|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NIT POSTSEASON CHAMPIONSHIPApril 3, 2014Austin HollinsDeAndre MathieuRichard PitinoNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK COACH PITINO: Obviously extremely happy for our guys to win a championship. They were a lot of fun to coach. I thought they all got better. They worked extremely hard, had unbelievable enthusiasm all year, every practice. So they were a special group. They taught me a lot. They made me better, and I'm really, really happy for them that they get to walk off Madison Square Garden court as winners. Q. Talk about ending this on this note, going into the NIT championship and you wanted to end it with a crown and you got it. DEANDRE MATHIEU: It's an awesome feeling. We've been here before and we know what it feels like to be the other team walking off the floor losing; we know. We made it a point once we got into the NIT that we wanted to go win a championship and the guys worked extremely hard to get here. Q. You guys earlier in the year had struggled a little bit on the road. With the large SMU crowd here tonight, you got down in the second half and you were able to come back and fend them off. What does that say about the evolution of this team and how you've grown to the point where you're able to do that? AUSTIN HOLLINS: I think the biggest thing for the NIT was to help this team get that experience and build for the future. The guys are working extremely hard and they didn't quit, they didn't quit. They put a lot of heart and a lot of toughness and we were able to come back. Q. Austin, what's it like to be a student of the game under your coach this year, what was the one thing he really taught you this year‑‑ AUSTIN HOLLINS: Just there's a number of things. Going out there and playing as hard as you can, he expects perfection and I think that was one thing this year that he's really gotten out of me. He's pushed my game to the highest level it could be and I've worked extremely hard and he's pushed me extremely hard. This was the outcome. Q. Austin, just the last shot, the last shot that you take‑‑ what was that like to have that experience and for that to be your lasting memory? AUSTIN HOLLINS: It was a great feeling. I can't even describe it. It's indescribable. COACH PITINO: Big‑time shot. That's the way he should have walked away as a Gopher. That was a game‑winner right there. I know it's not my turn, sorry (laughter) apologize. Q. What's going through your head when you're cutting down the net and it's not just the fans but your teammates chanting MVP? AUSTIN HOLLINS: It's a great feeling. I've been through the ups and downs with these guys, and they are like brothers to me. They are my brothers. So to be able to win this championship with this group of guys was amazing. Q. DeAndre, talk about what you learned from this experience and what you take into it for next year, the returning players, as well? DEANDRE MATHIEU: I learned that you have to play hard every game. There's no slouchers in college basketball anymore. There's no easy games and there's no easy roles. Can't take any games off, and that if you stick with your teammates and you stick together, you can accomplish a lot of good things, and I really learned that this year. Q. Austin, obviously in the first year of your gophers career, your dad was coaching and couldn't make it to as many games but was there a lot more this season and he was here tonight; what was that like having him kind of be able to watch you in person more and having him be there, especially tonight? AUSTIN HOLLINS: I think everything happens for a reason, and you know, it was great being able to have him and my mom come to some games this year and be here for this. Being here four years and putting in so much work and having them be here for this moment felt so great. Q. Austin, talking about your last game with Andre, you've been with a lot of these guys for a long time, but your brother that's not your brother on the backboard and just thinking about the way that you guys ended that, how that's with a? COACH PITINO: I don't know if anyone knows, they have the same last night and they are from Tennessee and they are not brothers. It's an inside joke; only a couple people would know that here. AUSTIN HOLLINS: You know, I haven't really thought a whole lot about it, being the last game with just André. It was not just me and Andre out there. It happens to be that we have the same last name. But with all these guys, this is my last game in a Gopher uniform with all these guys, and it's a sad moment. But at the same time, it's a happy moment to leave the floor with a championship like this. Q. What was it like trying to match wits with Larry Brown at the Garden and coming out on top? COACH PITINO: You know, he is a Hall of Famer. He is a Hall of Famer and an unbelievable coach, and I've got unbelievable respect for him. I've got unbelievable respect for him, his passion for the game, and he's, how old, 73? He doesn't look it. He doesn't coach like it. He's as sharp as it gets. Every time we switched defenses, he sniffed it out right away. I've got a lot of respect for him and I really do appreciate, for an older coach, he was very, very gracious to me, and that really means a lot.  He's a really good person, a phenomenal coach, but a really good person. Q.  After Hollins hit that last three and the free throws were coming down, you kind of kept looking over to the area where your dad was, were you talking to your dad at all? Were you looking for any advice? COACH PITINO: No, I get paid enough to coach this game by myself. No, I didn't notice that. Q. What was it like to win this championship with your dad there behind you, and how much‑‑ he beat SMU twice this year; how much input did he give you on sort of a formula or a blueprint on how to take on SMU? COACH PITINO: Played them twice obviously. We just have totally different teams, and we don't play that similar. We have a little bit of similarity, but certainly we did speak about it. He was great. It means a lot, not just my dad, but my whole family; my mom being here, my wife, my in‑laws, my uncles, aunts, everybody being behind the bench. It's a lot of fun. This is hopefully just the beginning for me, and to be able to do this in year one at Minnesota at a place that I love, and they all know how much I brag about it, it's great for