|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: OMAHAMarch 15, 2012Randy BennettMatt DellavedovaAndrew JonesOMAHA, NEBRASKA THE MODERATOR: Here we have Matthew Dellavedova and Andrew Jones, we will start with questions. Q. Matthew, most of us have seen you on TV but could you kind of‑‑ now that you have had an opportunity to watch Purdue, you make them‑‑ your team go, Lewis Jackson, smaller than you makes their team go. Can you talk about the differences but I'm sure you have respect for him as a player. MATHEW DELLAVEDOVA: He's a tough player, he's really good at penetrating and when he penetrates he's looking to set up his shooters. We're going to need to do a good job on him. Q. (No microphone.) MATHEW DELLAVEDOVA: I will look to shoot it a little bit more, look to penetrate to the basket more. Q. Matt, you've probably been asked this 100 times but for those of us from Indiana, could you talk about the pipeline to Australia, three of you are starters. Can you discuss how this happened that you ended up in St. Mary's? MATHEW DELLAVEDOVA: Well, our assistant Coach, M.K., was the first Australian to come out then he recruited one of his good mates, and then it kinda just flowed down from there. David Patrick recruited me and the other Australians on the roster right now, he got Patty Mills here, and we knew him from our time at the institute and we talked to him and it seemed like a good place to come. So we all came. Q. You guys have seven players on the roster from your last tournament run. How do you think that experience will help you? ANDREW JONES: I think that experience will definitely help us down the stretch. We need leadership and also when it comes down to a tight game we will have a lot of confidence in ourselves. MATHEW DELLAVEDOVA: I think it just helps because it says a lot of other things‑‑ it has a lot of other things that go on around us, things like this, only shooting on the court for a certain amount of time, just things that are a bit different than a normal game. Just having sort of gone through that once before just helps knowing what to expect. Q. Rob, having seen Purdue, at least on film, is there any team that you've played this year that you can draw off of to make comparisons that would be useful to you tomorrow? ANDREW JONES: I think coach made comparisons to USF, SanFrancisco, they got good players, they are kind of an outside team and they've got great shooters so we can use our scout from that to help. Q. Randy a couple of days ago compared Robbie Hummel to Collario, do you agree? ANDREW JONES: Yeah, they're both great players and they can shoot it from outside and they can get to the basket if they need to. Q. Matthew, Purdue has won 13 consecutive games in the round of 64, they haven't lost since Matt Painter was a point guard at Purdue in 1993. The opportunity for you guys to play a Big 10 team, I know you guys play a great schedule, but talk about the chance to face a Big 10 team and pretty impressive to win 13 straight in the NCAA. MATHEW DELLAVEDOVA: Obviously a good program, good coach, they're a tough team and we're looking forward to playing against them. Yeah. Q. Matthew on Tuesday you said you played Purdue when you were at The Institute, but you didn't recognize any players. Are there a couple of guys that you do recognize now looking at the roster? MATHEW DELLAVEDOVA: I can't remember back that far but we have watched them a bit more on tape and I have a pretty good idea of how they play now. Q. Matthew, I read that Clint's dad has been crashing with you guys the last couple of days. I wonder if you could talk about that experience. MATHEW DELLAVEDOVA: He just sort of‑‑ he extended his stay for a little bit. So he just rode in with his bags and I think he's been staying on the floor in Clint's room. It's been good, he's been cleaning up the place a little bit for us. (Chuckles.) Q. What do you think about that, rob? ANDREW JONES: I heard the story from Mitch and he said Clint said "We got a visitor" not really asking but suggesting that his dad was going to come stay over and I thought it was pretty funny because Clint's dad stayed over with Clint and Mickey last year for a while so good stories from last year, and it was kind of funny. Q. You can thank me for getting that one out there, I know you guys were excited about it. Rob you were here a couple of years ago with San Diego. Talk about this group and how it's different, this mix of guys and players and how well you guys have come together over the season. ANDREW JONES: Like I said we have a lot of returners to the team, people have been to do so tournament so this is nothing new for us, I think this team is stronger than the one I had in San Diego, there is not a player on this team that I don't love as one of my brothers. I think I like my chances better