March 17, 2010
San Diego State and Tennessee news conference quotes from Wednesday, March 17, 2010.
San Diego State
THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by San Diego State student athletes, Malcolm Thomas, Kawhi Leonard, D.J. Gay and Billy White.
Q. D.J., how good does it feel for you guys to get on the court and practice this morning, after the long flight yesterday and all the excitement that's happened the last couple of days?
D.J. Gay: Like you said, it's very exciting, just the opportunity to be here. We haven't been here before and just to be on the court and knowing that we're playing in the NCAA Tournament is amazing, all the excitement, all the joy that we have. We're going to be able to take it on the court and show that.
Q. D.J., when you look at coaches experience in the NCAA Tournament, how much has he helped prepare you guys for this moment since you haven't been here?
D.J. Gay: Just knowing his history, you never second guess what he tells you. He's our leader. He's our coach. So whatever he says we're all ears, our attention is always on him. When he has something to say you have to listen because he's been here before, none of us have.
Q. Malcolm, can you follow up on that?
Malcolm Thomas: Like D.J. said, we just listen to what he has to say. We believe what he has to say and we buy into what he's trying to do here, and everybody works hard in practice. We're just excited to be here. Everybody is excited.
Q. D.J., does coach Fisher ever talk to you guys or do you ever ask him about the Michigan team that won a National Championship?
D.J. Gay: He brings it up often. He brings it up often but we're a completely different team. They had an amazing team at Michigan. And like I said, we have a brand new team, brand new players, and we put it together in one season. The teams are completely different but we're trying to achieve the same things.
Q. Billy, from when you first found out on Sunday that it was going to be Tennessee, the initial instincts was they're like UNLV, they like to run. What have you learned about them since then?
Billy White: Like you said, they like to run. They like to get into the paint. They're athletic. They like to make stops. They go off the defense. That's what gives them energy. So by looking at tape that's what we learned about them.
Q. The Tennessee guys said they don't get a chance to see you a lot, playing on the West Coast. How much do you watch them on TV, because they had some national TV games during the year?
Billy White: I saw them a couple of times playing on ESPN. I saw them maybe once or twice. Other than that, just catching a couple of highlights on ESPN.
Kawhi Leonard: Me, too. I seen about one or two games. And a couple of highlights on TV. I seen them play against Kansas a little bit, that game, I caught at the practice, and that's about it.
Q. When you guys look at Coach Dutcher and what he's done for the team. Maybe he doesn't get as much credit for terms of game planning. Can you talk about your relationship with him and how he prepares for you guys to play a game, especially with a team you haven't seen or don't know much about?
D.J. Gay: Coach Dutcher, he's an easy guy to get along with, of all the coaches on the team he's the jokester of the bunch. He does a good job of getting his point across to the team. Like you say he probably doesn't get as much credit as he should. We probably wouldn't be here without him. He's kind of like our offensive coordinator, he puts in the plays for us and calls them when needed. He's played a huge role, Coach Dutcher and Coach Justin. They've both done an amazing job for this program.
THE MODERATOR: Now joined by Coach Steve Fisher. Opening comments Coach.
Steve Fisher: I hope I'm echoing what our players said. We're very privileged, excited to be here. We look forward to representing ourselves, our program and the University in a similar fashion. We know we've got a great opponent in the University of Tennessee but we will play hard and play smart and play together and we're anxious to take the court.
Q. Bruce was mentioning that he remembered sitting with you in gyms when you were Big Ten assistants. Can you talk about those days going after the same guys?
Steve Fisher: We rarely got a guy that Bruce Pearl wanted. He is a protege, obviously, of Dr. Tom Davis. I'm going to count the bounce passes that they throw, when they go through warm ups, that's what Dr. Tom used to do. I think there's a real kinship in assistant coaches when you go anywhere. And when they become head coaches you pull for them. So we've done that. I've done that with Bruce Pearl, from the moment he took his first head job, and then went to Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and now Tennessee. I'm not surprised with the success he's had. He's smart. He's a very, very hard worker, tremendous motivator, and he was that way as an assistant. He was very involved, very active, and you could tell that he was a head coach in waiting, so I'm not surprised with what he's done. And I wouldn't say that we're guys that talk on the phone every month. But when we see one another, we spend time to reminiscing a little bit and talk and catch up, and I've got great respect for him.
Q. Could you kind of depict how it is for you now going into the NCAA Tournament maybe compared to what it was like when you first came to the tournament as head coach in Michigan and thereafter with those great teams, is it just as exciting?
