Southern Illinoise University Athletics
SIU-Virginia Tech Post-game press conference transcript
03/18/2007 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
March 18, 2007
2007 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship
Second Round
Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
March 18, 2007
COACH LOWERY: We beat a very good team. Obviously we had a lot of seniors and kids that played a bunch of games, but I just thought our kids fought hard. We had to make a lot of adjustments from the last time we played until this time we played just for the simple fact that they play interchangeable parts and their forwards are very athletic and can really shoot and can run, so my hats off to my kids because we made adjustments in one night and they executed it to perfection.
REPORTER: Can you talk about what made your defense so effective today.
YOUNG: More like a fire just burning in everybody, we just wanted to go out and win, so with Matt Shaw being out, it was a conscious effort from everybody that came in and stepped on the court to go all out, that was our motto to keep playing hard and just go all out and we did.
REPORTER: Jamaal you were big from a big point range, what made you make so many three pointers?
TATUM: Our inside game, we got the ball to them and found us when we got trapped. We stepped it up and knocked shots down.
REPORTER: Did you guys realize you had more today than you had all season and were you consciously trying to take more or just make more because of the three point shooting by Chris?
TATUM: We have been working a lot on it this season, but it has to be there to be able to take the shot, today they double downed a lot on Randal and Tony Boyle and our inside players and we got confidence and stepped up and knocked down shots. Coach told us to keep shooting shots from far and we did that.
REPORTER: Jamaal, having played in the tournament every year since you've been here, how has that experience do you think helped you these two years?
TATUM: Well, we've been in all different types of games in the tournaments. Last year we came in the game and got beat by a very good West Virginia team. My freshmen year we were in a close game, got beat at the buzzer. We've been in several different situations and just to know that in every situation we always have a chance to win, that kind of gives you that extra edge you need down the stretch. Today we really kept on pushing and kept on pushing and stayed aggressive and we never did get past it and that's how we beat a good team like Virginia Tech.
REPORTER: Can you talk about the way you used the shot clock in the last 10 minutes? I don't think any shots went up with more than 10 seconds left and hitting those threes with two, three seconds left on the shot clock?
YOUNG: I think the biggest thing is being smart. Don't be scared to shoot the ball and don't just hold the ball, but actually work the clock and just do the things that we do, like I said, the whole year we've been working all the way down to the end of the shot clock and getting good shots up. We didn't go out and do anything different than we normally do, we just knocked them down.
REPORTER: What did you expect going out tonight without Matt?
TATUM: It's always disappointing when you don't have a starter able to play with you, but when you have somebody as good as Tony Boyle and great bench players like we do, you have a chance to go out there and compete. I don't think anyone was worried about having a different starter today, because we knew he was going to come out and play hard and right now I think our main focus is getting Matt back healthy again, hoping he gets better and gets back to a hundred percent, but right now we've got to have Tony Boyle step up big for us in other games.
REPORTER: Just talk about, did you guys go up in the stands and what was that like afterwards to see your fans there? And thank them.
TATUM: We've had a great fan base all year and we've had people travel to butler to see us play, they've been in Florida to see us play and when you have fans like that supporting you and following you, you're doing it for them also, you're doing it for your team and coaches and family, but when you have people sacrifice out of their lives to come follow you, you do it for them when you win. It was big that they came today and we thank them and are very happy they came out.
REPORTER: Jamaal, you said all week that you had confidence in Randal Falker coming back, how much does this game just prove you right?
TATUM: I don't know if it proves me right. It kind of solidifies his abilities and his skills that he has and kind of says that everybody has an off game, but they can come back from it, And that's what he did. What people don't realize is this kind of stuff has been happening all throughout the second half of the season, he's getting double teamed, tripled team and he had to adjust to it, when you're a great player, you have to adjust to it because you're going to be at the top of everyone's scouting report. So he adjusted to it the day before yesterday and today and he made good passes out of the traps. I don't think he had maybe one turnover maybe and he made good passes to a number of players and they knocked down shots.
