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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: CLEVELAND

March 19, 2011

CLEVELAND, OHIO

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by George Mason student-athletes Isaiah Tate and Luke Hancock. Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Luke, from what you've watched on film, what maybe you saw in person, what jumps out at you about Ohio State offensively that you'll have to shut down and then what they do defensively?
LUKE HANCOCK: I'd say that they're a really well-rounded team. They have great shooters and a great inside presence. They're real athletic, and we're just going to have to do a good job of playing team defense and relying on everybody to do their part and stop the man they're matched up with.

Q. Along those same lines, anybody that you've played this season or the past season or two that is on a par with Ohio State as far as ranking, athleticism, things like that?
LUKE HANCOCK: I'd say we've had individuals that are as athletic as some of the guys on their team. Old Dominion is a very good rebounding, very athletic team. They compare to them, I'd say. But nobody -- they're a tough team to compare to. They're a good team.
ISAIAH TATE: I would say size-wise, about the only team we've probably played in the last couple of years would be Old Dominion that matches up. They have a big lineup. And they have a really deep bench. That's about it.

Q. You guys weren't around for the Final Four run back in '06, but did that have anything to do with you guys choosing George Mason when you did?
ISAIAH TATE: I guess you could say it had somewhat of an influence. It definitely opened my eyes up to George Mason more. I wasn't as aware of them as a junior in high school when they were recruiting me lightly. But after they went to the Final Four, I definitely had more of a knowledge about the school and about how close they were to where I was from.
And when I went on my visit, everything kind of fell into place for me.
LUKE HANCOCK: It definitely made them more known. I guess it kind of put them on the map when a team makes a run like that. People now know about Davidson or Cornell teams that make runs. So definitely put them on the map and made us more aware of the school.

Q. How often are you asked about the Final Four run? Is it just when you come to these tournaments, or is this a constant thing?
LUKE HANCOCK: Every single interview. And anything we do, we're compared. But we're trying to make our own name. Trying to do our own thing.
We'd like to be people talking about us instead of the '06 team.
ISAIAH TATE: Yeah, I guess whenever we're winning like we have been, especially this season, with that success, every time we're interviewed, it's going to be like, hey, how do you guys compare yourselves to the Final Four team or do you think you match up to the Final Four team or do you want to do the same things as the Final Four team.
It definitely comes up a lot. But it's just great to be talked about with those guys.

Q. Is Morrison the only one that has a T-shirt like he has, or do you all have that T-shirt?
LUKE HANCOCK: Everybody has those. They got passed out -- it's kind of a good motto. That's what we're trying to do.

Q. When did they pass them out?
ISAIAH TATE: We got them early last week when we started practicing before we left to come out here.

Q. Even though you were the higher seed yesterday and you will be tomorrow, do you guys like flying under the radar, or being considered an underdog? Even if you win tomorrow, you'll probably be considered another underdog next week. Do you like that?
ISAIAH TATE: Definitely, I mean, yeah, I guess it's fun being able to say people -- a lot of people are doubting you and you can kind of shock people and stuff like that.
But at the same time I think a lot of teams, especially us, we have a target on our backs right now, because even last night, you know, we were ranked, we were seeded higher than Villanova, but they're a Big East team. They're supposed to win, essentially.
But even when teams have bull's eyes on their backs, I think everybody's trying to come get us every day.
LUKE HANCOCK: I don't think you want to be an underdog; you probably want to be in Ohio State's position being the No. 1 overall. But we're ready to play against a good team. We have confidence in ourselves. We're not worried about being called the underdogs, I guess.

Q. Talking about that '06 team again. Does it make it more difficult for your team when you are a No. 8 seed and maybe a No. 1 seed like Ohio State might look past you or take you for granted but they know they can say don't let this team do what they did a few years ago? Does it make it more of a challenge for a team like yours?
LUKE HANCOCK: I think hopefully teams are looking past us. We're a force to be reckoned with. We can play well together, when we play defense. And we play our kind of basketball.
So if they're looking past us, that's just how it is and we'll see what happens tomorrow.
ISAIAH TATE: I think for us it doesn't really affect us how other teams look at us, because we're really closely knit we know what we have to do and we've been doing the same things all season. For anybody to look at us a certain way, like Villanova the last game, we knew we were going to get their best shot. We did. It was a great game.
All we can expect is to get a team's best shot every time and we're just going to do what we came to do.