Steve Fisher: If you don't get excited when you walk out there for an NCAA Tournament game, it doesn't matter who you are or where you are, then you don't belong in the business. I am itching, jumping out of my skin to get another opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament, as are our kids and our fans and our community. We don't have quite the history that our opponent does, but we have a great awareness of what this tournament is all about. The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament is the finest sports spectacle that there is in the world and we're a part of it. Before every season you set short and long term goals, and the long term goal is to get here. And everybody strives for it and not everybody gets here. And we're here, so we're extremely excited to be a part of the field. It doesn't matter who you play, what seed you are, or where you play, you go in expecting to win.
Q. What was practice like this morning? Were the kids pretty antsy, were they relaxed, were they happy to be back on the court after a pretty long travel day, just take me through how that was like?
Steve Fisher: You want an honest answer? We were sluggish in practice today, and maybe part of that was me. I didn't want to do a whole lot of full contact, 100 percent and I think it led to kind of dragging ourselves through practice. And I never get too caught up in what that might mean in terms of the next day. We are going to be excited to play and anxious to play.
Q. If you could just talk about Leonard. His numbers speak for themselves, but if you could just talk about him compared with some other grates you've had. Also when you look at Tennessee, what J.P. Prince does for them, their small forward?
Steve Fisher: Kawhi was a terrific basketball player. He was player of the year in the State of California. Came in with a lot of hype. Most of the time when they come in with that value, they don't measure up. But Kawhi has measured up. He was a competitive guy who early on was feeling his way around and it doesn't take him long to say I belong here, I can play here. I don't want you to get overly caught up in all his rebounding numbers, because he's the best offensive rebounder of his own missed shot that I've ever had. So he sometimes gets three rebounds on two misses that he's had. But he can rebound the ball. He can rebound the ball special he's got huge hands and is fiercely competitive. Prince, I remember him when he was at Arizona and loved him then. He is tenacious. He will guard the opponent's best wing player. He's giving of himself for the team and he's a winner. He's a terrific basketball player that any coach and any program should feel honored to have.
Q. Talk a little bit about D.J. Gay, he's averaging almost 35 minutes a game, more than that lately and what he's meant to this team?
Steve Fisher: For the benefit of those that have not followed us or don't know that much about us, we graduated five seniors, four of whom started last year, and the catalyst for that team was our point guard, Richie Williams. We knew we had good players coming in, our fans knew that. And the worry that all our fans had were who's going to play point guard. What are we going to do without Richie. And D.J. Gay has turned into being our most important player, even though he doesn't lead us in scoring, he's our most important player. In the tournament in Vegas he played 40 minutes, 40 minutes and 39 minutes in the three games. In the semifinal game I believe he had 7 assists and no turnovers. He's unafraid to take an important shot and he's everything, again, that I mentioned with Prince, any coach in the country would love to have D.J. Gay. He came out of high school as one of the leading scorers in the State of California. And he's made a transformation from a guy that thinks score every time he gets it to a guy now thinking what can I do to set someone else up to score. But he can score the ball when needed and when available. He's very, very important to us.
Tennessee
THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Tennessee student athletes, Bobby Maze, Wayne Chism, J.P. Prince, Scottie Hopson and Brian Williams.
Q. It's been kind of an emotional season and a lot of things that went on in terms of personnel starting with Emmanuel in the beginning. Can you talk about the road it's been to get here this year, being a little different?
WAYNE CHISM: It hasn't been different. We kept our minds straight on what we wanted to do this season, even though we had them on our mind of what things were happening this season, but we kept our heads straight and we stayed focused and competed.
BOBBY MAZE: Well, everything we believe everything happened for a reason. Emmanuel Negedu and the situation was difficult for all of us because he was like our brother. But he's still with us now. And he's one of the reasons why we are inspired to win this thing.
Q. Wayne, big factor going into this game, the maybe trouble at times you guys have had with the rebounding end of things and that's what San Diego State does best is gets their misses. Is that something you guys have addressed in the couple of days leading up to this match up and what you looked at on tape?
WAYNE CHISM: They are a good rebounding team and so are we. We come out and are prepared for any team. Rebounding wins championships, that's why this team has been focused on defending and rebounding, so that's our thing to rebound and defend.
Q. J.P., you look like you'd be the natural match up for Leonard, he seems to be their best player. You've gone up against a lot of great players, what do you see out of him when you look at him on tape?