REPORTER: The team's reputation seems to be built on defense primarily. Do you think you guys are underappreciated offensively?
MULLINS: I think that since everyone knows us for our defense and we play so hard on defense that people don't realize that we can score and we have been getting a lot better this year on offense and you can only do so much on defense, but your offense has got to take over too. I think that just showed today that we were able to knock down shots and really did a good job moving the ball and finding an open guy and a lot goes to Randal too because he was getting double and triple teamed.
REPORTER: Jamaal, about your defense, authorize those of us who don't get to see you that much, what makes your defense as good as it is, not just today, but overall through the whole season?
TATUM: I think it's just a team concept of defense. A lot of teams go out and say, I'm going to stop my man. We know if we don't, we have help. A lot of times Coach talks about not playing selfish defense, when teams get away from that then they have success, and you trust your teammates to help you if you get beat and you're not always face guarding, but you have help. I think it's just the concept of being a team on defense and just like you have to be a team on offense if you want to be a good team.
REPORTER: Tony, your coach had talked going into this game about keeping the hungry attitude and not getting satisfied. How do you guys keep that same attitude as you advance to next week?
YOUNG: It's the same situation, you just can't put limitations on your season. We know how hard we worked and we know everything we've done from early summer all the way up until today. We won't be satisfied until we can go as far as we possibly can, just go out every game and just play our hardest. Like I said, we've been here before, we know what it's like to go out in the first round, second round, we want to see what it's like to go as far as we can.
REPORTER: For Bryan, you're from up near Chicago, right? Somewhere up there?
MULLINS: Yeah.
REPORTER: People from maybe the east or south or west probably don't know what kind of basketball area Southern part of Illinois is because you guys are never on TV, how would you describe it to them, how intense is it?
MULLINS: Down in Southern Illinois? Our fans are very amazing. Basically they love basketball down there and it's a basketball community, it's a basketball town. Anywhere we walk, people notice us and they're great fans, like J. T. said, they travel with us everywhere. We love being in carbon Dale and I think carbon Dale takes great pride in having us as their basketball team too.
REPORTER: The way you play defense, do you imagine that there's a lot of high-powered offensive teams out there that do not want to play you?
YOUNG: Honestly, I don't know exactly what everybody else thinks, but we just play hard, whether people see us or not, we just are going to continue to play hard and do what we do, it's not going to stop what we do.
TATUM: I agree with Tony on that. I think some of the toughest days I've had being a basketball player has been at practice just having to go against my teammates. I know how hard our defense is because I go against it every day. It's tough. It's really tough. So offense is hard to come by when you play a good team like this, especially when we're cut in and up on our game.
MULLINS: We play so hard at practice, when we go against other team's defenses and stuff, it's easier almost because practice, there's really no out of bounds, no fouls. We just play as hard as we can at practice and make the game as easy as possible for us, so I don't know about whether other teams want to play us or not.
REPORTER: Chris, can you just talk about Randal's game, it looked like he was really locked in and just a follow-up after that, can you also talk about your own emotions during a couple of those three-pointers, it looked like you were as excited as you've been during a game when they hit those at the end of the shot clock.
COACH LOWERY: As far as Randal goes, I think the biggest thing is, when he's defending well, he's playing well, and that's what he got away from in the Missouri conference tournament, he forgot why he was one of the best players in the league, his offense starts with his defense. When you get 10, 12, assists, turnovers, one block, three steels, to snatch it up like he did, that's very impressive with some guys bigger than him. The thing most people don't realize is Randal is very cerebral on the court and a lot of times why we got wide open threes was because of Randal, the plays he made away from the ball, the way he screens in people, sometimes people just follow the ball and don't see what the other actions are. And when people say why are you holding the ball, we don't hold the ball, we're actually getting open at the end of the shot clock and our kids are very poised and we're not afraid to go to that end of the shot clock. That's how when we get a lead, it feels like it's greater margin than what it really is. So the kids played hard and what was the other question?
