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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: SAN JOSE

March 17, 2010

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA

ROGER ROSS: We would like to welcome our student athletes from Montana, Anthony Johnson and Ryan Staudacher, and we'll go ahead and open it up to questions.

Q. Anthony, for those of us that aren't familiar with your game, this last game, the 42 points, is that off the charts even for you, or have you done stuff like that before?
ANTHONY JOHNSON: Well, of a game of that magnitude yeah, and with that much riding on the line, sure that was the best I'd ever played up to this point in my college career. I've had high-scoring games before at the junior college level and maybe a couple of 30-point games here and there, but nothing of that magnitude and significance.

Q. Anthony, you're going to be matched up -- the defensive match-up on you is going to be Dairese Gary, the UNM point guard, what do you know about him?
ANTHONY JOHNSON: Defensively we haven't taken a look at him yet. We will go over that tomorrow, but so far offensively from him he's a strong guard, pretty nifty with the ball, really, really quick, really strong and physical and provides a boost for them, up-tempo-style game. So he's leading' the charge and he gets to the freethrow line a ton. We've got our work cutout for us.

Q. Going back to the Weber State game, people talk about being in the zone. Can you talk about what the feeling was? It seemed like you couldn't miss there for a while.
ANTHONY JOHNSON: It's indescribable, really. When you get into a zone like that, everything slows up. You lose time, all sense of time and everything and at that point it was just trying to win the game, that's the only thing I had on my mind.
After the game people were coming up to me saying all types of things like "you broke this many records" and all of that, like you scored the last 21 straight and everything, but none of that stuff crossed my mind. I had one objective and that was to win and what people tend to overlook is that was a team win, without my team gettin' stops I wouldn't have had the ball late in the stretch like that. So that's what tends to get overlooked a little bit.

Q. Ryan, you've been a part of this from the four-year mark watching this thing build to fruition into the NCAA Tournament. Can you describe what it's taken to get here and what it's like?
RYAN STAUDACHER: This is a really special four years, special ride. Been through lots of up's and down's. Came in with Coach Tinkle his first year, and we came in together, and it's been a long process and a lot of up's and down's, like I said. But to finally get here makes it that much more special.

Q. A.J., could you talk about Hobson and the challenges he presents?
ANTHONY JOHNSON: That's a player. He can really do a lot of things. He's a passer for them, leads them in assists and rebounds and points scored, really talented and, again, we have our work cutout with him as well, and we're going to strategize and prepare and put a defensive plan into attack and do our best on him.

Q. Anthony, their coach thinks that there's a little bulletin board material by both teams already. I guess you guys sort of expected to play a more well-known opponent, and also they've said they expect to go to the Elite Eight. What do you think?
ANTHONY JOHNSON: Well, I don't think we can look past them, and I don't think they should look past us, either. I don't -- no disrespect on either end, I know where they're coming from and they should know where we're coming from. We're in no way, shape or form looking anywhere past them. We know the dangers of that. We were just happy to be matched up with anybody, glad to be here. It's been a thrill ride for us. We realize we have an objective, a goal to accomplish and we're going to put all of our energy into facing the team that's in front of us and that's New Mexico.

Q. Anthony, to you and Ryan, has there been a moment this week, whether it's here now or any moment where you guys have been like, "wow, we're at the NCAA Tournament," where it's hit you?
RYAN STAUDACHER: Right now, with you guys and the bright lights. We're here and it's exciting, and it's been a fun ride. Yeah, this is something special and it's something we will remember for the rest of our lives so definitely right now.
ANTHONY JOHNSON: The same, the same exact thing, when we first came here I was like, wow, this is way bigger than anything back in Montana, so something to get used to. But again I'm just so happy to be here, so glad to be here my last year and really send this thing off right.

Q. Having overcome a 22-point deficit just last week, does that give you confidence that no matter what you face tomorrow night, it can be overcome?
ANTHONY JOHNSON: I think so. Within -- again, in that game, it was really important for us, really showed us what we're capable of. And we really take from that game great lessons and things that we can institute in any other game following.
So with New Mexico on the schedule now, we got to prepare. We have to have some type of momentum headin' in, but there are do's and don't's in that game, a lot of positive things to take from it. But in the first half we know how not to play and that was probably our worst half of basketball up to this point.
So, again, we're going to take the things that we're used in that game and all the proactive things that were used and try to institute it in this game, and hopefully we have some success.