J.P. PRINCE: He's a tough physical guy, he rebounds off the glass real well. He's better from 2 than 3. It's a match up I'm looking forward to. He's a tough guy. He's All Conference in their league. It's something I'm looking forward to. And I can't wait.
Q. It doesn't seem like it's a shock for anybody anymore, you've gone up against a lot of great freshmen and here's another one. Is it tough to believe at times that he's playing so well as a freshman?
J.P. PRINCE: No, coming to college as a freshman they're well prepared, summer workouts and stuff, and AAU basketball has advanced now. I'm not surprised that a freshman is successful. We've had freshmen that are successful, so it doesn't really shock me.
Q. Just from the outside Bruce seems like such a colorful personality, would you talk about what it's like playing for him?
SCOTTY HOPSON: Well, Coach Pearl is more than a coach to us, he's like a father figure to all of us. He's always enthusiastic. He's a great guy to play for. I love the interaction with him. He's always giving advice, teaching us and helping us in any type of way, so it's great to play for coach.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: What Scottie said, his enthusiasm goes off on his players, and it gets us hyper, because he's a hyper coach. He gets us rowdy and he's a great motivator.
Q. Would you ever take him clothes shopping with you?
BOBBY MAZE: What exactly do you mean by clothes shopping? The jacket that he wears on the big games or just overall?
Q. Either, just general fashion sense.
BOBBY MAZE: No, I can't take him clothes shopping with me, I think that would be a violation (laughter.)
Q. The 3 point shooting difficulties have been pretty well documented over the last five or ten games. Did you guys come in and pay immediate attention to this arena do you have any idea or feel for how things might go in Providence as compared to Nashville?
BOBBY MAZE: One thing I learned as a shooter is not to worry about your last miss, worry about your next make. Right now it doesn't matter what happened in the past shooting wise because, it's 0 0. One game and you go home. You better be prepared to knock down the 3's and knock down the shots that you take.
SCOTTY HOPSON: I'm looking for an opportunity to get another chance to play basketball like I know how to play. I'm looking forward to making shots for my teammates and helping win this game for us.
Q. Before you saw San Diego State's name on the bracket, had any of you guys seen them play at all?
WAYNE CHISM: Actually we haven't seen those guys play. We heard a lot about them. When we seen our name pop up and their name pop up, it's going to be a good game, because that's a great team we're going to be going up against.
BOBBY MAZE: Most of the time we've never been on the West Coast schedule. Sometimes their games come on at 10, 11 o'clock at night. And by that time, night night (laughter.)
Q. San Diego State has sort of been the popular upset pick when you look at the brackets, a lot of experts are saying this is the 11 that's going to win. What do you guys think when you hear something like that?
J.P. PRINCE: Well, us as players, I don't think we pay much attention to that, because there's no real thing as an expert. We've seen them make right picks and we've seen them make wrong picks. You can't take much of it. If everybody picked, the higher seeds would just advance, and there wouldn't be no point in having this tournament. I don't think it matters what an analyst says. We as players come out, we know if we do what we're supposed to do we have a good chance to win this game.
THE MODERATOR: Now joining us, Coach Bruce Pearl. Any opening comments, Coach Pearl.
COACH PEARL: We're very excited about being in Providence and competing in the NCAA Tournament. I've got so many unbelievable memories of being in the NCAA Tournament. Boston College as a student assistant. And then being at the University of Iowa and having the great fortune of advancing at Iowa in our early years deep into the tournament and getting a game from the Final Four.
And I think sometimes when you're young you just don't appreciate how special it is, or how close you actually got. And I mentioned BC, because obviously this is close to home for me, this is where I grew up. And I'm still a huge Red Sox fan and Patriots fan and Celtics fan and Bruins fan. I've got great respect of the early days of ECAC and Boston College and UCONN and I remember being in this building when it first opened up with Marvin Barnes and Ernie DiGregorio and growing in right down the road and having this as a huge basketball, a place where college basketball was respected in New England when that really wasn't the case.
There wasn't much perception of college basketball. So just excited to be here. I want to try to have my team feel the exact same way. This is special. And it doesn't take many wins to become incredibly special because you win a game and have to half the field is gone. You win a game, half the other field is gone, the next thing you know you're there.
Our team has worked hard, been resilient this year, and dealt with a lot of adversity to be able to find ourselves in this position.
Q. Since you were an assistant coach at Iowa at the time, I wonder if you have memories of Michigan's run with Steve Fisher. As an assistant, were your pulling for him because he had gone from assistant to head coach?
