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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: DAYTONMarch 20, 2009Murray BartowGreg HamlinCourtney PigramMike SmithKevin TiggsDAYTON, OHIO Pittsburgh – 72 THE MODERATOR: Joining us this evening from East Tennessee State are Mike Smith, Courtney Pigram, Greg Hamlin and Kevin Tiggs. Coach, an opening statement, please. COACH BARTOW: Well, I'm very proud of my guys. I thought we fought incredibly hard. Pittsburgh is a great team. Coach Dixon does a great job. DeJuan Blair is all we had heard about. Sam Young's a heck of a player. But I'm really proud of our guys. We're really disappointed, because we felt we could win. We came here to win. We didn't come here to play a close game. So it's a very disappointed team, a very disappointed locker room, because we really believed we could win. We knew it would take a great, great, great effort, because Pitt's a heck of a good team. So we didn't underestimate how good they were. We think we're pretty good, and we came here to win. So I'm really proud of my guys. I thought they fought incredibly hard. Obviously offensively we never got kind of our Big 3. We really never got going, and obviously you've got to credit Pitt's defense. They're one of the best defensive teams in college basketball. And certainly their defense had something to say about that. But, again, I'm really, really proud of our guys, really proud of our team. We've got a good league. There's a lot of good teams in our league. Our league doesn't always get maybe the respect that it deserves, but we've got some good basketball teams in our league. So I think our team came in well prepared to play a good game. We just couldn't get over the hump, you know? It was three and a half, always four or five. I think we cut it to two with four and a half to play. We had the ball. We turned it over. Just couldn't get over the hump. I really felt if we could get up one or two it might really put a lot of pressure on them being the No. 1 seed. But we just couldn't get over the hump. Pittsburgh is a great, great team and certainly we wish them the best. Again, I thought we played hard. We just came up a little short. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Courtney, is this evidence that some day a 16's going to beat a 1? You guys make your shots, you could have won today? COURTNEY PIGRAM: Of course. I seen a 16 seed come across the screen, I was kind of excited, because I think we can play anybody in the country. Because of the type of guys we've got. But we came out tonight and make shots, who knows, definitely can win a game. But unfortunately we didn't. And Pitt played a great game and they came away with the win. Q. Courtney and Kevin, how tough is it, guys, to get this close and to not make it and it's also your senior season? COURTNEY PIGRAM: It hurts. It hurts for us to go out like this. Because we had a game -- like I said we was making shots, we would have came away with the win. The shots just weren't falling for us. We had a lot of open looks, just weren't making them. KEVIN TIGGS: Basically it hurts because we had them and then at the same time we just couldn't get over the hump. So we lost. But we're all right. We're all right. Q. Coming in, how much of your game plan was just to kind of try to outhustle Pitt, maybe create the turnovers, get the offensive boards and maybe that could result in a win? COURTNEY PIGRAM: We really played our game. We've been playing like that most of the season. We press a lot. And we like to get the game going up and down. Unfortunately, we had them throwing turnovers and things like that, but we just couldn't capitalize on the shots we got. MIKE SMITH: We've been playing like that the whole season, pressing, trying to get the tempo up and down. And we got some good turnovers, we just weren't converting on the other end, just wasn't making shots. Q. Greg, can you explain how much success you guys had on the offensive boards tonight? GREG HAMLIN: We just came in looking to hit the glass hard. We heard they weren't a very good defensive rebounding team, so we just tried to attack the glass and get second chances. Q. Kevin, had you guys experienced many other games this season where the Big 3 had missed this many shots or had had shooting nights like this or how unusual was it for you guys? KEVIN TIGGS: We had a game like this we were playing against Florida Gulf Coast, I think, and we tried not to have a game like this again. But it came and bite us. Q. Courtney, along the same lines, when you're shooting 25 percent in the first half and you go to the locker room within 3, do you sort of have the attitude you know this is going to turn around we're going to start making our shots and it's really going to happen? COURTNEY PIGRAM: We had that attitude at halftime. We knew we weren't making shots in the first half. But we were still in the game. Like I said, we had good looks, a lot of good looks, just couldn't put them down. Just one of us could have been making shots, probably would have came away with the win. But neither one of us was. So congrats to Pitt. Q. Greg, seems like the energy and the hustle was really big for you guys tonight, and whether it be second chance points or put-backs or rebounding, how important was that to kind of keep you guys close and keep you guys within range the whole game? GREG HAMLIN: It was good. Really just came out and wanted to play hard. So that's what we do every game. We just try to continue with this game. We knew it would help us out a lot. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, guys. Questions for Coach. Q. Murry, you look at the statistics on this, do you say this is something that could have been, that you could have won this game if you made more free throws, get some of those shots that went halfway down and came back out? COACH BARTOW: Obviously you look at that. But I always give the other team credit. I'm a big believer in the other team's got something to say with how you shoot the ball. Pitt's one of the best defensive teams in college basketball. So I think we did miss a few clean ones, but they altered some shots. And, again, that's who they are. Our thing all year has really been: We've played good defense, but offensively we've really played pretty well. They're an underrated offensive team because they average about 70, 80 a game but, they're a phenomenal defensive team. And I thought they took us out of some things and altered some shots. We took some hard shots. Again, I thought we got some pretty clean ones, too. We've lived and died all year with the Big 3, with Mike Smith, Kevin Tiggs and Courtney Pigram, and that's kind of who we've been all year. And we just -- they didn't make a lot of shots tonight, shooting percentage-wise and percentage-wise, and so obviously we would have struggled in our league if the Big 3 don't shoot the ball better than they did tonight. But I think Pitt's defense had something to say about that. Q. Coach Dixon talked about the transformation in your team, the lineup changes, can you talk about that for people who haven't seen your team very much? COACH BARTOW: We've gotten better. Obviously, as a coach, you want your team to get better and improve, and during the course of the season, I thought our team did that. And, you know, again, I thought really coming in we felt we were good enough to win this game, but we knew that a lot of things would have to happen right: The Big 3 would have to play great, hopefully get DeJuan Blair in foul trouble, keep Levance Fields in front of us. Not let Sam Young go crazy. Hold our own on the glass. A lot of keys for us to have a chance. And with four-and-a-half minutes to go, it's a 2-point game. And I would have taken that prior to the game if someone would have said, "Hey, it's your ball in line out of bounds, four and a half to play and you're 2 down." And that's what it was. We turned it over that possession, and great teams make plays down the stretch. And Pittsburgh's one of the top three or four teams in the country, and they made big plays down the stretch when they had to make them, when really the pressure was on them as the high seed or the better seed and they just made big plays. They made some big, big plays, and we obviously just didn't have an answer for Blair. I thought we fought hard in there, obviously we tried to trap him and double him, but he's a big, tough customer and hard to deal with. But I thought we fought hard on him, but we just really didn't have an answer for him. But I do think during the year we got better. Q. Is there any doubt in your mind that sooner or later a 16 seed's going to pull this off, and people looking at this game nationally, do you think that's one of the messages that should come out of a game like this? COACH BARTOW: I do. A lot of good players and a lot of good programs and a lot of good players in a lot of different leagues. So it will happen. It will happen. It could have happened today if we would have shot the ball better, it maybe would have happened today. But it didn't. It didn't. And like I said, we didn't come here to play a close game. Last three times we've been in the tournament, three of the last seven years, and we lose to Wake Forest by 3 and lose to Cincinnati by 3 and lose today to Pitt by 10. We had a focus of coming in here today and trying to win. But they've got a couple of pros, and that's the thing when you're a 16 trying to beat a 1. You've got to beat some pros, and Sam Young is a cinch pro. And DeJuan Blair is a cinch pro. Levance Fields is one of the top five point guards in the collegiate game. A lot of things have to happen right for a 16 to beat a 1. But it will happen. It will happen. Could have happened today. Q. Do you feel you've played your best game today, you had a No. 1 seed on the ropes, but you shot so poor. COACH BARTOW: We didn't play our best game. If we made our shots, we would have played a better game. Again, I'm a big credit the other team guy. I really am. Pittsburgh's unbelievably good defensively. So I think the credit's got to go to them. With that being said, I thought we missed some shots that we've been making. Our offense just totally relies on 3 guys. And our rotation tonight was really about 6 guys, and three of those guys are going to take all of our shots. That's just the way we've played all year. So we're incredibly dependent on those three guys hitting shots. And the commissioner of our league came in before the game and it sounds very simplistic, but that's what he and I talked about, that the Big 3 are going to have to play a great game. I thought they competed incredibly hard. But I thought they kind