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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: SAN DIEGOMarch 22, 2014Rondae Hollis-JeffersonNick JohnsonSean MillerGabe YorkSAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: First up we have the Arizona student athletes, Rondae Hollis‑Jefferson, Nick Johnson and Gabe York. Q. Nick, you've talked in the past about how family prepares you. Can you say specifically to things when you got there that maybe you didn't expect and that was harder than you might have even thought? NICK JOHNSON: I would say being away from your family. I was 16 when I went there. So that was definitely a big adjustment for me, just being away from my family. Living with my teammates was something different, but I mean, all in all I think, like I said before, it benefited me as a man, as a person, growing up, and then especially basketball, just playing with elite guys like I am now, just a few years early. Q. Rondae Hollis‑Jefferson, I'm curious, when you took your recruiting trip to Arizona you had a chance to look at the practice facility how much of that was an appeal to Arizona just the fact that they had a facility like that for the basketball program? RONDAE HOLLIS‑JEFFERSON: It was pretty great to see that practice facility to know 24 hours you can go in there and work out whenever you want. I thought that was a big step for me and I knew if I wanted to be great I knew I had to spend countless hours in there so I thought that was pretty big. Q. Another question, how have things changed at all for you, if at all? With Brandon Ashley's injury and now that you're playing more minutes? RONDAE HOLLIS‑JEFFERSON: I would say I had to step up more. Being a freshman is tough, you know, sometimes people think you can't do certain things, but I know I play hard. I gave it my all when I'm out there and that's what our coach wants, to go 110% at all times and that's what I do for the most part. Q. Nick, is it any different playing in this tournament as a No. 1 seed with people looking for you guys as opposed to last year, flying under the radar or is it the same deal? NICK JOHNSON: It's a little different than last year as far as being targeted and stuff like that, we've been dealing with that all year. Seems like every single team gives us their best shot. You can see that same team probably a week later and they're not playing nearly as hard and stuff like that. Pretty much all year has. Prepared us as a team for what year going to get here. So we've dealt with it pretty good all year, just gotta continue doing that. Q. Nick, when he went down, Brandon, you knew him obviously as well as anyone. How did you think it would affect him and your role and how did you think it would affect the team? NICK JOHNSON: Losing a player of his caliber was huge for our team and it showed for a month after. As far as him dealing with it, I don't think anybody thought‑‑ anybody on the team thought that he would deal with it as good as he is. I mean, he's been positive all throughout and although he does miss playing and is sad about not being able to continue with us, but he's had a great attitude and, I mean, I think right now we're just starting to‑‑ these last few weeks we're just starting to get comfortable without playing with him, Rondae Hollis‑Jefferson stepping up and having a bigger role and Aaron going to his natural position at the 4 so I think we're hitting our peak as far as offensively and defensively without him. Q. Gabe, with the role you have played for this team this year being the 3‑point shooter, did you ever watch other shooters, Pangos from Gonzaga and like the way they play and have respect for those types of players? GABE YORK: I have respect for a lot of people. I don't like to consider myself just a shooter but that's what this team needs more than anything right now so I took that role and ran with it, just playing my part and knowing when to shoot the ball and when to give a good pass or something like that. I watch a lot of basketball so I see a lot of college basketball players who shoot the ball really well. I don't think I'm a great, great three‑point shooter, I think that's the thing I do best for what this team needs now. NICK JOHNSON: I think he's a great 3‑point shooter. RONDAE HOLLIS‑JEFFERSON: Prolific from the 3‑point line. Q. I don't know how much you saw of the Gonzaga game but what jumps out at you as far as their strengths? NICK JOHNSON: I've seen them a lot over this year and I played them my freshman year so some of the same people are on the team. They're just well disciplined. They run their stuff, obviously can shoot the ball and with Dower and Przemek Karnowski, he's a big‑‑ them two are big down. They've been playing really well as of late. Obviously you have Gary Bell and Kevin Pangos shooting the ball and David Stockton running the point, so very well disciplined, they play hard and together and it's definitely going to be a tough game for us. Q. Follow up with their height, you talked about Sam and Przemek, how does that change how you play them offensively, their height had great advantages yesterday. GABE YORK: I don't think our plan changes, I think we're going to play Arizona basketball. The two bigs are great basketball players but we're going to have Nick shooting the ball well and Rondae Hollis‑Jefferson getting to the cup. We're not selfish, we're going to pass the ball if one of them comes up it's going to be to Kaleb for a dunk so we're going to play Arizona basketball. Q. Nick, you mentioned their big guy with Kaleb it seems like the last month of the season he's taken his game up a notch. What have you seen from him and how much fun will it be to see him battle that guy tomorrow? NICK JOHNSON: Kaleb has been stepping his game up and the part of the reason is because he's hitting his 15‑footer. He's able to step way from the basketball and hit that shot so it opens up a postgame for him, they can't double down as much when we're shooting the ball a little bit better. As far as that match‑up, I think it's going to be a good one, two 7‑footers, bangin' the post down low. I'm just hoping our big can come out on top. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for the student athletes? Thank you. We are joined by Coach Sean Miller. Comments? COACH MILLER: We're excited to play a very good Gonzaga team tomorrow. You watch those guys play, whether it be live or on film. I think any coach would say we're getting ready to play as well coached as balanced of an attack as you can face offensively. What they're able to do with their guards, their perimeter players and then have two really dynamic low‑post players who are smart, very difficult to defend them and it's going to test our defense. Then when we have the ball they're really solid. It's going to be a great test, I think it's going to be a terrific game and we're going to have to certainly be at our best to be able to beat an excellent team. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Miller. Q. Coach, you have been on both sides in terms of coaching at the "mid major" and where you are now. What are the differences in terms of resources when you're at a BCS school that has football and all the resources that come with that? COACH MILLER: You know, Myron, I would say very little. I think sometimes you almost categorize college football and college basketball as if it's the same when we all know it's different. Places like Xavier and Gonzaga they're not mid‑major, Dayton is not‑‑ the way they travel, the talent level they have on their team, their coaches. Those universities put all eggs in that basket to be as good as they possibly can be. This tournament each year tells us of the parity in our game, and I think it started maybe a decade or two ago with a place like Gonzaga, like Dayton, like Xavier, Creighton and when you look at them there isn't much of a difference between them and anybody who is playing in the tournament. Q. Sean, when you get a kid like Nick or Brandon from finally and obviously not the traditional high school setting, is it easy to say they're more prepared do you find differences in a kid like that as compared to a kid who might not come from a program like that? COACH MILLER: Yes, sometimes when one of our incoming players has lived away from home already and had to deal with the adversity of not being in their house, I think the change when they get to Arizona isn't as big. In the case of Findlay Prep with Brandon Ashley who played there, Nick Johnson played there, Craig Victor will be here next year and those two guys, they're playing national scheduled, their traveling, their away from home their every day environment and practice is much different than high school because the talent level is really high like it's going to be in college so my experience I would say yes. Q. Sean, what have been some of the keys in Kaleb's development this season and how much fun will that match‑up be tomorrow with him when he goes up against another natural 7‑footer? COACH MILLER: I mean, it will be fun for the fans and people watching it, it won't be fun for the coaches, I don't think. But Kaleb is‑‑ he's improved as much in a two‑year period as any player that we've had. He came with great physical tools, had good coaching prior to coming to Arizona but Kaleb started playing basketball late in his life. He's not somebody who was in the gym as a second, third and fourth grader he started at the end of middle school. So his up side is really big and yet some of the things he didn't know at the beginning can surprise you. But the experience he gained last year coupled with an incredible work ethic have allowed him to be a rock‑solid player. If you look at his statistics, he's 58% from the field and he averages 10 a game, averages 6 rebounds a game and he's an excellent defender. He's become a smarter player as much as anything and I think one of the reasons our defense has been good is he's in many ways the anchor of it with how smart he is, his size and the way he can move. And you're right tomorrow he will be tested in a big, big way. Q. Sean, how would you describe the pace of your job and that of your peers? COACH MILLER: It's like warp speed. It seems like it's never ending. You know, the length of the season, just from the games has never been longer, especially if you're able to advance in this tournament, which we all want to do. Then the recruiting, you know, the months of Apriland Julyand Septemberyou're gone a lot. Sometimes I compare our schedule to the college football coaches and it's not easy to see who is smarter of the two. Them versus us. They're much smarter. Their season isn't nearly as long and their recruiting is shorter and seems to be more organized but that's what makes college basketball so special, it's kind of that kind, that never‑ending time period where you're building your team, developing your team and coaching in games and it really has become a year‑round sport. Q. When Ashley went down, obviously I'm assuming everyone had to step forward, specifically to Nick what did you need him to do more, what did he give you more of when someone like that goes down? COACH MILLER: Well, Nick is the natural leader of our team and when Brandon went down we went through an awkward period where he almost tried to do too much, not in a selfish way at all but I think him as a leader, him wanting his team to continue to be good, we won 21 games in a row with Brandon. But he wanted to take even more of a burden on his shoulders. Although all of those guys who are on our team have done more, including Nick, I think right after that, he realized that he didn't have to press as much, he didn't have to do as much, he just had to continue to be a really good player himself and be an even better leader. That's what he did. We had a number of players step up in Brandon's absence, Kaleb Tarczewski's one of them, although T.J. didn't have the game like he usually does yesterday he scored more and really was assertive more than ever before and obviously a number of guys whether it be Elliott Pitts, Gabe York, Maize, guys off the bench, Rondae Hollis‑Jefferson, those guys stepped up and it's one of the reasons I think we feel so good about our season because it hasn't been a smooth ride. When you lose a player like Brandon, it's not easy to keep things moving in the right direction. Q. Coach, Rondae Hollis‑Jefferson said the practice facility was a big part of his recruiting, he loved the fact that y'all had access to that. How much does that help players in today's game develop right now? COACH MILLER: I would say if you don't have a practice facility, you're up against it. We're fortunate. The name of our practice facility is the Richard Jefferson gym. Imagine that. So every player that we recruit and the players on our team, one of our own gave a lot of his money to make this happen. It's a new facility. We have 12 glass back boards, it's really open 24 hours a day, seven days a week to our team. We put what I believe is one of the great weight rooms that you can have for a basketball program in it, and it's really our own world. We can stay over there in off season. You mentioned Rondae Hollis‑Jefferson, Nick Johnson this summer, during summer school those guys are in there three, four hours a day and they're able to do things from an improvement perspective that you couldn't otherwise do. Especially in Tucson. It gets hot in the summer, you want to make sure that everything is right for the players, but those guys, we're fortunate in that we have that facility. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for Coach Miller. Thank you. COACH MILLER: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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