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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: SAN ANTONIOMarch 23, 2014Melvin EjimFred HoibergDeAndre KaneNaz LongSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS Iowa State – 85 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Iowa State University head coach Fred Hoiberg, student‑athletes Melvin Ejim, Naz Long, and DeAndre Kane. We'll follow our normal procedure. We'll ask Coach Hoiberg to make an opening statement, and we'll take questions for the student‑athletes. Coach, an opening statement? COACH HOIBERG: Well, first of all, let me say what an honor it was to coach against Roy Williams. He's a man that I admire greatly. Played against him back in the old Big 8 Conference when he was at Kansas and I was at Iowa State. He's a guy that I have as much respect for as anybody in this business, so it was an actual privilege for me to go up against a Hall of Fame coach and a person of that caliber. As far as the game is concerned, so proud of our guys for how they went out and approached this game. We had a tremendous amount of adversity hit us when we lost Georges Niang, a guy that we run a lot of our offense through. But our guys stepped up in a huge way. So many guys. First of all, Daniel Edozie getting that start. I told him he was going to start yesterday and he got a bloody nose right away, so I don't know what that was about. But he went out there and didn't play scared and really battled. The size and athleticism of NorthCarolina's bigs. These three guys sitting beside me here with Melvin, with Naz hitting and doing what he's been doing all year, hitting those big shots to keep us in it. Melvin making unbelievable plays all game long and DeAndre finishing it off for us with a great move to the basket there at the end. So everybody that stepped on the floor for us made a great contribution. We're very excited about the next step heading to New York City. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. DeAndre, tell us what happened when you hit the floor when you were injured, and how did you pull it together? Because it looked like you could barely walk down the stretch? DeANDRE KANE: Yeah, I hit the floor pretty hard. I hit my back. But that injury wasn't it. I was cramping a little bit, so that was it. But Vic did a great job on getting me water and getting me hydrated, so I was good. Q. DeAndre, what was it like when you were standing there and they're looking at the clock and you've got to wait to find out whether you're going to be a hero and send Iowa State to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in 14 years? DeANDRE KANE: He was definitely praying that they'd call the game. But we were prepared if there was any time on the clock that we had to finish the game out. It was great that they called it, but if they put any time on the clock, we were still prepared. Q. DeAndre, when you have the ball at the end before you make the drive for what proves to be the game‑winning basket, can you describe for us what you're thinking, what you're feeling, and what you see? DeANDRE KANE: Well, I look around a little bit just to see if the lane is clock clogged a little bit. But Coach drew up a great play in the huddle. It was a little isolation for me to try to attack the basket. If any guys were going to help me, I was going to try to kick it out to one of my teammates. But nobody helped, and I made an acrobatic shot and it went in. Give a lot of credit to Coach. He drew up a great play for me to finish the game at the end. Q. Naz, there was a moment, I can't remember if it was before or after your first three, but you guys were clinging to an 8‑point game, and I remember you kind of clapping and really exerting your team to kind of hang in it. Can you tell me about that moment, and of course, the big threes you hit down the stretch to keep the team in it? NAZ LONG: That's a part of my role. I've got to bring the energy off the bench. When things are slipping a little bit, I've got to just remind guys let's stay confident, let's stay in it. Let's do what we do and stick to the fundamentals and get the thing rolling. As far as the threes go, I missed a bunch of open ones. I'm thankful that my teammates just stuck with me. They kept finding me, and believing in me and telling me over in the timeouts and at halftime just keep shooting and they'll fall. It all comes as part of my role. I've got to knock down shots. I've been saying that ever since day one. Me and Coach had a conversation, and that is my role. I got to bring energy and knock down shots. Q. DeAndre, after you hit that shot which proved to be the game winner, how much were you thinking about your dad? Did you feel him after that shot? DeANDRE KANE: I definitely think about my dad all the time, every time I step out on the court. But I was celebrating with my teammates at the moment. When I got in the locker room I was definitely thinking about him a lot. I know he's proud. I know if he was here he'd be happy and he would have been right here watching the game. He's up there smiling. I hope I'm making him proud and keep going from here. Q. Melvin, Naz, NorthCarolina prides themselves on getting up and down the floor and beating you in transition. Do you think you surprised them by getting back behind them a couple times in the last four minutes? MELVIN EJIM: Yeah, I think we knew that they were going to be a fast‑paced team, and we knew that is the type of environment that we thrive in and we like to play in. So I think they might have been a little surprised. But we were able to do a great job of getting out in transition in the second half and making sure we got back to try to slow them down in transition. I think we were able to attack them and be aggressive in the second half which helped us be successful in the end. Q. DeAndre Kane, before the game started and before you took the floor, you got close with Niang, what was that conversation? DeANDRE KANE: I just told him we were going to try to get this one and pull this one out for him. Like I said, he's one of our leaders when he's in the game. We draw up a lot of plays for him. He's a play maker. When things are going wrong, we can count on Georges to make a play for himself or make a play for others. I know the emotions he was feeling and the things going through his head. We really wanted to get this one for him because without him we wouldn't be here. So this game was definitely dedicated to Georges. Q. Melvin, you guys won the Big 12 tournament and it was ranked as a top conference in the country. How did that get you guys ready