COACH PEARL: Yeah, because assistants, we have sort of a bond among ourselves when we go recruit in different gymnasiums, we sit together and the head coaches usually sit together sometimes. Steve was an assistant at Michigan, and he was a guy that, back then, had been around a little bit longer than me. So he was one of the assistant coaches that I always kind of looked up to and hung around a little bit to find out what gyms he was going into, especially when I was recruiting in the Michigan area. And a really, really good guy.
And so you were happy that he got that opportunity because he was such a good person. And then I didn't know what kind of coach he was. I don't think anybody really could know. But you found out in a hurry how good a coach he was. Not only with that team but with the teams subsequent to those years. I think as Michigan would look back at Bill Frieder and Steve, those are some pretty good days at Michigan.
I think days that they would like to have back. And I could tell you from watching the San Diego State teams, there's a reason why he's been at San Diego State for 11 years and he's been there longer than anybody in that league. There's been a lot of turnover in his league over the years, and I can see why, because he wins. And they do really, really good stuff. I've enjoyed watching his team play.
Q. You talked about the resilience of this team. Have you ever had a season where you have been forced to be this resilient or perhaps to coach and adjust on the fly as much as you have this year?
COACH PEARL: No. When you get down to six scholarship players and three walk ons and you're playing Charlotte and Ole Miss and you really don't know what you have, it's January 2nd and all that you've done in the preseason, all that you've done in the offseason, the whole way that you've built your team is now maybe going to change course, but one of the things that we do in coaching is we try to prepare our players to handle adversity.
We also try to remind our young people that when it's not going your way and you're not getting the playing time you want to get, and I'm talking about the 10th and 11th and 12th man, don't think about transferring some place else and go some place else and find yourself in the same situation, but do something about it and stay ready, because I promise you your opportunity is going to come. Will you be ready? And I think guys like Renaldo Woolridge and Kenny Hall were two of those guys that responded immediately.
And then the walk ons, Josh Bone, Skylar McBee and Steven Pearl went from and Josh and Steven's case, not playing hardly at all to be in the regular rotation and making plays. I'm proud of those kids because they've got something they've accomplished at a very high level that we wouldn't be here without them. And they know it and the rest of our guys know it. And then when guys came back, as they came back, I thought our fans I think our athletic administration did a wonderful job dealing with the situation and supporting the student athletes on both sides of the equation, the guys that got in some trouble and the guys that remained.
And being able to do the best we could with both of them. And that helped when the guys came back. And we welcomed them back, and then they ultimately made us a better basketball team.
Q. You said you really enjoyed watching San Diego State on film. What about their style of play do you like watching and also who could you compare them to, have you seen another team this season that you could kind of compare how they are?
COACH PEARL: They're one of the more athletic teams in the country. The Mountain West Conference has got as many teams in the dance as the SEC. They come in really prepared. When you go to BYU and you go to Vegas and go to some of the places, UNLV that they've got to be, it's like us going to Lexington or Florida. They're prepared. And they're not going to be so much intimidated by the SEC athlete size. They see it on a regular basis in that league.
They're athletic, but yet they're very under control. They understand their roles. The coach puts them in positions they understand. Like every individual we know what they can do. We know what they can't do. And you don't see their players oftentimes doing things they can't do.
So from that standpoint I enjoy it. I enjoyed the offensive spacing. And then defensively and their tenacity rebounding the ball. They make 40 percent of their shots, and they rebound 46 percent of their misses. It's a nice combination. And they can't make it, they go get it. And they go get it, they're ferocious about us about it. We've got to do a great job of checking it out.
If we don't physically check them out they will physically fly around us and over us and through us and rebound the offensive glass. Their first shot offense is good. Their second shot offense is outstanding.
Q. The U.S. Education Secretary came out today and says he does not believe that basketball programs that do not graduate 40 percent of their players should be allowed to play in the postseason. On the list they put out was Tennessee. Can I get your reaction to that?
COACH PEARL: We are very disappointed and apologetic in many, many ways to be on that list. I've been at Tennessee for five years. We've made progress every year. Our numbers are much better than they were. They're not where I want them to be. I want to graduate them all. Every player that has stayed with me for four years, and I've only been there five years, okay, graduated. And I'm going to continue all I can do is control what I have. That percentage was, as it was a historical study. And we do a much better job in other sports. We do an amazing job with our women. We will improve on that number and we have.
