Post-Game Quotesheet
11/25/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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POST-GAME QUOTESHEET
Chaminade vs. Pitt, EA Sports Maui Invitational, Lahaina Civic Center, Lahaina, Hawaii
Quoting Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon and players Michael Young and James Robinson
THE MODERATOR: Coach, an opening statement?
COACH DIXON: We had a lot of great performances. So excited for our guys and how hard they executed and competed and got after it. Did a good job attacking the zone. I thought we defended well too for long periods of time. But they're a very hard team to guard, Chaminade. And they really spaced the floor and they're dangerous offensively as everybody knows. They made some tough threes, some deep threes. But we did what we wanted to. We wanted to be a good, defensive team. We wanted to be a good, defensive rebounding team, and we did that for the majority of the game.
Q. Talk about the effort where the way you guys came out tonight compared to the last game and how much of that was playing on your mind?
Michael Young: The loss hurt a lot from me and James down to the 16 that play on the team, through the coaching staff. It hurt really bad. You never want to lose a game that you're supposed to win. It just hurt. So coming out in this game, we just wanted to come out with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. I don't think we had a lot of energy and enthusiasm in the Hawaii game. That is the reason I think we lost. They had energy and confidence and enthusiasm through the whole game and ours was kind of up and down if we had any. In this game we wanted to come out and play as hard as we can for as long as we can, and make the simple plays on defense and not have any defensive mistakes.
James Robinson: Like Mike said, we didn't come out and perform as well as we could have on Friday, and we learned a lot from it. So we just try to take what we learned from it and implement it in the game today, and I think we did a pretty good job.
Q. Mike, you obviously had a big game offensively, but most of it was just down in the post. Is that what you're going to continue to try to build on that kind of performance every single night now?
Michael Young: Yes, my field goal percentage is way up from last year, and shots, I'm getting great shots and I'm going to continue to get great shots. Just playing around the rim is what I'm most comfortable doing. I worked on it a lot over the summer and all the way through is the summer and the spring and fall. Like I said, that's what I'm most comfortable doing, and that's what I'm going to continue to do.
Q. Mike, how did it feel personally to break out the way you did, not just scoring but on the boards and the way your whole team did, a career high rebounding and your first double-double?
Michael Young: Still felt good. Coach just recently made me one of the captains of the team next to James. I just want to come out and lead by example. I do a lot of talking and try to echo what the coaches want to get across to us. It's the first time being a leader and captain of a team. I just want to try to be my best. This game I want to lead by example and come out and be the hardest playing guy. Whatever Coach wanted on defense or offense, I wanted to make sure it got executed. It's my first double-double, but I'm just worried about the win.
Q. What did you guys think of the rebounding effort by Derrick off the bench. He rebounded Chaminade by himself.
James Robinson: It was really impressive, and good to see Derrick rebound like that. In practice, he's one of the louder guys. He always gives it his all. It was really good to see and hopefully he can continue that and we can help him out a little bit going into tomorrow's game.
Q. James, you talked a lot this off-season about being more aggressive offensively, and it looked like in the second half you kind of really started taking the ball to the basket and trying to score with authority. Is that something now like Mike, is that something we're going to see more and more of from you?
James Robinson: I think there were a lot of driving lanes that were open, and we just really worked on getting into the gaps of the defense and making the play from there and making the play low and making the right pass or taking a shot if it's there. So I think as a team that's what we've been focusing on and we were able to do that tonight.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Dixon.
Q. The rebounding numbers speak for themselves and it's something you guys wanted to do. But when you had Josh and James in there together, you've talked a lot about how they change your team offensively. It seems like you guys are faster and do a lot more things. Could you just talk about why you like having those two in there together?
COACH DIXON: Well, they're going to be in there a lot together. They did it a lot last year as Josh got more experienced and improved. But Chris got into foul trouble early, so it just made us put us in a situation where he was going to play more. So we've obviously got to do some things a little differently than we had planned, but we're getting there. We're figuring things out and getting better for it. But the play was good. We did what we wanted to do offensively. We attacked the zone. We got in the lane. We wanted to penetrate, and we did more of that tonight. I thought we took great shots. We didn't shoot it great, even though the percentage -- all our shots were good. We missed a lot of shots around the basket, so you know we haven't shot it well yet here. But we're going to get better, and we're going to improve. But Derrick really was unbelievable tonight for us. It's been a frustrating time for me, the ankle injury. He was playing really well, had the ankle injury in the blue-gold game. It's about a month that he's been half speed and sat out for two or three weeks. It's finally getting back. We've just got to get guys healthy and get them right. And he's one of them as well. Obviously Ryan was out for a week. Now he's back, so we're playing him and he's giving us some minutes. We're finding different guys and trying to get them back to a hundred percent.
Q. You didn't waste much time putting him?
COACH DIXON: Yeah, he's played better in practice in the last week. I think it was important. We really didn't -- as disappointed as we were on Friday in our performance, we really wanted to get our legs back, and I knew how dangerous this team was and how they earned the hard match-up for us how they play and how they shoot the ball. So we wanted to get our legs under us, and I think that was important. We've been working so hard as we tried to change around what we're doing and adjust and get better with all these young guys that I just felt like we were tired when we got here. Hopefully now we're getting our legs under us a little bit. Obviously we've got to play again tomorrow. But Derrick is just getting healthier now. He was practicing really well. It's good to see him go like that. Obviously you just let him play and do what he was doing.