them to see it. Q. After you guys cut down the net, you noticed you got the guys together and huddled up; curious what you said to the team in that moment. COACH PITINO: I just said to them, I said, listen, any time there's a coaching change, it's always difficult. They have really, really embraced me. They are great kids. They have got great families. The guys that were left over, certainly that's a testament to Coach Smith and his staff, what they did. We never had a bad day in practice, we really didn't. And I know coaches say that; we didn't. They were so much fun to coach. They made me a better coach, and hopefully I made them better. And I just thought for our seniors, for Matt, for Oto and Malik and Austin, something special about walking off the court a winner and ending your career that way. I told the guys coming back, I'm so fired up to get back to work. Q. You touched on this but overall what is the feeling about winning this year one on the job and the Big Ten overall? COACH PITINO: Certainly when you get someplace, and your starting point guard was in junior college, your starting power forward was in the Missouri Valley, your starting center lost 60 pounds and Elliot got much better; so there was a lot of question marks and I didn't know what to take of it going into it. And to have the opportunity to win a championship‑‑ and I know everybody talks about the NCAA, but this was a great tournament. You look at it, especially in the Garden, everybody was competing their butts off. Had unbelievable respect for SMU, like I said before, Coach Brown is a Hall of Famer. So to say that our seniors could walk off champions, and our younger guys understanding what it takes to take that step forward; I thought we moved this program forward this year. Q. I asked Austin about it, but for a team that struggled a little bit on the road this year and in this environment with a lot of SMU fans and in the second half being down late, coming back and getting that victory, what does it say about how they have grown as a team and how can they use that experience moving forward, especially for the guys coming back? COACH PITINO: I'll say this, the crowd, it was a lot of SMU fans. That's a testament to Coach Brown and what he's built. I still marvel at it, I really do, the job that he's done. But moving forward, I thought we showed great poise. We were down seven. I think I called a time‑out. Just calmed everybody down. We went on a great run, Deandre made a big‑time shot. Austin made a big‑time shot. We beat a very good team. All the people that were crying when they didn't make the tournament; they were the one that was justified to be in. They were a very, very tough team. Q. Could you talk about your defensive effort? Seemed like you got a lot of key turnovers at times where it seemed like their momentum was picking up? COACH PITINO: Austin Hollins was huge, had a couple back‑tips and got a couple big‑time steals. When we needed to get the stops, we got them. That is a very good offensive team. Like I said before, what Coach Brown does offensively, we go zone, he's got a play ready to roll and a good one. We were man; they go in back door. So they are really, really hard to guard, and I thought we made key steals when we needed to. Q. What does it mean for Elliot to have a chance to play, obviously meant a lot to the team this year, when he wasn't playing versus Florida State and you were under‑manned? COACH PITINO: Yeah, this game, we could have gone smaller than the Florida state one. We really needed Elliot. That game was ugly, the Florida State game. That was the only way we would have won. We had more odd lineups in the game, and Elliot gave us eight good minutes. He had three rebounds that were huge. You know, he wanted to tough it out. I'm proud of those guys, like Oto was injured and he was hurt. He understood that he was kind of on his last leg and he said, "You know what I just want to tough it out." Malik hit two big threes when the shot, certainly as we all know, is not falling. So it was big for all those guys. Q. Coach Brown said that Cannen Cunningham was really sick during this game but your starting center was basically out there on one leg. What concerned you the most about SMU's inside game and what did you do, you and your staff do, to compensate for Elliot's injury? COACH PITINO: We thought Markus Kennedy was a really, really good player. He's gotten in great shape. So we tried our best to dig on him. We over‑helped a couple times; they hurt us on it. More than anything, we took a couple charges, I believe stepped up, did a lot of good things on drives. We got a couple steals that we needed to. Thought we did a decent job of guarding the three, and I thought it was a team effort. Oto gave us some good minutes off the bench and Joey King gave us a lot; and Mo, he turned the ball over, but his defense probably won't show up on the stat sheet. Q. Sometimes for a first‑year coach, it's very hard‑‑ COACH PITINO: Second‑year coach. Q. Excuse me, second‑year coach, it's hard to get early success. How did you get your players to really buy into your game plan and message, everything? COACH PITINO: I think it was a mixture of a lot of things. The guys that were here, Coach Smith recruited great people, people with substance. All kids that when they are done playing basketball, are going to be very successful off the court. They all come from great family lies, they are all great representatives of the University of Minnesota. So that would be one. And then the guys that we brought in that we recruited were also similar to those guys, easy to get along with, easy to coach. Never any issues. Always showed up ready to play and really enjoyed being around each other. We had great chemistry. Q. On a personal level for you, just the timing of this title, being the year after your dad wins the NCAA title? COACH PITINO: Yeah, I mean, it's‑‑ any time you win a title, especially in year one at Minnesota, you're excited about it, and we've got great respect for this tournament. We have unbelievable respect for SMU. For the guys, like I said before, for them to walk off champions and for the guys coming back to understand what it takes to take that next step is exciting for us. I'm fired up for it and hopefully we just keep moving forward as a program. So, thank you, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|