Q. This is a neutral site game. But I think you realize that Ohio State's going to have a big home court advantage tomorrow. How do you deal with that? How do you block that out? What is coach telling you about that?
ISAIAH TATE: Neutral site game, I feel like Ohio State might have a little bit of an edge. I might have seen more Ohio State fans at our game yesterday for the game after ours than we had George Mason fans. We had a lot of fans.
But Coach, he hasn't really talked about the neutral site or the fans that we're going to be dealing with. We're just really focused on the game plan and how we can shut them down.
LUKE HANCOCK: Coach kind of just tells us it doesn't really matter where you play, doesn't matter when you play, it just matters how you play.
We've got a big game tomorrow, and we're not going to let -- we've been in places where the crowd has been overwhelming for another team. So it won't be anything new.

Q. Obviously like the last 24 hours you guys have probably watched a lot of Ohio State. Did you see much of them during the year? Do you look at all the top teams on ESPN and whatever else and just compare yourselves sitting in your room, watching during the year?
LUKE HANCOCK: It's good that they're a nationally known team. Everybody can watch them all the time. I think that's kind of to our advantage that we've seen them play all year long, you see highlights from a team like that.

Q. As a so-called mid major school, when you're watching the tournament, are you rooting for other mid majors? Are you looking for maybe other Cinderellas like George Mason was in '06? Are you rooting for the non-BCS schools?
ISAIAH TATE: I guess you could say we're pulling for the teams that are kind of in our same bracket, I guess. They say mid major. So whenever a team that's not supposed to win like in the tournament, like even some mid majors get in the tournament and they're like I don't know how these guys made it, but whenever a team makes it in the mid majors and we're playing against a BCS school, we're kind of wanting them to win because that makes all the mid majors look better.
Just like when a team in our conference is playing, regardless of who they're playing, if it's an out-of-conference game, we want them to win because that makes our conference look better.
LUKE HANCOCK: Just making our conference look better. We've got three teams in, we're rooting for them, and, yeah, we like to see mid majors win.

Q. Is mid major a term you don't like, or is that a term you're okay with?
ISAIAH TATE: I guess all you can do is accept whatever they call it. I'm pretty sure a lot of BCS teams got knocked out yesterday, the last couple of days. So in the tournament, I really don't think you can classify teams as this or that, because we're all in the same tournament playing for the same team on any given day a team can take out another team, regardless of what their ranking is.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you. We're now joined by coach Jim Larranaga. Coach, an opening statement.
COACH LARRANAGA: I'm very, very happy to be here, because it means we won yesterday. And in a tournament when you are competing for a national championship, the most important thing is survival. Survive and advance.
And our team was able to do that yesterday. We had a number of guys, including the two young men that were up here, Isaiah Tate and Luke Hancock, step up big time at the end, make some critical shots and some critical defensive plays to help us.
And now we know we face a major challenge in playing the No. 1 team in our bracket, the No. 1 seed overall in the tournament, and a team that is playing in their home state with their home crowd.
So the odds are stacked against us, but I think our players are really looking forward to the challenge?

Q. Your kids want to cut out their own legacy. Do you find yourself -- are you hesitant to talk about the 2006 team, or do you bring that up with them a lot?
COACH LARRANAGA: Well, initially -- the scrutiny about our team and the media exposure started about a month ago.
And some of the first questions that our players were asked was to make the comparison between this year's team and the Final Four team.
So I knew our players were a little uncertain as to how to answer that. And so this is what I told them. I said, You guys love to make comparisons, right? You're always asking and talking to each other and debating who is better, Kobe or LeBron. And then you ask me. And I say, Hey, they're both great in their own way. And that's really the way you guys should feel about our team as compared to the '06 team.
The '06 team had a great year, had a great run in the tournament. And they did it their way. This year's team, you guys are on a great roll. Keep it rolling. Keep playing our way. And there's nothing wrong with us having teams that people talk about on the national level. In fact, it's very flattering.
And I think our guys did that. They understand that the '06 team had its time, and now these guys are getting their chance.