Q. How crucial is that rebounding edge? How much more crucial is it when a team's shooting the ball the way they did at times in the second half?
COACH DIXON: It felt like at times we still had some breakdowns. But they made some shots. Watching them play, that's how they play and they're going to make some shots. What did they have? Six different guys hit threes. You know, that's what they do, put shooters on the floor and they spread you out. You've got to hurt them on the glass when they've got five guards out there really. And that's what we did. We didn't shoot it great, but we took great shots, and that's why we were able to get the inside position and the angles we wanted to get. Knew it was going up, so that was key. But defensively I think we cut down some of our mistakes, but still there are too many and we understand that. That's why we're going to try to get better at it.
Q. The players talked about the intensity on their part after the Hawaii game. Did you guys as coaches feel like you had to talk to them very much or do they kind of do that on their own?
COACH DIXON: I thought we were tense. I think we hit a team that played well the other day, and we're not where we need to be defensively to be the team that plays well and win games with our defense as we have in the past. We've got to get better at it. If you look at our roster and you sit down, you would probably say, well, there is a reason. So we've got to get it figured out. We made some improvements today, and we're going to make some improvements before we play tomorrow.
Quoting Chaminade head coach Eric Bovaird and players Lee Bailey and Frankie Eteuati
THE MODERATOR: We welcome Coach Bovaird, Lee Bailey, and Frankie Eteuati to the media room today. We'll begin the press conference with an opening statement from Coach Bovaird, and then we'll take questions for the players. Following that, we'll dismiss the players and take questions for the coach. Coach, an opening statement on this afternoon's game?
COACH BOVAIRD: Sure, our guys played hard. We've been talking about it for a week that one of the main keys to the game is going to be boxing these guys out and preventing them from getting offensive rebounds. It's a lot harder to do than it looks on film. But we knew that coming in, and they were still able to take advantage. They had 19 offensive rebounds in the first half. And the one guy set a rebounding record tonight. So other than that I feel like our guys can play with it, but that's one area we definitely struggled in.
Q. Frankie, just what was it like going up against No. 2, Young, and also No. 11, Randall?
FRANKIE ETEUATI: It was fun. You don't often get a chance to play against strong guys like that and bang as much as you want. As a team we kind of allowed ourselves to get out of position, and that kind of allowed them to get inside position. So it was fun, but I should have done better.
Q. Was it tough to rebound the zone? Normally when you're playing man it's easier to box out. Was it harder to box out being in the zone?
FRANKIE ETEUATI: Not necessarily. In the zone I kind of allowed myself to move into a bad position for the box out, so in a sense it was a little harder today to rebound in the zone. However, ifs and buts, you know. Who knows?
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach.
Q. Despite the December parity in rebounds, were you kind of happy with the way your team hung in there and hung around and kept it to 10, 12 points midway through the second half?
COACH BOVAIRD: Yeah, I knew they'd never give up and they'd never quit. Coming into this tournament we've got things we want to accomplish and work on and get better at. Even though, no matter what the score is, we're going to keep focusing on trying to reach our goals of a Division II National Championship. These are three great games in order to help prepare us to get to where our ultimate goal is. But I knew our guys wouldn't quit. No matter what the score is, they look forward to this challenge every year.
Q. You got a lot of penetration and kick off of threes that were open. You didn't make as many in the first half, but it seemed like in the second half you started to hit them and that kept you in the game. Was that your game or something you're doing specifically against Pitt?
COACH BOVAIRD: Yeah, a lot of our offensive sets are very simple combination that I came up with last year. We have a couple of great penetrators like Lee and Kuany, and we have a couple of great shooters, so we give them the ability to come off the screens and read the screen. It doesn't take a basketball genius to figure out that our offensive system, but it's still very difficult to guard. We're usually pretty successful. But you have to knock down outside shots without a doubt. We went through a stretch in the first half there where we were missing them. But I told the guys we're going to start making them. Keep sticking with our game plan and we're going to start making them, and they did.
Q. You kind of talked at the coaches' press conference, when I spoke to you about coming out with a little more edge after the Hawaii game. Did you see that from them and their physical aggressiveness?
COACH BOVAIRD: Oh, without a doubt. Without a doubt. I think the University of Hawaii game was kind of a wake-up call for them. They went back and I'm sure the coaches were on them hard about not playing inspired, not playing with intensity, because I was at the game, and I know Pitt's a heck of a lot better team than what they showed versus the university of Hawaii. We knew that. That wasn't the result that I was hoping for. I wanted them to come in relaxed and confident. But, no, they came out tonight and gave us their best effort which is good for us because it helps us figure out what we need to work on and so forth. But they came out and fired aggressively. They were in the passing lane. They were scrambling. They were crashing the boards, which is pretty obvious.
