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NCAA MEN'S REGIONALS SEMIFINALS & FINALS: MEMPHISMarch 27, 2014Johnny DawkinsDwight PowellChasson RandleMEMPHIS, TENNESSEE Dayton – 82 THE MODERATOR: At this time, we will begin our post‑game press conference for Stanford. We've been joined by Head Coach Johnny Dawkins along with student‑athletes Dwight Powell and Chasson Randle. We begin now with a few opening remarks from Coach Dawkins. COACH DAWKINS: It was a great environment for both teams, put it all out there on the floor. I thought Dayton did a really good job of executing their offense, especially in the first half, and now those kids also did a very good job of being very‑‑ they were relentless is the best way I could put it. They came in waves. They had two players in position, and all those kids came in and contributed. Archie's done a really good job with his group. Those kids have really performed well. Q. Dwight, early in the second half, clearly you guys wanted to pound the ball inside. You got within four points. Then they were able to pull away again. What do you think the difference was? DWIGHT POWELL: Like Coach said, they're a deep team and a talented team and a tough team. They made their runs. We weren't able to stop them on the other end. So they took advantage of their opportunities. Q. Chasson, what did you think of the defensive pressure that Dayton's guards put on you the whole game? CHASSON RANDLE: I think they did a good job. Like Coach said, they're a deep team. You know, being able to bring two guys in at each position. They gave us different looks, and really tough tonight. Q. Coach, could you explain what happened on the technical foul. What were you telling the official at that point? COACH DAWKINS: That was more or less just trying to get my team going. We were kind of in a position where I thought we were losing momentum. I'd already burned a time‑out, and it was a situation where I wanted to just get our guys fired up, understand we have to continue with our defensive intensity. And so I think I was more emotional. I didn't stop. It should have been T'd up. The ref did the right thing. I should have been T'd up. But I thought it was good for my kids. I thought we rallied around it, and we gained some momentum at that moment. Q. I have a question for Coach Dawkins. Can you explain why the zone wasn't as effective today as it was against Kansas? COACH DAWKINS: Well, we knew giving Dayton a steady diet of zone would not be a good thing for us. I watched enough tape, and my staff has watched enough tape. When they get comfortable, as they can because they have all play makers out there on the floor, it's difficult to zone a team where everyone is capable of shooting, passing, and putting it on the floor. So that's one of the recipes to play well against the zone is to have the ability for all your players to be play makers, and they had that ability. So that's why we didn't stay in it. We had to try to time to see if we could gain, just throw the rhythm off a little. At times we did, but we just couldn't do it enough. Q. Johnny, two questions. First of all, if you could finish the other topic, when you said you wanted to fire your team up, you're not saying that you were intentionally trying to get a T? And the second question would be could you just talk about the progress your program made and what this run into the Sweet 16 could mean for you guys. COACH DAWKINS: What I was saying‑‑ just the first question, what I was saying is I was addressing my team and going off and saying stuff to fire them up. I think it was misunderstood. Should have been T'd up probably because I was a little more animated than I normally am. So he's going to T me up. But I wasn't going to lose my concentration on what we were trying to do. I wanted to make sure my team knows that we're still fighting and we're passionate, and we can't allow the run the team is making on us, to allow them to retain the lead. Like I told Dwight and the young men in the locker room, for those guys, they left their legacy. They left their legacy. They were able to compete in the NCAA Tournament. They were able to go into the Sweet 16 and compete. They'll always be remembered for that. That's something to be proud of, and I was very proud of them and their effort all season long. Q. Chasson, how much does this loss and this performance for you motivate you as you head into your senior season? CHASSON RANDLE: It's definitely motivating. It just means we have to work so much harder to advance and go further next year. I'm looking forward to it, and I'm excited. Q. Hi, Dwight. Can you try to put this in perspective. You've played more games than any Stanford player in history. What is this finish of four years mean to you? I know it's tough to go out this way, but what can you say about your emotions at this point? DWIGHT POWELL: I mean, first and foremost, this is very tough for us. I mean, one of our goals is to make the tournament, obviously, but we definitely didn't‑‑ we fell short of all of our goals, and that's always disappointing, especially when we're done, seniors are done. We don't have any more games. But hopefully, the guys that won't be with the team next year have left a legacy, like Coach said, and have left a path for those guys to follow and exceed. I mean, we're a family on this team. So whatever they do next year, I'll be there, as many games as I can, watching and helping the guys out in any way I can. I mean, right now it's just‑‑ it's a very difficult pill to swallow. Q. Johnny, can you talk about the performance you got from Nastic tonight and how much it hurt you guys to have to take him out when he got the fourth foul, and just his progress over the last month especially. COACH DAWKINS: Well, he's really anchored our post. He's been great in there. He's really been poised. Not only has he made plays and finished, but he's also been able to find his teammates for open looks. Like I said, another young man that I'm proud of his overall improvement this season. Stefan's been great. The last month of the season, he's been shooting 80, 90 percent from the field. He's been so efficient, it's been unbelievable. But he's really grown up in our program, and I'm really happy. And I realize he also still has a big upside. He can still improve, and I think he will. He understands that now after going through that experience. Q. [ No microphone ]. COACH DAWKINS: When he came out, that was difficult for us. He was anchoring what we were doing and kind of disrupted our offense because he's someone we go to quite a bit. So then we have to find other ways to manufacture that. And to our credit, I thought we did. I thought Dwight did a great job. I thought Josh really stepped up in that area and went down and posted for us as well. So it was disruptive, but we still tried to find a way to be competitive. Q. Chasson, what was‑‑ how frustrating was it you weren't able to get into a rhythm, get enough room? You had good looks and everything but weren't able to finish. How frustrating was that to never be able to get into a rhythm offensively? CHASSON RANDLE: It was really tough. Especially in a game like this, you want to win, and you want to make the plays that can help your team win. It was frustrating, but I'm proud of the effort we put up. It was just great tonight. Q. Johnny, you talked in general about Dayton's depth and its intensity. In your game plan tonight, what did you think would work, and why specifically didn't it work? COACH DAWKINS: Well, of course we wanted to throw the ball inside. We thought our advantage was our inside play. Stefan Nastic, of course, but also Dwight and Josh, we had size. We wanted to utilize that as much as we could. So any time we could get post touches we thought would be a good thing for us. And defensively, we thought it would be good for us to make sure we try to keep the guys in front. In doing so, we wanted to mix up our defenses so they wouldn't get a rhythm. So whether we played man, we played some zone, we wanted to throw different looks at them. But no matter what defense we played, we wanted to make sure the emphasis was to keep them out front and out of our paint. And that's where we fell short. Q. Coach, you touched on it a couple of times already, but I'm just curious. When you've got a team that's throwing that many bodies out‑‑ I think they had ten guys finishing in the scoring column‑‑ how unique is it and how much of a challenge when they keep sending bodies? COACH DAWKINS: It's unique because not only are they putting bodies out there but they all are capable. I was watching them on tape, and I was appreciating what they do. You have a number of guys come in, and you don't know if the guy coming off the bench is going to be the leading scorer or the guy starting. It creates a unique dilemma. You have to focus in and ID each player and know what his tendencies are. A typical game, you're ID'ing five, six guys and their tendencies. But against them, you have to ID ten guys and get a understanding of what each is doing out on the floor, and that becomes somewhat difficult. You saw what they were able to do tonight. They were able to take advantage of those situations. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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