with this team even though we did what we did with San Diego I think this team has a better chance of going further. Q. Matthew, I understand you had a spaghetti bolognese after the loss to Murray state. What was said after that game? MATHEW DELLAVEDOVA: I think the main thing was to just let everyone know we were on the same page, we had a few tough losses in that stretch, LMU at home, as well. But I think the main thing was just that we're okay, we need to keep working hard in practice and keep playing together and things will turn around and they did, so it was good. Q. Matthew, two seasons ago, Omar had 62 points in two games and became a media celebrity. Who is the most likely person to score 62 points in two games and become a media celebrity? MATHEW DELLAVEDOVA: Probably no to both questions, Omar was incredible the level he was playing at those first two games and he played that way all season and I don't think anyone has a bigger personality than he does so I wouldn't expect that. ANDREW JONES: I have to go with Matt. Omar was playing great at the time. I don't think we need any one player like that to carry the load on this team. We've got talent throughout the roster so I think we will get a mixed variety of scorers throughout. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for the St. Mary's students? All right, gentlemen, best of luck to you. Randy Bennett is now with us. Coach, start off with a statement and then we will go to questions. COACH BENNETT: Our club is excited to be here. That was one of our goals last year when we didn't get selected, I think our guys took that pretty hard and made our goals last spring and one of them was to win the league, which we did, and another one was to get to the NCAA Tournament, try and play in the tournament for the championship. We're excited to be here, it's a privilege to be here and put our best foot forward, try and play well. Q. Coach, interesting that your two point guards in the game, a tall, lanky kid from Australia who likes to shoot and a tiny, quick kid from Decatur, Illinois but they both have a lot of success. In watching films, they aren't a comparison but why each point guard is so successful? COACH BENNETT: Yeah, they're definitely different players, one is a‑‑ the kid from Purdue is a very quick penetrator, and he's not as quick, he's bigger, and he sees over people, things like that. The reason they're both successful is they both are leaders, they both organize their team, and they make others better. I think that's the sign of a really good player is if you make other players better. If you're the point guard that only makes yourself look good, you're not a very good point guard, those guys get other guys shots, there is a reason their team is in the NCAA Tournament. Q. You've said that Purdue has some aspects of USF for scouting purposes. I assume that's not an exact comparison. Are there parts of their game that remind you of other teams, or is USF simply the handiest comparison point for your guys? COACH BENNETT: USF would be the handiest comparison, just because we played them recently. What we have seen in the limited films of Purdue is they are a very good shooting team. They play downsized half the game, which basically means they play without a center so they play with forwards and guards, and they're hard to guard. I think the strength of their team is they're good offensively, they can shoot the ball very well, they have a lot of guys that can penetrate, they share the ball, they don't turn it over so you're going to have to get them to take shots that are difficult to make and that's not easy to do when they don't turn it over. So that's the comparison. Playing with a bunch of forwards and guards not so much with the low postgame. Q. Coach, it was a bit of a break‑through for you guys to win the regular season and follow with the conference title. How important was that for the program and in terms of the progress you guys are making? COACH BENNETT: I think winning league was important, just the regular season Conference Championship, we had not‑‑ nobody has done that in 11 years, win it out right. So I think that was important to our players, to get that done. You could tell the way we went into that last weekend, those were "must wins" if we were going to win it outright and they did. The tournament was more important to make sure you're in the NCAA Tournament, remove all doubt. I think we approached it as this is a tournament that we can win, something different than our regular conference season championship, but it was still important. I think if you asked our players which was probably more meaningful it was probably winning the league outright. Q. Coach, with us here who have seen you on TV but don't know a the lot about your connection, I asked Matthew about