REPORTER: I think Tony hit a three and you pumped your leg and that's a lot stronger than you would normally be during a game, almost like you couldn't believe it yourself.
COACH LOWERY: I could believe it, I just wanted it to go in. I wanted to win, as we got closer, made more shots, I wanted them to see my emotion and them to play off of that emotion too and understand that I was with them, fighting with them, I was emotional with them. So they responded to my energy and they played even harder.
REPORTER: Chris, you talk about knowing that you can do this, but do you have to sort of work through this, work through doubts and sort of put on the strong face that, yeah, we can go out there and do this? Is there a question in your mind, how are you going into a game like this?
COACH LOWERY: This is my third time going into the Sweet 16 so I wasn't nervous. I wanted them to show what it took to get there. I knew we had the personnel, maybe it wasn't somebody we hadn't seen before, I'm not saying we knew we were going to beat them, but I wasn't nervous. They can sense when I feel a certain way and they say stuff to me and we just talked about the team and I showed them I wasn't nervous not having Matt and I showed Tony Boyle that I wasn't nervous of him having to start a game and those guys responded and came out and played that way.
REPORTER: Chris, you mentioned the poise it takes to hold the ball and get the shot you want, but your guys are very strong with the ball too. How have you taught them not only the discipline but the strength to get through a clock and have them realize you're making the defense work that whole time?
COACH LOWERY: You heard them say we don't call fouls and go out of bounds, we call it keep playing, no matter what happens, you've got to keep playing, and you've got to be tough with the ball and if somebody fouls you, you've got to be stronger than that foul. If somebody holds you, you've got to get away from that hold. If somebody does something illegal, you've got to get away from that. That's how we teach them, just to play no matter what the circumstance. That's why our kids never respond to fouls in games because it's important that they show no emotion when they get a foul called on them, because it's human nature for you to react a certain way and the ref to show you, don't act that way again, and that's why our kids act that way.
REPORTER: I'm wondering because of how well your team played today without Shaw, how much extra confidence this gives you going into the next round and percentage-wise, how likely is his return?
COACH LOWERY: I have no idea percentage-wise. What it does for confidence, it builds for the future of the Tony Boyle now knows he can play in the biggest game, on the biggest stage and be a positive contributor. That's why it's important. It's not about J. T. and Tony making all the tough shots, they're supposed to, they're seniors. It's about those younger guys. We told them to fall in line behind the seniors, let those guys lead them and you push them and that's what our other guys did. Whenever our seniors kind of falter, one of the other guys always seem to make a play, whether it be Randal, whether it be Wes, Bryan Randal, whoever came in just did a tremendous job.
REPORTER: Did more shots go in today for people who aren't familiar with seeing your team and why do you think they did if they did?
COACH LOWERY: We normally don't take that many. But they scout us and they understand who are the guys who can make shots for us and the guys that can make shots were open today, Tony and Jamaal got clean looks quite a bit. We found seams in their defense. We found ways to get guys open. We used the ball screen a lot more today than we have in the past simply because Matt Shaw is a pick and pop guy. Tony Boyle is a screen and dive guy, so we had two screen or dive guys in Randal and Tony Boyle so we used them both to make them help and make them come in and really take away from the help side so we could have kicks and we could have wide open threes.
REPORTER: Since the Missouri valley conference final, what has Randal's life been like and what was it like to see him so dominant inside today?
COACH LOWERY: He had to deal with two days of people asking him if he was sick and I dealt with it for two days saying he wasn't sick, he didn't play well. And I told him, don't use that as a crutch. And we had a closed door meeting and we talked and I had to bring him in and tell him, you've got to get over this, I mean, it's one game. You're a first team all league conference player, you're too good to let something like one bad game affect the rest of the way and after that he was fine. And I told him he better not be quiet in practice anymore, he better be talking and helping his teammates and doing the things he does and really from that point on, he's been fine. He's a good player. He commands double teams, he's passed out double teams, even on penetration those guys would stay on him because they know he's either going to finish it or make a play. He really allowed our guys to penetrate on pitches because of his presence down there.
