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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: SAN ANTONIOMarch 23, 2014Isaiah AustinKenny CheryScott DrewBrady HeslipSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS Baylor – 85 THE MODERATOR: We are joined now by Baylor University head coach Scott Drew and student‑athletes Brady Heslip, Kenny Chery, and Isaiah Austin. Coach, I'd like you to make an opening statement, and then questions for the student‑athletes. COACH DREW: I think we're going to stay in San Antonio instead of going to Anaheim. But it was great having our fans here. I know our players are really excited to be here. I thought today sometimes you execute well on the offense and defensive end and things just fall into place. I thought we had a tremendous togetherness. The team really, 19 assists made each other better. Defensively everyone got down and did a great job at what their assignments were. It's one of those games as a coach that you look back and say we were pretty good tonight. I thought the upperclassmen did a great job getting us focused and ready for the game. And as always, Zeke protects everything and erases any errors we make, so defense was the first and foremost thing today. Q. Brady, did you expect a blowout like this, or is it something that just kind of happened as the game progressed? BRADY HESLIP: We were just expecting it to be a fight, to be honest. Nobody that's playing right now is going to just lay down. The coaches prepared us. They told us exactly what we wanted to take away from them on defense and told us how to execute on offense, and we did a pretty good job of it out there and that was the result. Q. Kenny, you guys had a 20‑point lead at halftime. A lot of times it's tough to stay focused in a game like that. How did you manage to stay focused and push the lead out to 30? KENNY CHERY: We just came out of the locker room and said to ourselves we're going to stay focused. We were not going to let down. It's 0‑0; it's a new game. I've got to credit my teammates for staying focused, keeping me focused and keeping the coaching staff focused, and we came out with the first punch again. Q. Guys, it looked like all of you had a chance at McDermott as far as trying to keep the ball away from him. I wonder if you could elaborate on the defensive effort you guys had. And it looked like almost everybody was involved as far as chasing him? BRADY HESLIP: Well, we know that he's a leading scorer in the country, and best player in the country. He's absolutely vital to their team's scoring and their success. He can shoot the ball from anywhere. He can read situations. So we just had to do our best job of being there when he catches it so he doesn't look to attack or have an open shot. I think we did that early. And like Kenny said, we stayed focused on the task all game and that was us limiting him. KENNY CHERY: He's a great player. One thing we said to ourselves is we need five guys to stop him. A guy like that that can shoot the ball, we just stay focused on him and contained and made sure every shot was difficult. ISAIAH AUSTIN: Really, we just made sure that everybody knew where he was at all times on the court. Everybody was doing a tremendous job talking out there and making sure we knew where he was at all times. When he did shoot the ball, we contested a lot of his shots to make him try to miss. But he's a great player. Q. Kenny, their coach talked about it, he chose to kind of play off of you and Royce, give you all the stuff outside. How big was that when you and Royce kind of made them pay for playing off you guys? KENNY CHERY: Well, that was pretty big. I felt like they sagged off a little bit from me, and one thing I did was take advantage of that. My big man found me when I was wide open. My teammates did, and that's one thing I've got to credit them for, and I made shots. Q. For all three guys, you guys were basically left for dead. Started 2‑8 in the Big 12. Talk about the journey from there to here when you probably had to play pretty much mistake‑free ball just to stay alive in the conference. BRADY HESLIP: I think when we're 2‑8 we're only halfway through conference. Coaches emphasized we just need to rely on God for everything. All the situations he puts us through is for a reason. It was only halfway through the year, and we didn't feel like there was so much pressure. We just needed to change some things and start playing for each other and giving more effort. When we did that, we started winning, and it became a lot more fun, and then we just wanted to keep doing that. So we've been doing that, and I feel like we've just been playing a lot harder. Q. Isaiah, I don't know if you guys even listen to the doubters or care about the doubters. But do you guys feel like maybe you've proven some things with these two wins, especially the way this one came out today? ISAIAH AUSTIN: We definitely hear them, but we don't see them. We take pride in people hating on us, and we love proving people wrong. Our team right now, we have a tremendous amount of confidence and everybody has bought into the one goal that we have in mind and that is winning a National Championship. Everybody is keeping their faith in God and it's leading us down the right path right now. Q. Kenny and Isaiah, the Creighton folks were pretty clear about how much they fell back on their heels from the way that you guys opened the game on both ends of the court. When you guys are up whatever it was, 26‑9, something like that, what are you seeing in your opponent? What do you see in their faces? What do you see in their body language? KENNY CHERY: Actually, we don't really see nothing. We just want to keep playing our basketball and we're going to keep fighting, because anything can happen with a team like Creighton that can shoot the three as well as anybody in the country. All you've got to do is keep playing, containing, and especially with a great player like Doug, you've just got to keep playing. We didn't really see nothing. We just stayed together, stayed as a we, and that's exactly what we did. ISAIAH AUSTIN: I think we saw them as the great team that they are. They shoot the ball so well, so we knew that any point in time they could make a run