Q. Jim, what's the one thing, if it is just one, maybe a couple, that you have to do tomorrow that you're going to instill in your players we've got to do this if we're going to have any chance of beating Ohio State?
COACH LARRANAGA: We're going to have to score more points than they do, I think. I say that. They're a very hard team to guard. They're going to score some points. So we've got to figure out a way to match them in that category.
Our defense needs to be at its very best on first shots. We've got to limit second shots.
But the biggest thing is, you know, based on the way we played yesterday, we really gotta encourage our guys to understand that we're going to have to put the ball in the basket tomorrow. We're going to have to make 2s and 3s and shoot the ball the way we have all season long.

Q. I would assume the first priority is Sullinger. Is the second Diebler? And given the importance of the 3-point shot, the momentum and all that, could you comment on his shooting?
COACH LARRANAGA: Well, first of all, Sullinger is a focal point of their offense. And as soon as you start preparing for Ohio State, he becomes a number one priority.
But the thing that Thad Matta and his staff have done to put their team in position to take advantage of not only Sullinger, but Diebler, is they put them on the same side of the floor a lot. And Diebler becomes the post feeder. And it's hard to help off of him because he can bury the 3, and he shoots it at such a high rate that you really gotta limit his number of looks from 3 and Sullinger's touches in the post.
Neither of which is very, very easy. In fact, I would say, if you look at their record, only two teams have figured out a way, and both of those teams had someone score 30 points. I believe that's right.
So that's why I say you've got to put the ball in the basket against them. Because they're going to score the ball some.

Q. When you made the run in 2006, a lot of these kids on this team were probably potential recruits, high school kids. How did that run affect the makeup of this team? Did it open doors to different caliber recruits? Did you get a different type of kid?
COACH LARRANAGA: Well, in our recruiting philosophy, we've always looked at the local and regional area as our bull's eye, and we always try to recruit the top prospects.
Our '06 team had eight guys who lived within an hour and a half, and all five starters lived within an hour and a half of our campus.
Now, although recruiting the local talent is a priority, you have to also recognize your needs and recruit for your needs. After our run, we were able to capitalize on our media exposure and end up with more television games than ever before.
In fact, we did a research project, and since the Final Four we're one of the top four schools in non-BCS conferences to be on TV. Gonzaga, Memphis, Xavier and George Mason are the top four in TV appearances. What that did is it opened up doors outside of our local and regional area.
And so the players, a lot of them on this year's team, were recruited because of the exposure we got during the Final Four and, more importantly, after the Final Four with TV appearances.
So you have Ryan Pearson, who is from New York. You have Mike Morrison from Florida. You have Johnny Williams from Memphis and Andre Cornelius from Charlotte, North Carolina. We were able to go into those areas and recruit players that probably would not have had interest because they never would have heard of George Mason before.
But when I called Vertrail Vaughns, a guy who I think is going to play really well tomorrow, he's going to help us, he's from Dallas, Texas. When I called him the first time, I was amazed how much he knew about us. And I asked him how he knew that much, and he said, I see you play on TV all the time. I said, In Dallas? And he said, Yeah.

Q. You've had success against Ohio State before, if I recall, 1994, I think, in St. John Arena. Can you tell us some memories about that night?
COACH LARRANAGA: Yeah, we won (laughter). We had a terrific team. Antonio Daniels, Jay Larranaga. Shane Komives, Shane Kline-Ruminski. We had a very unique team that was very skilled at every position, and I believe Randy Ayers was the head coach of Ohio State. And because we had so many local products -- actually, I think Anthony Stacey might have been on '94. I'm trying to remember. No, it was Denny Amrhein's freshman year.
So we went there with a number of kids who grew up idolizing Ohio State basketball. And it was a thrill for them to go to the Ohio State and play them on their home court. And we shot the ball extremely well. Played extremely well that night.