REPORTER: Chris, what was the defensive game plan against Virginia Tech and did it work even better than you hoped?
COACH LOWERY: The same way on every other game. We don't change much. But the one thing we really had to work on was transition defense. That was the number one thing. Our half court defense is the same no matter who we play, but these guys, we really had to focus on getting guys back and not letting Deron Washington get on a highlight film and just let the electricity build with his athleticism. That was the thing we had to focus on because they're unbelievable in transition. When you watch film on them and see how quick they can change hands without really dribbling the basketball or getting a three or finishing with an unbelievable dunk, we'd only seen a couple games before Orlando and they were a totally different team. Their personnel seemed to just change by leaps and bounds. Their confidence level was unbelievable, especially in the ACC.
REPORTER: Chris, did you look at the tape of Tech's Illinois game and when you got basically into that same place as Illinois, 12-point lead, did you look at their pressure, were you kind of bracing for them to come with the press?
COACH LOWERY: We play teams that press in our league, Creighton presses the whole game, Drake presses the whole game. We were prepared for that. The way we handled the ball is at a level that we feel confident that if they did press, we were going to break it, and we were going to make them pay for it or make them foul it. We felt if we made them go to the press, that meant we were ahead. I talked about valuing the ball, being tough with the ball, tough in the trenches and obviously our kids did a very good job of it.
REPORTER: I'm wondering how much do you need Shaw back for this next game?
COACH LOWERY: Since I don't know who we're playing, I don't know. Obviously he's a very good player for us, but right now it's not for me to worry. He's a kid. We want him to be healthy and not worry about him playing basketball. He's got a great future ahead of him next year, so we're not going to rush him back and make him do something that's going to maybe deteriorate his ankle and hurt him for the long run for us next year.
COACH GREENBERG: First of all, I'm really proud of our guys. I just told our seniors that they arrived four years ago, there was no culture, there was no ownership, there was no passion. The program was void of personality and four years later there's ownership, passion, expectation and they created that. And they set a standard now that others will have to live up to and from a work ethic to an attitude to a mindset and for that I'm very grateful to have the opportunity to coach these kids. At this point obviously I'm disappointed in the outcome of the game today, that's not going to take away from how proud I am of these guys. disappointed. I say it's very, very simple, you make shots, you're willing to make shots, if you look at the history, they make 72-point field goals. You have to make more than that to win the game. We make shots. We had good looks early in the game, we didn't make them, but I have -- that's a very good basketball team, extremely well coached, tough, aggressive. We needed to react to them. They're a good basketball team. Obviously they were the better team today and they deserved to win, but that doesn't take away from what these guys have been able to do.
REPORTER: Can you talk about the effect that Southern Illinois's defense had on your team? What about it made it so tough for you guys?
GORDON: The main thing about the defense is, it's hard for you to get second chance shots and they played great defense in transition, that kind of helped out. Half court, it just seemed like we were just missing shots, we didn't turn it over so much, we were just missing shots. You have to be grateful when you play a high powered team, every time we got a stop, it just put more energy into them.
DOWDELL: I think they played great defense and anytime you drive, you can expect to be cut off by another defender, but I think we did a good job, kicking the ball out and penetrating the kicking, but just didn't make enough shots, that's pretty much what it came down to, but you really can't take anything away from them defensively.
REPORTER: Did you feel damned if you do, damned if you don't on defense, scratching your back, trying to cut off your big man, when you did that, seemed like the guard was at the three?
GORDON: It was everything outside. Like we were trying to double down, we got a great pass, but trying to find the right people, we kept moving around and sometimes we got caught looking at the ball when it was coming out, making shots, and they were taking shots at the end of the shot clock and anytime you do that, it kills you, because you have to play defense for 35 seconds and it gets kind of hard.
