this year. They're really hands-on, physical defense. So in our league, them and Stanford are probably the two that most resemble what we'll see tomorrow. Q. Coach, you're obviously familiar with the Milwaukee area a little bit. At Creighton you had Rodney Buford, Ben Walker, guys like that, and now Elgin Cook obviously yesterday. Can you talk about what he's meant to your team, what do you expect from him tomorrow and his performance yesterday a little bit? COACH DANA ALTMAN: Milwaukee has been a great area for my teams, for our teams. Rodney really got us started at Creighton, and Ben Walker, Larry House, three really good players from Milwaukee that were critical to a stretch there where we went to a lot of NCAA Tournaments. Elgin is in that mold. He's athletic. You know, had a great game yesterday. He's had a lot of big games for us this year. It's his first year in Division I, and so his consistency hasn't been what we would like it to be, what he would like it to be. But I think he's got tremendous upside because of his athleticism. He's got a toughness about him. He can take a physical shot and doesn't shy away from it at all. So, I think he's got a lot of upside, and I really look forward to working with him in the next two years because I think, as his offensive skills improve and gets more comfortable bringing it every day and little -- being a little more consistent, I think he's really got a lot of upside and I think he'll be a very good player for us. Q. When you guys had it going on offense, what kind of a challenge does that pose for a defense? What does it do to them? COACH DANA ALTMAN: I think we have the ability to spread a defense out, also. You know, if Jason and Joe, Dot, Johnny, DA, Mike Moser, we've got three-point shooters. When we're shooting it well, we can really get the floor spread, and that enables our guys to drive it at the basket, opens up some driving lanes. We're not a particularly good scoring team in the post. Those guys have finished some plays. We don't throw it in there a lot. So, driving the ball to the basket is important and, you know, it really makes it a lot easier to drive it if we're hitting shots and extending the defense. We were able -- you know, if somebody would told me going into the BYU game we were only get to two 3s and Mike Moser is only going to score seven points, I would have been concerned. I don't know where our points would have come from. That was the lowest we hit all season. So, we're going to have to shoot it against Wisconsin more. We're going to have to get some shots because they don't extend their defense. It's not like they're going to do it -- they want to stay packed in there. They want to protect the basket. They want to make us shoot over the top. So we're going to have to hit some of those shots to extend our defense a little bit. THE MODERATOR: Other questions, please. Coach, what about Kaminsky specifically, how much of a challenge is he inside? COACH DANA ALTMAN: He's a big matchup problem for everybody because he has ability to go outside, he can put it down on the floor and he does score very well around the basket. He's a unique challenge for someone 7-foot to be able to go outside and draw the defense out, puts the ball on the floor, and then his post moves inside are pretty good. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach, good luck. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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