Q. Anthony, I was curious, with the attention that you and your wife have gotten in the last week, I was wondering if you were surprised that people are interested in all that?
ANTHONY JOHNSON: A little bit. I'm surprised that it just caught on so quickly. At my junior college we all thought it was cute and everything, and they ran a little special on us in the local newspaper there. But for "USA Today" to pick it up, I was like, wow. I was blown away.
My family gets a kick out of it. They give me a hard time about it. But it's been cool, been wonderful for myself and my family. But, again, I don't want that to distract us from the real goal here and that's to hopefully win and make some history at the University of Montana.

Q. Ryan, yesterday I think you said this was a team that you guys can't fall behind to, you've got to come out and play from the start. Has that been something you guys have been stressing at practices? Coach Wayne Tinkle stressing, getting out to a good start, I'm sure he always does, but maybe more this week?
RYAN STAUDACHER: He always has throughout the year. Sometimes we have a problem getting out of the gate quick and against Weber State quickly we struggled early and especially with how good and talented New Mexico is I don't think we can afford to come out ask start the game like we did against Weber.

Q. A.J., can you talk about being at the opponent's top of the scouting report and your responsibility to get your teammates involved so it isn't all on you.
ANTHONY JOHNSON: We're used to the drill by now, they're going to try to take me away. That's been the game plan all year. They're going to try to take me away and force other guys to step up. We've been kind of inconsistent with it at times, but I think like I said before, we're here for a reason, and I think now more than ever we're going to play two great halves of basketball and you're going to see a Grizzly team that's serious when we approach the court and approach this game, and everybody is going to play well. That's what's needed in order for us to make history.
ROGER ROSS: Gentlemen, thank you for your time.
We will go ahead and open it up for questions for Coach Wayne Tinkle, please.

Q. Could you talk about Hobson and the special challenges he presents to your defense?
COACH TINKLE: Yeah, he's a match-up nightmare. He can rebound the ball and push it 94 feet, so you try to guard him with a big guy there, he can possess a lot of challenges. He's a great passer, one of the better passers we've seen on film this year, obviously can shoot the ball, get to the rim and finish, can post up. He's just kind of their emotional leader, so we're going to face some pretty big obstacles trying to limit his impact on the game.

Q. Coach, just a little bit of back and forth, I guess NCAA Tournament does it all the time, but Hobson makes a prediction they're going to the Elite Eight, you had a player that said he expected maybe a higher profile team, maybe a Big East team. What do you think about the bulletin board material that goes around this year time of year and do you use it to your advantage?
COACH TINKLE: We don't get involved in that and probably what our guy meant and maybe looking at it the wrong way is expecting us maybe to get even a lower seed where a top 5 or 4 team would be our draw.
Our guys are pretty heady. They know both from being out west and seeing New Mexico play on TV throughout the year, and certainly what we've told them since Sunday night, when the draw came out that we've got our hands full. It's all part of the deal, and you're still talking about kids that are 18 to 22 years old, part of the excitement and the joy they get a little bit giddy and maybe sometimes we put a little more into what they say rather than what they actually meant, hint, hint. (Chuckles.)

Q. On paper it looks like maybe you have a size advantage with your 4 and your 5, Derek and Brian, when they are in there. Is that something you will try to exploit?
COACH TINKLE: We definitely feel like we need to get the ball inside. I think when they take a look at our film and our stats I'm sure they're going to try to do some things to limit what Anthony does.
So I think our game plan has to be let's try to get some other guys going. We do have a size advantage at least in height, they're very strong in athletic. But we need to pound that thing inside. That's been our intent all year long, to establish post play early, make defenses collapse and get our shooters open, get some lanes to the basket for our penetrate tors, and we're certainly going to try to do that again tomorrow.

Q. Wayne, this is a new experience, or the atmosphere is for your players. Any concern how they're going to handle this?
COACH TINKLE: You know, we've had a couple of talks and we just spoke about 20 minutes ago. We really want them to enjoy this experience. It doesn't happen all the time. At Montana we've won seven championships, had eight trips to the Tournament, we've got to enjoy the moment. We don't want them looking back in ten years saying, shoot, I wish I would have taken a little more advantage of that trip.
So we want them to have fun but we've made it very clear this is a pretty mature group with a lot of character that we're not satisfied just getting to this point. We have a spirited leader in Anthony, and he believes that this is a year of destiny for us, magical things in the air, and if that's what's got them to this point, I'm not about to burst their bubble. We'll let 'em believe that.
But we need to stay focused on the task at hand, you know, and not be satisfied with where we're at. We talked about that when we advanced through the quarter-finals of our Tournament, made it to the semi-finals, we wrote on the board "don't settle" and I asked the guys before we took court against Northern Colorado, what does this mean? And several of them said, don't settle for bad shots. Don't settle for this, and it took our walk-on football player who said "don't settle for being in the semifinals" and he was exactly right.
We were able to use that again once we got to the Championship, and we'll fall back on it again tomorrow. We don't want to settle with just having gotten there, and everybody is probably saying the same thing. But our guys are riding a pretty nice wave right now and they certainly want to continue it.

