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NCAA MEN'S 3RD & 4TH ROUND REGIONALS: ATLANTAMarch 23, 2006John BradyGlen DavisDarrel MitchellTyrus ThomasATLANTA, GEORGIA MODERATOR: We'll start with a brief overview from Coach Brady. COACH JOHN BRADY: Well, I thought a couple things without looking at a stat sheet. I thought that people were talking about match-ups. And what I wanted our team to think about was certain players will be assigned to certain players, but unless we guarded Duke collectively as a team, and everybody carried out at assignment that they had, we weren't going to be able to guard them effectively for 40 minutes. But that may have been the best defensive effort that we have had or that I've seen one of my teams have. We knew we had to not let J.J. Redick get in the offense. We were going to double team him. Follow him around, around the double screens that they set for him coming out of the lane. We got good hedge, if there was ever any doubt that J.J. was going to break clean, we were going to run somebody else at him, even if it allowed two people to guard him and somebody else go free. Garrett Temple did a wonderful job, but other players also did a wonderful job of carrying out the plan. Shelden Williams came at us a little bit and had some success and at about the 10 minute mark of the second half, we went to what we call or red defense, started doubling him every time he caught the ball. And we kind of eliminated some of his effectiveness the last eight or 10 minutes. He got in a little foul trouble and we tried to go with Glen to make it more difficult for him to play the game. We also thought late in the game we could continue to advance the ball up the floor quickly and try to get some easy baskets. And we did get a couple in transition. Which was good for our players to be able to do. I thought that offensively we were good enough, but I thought defensively and in terms of rebounding the ball it was as fine an effort as I've ever had a team play. MODERATOR: All right. Your student-athletes are Glen Davis and Darrel Mitchell and Tyrus Thomas. And we'll start questions for any or all student-athletes. Q. Darrel, they went up five, they missed a free throw, they kicked it out to Redick and he missed a three. You hit a three. A six point swing. Do you remember that part of the game? How big do you think your shot was? DARREL MITCHELL: It was real big. It got us back to where we were and our intensity level. We knew they was going to give us a good punch and we wanted to fight through, and that shot got us going again. And it was just one of those things when Glen was in foul trouble, Tyrus was in foul trouble and somebody else had to step up and me being the senior leader, I wanted to step up and do that. Q. Darrel, what have you said to Garrett about the defense, I know it was a collective effort but a lot of times he was isolated and J.J. pretty much and the defensive effort he put forward. DARREL MITCHELL: What did I tell him? I told him he gets the game ball for the night. Regardless of who scored the ball or who did what, he gets the game ball. He held J.J. to nine points. He's the second leading scorer in the country and for him to hold J.J. to nine points, it just shows how important he is to this team and how special he is. He may not get the recognition and things that he should get, but tonight showed and I'm glad he was able to step up on the stage and show it tonight. Q. Tyrus, on the run-out that you had against their press, did you know you were going to the basket or was that a called play or did you just say, I'm not going to hold back on this? TYRUS THOMAS: Well, we were in the double bonus so the objective was to get fouled but I saw an open lane so I took it. And I just scored the ball. Q. For all three, Tasmin is not up there with you, but I'm going to ask you about two plays, he knocked the ball lose on one end when Duke had it and then got the offensive rebound at the end. Can you talk about would you guys be sitting up there talking about a win if Tasmin doesn't make those two plays? TYRUS THOMAS: Everybody contributes to the team's victory and Tasmin is a vital part of winning. He plays relentless and like everyone else and if it wasn't for him we probably wouldn't be sitting up here talking about a victory. So I'm just glad to have that kind of player on my team. DARREL MITCHELL: He's just one of those guys that you may not recognize throughout the game, but at key points in time he'll step up and make a big shot like you said. Grab rebound, and he may not be up here, with us talking about this game, but he also was a big key to our win tonight. Q. For the players, describe your emotions in beating a team like Duke in this game. GLEN DAVIS: It feels real good. All the hard work in the off-season that we have done and just this team as a whole. I'm just so proud of us. The chemistry that we have. To beat Duke, they're a great team. And that just shows a lot about our team. And what kind of character we have. So it feels good, but now it's over. Now it's another task at hand. DARREL MITCHELL: It's a good win like he said. The hard work that we did this summer and coming into this season, that's what we worked for, to get to this point and play teams like Duke. And for us to get this win, it just shows our hard work has paid off and like he said, the game is over and we have another big one Saturday. TYRUS THOMAS: I feel the same. Duke's a team that everyone either wants to play for or against. And tonight we showed good character by going down and against the crowd that was really wasn't with us and we came back. And