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NIT POSTSEASON CHAMPIONSHIPApril 1, 2014Larry BrownSterling BrownMarcus KennedyNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK SMU – 65 COACH BROWN: Really proud of my team. I think first half, Clemson did about as well as any team that we've played against. They controlled the tempo. They had much more energy than us. They executed great and we didn't have much to say at halftime except that we had to match their energy, possibly play harder than them and I thought best half we played all year; to hold them to 21 after the way they dominated us in the first half was really exciting. And then being in this environment, Sterling wasn't with us last year, Markus sitting out, but we didn't have anybody that would go on the road and watch us play, let alone have people watch us play at home. And to be in this environment and playing this championship in this special building with our fans so supportive, that was the most special moment we've all had I think since we've been there. Q. Markus, were you guys familiar‑‑ for Coach Brown, did you want to win here for him in a way? MARKUS KENNEDY: For us, Shawn Williams, our seniors, they led us all season. But without him every day before we come out, every game, we pull our socks up, play as hard as we can go and go play. Our leaders, we follow them. Q. As Coach mentioned, huge difference in the second half. Other than just the energy or rebounding, can you put your finger exactly how you guys were able to turn it around? MARKUS KENNEDY: Come out and get huge offensive rebounds and get a couple stops and just bring energy, sprint the floor, take away a defender, and somebody else gets an open shot, he changed the game for us second half early about then everybody fed off his energy. Q. Talk about the energy, Clemson's field goal percentage went from 56 to 24, was it a strategic defensive adjustment y'all made as well? STERLING BROWN: No, just went out and did‑‑ in the first half ended up shooting 21 points, so we did what we usually do, just crank it up a little more. Q. Markus, can you talk about your performance, kind of a tough game, and obviously it's the kind you like. MARKUS KENNEDY: I mean, the way I play, I owe it to my teammates. I can't get the ball to myself in the post. Everybody cut in and doing a great job of feeding off of me and playing off of how I play and knocking down shots in a double‑team comes. Just keeping the defense honest, and one‑on‑one, it was a good night for me I guess but as far as team, I didn't do it by myself. The stat sheet said I had a great game but Sterling played great and Russell came through big and Ryan came through big. It was a real good team effort today. Q. Sterling, when you had to contain K.J., what makes him a difficult matchup? STERLING BROWN: He does everything. He rebounds, assists, he gets everything for them. We just tried to shrink the floorand get everybody ‑‑ so he can go off. Q. Dealing with adversity all season, did Coach say anything different in the locker room? MARKUS KENNEDY: Coach Brown same into the locker room to talk to us‑‑ we knew what we did wrong out there. We knew we could do better. Like I said before, first five minutes of the second half, sterling picked everybody up and he took it to his own. When a player does that, when one of us does that, we have no choice but to follow their‑‑ Shawn and Nic are leaders but they bring the energy and bring the effort any given night, all the players, from Kevin Dunleavy to myself, it can happen from any one of us and I think that was the changing factor. COACH BROWN: Yeah, I heard that question. The last thing I would ever do is have a team win one for me, and I love this place. I'm not happy with the job I did with the Knicks, but I grew up loving the Garden. I wanted our guys to experience what I grew up looking forward to. We had a disappointment two weeks ago on Sunday, like Clemson, like Memphis, like Florida State and we are just so privileged to be in this tournament. I grew up realizing how great the NIT was. Fran Forchella (ph) explained it to our kids. Bobby Knight talked about it, as well. But it was a phenomenal opportunity for our program and for our kids to play in this environment. As a coach, the way they responded and played the second half, you know, I always talk about playing the right way; we played the right way, and I was thrilled to be part of that. Q. Did you have any memories of that one year of being here today? COACH BROWN: I have a lot of memories. One of my best friends is the coach. I came in here, a lot of people that were great to me and my family, they took me into the Knicks locker room and showed me what they have done. How many guys get to coach the New York Knicks? And when you grow up in this city and you love the game the way I do, I was thrilled. I'm not happy with the job I did, but every time I've ever been here, it's been a highlight for me, and then to have my kids come in here and play in this environment with SMU people here ‑‑ you can't believe how it was at SMU. You know, I would‑‑ we would have introductions last year and I would look at Tim Jankovich and say, what the hell are we doing here. You know, if you said anything on the sideline, everybody heard it. You had to be real careful. But now, we're a major program playing for a major championship, and that's neat. Q. What did it mean to you to have Woody sitting behind the bench and some of the coaches sitting behind the bench supporting you guys tonight? COACH BROWN: I talk to him every day. He's a big part of my life. Coach Knight and I talked about Woody about the game. Bobby would never tell you who his favorite players are, but I know he's one of them. But he's going through hell, and they got it going; last I looked, they were right there with a chance to make the playoffs, so I'm thrilled for him. I don't know if they will let me in the Garden tomorrow night. But I've got Billy King who I love, hell of a job; I've got a night off, I don't know. I'll either go see Les Mis or the Knicks. Q. The run that really got you guys going, that was without Markus, can you talk about the players during that stretch? I just wanted to ask about Bobby Knight and what he might have said before the game. COACH BROWN: I'm always nervous when little Knicks is out of the game or Markus. But Markus has gotten in foul trouble a lot all year, and our depth and size has really helped us. But you know, Tim kept saying to me and Eric kept saying to me and the whole staff, let's keep riding this, because our defensive intensity really picked up, and we did get easy baskets. It gave them a chance to rest, because Knicks was really spent, so that's everything. You know, our depth has helped us all year, but I think tonight, you can't‑‑ you can't see how effective they were based on the statistics.  But on the contribution to us winning, it was great. Q. (Regarding Bobby Knight). COACH BROWN: When I got the UCLA job, I spent a week with him in Bloomington and he just was a big part of my life from that day on. I always remember Coach Smith, how highly he thought of Bobby. And I've always heard people say all these things about him, but I've coached a lot of his players, and they all were enamored by him. I think, you know, when I introduced him and told him basically what I told you; and then he basically talked about his love affair with New York, going back to Army and Indiana and told our kids how lucky we were to be playing at this time. Like we said, only eight teams are playing now, and we happen to be one of them. I think they probably had to Google him up after I left. They Google me up. Q. We're talking about all of these older coaches and you've been around the game a long time, but what do you think about a young coach like Brad Brownell and what do you see in him? COACH BROWN: Oh, he's great. I got a little North Carolina background and I know what kind of job he did at Wilmington. I know what Jerry Wainwright thought about him and I have great respect for Jerry. That's a young team. They are real young. They had a couple tough losses late in the year or else they might have been in the NCAA Tournament. It's not an easy league but I think he's got it going in the right direction. I'm amazed at the quality of coaching on the college level from guys like him. I mean, young coaches on the college level are pretty darned good. Q. What would it mean to add the NIT Championship to your already prestigious legacies? COACH BROWN: I haven't even thought of that. You know, and I don't mean this in a bad way, but when you coach North Carolina, assistant coach at North Carolina and you're at UCLA and you're at Kansas, they don't look at the NIT like some of the mid‑major schools. But now, I look at the NIT and if you don't win your conference tournament, but you win your conference regular season, you get to go. And then there's a limited number of at‑large teams that get to go and there's 32 teams instead of 64, so, wow, this is a quality, quality championship. We haven't had a lot of nice things happen at SMU for a long, long time, so if we were fortunate enough to win a championship like this, and I was part of it, it would be pretty neat. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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