REPORTER: I'd ask either of the players if they thought the game kind of changed in the second half. The first half seemed wild, second half a lot of whistles and free throws. Did it seem to you like it was a different sort of game altogether?
DOWDELL: It was kind of hard getting into the flow of the game because it seemed like every time down there, they were calling a foul or stopping the play, but as a player you just have to try to play and prepare for whatever going out there and we made some shots whenever we got down there and just tried to crawl back but unfortunately we didn't come through tonight.
REPORTER: Zabian, you had a tough day, did they make things tough as shooters, defending the three pointer pretty tough there? What was that like when they were defending you guys?
DOWDELL: They have guys that do a good job of contesting shots and staying in front of the ball, and that was pretty much, you know, I think every shot we took was a tough shot and I think we made some big shots, tough shots and that's what they take pride in doing, playing defense. You have to go out there and play as hard as you can, you can't really worry about what they're doing on the other end.
REPORTER: Against Illinois, you had great success pressing them and getting back in the game, but it seemed Southern Illinois was much more difficult to press because of how good they are in the back court, can you just talk a little bit about that.
GORDON: Yeah, they were running from the ball, I heard their coach say a lot of teams press in the Big Ten, so that kind of surprised me and like you said, they've got Tatum and a couple other players, they knew we was going to press, we had to press to get back in the game so they were just making an extra pass, everybody was spreading out, they took advantage of it really.
REPORTER: Jamon, talk about how this program's come since Coach Greenberg came.
GORDON: It's changed a lot. I can still remember him coming in my first game and running out and seeing like 100 people at the game, I had more people at my high school games, more fans, and the next year we started getting more people. As the year kept going on, people wanted to see us play, not just come see who was playing. I think we did a good job of getting good recruits coming in like A. D. I think they'll have a great season with the players coming out, especially a lot of people they didn't get to see because of me and Zabian getting a lot of playing. I think they'll have a great season next year.
REPORTER: Guys, how will you remember your careers, I know it's hard to say now, but what's going to stand out in your mind, certain games or this whole season or making the NCAA, how will you remember your career at Tech?
GORDON: Right now it's hard to say because we wanted to win so bad, but I can remember playing with Zabian and being roommates with Zabian, it's kind of hard, you never know when you're going to get faced up playing a good team, but I've got a lot of good memories, man. I've got a lot of bad memories, like getting blown out, I have to tell my nieces and nephews, everything's good. It's just hard to believe it's over.
DOWDELL: We got four years and wanted to see what the tournament was like and even though we didn't do as well as we wanted to, that's a big accomplishment. And I think the young guys on the team, they appreciate this experience and will come back next year and work even harder to do better in the tournament than we did.
REPORTER: Jamon and Zabian, Jamon you mentioned how good of friends you and Zabian are, what was it emotionally for you when you came off the court together, for both of you guys, what was that kind of like?
GORDON: It was hard to believe, last time we will put on this uniform together, it's kind of hard. And wherever I may go, it's hard to believe that I can't have -- sometimes I used him as a crutch, when I didn't want to shoot as much, I just kept passing to him, but it's time to be a man on my own, I ain't going to drop any tears, but it's just hard to believe I'm not playing with him no more.
DOWDELL: I mean, I try to be macho out there and try not to get emotional, but four years is a long time, man. I wouldn't rather spend it with anybody else but Jamon. It's been a great ride. We've done a lot together. We've made some big improvements, not only personally, but as a program. It's still hard to believe that we're seniors and we'll never put that jersey on and run out there for Virginia Tech. But I think we'll look back and say we gave it all we had.
REPORTER: Seth, can you talk about the effect their defense had on you and what you were hoping to do against it and why the defense made it tough for you guys to get things going.