and get back into the game. Basketball is a game of runs. But at the same time we knew we had them on their heels and we wanted to step on their throat while we could. Q. Isaiah, could you see a lot of confusion from them as far as how they tried to attack that zone? ISAIAH AUSTIN: Yeah, definitely. Coach Drew had an amazing game plan coming into the game. We were going to leave the middle wide open for them. They had a couple of players that caught the ball in there, and we knew they were pass‑first players, so we wanted them to try to make the plays for their team, and it ended up working well for us. Q. Scott, can you talk about the adjustments you all made in that zone? I know he talked about y'all kind of following Doug and Ethan as well. COACH DREW: I think any defense, man, zone, whatever you're playing, you're going to adjust it to the personnel you play. I thought we did a good job contesting shots, limiting shots to certain players. At the end of the day, I mean, sometimes you contest it and make it, and sometimes you contest it and miss it. Today we were blessed they missed it. We rebounded and did a good job keeping them off the glass. Because if you shoot a long shot like a three, a lot of times you get long rebounds. If they get those, that's another three ball. They're the best in the country offensively for a reason. They make 42% of them and they shoot 50% from the field. So we needed to make sure they were one and done. Q. Scott, I know you said yesterday when you were leaving that there was a difference between holding McDermott between 30 points and 45. Did you ever envision though that you could do the kind of job you did tonight and limit him to 15? COACH DREW: If you would have told me Wragge and McDermott would have two threes for the game, I would tell you we'd take that every day of the week. I thought, again, we did a good job trying to make it tough on them. We have the utmost respect for Creighton. They're not only a great team, but they're class individuals. My brother playing for us and my dad coaching, I have so much respect for Coach McDermott and his son and how they've handled the success this year. Again, 20 point lead, 10‑point lead, it doesn't matter because a team like this, that's six, seven possessions, and they're that good. Q. Coach, I know it's early, but have you seen anything from Wisconsin or started thinking about Wisconsin at all yet? COACH DREW: Boy, this guy's quick. The good thing is we've got a bus ride home, so I'm sure I'll get a chance to get a feel. I know Wisconsin is a great team. I've seen them play a few times this year. Obviously, if we were looking at them, we wouldn't be probably winning tonight. So needed to take care of business. Now we'll focus on them. The good thing is this time of year you just want to have to focus on somebody else rather than the season being over. You play anybody in the Sweet Sixteen, you know it's going to be a great team and a great coach. We're excited for the opportunity. Q. Scott, why do you feel like you are able to do what you did offensively? Hit the three, score in transition, it seemed like everything was working? COACH DREW: I think as a coach you want to take good shots. If you take good shots, some nights they're going to go in and some nights they're not. We were 2 for 13 from 3 against Nebraska, and I thought we had some good looks. Today, Royce, Kenny, really did a good job, Brady, and we were just making baskets. It became contagious, and I think the big thing was when we were making threes we didn't get three happy and just start shooting a bunch of contested ones. We stayed with the game plan and made sure that we took the right shots. Whenever you can shoot 64%, that's a blessing, because, again, you're going to have good shots, but that doesn't guarantee you're making them. Q. Coach, about a month and a half ago you're sitting at 2‑8 in conference play, and today you're heading to the Sweet Sixteen. What changed, and did you do anything specifically talking with the team to enact that change? COACH DREW: Well, I think, and I've stated this several times, first when you get down like that, if you don't have good leadership people can start pointing fingers and then season's over. If you don't have good chemistry, same thing. Everybody stayed together. We had great leadership. This team's always liked one another. They've wanted to fight for each other. And we had a key injury during that time. Kenny Chery, our point guard had turf toe, and those two weeks obviously affected our team. You could see our record with him and without him. But when we got everybody healthy, I think everyone was really committed to playing better defense. I thought we've done a better job on the defensive end. I think part of that is because offensively we've gotten used to playing with each other and we don't turn it over as much. There is no defense for two‑on‑one, three‑on‑one fast breaks. Taking care of the basketball is important. Shot selection is important so you don't get bad shots that lead to easy transition. You put that together, and each night you have a chance for a quality win. So we're in the Sweet Sixteen, and we've beaten Kentucky. We've beaten Dayton. We've beaten Iowa State all in the Sweet Sixteen. So that competition prepares you and gives you a chance to be successful when it comes NCAA tournament time. Q. Coach, this is three Sweet Sixteens in five years for you guys. But if I recall correctly, this is your first win over a higher seeded team. Does that register with you at all? Is that a big deal for the program? COACH DREW: I think we've all learned one thing from March Madness and that is seeds really don't matter. That's why, what was it? 11 million had incorrect brackets at the end of the round of 32. So when you're in the NCAA tournament, if you don't play well, you go home. If you play well, it doesn't guarantee you advance. So it doesn't matter what the seed is. I think the big thing is what you control what you can control, and you've got to play well to give yourself a chance to advance. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. COACH DREW: Thank you, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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