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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: RALEIGHMarch 21, 2008Ray BarbosaRandy MonroeDarryl ProctorRALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA COACH MONROE: I was very proud of my guys' efforts today. I thought we played extremely hard. Through away some shots that didn't go down. Wasn't meant to be. But you can't take away from the effort that these guys played with today, and I'm just elated with this team. We did so many wonderful things this year, and these guys made history, too. So I'm extremely proud of that, and looking for more greater things to come at UMBC. Q. In the second half, do you feel like you guys wore down a little bit just with their depth and size and length, and have you ever played against a team as athletic as that this season? RAY BARBOSA: Georgetown is a great team and they do well on the backcourt and they run down all those screens, and I thought we did well down the stretch. Roy Hibbert is 7-2 and did a great job of keeping the ball high and just keeping people involved. Q. Just wanted to ask Darryl, can you talk a little about what it's like to play a team that's maybe a level above the teams you've played before, and do you guys feel that you've played well and played up to the level of competition? DARRYL PROCTOR: Yes, I think we played up to the level. It's just some shots that didn't fall for us that we usually take. Like Ray said, they are a great team and they work well together. I believe we have played similar teams, but Georgetown, they have good size and athletic wings and great guards. Q. For Ray, does this diminish at all what you have accomplished this season? Right now it's probably hard because you've just experienced a loss, but do you think this takes away from what you guys did? RAY BARBOSA: Definitely not. We made history. We were the first team at UMBC to go to the Big Dance. We played hard. Georgetown, they just came in and they did a good job on their halfcourt sets. They took their team and this is a team that's going to be probably in the Final Four this year, and it's just one of those things where they just came out, they made shots and we didn't. Q. I wanted to ask both Ray and Darryl, to people who don't have a sense of your campus, what will this mean to your school, to your students, to getting more attention to the academics and other things there? DARRYL PROCTOR: Definitely by playing this season, that put us on the map and more people will come out and support the basketball team and just enjoy coming to the school. RAY BARBOSA: It's definitely going to put our campus on the upbeat. We came out, you know, we're good guys. We showed campus love. We come out and we go around campus talking about basketball, and it's going to be a good time. Q. Defensively for you guys, were they the most athletic team you guys have faced defensively this year? It seemed sometimes you thought passes were there and they just stretched their arm out of nowhere? RAY BARBOSA: Definitely one of the most athletic teams we've played, DaJuan Summers and Patrick Ewing, Jr., guys that can play on the wing, they can run 3s, they're offensive rebounders, and they just do a great job playing defense. Them guys are the X-factors on their team. If they get going, they are going to struggle. Q. For Darryl, do you think if you guys had played your A Game, really your best game maybe the way you played against Hartford in the conference championship, that you could have overcome Georgetown's size and athleticism today? DARRYL PROCTOR: Yes, I believe we can because if we're playing at the level that we are capable of playing, we can play anybody. Q. You guys both came in here looking for that opportunity to win, and now you guys have come together, what did it mean coming in here and doing what you wanted to do coming into the school? DARRYL PROCTOR: It was a goal we set at the beginning of the season and we are very proud of what we have accomplished this whole year, and nobody can take that away from us. Q. You always refer to Jay as the straw that stirs the drink; the key for you guys, the key that runs the engine, the engine runs the car; is this the team that's done the best job this season of shutting him down? COACH MONROE: I think they were very good in terms of focusing on Jay. As Ray alluded to in the interview, they are very long, very rangy, very athletic, quick, and they are deceptive. They layoff in the lane and they watch passes being passed around and they shoot the gaps very well. They are a terrific basketball team. I wish them very well. I hope they go all the way. I hope they go all the way now. I don't want to put any pressure on John, but he's done a terrific job with that basketball team, and I hope they go all the way, I really do. Q. I know it's never easy to end the season with a loss, but can you put this season into perspective and what it's meant to you and this program, and how do you build upon that for the future? COACH MONROE: I can't be more proud of a group of young men. These young men fought hard all year, and gave absolutely everything they had. They took me on a fantastic ride, and I can't tell you how good I feel about what has been accomplished. Nothing can dampen this, not a loss in the NCAA Tournament can take away what was accomplished this year at UMBC. I think we brought a lot of people together from the university, administrators, faculty, staff, young people within a community, the Baltimore area, it has been terrific this year. If you look at our game today, you can see a tremendous crowd there, black and gold and people just so proud, and that's how I felt, just looking over there across from our bench looking at the supporters that we had today; that just made me feel even more proud of UMBC and what we were all about. Q. And then also, how can you take this season and build towards the future now? COACH MONROE: Well, I think we have four of our five starters coming back next year, so these young men will be chomping at the bit. We'll take some time off just to regroup, but we'll get back in the swing of things in the spring. I think what we can do to learn from this experience is to be in this situation -- I know that I have a group of guys that want to be able to come back this situation. Q. You pulled your starters at the end and left Brian Hodges in the game. Did you want him to just experience right till the end? COACH MONROE: He even said to me, "Can I come out?" I just wanted Brian to play. It was for no particular reason. He got injured midway through the year, and it was just -- I probably should have taken him out, but I just want him to play right to the end on it, you know, and just, in my own way, I wanted to say, hey, thank you very much in my own way. So it was nothing personal, the reason why I didn't take him out. Q. I also wonder if you can comment on your defensive strategy. Obviously it's hard when Georgetown has the big man in the middle. Was it difficult to both pay attention to packing in the middle a little bit, and also defending the perimeter? COACH MONROE: It was, and we had to give up something. You have to pick your poison. I think you are either going to double him and make him kick the ball back out to the shooters; I can still see -- I can't remember who it was. I can still see the shooter right there at the half who fell away, and Matt Spadafora or could not have guarded him any better, knocks a four-way shot down at the buzzer to end the half. Our defensive scheme was to double the ball inside and make Hibbert pass the ball out, and we were going to close that one out, high hands on the shooters and take our chances with that, with the shooters making shots. Q. You have Mount St. Mary's playing tonight; how would you say the future bodes for the area in basketball in general, college basketball? COACH MONROE: I think the future looks bright for our area. You look at the mid-major programs like UMBC, Mount St. Mary's, Coppin. We have had some terrific years. We had a terrific year this year, and I think that it will open the eyes of the youngsters and people upon our community and people within our area. End of FastScripts |
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