COACH GREENBERG: Early in the game I thought we had to get up and down, and we had some great looks, just didn't make the shots. They did a great job of closing out on the shooters, they keep it out of the post by fronting the post. I thought we moved them at times. We had scoring opportunities and we just didn't -- we didn't finish, whether it was at the rim or whether it was on a kickout or on a middle range or transition, we just didn't make shots and we could have made a couple shots early on penetration, we could have got -- with five minutes to go in the first half, we're up three, yet we had numerous scoring opportunities where we could have maybe been up six or eight, especially early on. We got four great stops to start the game and we got great looks, but we didn't finish.
REPORTER: Seth, how about all the three pointers they made, what were you hoping to do with a three-point defense, were you expecting all those three-point shots?
COACH GREENBERG: Well, we wanted to get the ball out of Falker's hands because he's so patient offensively, especially when Coleman went out. They did a nice job of getting the ball out and making the second pass and getting guys open. But we contested them. Maybe two or three might have been uncontested. I don't think in their game plan they wanted to shoot half of their shots from three-point range, I don't think that's who they are. They made shots. Obviously they made 12 threes, they made shots. We felt it was important to go and get balls out and they made us pay. And we also made some shots at the end of the shot clock, whether it was a one three one or man to man, guys came up and made shots. The guys that had to make shots for them to win today, stepped up and had 17 from the three-point line, if you do that, you're going to win and they won.
REPORTER: How much did Coleman getting in foul trouble hurt you?
COACH GREENBERG: Yeah, he hurt our chance to make a run in the second half. It was like the two halves had two different personality. The first half it was like Kung Fu fighting, the second half, they just couldn't breathe on you. That's just the way it is.
REPORTER: Can you kind of talk about how things have changed since you've been there and also talk about how the seniors improved over the years as well.
COACH GREENBERG: I'm just proud of their growth, not only as players, but as people. I mean, Jamon and Zabian coming here was culture shock. I think Chris Tucker coming from fork union and Markus Sailes, he probably has the best perspective on where the program was and where it is now than anyone. Ownership, I don't think our guys really understood the commitment you need to make to have a chance to be successful and I'm just proud of this group. I'm proud of their, I said yesterday, perseverance, resiliency, I'm not sure there are a lot of kids that could come in as freshmen without having a group of seniors to teach them how to be college athletes and be winning players and winning people, they kind of had to do it on their own. And usually your upper class men coach your younger class men. Usually your upper class men usually educate them on what's acceptable and what's unacceptable, whether it's work ethic, whether it's how to prepare for a game, whether it's to deal with coaching, whether it's to deal with playing on the road, and they really didn't have anyone to teach them how to navigate those obstacles. They kind of just figured it out and for them to figure it out and be here as seniors, having a chance to play for Sweet 16, that's one of the great things about coaching is that you can kind of see that and experience it, but I'd be lying if I didn't say wasn't going to miss them. As my daughters remind me every day, what are we going to do without Zabian and Jamon. They're kind of like a part of your family.
REPORTER: Seth, did they do anything special on defense to make it tougher on you today, and did you have to go to Lewis because Cheick was not giving you what you hoped?
COACH GREENBERG: I think A. D. had some open looks, but just didn't make it. I told him, just keep shooting the ball, you're going to make a shot, be shot ready, step in there and shoot and finish. They closed hard with their hands above the ball, they do a great job of that. I just wasn't sure he was alert enough to get to those defensive rebounds.
REPORTER: Seth, what do you like about the way they play defense?
COACH GREENBERG: I love their defense. I love their attitude. I think it's their mindset. They invade your personal space on the ball, they do a great job on the basketball. They close out on bounds so they can take away your shot in the drive. They have the ability -- they do a great job on ball screens more importantly, I think they have toughness. I thought they were tough on us in the first half, especially on the ball on penetration and I told our guys, they had to compete offensively. I think they took that at us a little bit the first half. Now, if the game was officiated the way it was in the first half the way it was in the second half, but that's just the way it is.