Q. Cam Long yesterday was limping a little bit. He was getting worked on behind the bench. Is he less than 100 percent going into tomorrow's game, and if he is, how much of a concern is that for you?
COACH LARRANAGA: I think at this time of year, everybody has bumps and bruises. I don't think there's a guy on our team that is not experiencing some soreness of some sort.
Cam fell like twice yesterday. So he might be beat up a little bit more. But at this time of year you can't think about that. You just gotta plan on trying to play the best you can. And we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Q. Are you a superstitious person? Because in '06 you were in Dayton. It was in Ohio. Ohio State was in that regional. Here you are now in Ohio, but this time you're playing Ohio State. Good omen? Bad omen? Are you superstition at all?
COACH LARRANAGA: I'm a great believer in routines and things repeating themselves, because I think like if you examined a really good player, the things at the does, like you see it game after game after game, for a coach it's very much the same way.
And when you see things that create a nice pattern for you or repeat a certain scenario, you like it. So, for example, when it came up on the board and our first-round opponent was Villanova, the very first thing I thought of was, wow, in '06 we matched up with Michigan State in the first round and we had played them the year before and they beat us in a very close game.
And I remember asking the '06 team, Do you remember playing these guys a year ago and how close the game was? And they all remembered. I said, Are we as good as we were a year ago? And they said, No, we're better. I said, That's exactly right. We're better than we were. So you need to believe that we can beat them.
We played Villanova a year ago and lost to them by a point in Puerto Rico. I asked the team the same thing: Do you remember playing these guys? They said, Yeah, and their first response was, And we owe them one. We lost to them by a point down there in Puerto Rico.
The second thing I thought of is we played in Dayton, now we're going to Cleveland. Nice, we're going back to Ohio. So there were certain things that repeated themselves and I continually remind the players of those things, because I think it makes them feel good.

Q. When you were at Bowling Green, Thad Matta was an assistant, I believe, at Miami, and I'm wondering did you have any recollections of him as like a young up-and-comer or have your paths crossed much since then?
COACH LARRANAGA: One of the things that as a coach who has been around a lot of years, you get to meet a lot of great coaches, young ones who are coming up.
And one of my very, very good friends was Barry Collier. And Thad ended up on Barry's staff. In fact, Barry and I traveled to Wisconsin to visit with Dick Bennett back in the '90s, and we both left there tremendously impressed with what Dick did.
But not only that, but with his philosophy intact. We took that home and implemented it in our own way, Barry Collier at Butler and me at Bowling Green.
And then a couple of years ago we played in the ESPN Bracket Buster, and we're playing Ohio University in Athens but we flew into Columbus. And we asked Thad and his staff if we could come by and practice at Ohio State. They were cordial enough to let us do it.
When I arrived I had a tour of the locker room, and they had the Dick Bennett philosophy on the wall that Thad had adopted from working with Barry Collier. And of course I was very familiar with the philosophy and believe it's one of the reasons why Ohio State has been so successful under Thad's leadership.
So I was very, very impressed with that, as an assistant and a head coach at Butler and Xavier, and he continues to do an unbelievable job at Ohio State. And we're familiar with their style of play and the things that he's accomplished.

Q. Since we can't get in their locker room, could you divulge what Dick Bennett's philosophy is that you like so much?
COACH LARRANAGA: When I visited with Dick, I brought with me our notebook, the things that we had built our Bowling Green basketball program on, and it was 108 pages. I wanted Dick to kind of review it and evaluate it for me.
When I showed him the notebook, he said to me, Jim, you're not going to be happy until you can get all of this on to one page. Can you imagine, I spent like, I don't know, five or seven years putting together 108 pages and he's telling me I need to get it reduced to one. That took a lot of editing.
So what happened is he handed me his, what I call it, a philosophy page. And it had listed five kind of biblical attributes that he built his program on, and then ten affirmations of the things they were going to do on the basketball court based on that philosophy.
And the five were: Passion, unity, thankfulness -- I have it. I don't think my phone is working very well right now, so I can't get it. If you Google "The Butler Way" -- but Barry stole it hook, line and sinker. He did everything exactly like Dick did.
We tweeted -- that's not the right word. We adjusted it to what my own beliefs were. But humility. So I've got four: Humility, passion, unity, teamwork, and thankfulness. Did I say that twice? Humility, passion --

Q. That's five.
COACH LARRANAGA: One of those, unity and teamwork might be the same.

Q. Want to try for the ten affirmations now?
COACH LARRANAGA: The ten affirmations are much easier, because it's the way you play basketball. And I'll tell you, we took the affirmations and changed it to ten commitments. Someone asked me, I really like your ten commandments. I said, No, they're called ten commitments.
But we will set our defense every time. That means you'll get back and set your defense. We'll pressure the ball. We'll prevent penetration. We'll contest all shots. And we will rebound the basketball. Those are the five defensive commitments.
And then the five offensive are: We will run for layups and open 3s. We will share the ball. We will penetrate the defense. We will take good shots. And we'll attack the offensive boards.
So that's kind of a variation of what Dick -- like in Dick's case, he said we'll run on occasion or we'll run on selected rebounds. And I think they did that every game once. They didn't run much.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

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