|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S REGIONALS SEMIFINALS & FINALS: NEW YORKMarch 28, 2014Dustin HogueFred HoibergDeAndre KaneNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Connecticut – 81 THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and get started with an opening statement from Coach, and then take questions for the student‑athletes. COACH FRED HOIBERG: Well, first of all congratulations to Connecticut. They played a heck of a game tonight, and really came out and shot the ball well out of the gate. Had a very good game plan I thought defensively. I they got us standing around a little bit. Second half I thought we were very aggressive and figured some things out. Got much better movement and went down swinging and that's exactly what I would expect out of this team. So many times to fight adversity to have our backs right against the wall to go and right down to the last second, even though we were down by 17 points at one point in that second half. And that's who these guys are, they're fighters. Great chemistry all season long, and to lose a guy like Georges Niang still go out and beat a North Carolina and have an opportunity after being down 17, tells you everything you need to know about this group of guys. Couldn't be more proud of these seniors, and the way that they went out, and what they did for this program. I've been a fan of Iowa State basketball since I was a little kid, and seeing this program taken to new heights because of guys like DeAndre, four‑year guy like Melvin, who's meant so much to our university, and to get off to a 14‑0 start this year, best start in school history, cut down the nets in Kansas City, win a Big‑12 Conference championship, get to the Sweet 16, even though like I talked about, what had happened with one of our guys. So couldn't be more proud of this group, and again, congratulations to Connecticut. THE MODERATOR: Take questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Dustin, the interior defense of Connecticut, you guys seemed to be going into the paint and putting up some pretty out‑of‑control shots. Was "intimidation" a word you might use there? DUSTIN HOGUE: They did a good job in packing in the paint. We really didn't move the ball too much and we got real stagnant in our iso. So we needed to move the ball around and without that being done, they were able to pack the lane up and make us take a lot of tough shots. Q. Dustin, I know obviously tonight didn't end the way you wanted it to, but what did it mean to play like this in a building that you had never been in before and not far from your hometown? What was the whole experience like for you? DUSTIN HOGUE: It was definitely a beautiful experience for me. To go down the way we did, we still fought and having a chance to play in the Garden and the Sweet 16. I've come a long way in my basketball career to have this opportunity. And it's still special to me, even though it didn't end the way I wanted it to. I'm just happy to have the opportunity to play here. Q. Dustin, could you just talk about the atmosphere there. Did it feel a little bit like a road game with all those Connecticut fans? And did that have any impact on the game? DUSTIN HOGUE: Yeah, they had a lot of fans and when times got rough, their crowd got up a little bit. But, no, I don't think it was so much their fans. We didn't play our style of basketball, and the key to the game is defense. If we don't execute defensively, it's going to be a tough one for any team. But it was a good UCONN team, they did a good job exposing our defense. Q. Dustin, would this game have been sweeter since you're from Yonkers, just down the road, winning at home in front of a crowd that you're familiar with? DUSTIN HOGUE: Definitely. To have a chance to play in front of my fans and family, it would have definitely been an unforgettable moment to win in front of my fans and family. I had a lot of people from home watching, and to have this opportunity all together is just unbelievable for me. We didn't come out with the win, but to play in the Garden, it's something I dreamed about as a kid. So this opportunity was special. I'm happy our guys came out fighting the way they did. Q. DeAndre, early in the game you guys missed a lot of shots that I think you would make in your sleep. Was there any nerve factor or discomfort there getting used to a new spot like this? DeANDRE KANE: No, I don't think it was no nerves. We shot around earlier. We shot here yesterday. So it's what we do, and we're a team we like to play fast. We like to get up shots, and I think we got good looks in the first half, and we missed a lot of shots. But we got down 16, we kept fighting in the second half and we started to knock down shots and loosen up their defense a little bit. But like Coach said, give all the credit to Connecticut. They played a great game. They had a great scheme for us, but I'm just proud of how we fought even down 16, to cut that thing all the way back to about five or six. We kept fighting all night, so