your Australian connection. Can you tell us, those who cover Purdue, how this pipeline developed, because I believe three of your starters are from Australia. COACH BENNETT: They didn't tell you I was born in Australia? Not true. (Chuckles.) Adam Caporn was the first guy we took, sight unseen, in a year when the program was a little bit down and we heard there was a guy with good grades, good leader, he wanted to come over here and play and we were short on guards so we said what the heck and he came over and ended up being a starter for two years. From that the pipeline was started, we got his buddy, Daniel Kickert, all‑time leading scorer at St. Mary's, and then Mills, and then the flood gates opened. Matthew Dellavedova, Mitch Young, Jorden Page who all played on the same national 19 and under team, I think that's when we capitalized on the contacts. Our games are on TV down there, we were fortunate to get Adam, it worked out, a stroke of luck and then I think we were wise enough to continue to develop our contacts there. It wasn't a master plan, we didn't have a plan to get Australian players, it just kind of happened. Then the fit has been so good for us having the players and for those players that have come that we have stayed with it and it's grown. I'm sure we will have more players from Australia coming. Q. Randy a lot of times when you say you go on the road playing a good team, Gonzaga, BYU, whoever, you say you've got to value the basket, not give up easy baskets. Playing at a neutral site are there other things that are more important? COACH BENNETT: There are other things that are important but it's always important, give away‑‑ if you average a point a possession, turn it over 12 times you've lost 12 points. I think these games ‑‑ you treat these games like road games and it's just on the road, toughest, neutral next toughest, home, you're going to get the crowd behind you. There are certain things you have to do on the road or in a neutral game, one of 'em is take care of the ball, transition defense would be another. You can't give the other team baskets. I would say field goal percentage defense would be another and rebounding would be another. You can't always control‑‑ you might get good shots and not make 'em where you have to do the other things at a level where if you don't shoot well you can still win. Transition "D" is totally related to turnovers. You turn the ball over they're going to get transition baskets on you. So that is one of the biggies all the time. Q. Given that two years ago in this tournament so much of your offense ran through Omar, is it easier to prepare when you have more options or do you think it's harder for other teams to prepare for you? COACH BENNETT: I think it's easier to prepare for us. It's different, though, but when you have a low‑post scorer like that, that puts a lot of heat on the defense and we don't play‑‑ like Purdue, we don't play out of the low‑post as much as we did the last time we were in the NCAA Tournament, we'll try and get you different ways, whether it's penetration or drop‑offs or things like that, but we are more of an outside/in team this year so you want both. And you want to play Sam both ways and they played him straight up in the tournament and he had 30 plus so you want that luxury as a coach. Q. Randy, Robbie Hummel, could you comment on the problems he creates just with his ability to penetrate and shoot from the perimeter? COACH BENNETT: First of all he's a legend, heard about him for six years, finally get to see him up close. You know what? He's just a basketball player. And I say that in a positive sense. He knows how to play, he competes, he does a little bit of everything. He is a low‑post presence for them, a little bit, but he goes out on the floor and can shoot the ball, that's what he does best, because he shoots the basketball but he can put it on the floor and he gets baskets for others. It's amazing he's had as good of a season as he has after coming off the second ACL and he's finishing strong, I think he averaged over 20 a game in the month of Februarywhich is crazy for a guy who had happen what he did in this short amount of recovery time. He must have a big heart. I don't know him that well, I have only watched him compete but for him to come back from that and get his team back in the NCAA Tournament and they're playing well right now, he's got‑‑ he's got what you want, he's got what it takes to be a special guy. It's been fun to see him up close, scout him, finally did, just, like he said, he's a legend, just heard about him over the years and to see him up close is fun, until tomorrow. (Chuckles.) THE MODERATOR: Anything else for the Coach of the Gaels? Thank you, Randy, very much. Best of luck. COACH BENNETT: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|