we showed a lot of character and we won. And it feels good to beat Duke. Which is a great basketball program, but like they said, we have to just come back tomorrow and go back to work and get ready for the next game Saturday. Q. The last 60 seconds that you had three or four rebounds, three or four points, talk about how those last 60 seconds felt for you. GLEN DAVIS: Well, they were slow. If things didn't go my way today, they didn't, and I've been put in multiple situations like that. When the ball is not bouncing my way and I just wanted to do something, and that's what I was saying to myself, I just wanted to do something to turn the game around, to help out the team. And at that moment I seen the opportunity where I can get a rebound and I went and got it. Twice. (Laughter.) Q. Tyrus and also Glen, you kind of answered this a little bit, but can you tell me, you struggled in the first half, only played 10 minutes because of foul trouble, what was running through your mind at the half and what did you think you had to do in the second half to get back in the game and help your team? TYRUS THOMAS: I got in foul trouble but Darnell Lazare, he played a great part today and we couldn't have won without him. So you know my main thing was just to come back in the game and play smart and hard. Just to play hard. Just to come back in the game, play smart and play hard and stay out of foul trouble. DARREL MITCHELL: He told me, we had to play out of our heads right now. And I think we did. We adapted to the situation really, really well. And without Darnell and those role players, Magnum Rolle, we wouldn't be sitting up here today. Q. What do you have to do to stay in the game when you get in foul trouble? GLEN DAVIS: Basically kind of put my mind at ease, because I wanted to do something so bad, I was rushing everything and so that fourth foul kind of humbled me down and really put me in my place to deliver for the team. And my main thing was teammates was just telling me to play smart, play smart and we got your back. So they did a great job of helping me and encouraging me to stay out of foul trouble. MODERATOR: Last question for our student-athletes. Q. Darrel, can you talk about one of the teams that you could face now is West Virginia. You guys played them earlier. Can you tell me what you remember about that game? DARREL MITCHELL: They got that difficult 1-3-1 zone and that's going to be a challenge for us, but I think that we handled it well early in the season and I think that now if we do have to play them, we'll be able to adjust more now than we did then, because we adjusted to each other as a team now and we know each other as well as brothers. But regardless of who we play, we have to come out because it's going to be a tough game Saturday. MODERATOR: Thank you. We'll excuse our student-athletes and then go with Coach Brady. Q. Can you just talk about your emotions as you were watching the free throw shooting at the end and if you sort of felt like it was going to work out your way when you kept getting the rebounds off of second shots? COACH JOHN BRADY: Well, I didn't really make a comment or thought the game was over until the nine second mark on the clock. That's when I realized that we were going to win the game. I was too wrapped up in making sure we found Redick in case the ball came off or we were going to our five switch defense, where we switched everything and we were going to still double team Redick on the ball screen, but switch every other kind of screen on anybody else. So I was making sure our players understood that, regardless of whether we made the free throw or not. But at the nine second mark, I felt good about winning the game, but I never looked at that this was a benchmark for our program or a benchmark for me as a coach or a benchmark for our players or are they good enough, I didn't view this game like that. I knew it was a big game, it was a Sweet 16 game, and regardless of what would have happened, I feel good about myself, our team and what we have accomplished. But this just adds to a really outstanding season that we have been able to put together. And the thing that really makes me feel best about it is there were times the second half we had four freshmen on the floor. We start three freshmen, Glen Davis is a sophomore, we come off the bench with two freshmen and a junior. And that's what really makes me most proud is our team has developed to the point where it has the poise to beat a program and a team like Duke in this setting and also being very young at the same time. Q. How many options did you consider on how y'all wanted to try and defend Redick or did you pretty much know from the start that Garrett was going to be the guy? COACH JOHN BRADY: I said all that stuff in the paper about maybe we'll guard Tasmin with Mitchell on him or Darrel Mitchell. That was all -- I didn't mean that. We were going to guard Garrett on him from the beginning. Because those other teams and coaches read the paper a little bit, I think. So I said all those things, but it was Garrett Temple guarding him from the jump. We were going to double team him on ball screens and not let him get a comfort zone of coming off the screen with the ball. We were going to bump him every time he tried to go through the lane. Garrett was going to play on one side to not let him come out his comfort zone side and then change and play on the other side and play from behind him and he had a great amount of help with that by the way we hedged him and doubled him. And we did that. Really the unique thing about it, you know, you can play good defense, but when you can play