it was great to see my team didn't give up. Q. You guys had a lot of success this year getting to the Sweet 16, although it hurts losing how did playing in a Big‑12 Conference that was very up this year, how did that prepare you for the tournament? DUSTIN HOGUE: The Big‑12 Conference is a very tough conference. We play tough teams all year, teams with good size and teams with good guards. So that experience is just, it plays big into playing in a game like this. We played guys like Kansas and had to deal with shot blockers, I don't know what his name is, but he's a pretty good shot blocker. So we played against good guards like Kansas State, Foster. So this was definitely a good preparation in the Big‑12 with it being such a good conference. And I don't have any regrets. We played hard and we fought. DeANDRE KANE: To reflect on what Dustin said, just playing in the Big‑12 Conference, it gave us a lot of different looks. We had to play against a lot of different teams, some fast, some slow the game down, some was bigger than us, faster than us, but I just think that just playing against different teams like that prepared us to play against different teams in the Tournament. We didn't know who we would face, but different teams had different styles of play. North Carolina had a fast tempo game; UCONN slowed it up a little bit. So I just think playing in the Big‑12, one of the best conferences in America, it helped us out a lot. But I'm proud of my guys, and I'm so happy how this year went for us as a team. And look forward for the Cyclones next year. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you. Take questions for Coach. Q. You talked about the adjustment you had to make without Niang, running it through him and Kane in the past. Do you think that it was just too short of time to make such a radical adjustment? COACH FRED HOIBERG: No, I don't think so, because I thought that we had great pace to our play against North Carolina. Again, we did get to the rim a lot in those first few minutes, we just you know characteristically missed quite a few of those. I don't know if it was intimidation, I don't know what it was. We still outscored them 42‑28 in the paint. That's usually a pretty good sign when have you that stat. And we outrebounded them; almost 17 offensive rebounds. So when you have those types of numbers, usually you have a pretty good chance of winning the game. I thought that we just got really stagnant. We switched ‑‑ all ten eyes were on the ball handler and we just stopped moving. In the second half we really picked it up. I thought we got the ball in the right players' hands. There weren't nearly as many isolation plays. Ball was swinging side to side and in turn we scored 50 points as opposed to 26 in that first half. So just again, I thought we left maybe some things bothered us a little bit in the first half that really hadn't bothered us all year, and it took us at halftime and getting on the guys a little bit coming out 17 to get us going. But again, we fought all the way to the buzzer, and that's something I told our guys, we walk out of Madison Square Garden with your head held high. Q. Talk about matching up with DeAndre Daniels and how much of a problem he can be with his size and his outside shot. COACH FRED HOIBERG: He was unbelievable tonight. Shabazz and Boatright were really good early knocking down shots for them, and then Daniels went through that stretch in the second half where they really went to him. He was hitting mid‑range shots over extended hands, and got free for a couple threes where I didn't think we went out there and got a hand up, even though we were in the area. They did a good job going to him. And give Kevin credit for continuing to feed the hot hand. Q. You mentioned how you guys figured some things out in the second half. You touched on that, but specifically so much more prolific offensively in the second half. What did you kind of figure out with the guys in the second half? COACH FRED HOIBERG: Well, that's who we were all year. We just got back to playing how we played. I thought our pace was so much better. Any time we play with great pace, and get that spacing, get our wing runners all the way down to the corners, we're so much more of an effective team. We just I thought were getting the ball up slowly, which is playing into their hands. They wanted to get the tempo set, and they had it set. Once we got it in our favor, the tides turned. And we got that thing up and down the floor, we got it to Dustin, who we felt had a mismatch and he went to work. And did a great job. We had some guys that hit some shots all year that just didn't fall tonight. And that's the way it goes. Unfortunately in the game of basketball you have nights where that basket looks that big (indicating) and sometimes it looks like a little thimble. And unfortunately a few of our guys had that type of night tonight. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Coach. COACH FRED HOIBERG: Okay. 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
|