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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: PORTLANDMarch 19, 2009Rick StansburyBarry StewartPhil TurnerJarvis VarnadoPORTLAND, OREGON Washington – 71 COACH STANSBURY: Well, No. 1, it's never a good feeling -- everybody is going to have this feeling other than the team that cuts the nets down. The first game, the next game or whatever it is. I'm awful proud of our guys, what they've been able to accomplish this season. I didn't think we played our best today. Take nothing away from Washington, I thought they were very, very good. But we never got a consistent rhythm. I thought offensively or defensively. Again, they had a lot to do with that, they pressured us. Then we got in foul trouble with our big guy. And we were just trying to survive to halftime. We were down 11. It was tough to dig ourselves out of a hole against a good team like Washington. Give them a lot of credit. They've got a nice basketball team. Q. Barry, Rick said you had a hard time getting in rhythm, why do you think that was the case tonight? BARRY STEWART: They pressured our point guard. They got into him a lot. And he had to work to get the ball to the floor every time. That might have something to do with it. Q. Phil, have you given a thought what this team is going to look like next year, with everybody essentially coming back? PHIL TURNER: Of course it will be an older team, more experienced team. This was a great experience for some of the younger guys to understand what it takes to be an elite team in this league. And so I feel like we're going to be a pretty good team just from this experience. Q. Barry, with the four games in four days last week and the trip across country, was the energy there today for the Bulldogs? BARRY STEWART: I think so. I think we had energy. We just didn't get into our rhythm. We played more their pace and I think their pressure got to the guards a little bit, in foul trouble with the big men tonight. I think that had something to do with it. Q. Jarvis, how frustrating was it to get into early foul trouble? Tell us what happened on that play where both you and Brockman went out-of-bounds and you got called for the foul. JARVIS VARNADO: I just kept playing through it. They played a good game. We weren't at our best today, so they played good. Q. Why do you think you didn't get in rhythm tonight? COACH STANSBURY: Give Washington a lot of credit. I think they had a lot to do with us not getting in the rhythm. I think they really got into us. They were the more quicker team out there today. It's very obvious they were more physical than we were. Then when we had to play for the long stretches we did without Jarvis being a factor in this game, even the six minutes he played in the first half was a lot of factor. And we played the last 14 minutes the first half. We were just trying to get to the locker room at halftime, trying to survive. And basically 8 point game, 30 seconds to go to halftime, we give up a three point play before half, is a bad play. But I don't have the total answers why we weren't at our best. We're not going to make any excuses. As I said before the game we're happy to be coming out here. We're happy to be playing in it. Unfortunately we played Sunday and Thursday, but I'm not going to let that be a reason we're not at our best. Playing without Jarvis definitely affected our rhythm. Q. Considering you guys were shooting pretty poorly and had a lot of turnovers in the first half, did you feel pretty good about only being down 11. COACH STANSBURY: Well, you know, that was a bad play right before the half, three point continuation before three point lines, is a horrible play going into halftime. We felt absolutely we didn't play very well the first half. We'd been down before. And we felt like we'd get Jarvis back and get back in rhythm, absolutely we had a chance. We came out of the locker room, the first half, they went from 11 to 15, 16 point game. And again, that game changed right there on us. And you dig yourself a hole like that, it's pretty tough to come back against a team like Washington. Q. Can you just kind of assess what you have coming back next year, does it make something like this easier to stomach? COACH STANSBURY: You know, I guess the other side of this, I'm glad we have the opportunity here to stomach this. It could be a worse feeling not being here. This feeling right now it hurts, but when we back up and reflect on this season, if you told us we had two guys returning from last year's championship team, this team would win SEC championship again, I think we all would have taken it, particularly knowing how young we were and how new we were. When you look on paper compared to last year, what we had coming back, is absolutely a lot of unknowns coming back this last year. This next season there's not a lot of unknowns. Like you say, we basically have the whole team back. We understand where some guys are. I think the biggest thing for us is that weight room will make a huge difference for a lot of of these guys. And I think Washington out-toughed us in those areas. And we like where we're at. We'll get better from it. We'll learn from it. Like I told our guys, take this feeling right now, carry it from March to October. That's when games are won March to October. And having this feeling, not being successful, and making sure we work as hard so next year we get back to this point, we understand a little bit more. Q. Did you think the energy was there? COACH STANSBURY: No, it wasn't, no. Again, I'm not going to make excuses. But you guys have seen us. You all know us. I didn't think it was there from the tip off. Not one time except maybe in that second half defensively about two or three trips we really got into somebody guarding them, but it didn't last long. We weren't the quick -- we weren't as quick as we normally are. As energetic as we normally are, I didn't see it in some areas. Again, I'm not making excuses, but we know where we came from, what we had Sunday and traveling out here and playing this first game on Thursday. You all can write about it if you think it's a factor. I'm not going to make no excuses for our guys. I didn't make it before the game, I'm not going to make it now. It's obvious we weren't at our best energy-wise and rhythm-wise. And you can attribute that to a couple of different things. Q. A lot of talk before the game about how Oregon fans might be cheering for you guys against the Huskies. Were you surprised at all how vocal the crowd was pro-Husky? COACH STANSBURY: First off, absolutely, Washington found a way to buy a lot of tickets. I don't know if we gave Oregon fans a lot to cheer about. We didn't make too many runs to make them too happy. But again Washington had a lot of folks out there so Oregon people has got their work cut out, if they think they're going to outnumber Washington people the rest of these games. Give Washington the credit, they've got a good basketball team. I thought they played extremely well today. They were the best team out there today. I think Pondexter was the difference in this game. The one guy that was the difference, Pondexter. Q. I was going to ask you if that was a big concern coming in, because he's really -- you don't have a guy that matches up with him? COACH STANSBURY: Well, he was a concern. We've played some bigger fours and threes this year, and he played probably half the game as a three and half at four. At halftime he had 15 or 17, finishing at 23. But wherever he was at, and I think he probably played as much four as he did three today. He was just a huge match-up. Very athletic. He's bigger and stronger than he looks. On paper they list him 6'6", 215. Boy, he looks bigger than that to me. He was very good for them. Very good. He's kind of their wild card. Everybody talks about Brockman and Isaiah, he's kind of the wild card on the team. Q. I wanted to know if after it's all said and done do you feel like the 13 seed was fair for you? COACH STANSBURY: Oh, we're not going to cry about it now. Like I said, we were happy to be here, considering the late Sunday afternoon game. I've always said the SEC champion on the Sunday afternoon, whoever that team is that wins it, never gets the respect or really the advantage of winning that tournament, because they just plug you in, they plug you in somewhere. And that's the second time that's happened to us. But, again, we're not going to make any excuses for that being a reason. As you well know we won a championship in the SEC. And you go up against the 4 seed, it was going to be a tough game for us. And Washington, the game was very good. Probably if you get by your first game, which has been different for us in the past. We've had an easier -- a lower seed the first round then you get fed into one or two the second round. This game wasn't going to happen that way, even for Washington. They're getting fed -- because they're a higher seed, they're getting fed into a lower seed. So we're not making excuses from it at all. They were very good today. End of FastScripts |
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