Q. Coach, you guys come in as a 14 seed, it's a tough task, but does that help with the pressure at all that you see every year where there are some upsets, if not upsets, teams that really play lights out. Do you feel that for these guys?
COACH TINKLE: I think so. Obviously, the 1-16 match-up, history shows it's never been done, anything lower than or higher than a sixteen, your guys may be able to say there is a chance.
I was fortunate enough to be on the Montana team that I coached with Chris, the 12-5 match-up when we knocked off Nevada. So our guys know that can happen. Again, they really feel like this is something special going on.
So there is that kind of fine line between confidence and maybe being a little crazy, but our guys are a confident group and they have the utmost respect for New Mexico.
But I think the fact that it's a team from out west that they get to see late at night during the season, there is some familiarity and that's the key. I think that all kind of goes hand-in-hand with our guys believing that we can make something happen.

Q. Tinks, can you make a comparison with anybody you guys saw in the nonconference season or even the Conference and can you speak to the '06 from a coaching perspective that you got out of that experience?
COACH TINKLE: Yeah, we've mentioned we think New Mexico's kind of a compilation of Washington, Boise and Fresno, great guards, a lot of length and athleticism, good, strong athletic post players, teams that have a potential to try to get up on pressure, and take you out of your offense, dangerous on the glass and in transition.
You can throw Oregon into that mix, too. We've had success against those squads by and large and I think that's helped us prepare and quite frankly we don't mind taking off a tougher chunk in the nonleague schedule. We hope to begin the season playing against teams that we finish playing the season against.
I think that will have a positive impact for us tomorrow. As far as what I've gotten out of it, I'm very fortunate. I went to the NCAA Tournament three times as an assistant coach with two different coaches, and the first time around with both coaches it seemed like the players were really thrilled and just giddy over the experience. I remember as a player when I had a chance to try out for some NBA teams it was almost like, "this is pretty cool to be here" and you forget to do what you do and we got beat fairly handedly in those two games.
The next time around it was a little more of let the guys enjoy it, but we're going to prepare and our intent it to go in there and make some magic happen and not just be happy that we were asked to go out and have a dance on the floor.
So I think that's helped me and our staff. We've got the old war horse, Bill Evans who has been to a couple of tournaments himself, done a nice job, the assistant coaches in keeping our guys grounded and focused.

Q. On a personal note for you, what's it been like for you this week with Jocelyn at Stanford, both of you guys, your first Tournament as a head coach and herself as a player, what's that been like?
COACH TINKLE: My family has been on Cloud 9 the last week. We truly feel blessed. We had everybody back home saying wouldn't Spokane be great if you guys could play there, and I said to bob, "I'm hoping for San Jose" because I knew the Stanford women were hosting the first two rounds, and to be here and sharing time with them is a parents' dream.
It's a neat deal when you talk about a head coach being in the NCAA Tournament, and having one of his children participating on the other side, it's pretty neat.
So if I have to miss her game Saturday night, though, it will be a good thing, though.

Q. In terms of the game, over the last couple years you've been trying to get this team through recruiting to be more athletic. How do you feel you guys match up athletically with New Mexico?
COACH TINKLE: They are athletic, and they're probably a little more athletic than we are. But I think the biggest difference is their length on the perimeter. You look at their size at the 2, 3 and 4. Not only are they athletic, but they're lengthy. So that's going to pose a problem. Our guys have struggled offensively with pressure at times when guys stand around, and we certainly can't have that happen tomorrow.
We've got to get out of the gate and make some baskets early, try to control the tempo a little bit. But we'll look to push when the opportunity arises, long rebounds, turnovers, we need to be aggressive because we don't want to face their half-court defense for forty minutes long.
ROGER ROSS: Thank you for your time, Coach.

End of FastScripts

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