of missed some shots that normally they might have made. But, again, I think when you're playing one of the best -- obviously Pitt's by far the best team we've seen all year. And one of the best defensive teams in the country. So they had something to do with us shooting 31 percent. Q. If the BCS schools played more games against mid-majors on the road during the regular season, would that alter your seeding and would it alter -- COACH BARTOW: Maybe. Maybe. That's just not going to happen. That's a tough thing. Certainly we try to schedule good people. And if you're a mid-major, maybe you can do a 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 to get one of the BCS schools to come to you. Obviously if you've got a relationship, maybe, with the coach at a BCS school, maybe he'll do you a favor and do a home-at-home. But it's tough. You try to go -- we play 20 games in our league, but out of conference, you try to go to different -- maybe a tournament where you're going to see a BCS school on a neutral court so it's much easier to get a BCS school on a neutral court, but incredibly difficult to get a BCS school in your building, at home. Q. Coach, you mentioned the close calls, in some recent years in the tournament pushing some good teams and even 20 years ago it happened with this school. Is that part of the reputation, you think, that is part of your program that these close calls in the NCAA, and if so is that a good thing for a program? Is that kind of tough to have these -- push these teams and fall short sometimes? COACH BARTOW: We want to get over the hump. But it's hard. It's hard. When you're a 16 seed playing one of the top three or four teams in the country everything's got to go right. When you're playing pros, it's hard. It's hard. Everything's got to go right. And I've already mentioned four or five things. But the rebounding, dealing with DeJuan Blair, keeping Levance in front of us, our Big 3 have to shoot it great, everything's got to go right. And we were right there. We were close. But we just couldn't get over the hump. We've got great history in our program, some success back in the -- it's been 20 years. But we do have great history. Q. I'm sure next time you guys are in the tournament, when teams, these big teams see you come across, they see the history and know what you can do; is that nice maybe knowing you put -- these big guys might be a little scared when they see your name? COACH BARTOW: It's no fun to lose. It's no fun to lose. I think coming into this game we had an incredibly good mindset, because we were able to reflect back. They don't remember, to be honest, and my fans may get mad at me, but my guys weren't born -- some of them weren't born when we won the game back in the late '80s, or I guess it was early '90s, but they can certainly remember recent history. We talked a lot about Wake Forest game, losing by 3. We talked a lot about the Cincinnati game, losing by 3, and we were up by 2 with two minutes to play in that game. So we talked a great deal about San Diego beating UConn last year, we talked a great deal about Davidson getting to the Final Eight. We talked a great deal about George Mason getting to the Final Four. So the mind was right. And that's why the locker room is so down right now, because we really believed that we could win this game against a great, great Pittsburgh team. But we've got a lot of good players on our team. Courtney's a heck of a player. Kevin Tiggs, I could go on and on and on about him, but he's just an incredible human being and a great player. And Mike Smith's a heck of a player. So, anyway, we're hurt right now but I thought we competed hard, played well but just didn't play quite well enough. Q. You were just talking about Kevin and Courtney, how tough is it just to know that they played their last game in ETSU uniforms? COACH BARTOW: We're going to miss them. But we're going to have a good team next year. I think we're a tight program. We're going to be good every year, hopefully. But we've got seven guys off this team that were in uniform tonight that will be back. We've got three guys that red-shirted or sat out this year and we've got three really good recruits coming in. So we should be good again next year. But it's hard to replace great players that can score. And the thing about Kevin, and they didn't show it as much tonight, but Kevin and CP can get you baskets. Your offense may look bad and all of a sudden they get you a basket. Kevin averaged about 20 a game. CP averaged about 18 a game. So that's hard to replace. It's hard to replace those guys that can make baskets. But I think next year we've got a chance to be really good again, and I think this was such a great atmosphere. This building, just the atmosphere in here was great. And I thought we did a good job as a coaching staff making sure our guys and really the returning guys really, really soaked it up, because obviously we'd like to get back to the tournament next year and figure out a way to try to win a game. Hopefully we can get back. It's not easy. It's not easy when you're fighting for that one bid, but hopefully we'll be good enough to get back here next year and figure out a way to win the first game. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. End of FastScripts |
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