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NCAA MEN'S REGIONALS SEMIFINALS & FINALS: SAN ANTONIOMarch 25, 2011Kevin AndersonJustin HarperChris MooneySAN ANTONIO, TEXAS Kansas – 77 THE MODERATOR: At this time we welcome Richmond to the dais. Coach, start with an opening statement. COACH MOONEY: Well, congratulations to Kansas. Truly a great team. 35-2. They were kind of able to dictate the game. Unfortunately we weren't able to slow them down in any way. When they didn't get transition baskets, they jumped into their offense. We never got to set our defense, which is one of our strengths. So it's a tough way. Of course everybody but one team has to end with a loss. And for our program and for our seniors, especially, this has been a tremendous season and unfortunately it's hard to feel that right now because losing the game like this -- we don't feel like we played our best. It's just difficult. But congratulations, as I said, to Kansas, who is a great team. Q. Kevin, how much of tonight was just you struggling with what they were doing defensively? Did you feel they were keying on you or was it just an off night tonight? KEVIN ANDERSON: I mean just an off night. I never really controlled the game. I never really got my team settled down. Kansas is a great team. They move the ball well in offense, they were getting out in transition. They made a lot of shots, a lot of kick-outs, they made a lot of shots. But offensively, like I said, I just never really controlled the game and settled my team down. Q. You came into this game brimming with confidence. Was there ever a point that you just realized how good a team Kansas was and just lost that confidence? KEVIN ANDERSON: We never lost confidence. We just tried to chip away at their big lead. We chipped away at it and they just went on a run. A credit to them. They never let us back in the game. It wasn't a loss of confidence, it was just we didn't get the key stops. They moved the ball well. They were good in transition, the half court offense. We never got them probing and facing the type of defense we were playing the whole year. JUSTIN HARPER: Yeah, we never played without any confidence. You can't come out here in the NCAA tournament and not play as hard as you can. And that's definitely -- you're not going to be able to do that against a great team like Kansas. We were trying to fight back, fight back, and they were able to make some big runs down the stretch. Q. Justin, they seemed to extend their defense a little bit more than you guys have seen. What did that do? JUSTIN HARPER: You know, it caused us to start our offense from a little bit farther back, and kind of taking us out of our comfort zone a little bit. But we weren't able to really establish the tempo of the game tonight, and that's one of our strengths. And it really showed tonight. And give credit to Kansas. They're a great defensive team. They had great perimeter defenders and they were able to make it tough for us. Q. Was there any aspect of the game that Kansas had on the floor tonight that was surprising to you, that was more than you expected? KEVIN ANDERSON: No, we expected everything. Like I said, we just let them dictate the tempo tonight and I think that's what it was. They came out real aggressive on us, and we let them stay aggressive and never dictated the tempo. It's my job to calm the guys down. I didn't do a good job of that and I think that's what it was. JUSTIN HARPER: Nothing surprising out there, they're just a great team, they're a tough team. It's really hard to come back from a deficit on them where they're able to execute so well on the offense and really score so quickly in transition, as well. Q. What happened before the game in the tunnel with both teams? KEVIN ANDERSON: Nothing. Both teams were just anxious, ready to play, and I think that's what it was. We were just anxious to get on the court and come here ready to play. That's all it was. Q. Just following up on that, do you think that had any affect? Did it carry over to the court at all for either team? KEVIN ANDERSON: Not really. I mean, the excitement is there and the aggression is there, and you're just ready to get on the court. You've got a long warm up. We didn't play on Thursday. We didn't play on Friday. We were ready to play. Both teams were ready and eager to get out on the court. I don't think it carried over or had any effect. A lot of teams just have aggression before games, and that's all it was. Q. Coach, can you go into detail about what they did defensively tonight? I think that was the worst shooting performance of the season and obviously made it tough on Kevin. What did they do, specifically? COACH MOONEY: I thought really, I think they just did everything well. They pressured the ball a little bit better than we expected. They're very fundamentally sound. They defended the ball screen with Kevin very well. And I think you're right, they were able to push us out an extra couple of feet to start our offense. And I think we didn't play as well as we could I think in the beginning of the game. That tends to lead to one team gaining confidence and one team, you know, starts to press a little bit and, unfortunately, that was us. I thought the second half we ran our offense better, we were able to get some better looks. But they were able to press us in a way that we weren't necessarily expecting them to be able to. And then a couple of times you have to make a couple of your open shots and we didn't knock down enough shots to kind of -- whether we ran good offense or not, we didn't make our shots at the end of the day enough to kind of keep the game closer for us. Q. What are you saying to your team in the locker room after a game like this, with such a stellar season that ended this way? COACH MOONEY: It's difficult, because you only have about five minutes before you have to come here. I said how much I cared about them and how much they've meant to our program and to me, personally. We can't worry about this game right now. We also can't celebrate the season we had right now. So I think we went over our travel plans for tomorrow. Again, I told them that I loved them and I appreciate everything that they've done for the University of Richmond and that we'd meet when we got back to school tomorrow. Q. Coach, Kevin is putting a lot of responsibility on himself. Should he be that critical of himself or was it more than him? COACH MOONEY: No, obviously without Kevin it wouldn't be as good a team or as successful. But he does take responsibility. If we have a bad stretch, a bad game, he does take full responsibility. And I think that's what makes him the leader that he is and the player that he is, that he's willing to do that. Obviously Kevin was doing everything he could out there and has had an incredible career for us and will be remembered as one of the best players in the history of Richmond basketball. Q. Yesterday one of the Kansas players was quoted as saying they tried to get into the heads of the Richmond players, even yesterday. Did you see that tonight as an extension of that before the game and did it work? COACH MOONEY: You know, I didn't -- I don't think so. They're a great team. I don't think any of that stuff -- I think it's an iconic program and Coach Self is one of the very best coaches in college basketball, and I think it's a first class program. What gets in your head is the record and the statistics and just how good they are. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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