good defense aggressively as we did without fouling, I think that's a key. Glen and Tyrus got in foul trouble a little bit, but certainly to defend them I think that was Duke's lowest point total of the season, certainly it was J.J. Redick's lowest or maybe Georgetown held him to single digits this year and they did a great job. We watched that tape three or four times. But to guard effectively for an extended period of time without fouling is really significant for a team to be able to do as aggressively as we tried to do it tonight and I was proud of our team for being able to do that. Q. Can you talk about Magnum and Darnell and just how important they were for this game? COACH JOHN BRADY: Well, every successful basketball team throughout the season has to have quality play from its bench. Our bench is not extremely deep as all of you know from watching our team, but certainly Magnum Rolle has improved and is getting better and better every time he plays. The only thing that Magnum needs is some strength. And I've said this before, Magnum Rolle is on the same path as Tyrus Thomas, there's no doubt in my mind that after a spring and summer in the weight room, Magnum Rolle is on the same upward path that Tyrus Thomas was on last year. But nobody saw it because Tyrus Thomas was a redshirt freshman. Darnell Lazare is as valuable to our team as anyone. And even as valuable as Darrel dare or Glen Davis because if he didn't play as well as he did the first half, scored some baskets, defended well, executes because he's an experienced player on our team, we certainly wouldn't have been in position we were in the second half to have an opportunity to win it. Q. Regarding Tyrus's play, how much do you think the blocked shots and the broken up lobs and things really disrupted Duke and even demoralized them? COACH JOHN BRADY: Well, a couple -- coupled with the way we defended J.J. and the way we doubled Shelden Williams at the end, and in addition to what you just said, the blocked shots, that's difficult for a team to handle. That is something you don't coach. That's something that you recruit. There's two ways to play this, you coach them and you recruit them and then you recruit them and you coach them. And Tyrus Thomas has a wonderful gift of having the timing to block shots and he does help our defense a great deal, it allows us to maybe put a little more pressure in the perimeter, do a few things off of a ball screen to double J.J. Redick and let Tyrus roam the middle and protect the basket. He certainly gives us an added dimension that some teams don't have. Q. Talk about really the first seven, eight minutes of the game. You played even to the first TV timeout and I think you guys got ahead, with your young team, how much did that help their confidence and what as it went on? COACH JOHN BRADY: You're exactly right about that. We knew early on that Duke was going to come out and try to pressure us and not intimidate us, I don't like using that term, but really do what they do best and pressure and get in passing lanes and get easy baskets. But our team was able to fight through that and we scored some easy baskets on them. And we did a nice job of handling the first five to seven, eight minutes of the game. And it was really important for that to happen because we came into that TV timeout with a lot more confidence because we were able to fight them off because that's something that our coaches and myself told our team that guys, the first five, six, seven minutes they're going to really come at you, try to get you on your heels, and if we can work through that, and stay even, then certainly we'll be in good shape. And I think that's kind of what happened. The tone was set and I think they knew they were in for a contest tonight. And that was something that was important and our team was able to do it and you're exactly right for noticing that. Q. I wonder if you can just talk about the way you guys played defense tonight. You held them to the lowest field goal percentage and really got after them. Just a comment about how you guys played defensively overall. COACH JOHN BRADY: Well, it was the best defensive effort I've had a team play. But I've been at LSU for nine years now and if you look back, most of the teams that I put on the floor have been in the top three in field goal percentage defense, we have been a good rebounding team ever since I been there. We were -- Florida beat us one tenth of a percentage point in having the best field goal defensive team in the SEC this year and that league is pretty athletic as you saw our team. So we have always put a premium on defending and rebounding the ball. Tonight on this stage obviously everybody takes more notice of it and I'm happy for that, for our players, but it's really something that we have stressed since I've been there. This team is able to do it a little bit better because Garrett Temple is a rangey guy with good feet that's extremely smart defensively, well beyond his freshman years. Darrel Mitchell is awfully quick. Tasmin Mitchell is the most mature freshman I have ever coached. And then you put Glen on the floor with the length of Tyrus Thomas, you have the makings of a nice defensive team. And all I've done is just tried to guide them in the right way, get them to play hard, they responded to that and I think that's why we're able to do that tonight. But I think the way we guarded Duke had something to do with it, along with the quality of the athlete that I'm fortunate enough to coach. MODERATOR: That will do it. Thank you, Coach. COACH JOHN BRADY: Sure.
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