for this tournament? And how good is it to move on since the Big 12 has taken some hits in the last couple of days? MELVIN EJIM: I think it's been great. Even though the Big 12 hasn't done necessarily well in the NCAA tournament, it's definitely a strong league and really prepared us for this tournament, especially winning the tournament and going against three competitive teams night after night and playing at such a high level. It's great to move on from that and see that it's carried on and we're playing well in this tournament. When we won that, we felt that we didn't get as much respect as we deserved and we were playing with a little chip on our shoulder. And we'll continuing to out there and do that. We have a lot of guys that have stuff to prove and play with chips and have that aggressive mentality. We're showing it. We've just been able to play some gutsy basketball and come out with some great wins. THE MODERATOR: We're going to excuse the student‑athletes. Thank you, gentlemen. Questions for Coach Hoiberg? Q. Coach, can you just tell us about the process in game of adjusting without Georges, the offense bogged down in spots, but really came through at the end, five different players scoring. So it wasn't just DeAndre and Melvin doing the job there? COACH HOIBERG: Well, I was really nervous going into this one. I've got a card. I draw up the actions that I pull from our pool that I think will be successful in each game. I usually have one side of my card with plays for DeAndre and a whole other side of my card with plays for Georges. I've got a little section for shooters and a little section for Melvin. We'll see if we can get some mismatched stuff for Dustin Hogue. But that whole back side of my play sheet was obviously thrown out the window today. And DeAndre's right, when we need a basket, he's usually the guy we go to. He's been our Mariano Rivera. He's been our closer all throughout this season. So to have other guys step up Monte Morris once again, Naz got the glory for hitting the three at Oklahoma State, but Monte hit the one to tie it to send it to a third overtime. So guys just stepped up. Melvin's pass to DeAndre was a great outlet. Then DeAndre getting himself out of the basket on that last isolation play that we ran for him. So you're not going to replace Georges Niang with one guy. You have to have a collective effort, and our guys certainly stepped up today to help fill that void. Q. Coach, what do you think it says about Kane that he was able to make so many tough plays when you guys were under pressure and you were down and really had little margin for error? Also, what was going through your mind during that final sequence there? COACH HOIBERG: Yeah, first of all, with DeAndre, we've got so much confidence in him. Again, that one sheet of the card stays the same with those plays that we run for DeAndre. And that's what we facilitate through DeAndre and Georges. Now Monte Morris will have a little more of that role with Georges being on the shelf. The last sequence, nervous, didn't know if they were going to get the ball over half court where they've got so many guys that can go and jump a lot higher than our guys. You worry about a lob play. They run a very good elevator play. They ran against NorthCarolina State at the end and ran through a gap to get them a shot. I guess those were the things where I was envisioning in my head. How are we going to do it? What are we going to do with the in‑bounder? Are we going to run it to Paige because we felt he would probably get the shot. So just a lot of things, lot of emotions, getting ready for that last play. Then they called it right there, and I was standing right next to Roy. Again, he gave me a big hug and wished me all the best. So it was a great moment and especially showed a lot of class, I think, on Coach's part. Q. Coach, can you describe your thought process on the last isolation play you designed for DeAndre, and what the options were there if he had been closed off? COACH HOIBERG: Yeah, it's a play that we run to try to confuse the defense a little bit. You slip your guy coming up, set the screen. We've run it in the past and won the game when two guys last year with Will Clayburn and Georges Niang got a lay‑up against West Virginia at home. We've got a couple of different plays we run late game, but that's one of them to get DeAndre in isolation. You get your two best players in the two‑man game to hopefully confuse them a little bit. We had a shooter, Naz Long, in the corner if his man helps him. So you put it in the player's hands that you trust the most, and it certainly paid off the most for us tonight. Q. Following up on that, could you just talk about, I guess, how tough he must be physically? How banged up was he and how much of a cause for concern was that? COACH HOIBERG: Well, he kept hurting something else, so I think he was forgetting about all his other little injuries. He fell on his back. Looked like he was holding his elbow a little bit. He got hit in the chin yesterday, looked like he was a boxer a little woozy out there. Then I called a play for him and he forgot about it. So just some little things to just try to nagging things. He cramps up a lot. That is one problem that he has. We try to hydrate him really well the night before and throughout the day of the game. That was probably the thing that was bothering him the most. He had a little cramp going on in his hamstring. Q. What were the details around that bloody nose for Dan? Did he start to spontaneously gush or did he run into a wall? Because if it was spontaneous‑‑ COACH HOIBERG: No, he didn't faint and fall down. Q. That's a bad omen. COACH HOIBERG: Well, he just‑‑ I told him he was starting. I was sitting him down, I had my arm around him and told him how much I believed in him. Next thing I know he was running over to the trainer to get a plug to put in his nostril to stop the bloody nose. I looked over at Doug Sadler and said I don't know if that is a good thing or not. I just told Daniel he's starting and his nose started bleeding. But, Daniel's made big plays. We don't win the BYU game without Daniel Edozie making a big block at the end of that one. The kid is always keeping himself ready. He has a good, big, physical body. Played great minutes for us in the Big 12 tournament in all three games, and that just shows the team that we have. Everybody is ready when their name is called. You never know when that's going to happen, and stepped up and gave us great minutes. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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