I have three seniors this year, two are graduating on time. And one will graduate after another semester. I get concerned about a flat number, 40 percent, 39 percent, 41 percent. There are lots and lots of rules in place now where scholarships are being taken, the APR, where there is a tremendous benefit for schools to graduate their players.
I also don't mind reminding the Secretary that one of the greatest disservices that take place in our country is the difference in secondary education. I'll take you to any state. I'll show you a college campus looking high school with computers and laptops and state of the art technology. I'll take you to the rural areas and inner city areas, they don't have half the resources, because the way schools are funded through property taxes. If he wants to fix it, fix it at the high school level, at the middle school level, at the elementary school level.
I share. I'm an educator, I'm a teacher, I share the pain in not having student athletes graduate. But I don't want to deny the opportunity to students that aren't prepared. And I'm going to stand up here and I'm going to fight for the student athletes that come in and aren't as prepared. We want to do the very best job we can to graduate him.
His problems in this country, in our educational system, lie elsewhere.
Q. Talking to some of your players, they say how personally invested you are in their lives. With that in mind, how difficult was the episode in early January to deal with all of that?
COACH PEARL: Are you a dad?
Q. No.
COACH PEARL: When you will be, you'll enjoy most of it. One of the things you'll find difficult will be when you have to discipline your children and have to do the things that are required. I e mailed Tyler the other day, he's over in Turkey, he's played two games, averaged 17 points in each game. And maybe he was surprised to hear from me, but, no, he's not, not really.
When we get him back and we'll graduate him in a few years, when he gets done. It was tough. But at the same time, we are in a very public situation. And so therefore when we don't graduate them at the right percentage we've got to be accountable, we don't have the right numbers, we've got to be embarrassed by it. And when we step out of line, the opportunity to play is a privilege. Tyler understood that. He made a mistake. The crime didn't fit the punishment. The punishment was pretty severe. He wasn't on his way to commit a crime, he made a bad decision. But it's a statement to the next guy that's thinking it's okay.
It's not acceptable to have weapons on your possession. Kids on college campuses have said, as they've had their own self discipline, we don't want it. And therefore it's something that we had to do.
And then the other guys, the other guys appreciate also the patience that the University accepted with them and their mistakes and working really, really hard to do more positive things and bring some success to the University. Okay, we've dealt with this adversity. What's the best thing we can do? Let's play great basketball. Let's take care of our business off the floor. Let's do great things, like we've been doing. So at some point they'll be saying positive things about Tennessee and our athletics program.
Q. Let me preface this statement by saying President Obama picked you guys to win. San Diego State has sort of been adopted by the national prognosticators that they're the upset special. Is that motivation for you guys? On the flip side, you've been here five years straight, is that the kiss of death, when everybody says you're the upset special?
COACH PEARL: No, they've advanced in the postseason. They advanced in the NIT last year. They've watched us on tape. We've seen some good things. We've watched them on tape. We've seen some good things. We respect the players. I don't think that would be the issue. I think President Obama overwhelmingly carried the State of California. He doesn't need to be concerned there. He didn't carry Tennessee. It's all political, you know. He's a smart man. He's a really smart man. I don't know whether he's smart in his pick, but politically smart.
I think it's really neat that he's willing to do the brackets and piss half the people off. I think it's great. The game's going to be played out there on the floor. My anticipation, it's going to be a close game, because of the quality of the teams. And the seeding if you look at the midwest, and if you look at the 6 11 or 7 10 or 8 9, they're close games, they really are. And we're going to have to play well to win. If we play well we'll win. If we don't play well or very well, we won't win, they're that good.
Q. What's been your focus as far as your team coming into this, all the different facets you've covered throughout the growth of this team, what's been the focus in these last few days leading up to this?
COACH PEARL: We try to do the same things. We try to keep a continuity about the way we travel, about our routines, about our practices. The media and the meetings, you've got to be here and there and the dress code, that stuff is a little different, but we've been here before so we've been through that. But we try to keep things as normal. Film sessions normal. Now, the late tip is not something we're not used to a 10:00 tip or 9:45 tip. But part of it is we understand what San Diego State is going to do because what they do is what they do, and it's not complicated. It's excellent.
But for me, I think if you're asking about anything different, we've got to focus on what we do. We've got to get doing it. And our guys have to have a clear understanding of where we might have an advantage and where we have disadvantages and to go to our advantages and stay away from where we don't have advantages. And it would really, really help if we could make a few shots. That would really help our chances to win.