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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: SAN DIEGOMarch 23, 2014Desmond HaymonBrad UnderwoodThomas WalkupSAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA UCLA – 77 THE MODERATOR: Coach Brad Underwood, student athletes, Desmond Haymon, Jacob Parker and Thomas Walkup, and we will begin with an opening statement from Coach Underwood. COACH UNDERWOOD: UCLA is really good. They were really good today. Want one thing we felt like we had to try to do to combat their size and length is to be able to turn them over a little bit, knock 'em off their spots and I know I looked at one stat sheet and they had 2 turnovers and 22 assists. That's what good teams do, well‑coached teams. A lot of credit to UCLA. They're a very, very good basketball team, a very talented basketball team. And they're going to have a chance to advance a real long way. I loved our guys fight, our competitiveness, we didn't make some shots that you have to make in an NCAA Tournament game against say very, very good basketball team. I'll say what I told the team. I couldn't be prouder, we didn't have a great year. We had a year for the history books and there won't be very many teams that will win 22 games and when a coach can wake up every single morning and enjoy going to work every single day because he knows he gets to work with guys like this, that's pretty special. 29‑game winning streak, they don't know how good that really is. That's very, very special. Again, kudos and congratulations to UCLA. They're a very good basketball team and they've got a chance to go a long, long way. THE MODERATOR: Questions now for the student athletes. Q. Desmond, maybe just talk about the frustration on defense. Because they got good looks the whole game, and they were just so efficient. DESMOND HAYMON: Like Coach mentioned, they were pretty tall and able to catch the ball in spots they wanted to and that's not the type of defense that we normally play. We try to keep teams out of their offense and tonight they was able to catch the ball where they wanted to and run their offense. Q. Thomas Walkup, talk about your game. You had a good game but inside you were able to do some things but maybe talk about what you were able to do. Again, maybe talk about the frustration on defense as well, I guess. THOMAS WALKUP: Yeah, being frustrated on defense, we didn't do what we usually do. It was like they were kind of able to score at will at times. We didn't knock 'em off their spots and didn't do the things that we usually do. As far as offense, it just goes to other guys on my team and spreading them out and me catching easy baskets in the middle and turning around and shooting layups, basically. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for the student athletes? Thank you, gentlemen. We will continue with Coach Underwood. Any further questions for Coach Underwood. Q. Coach, very start of the second half, they get, like, three dunks in a very short period of time. What was the reason for that? What were you seeing out there when you guys come right back out after halftime and what had you talked about trying to prevent that type of thing? COACH UNDERWOOD: The first play I tried to run and jump 'em, I knew Steve would set up a play to run their first possession, and, again, it's an advantage of having a 6‑9 point guard. We had our point guard actually matched up with him on that possession, and we ran and jumped him and they made a play and made a pass and he sees right over the top of us, but I didn't want them to run their play. I thought maybe we could force a rotation turnover. I think they get a couple in transition, they annihilated us in transition. It was a huge key going into the ballgame and to see that size and athleticism, that's why they average 82 points a game and shot 52% the first half. They were outstanding all night long in transition and they're such a good passing team. It's not that they're just athletic, they're extremely skilled and very, very unselfish and you can tell they're a very well coached basketball team. Q. Was it almost a situation of there was very little that you could do schematically to change on you that was going to work? COACH UNDERWOOD: Pretty much. I mean, we tried to go zone a little bit. We had some‑‑ we were fairly effective in our zone. Things get compounded, when you're‑‑ I felt like we got great shots. We just missed some. They didn't do anything that we hadn't prepared for, and you've got to make shots. That compounds the pressure that it puts on your defense. We had been an offensive rebounding team, it's been one of the top offensive rebounding teams in the country all year and in doing that, that puts you at risk in transition a little bit, and they did a great job of exploiting that. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for Coach Underwood? Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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