Holy Cross-Southern Illinois Postgame Quotes
March 16, 2007
2007 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship First Round
Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
March 16, 2007
No. 4 Southern Illinois 61, No. 13 Holy Cross 51
Holy Cross Postgame Press Conference Transcript
COACH WILLARD: I thought we would have a good opportunity to win this game if we could limit a couple things, one, their transition baskets and I think towards the end of the first half, they got three or four transition baskets that hurt us, and then the second thing was to make sure we did a good job of doubling the post and we did a good job of that until Tim got in foul trouble and we didn't do a good job after he went out of the basketball game and they hurt us inside with a couple plays. When Tim got back in the game, we used him a little tentative. But these two guys here, I just want to finish by saying it's been a real privilege having the opportunity to coach these guys for four years and I couldn't be prouder of the two guys sitting next to me.
REPORTER: For both of you, can you tell us a little bit about
how the defense that they played on you two was maybe different
than you'd seen before?
SIMMONS: Well, it wasn't, they may have been a little more
physical on all of our plays, but me and Troy have been facing
defenses like that the whole season, even in our league, every team
would try to focus on us and stop us. I thought I was ready for it.
I had a bad day, but I thought Troy played well. But that's
something that we see, we've been seeing for 30 games.
REPORTER: Can each of you just comment a bit, then, on playing
in your final game.
THOMAS: Yeah, this is our final game, we don't want to go out like
this, but it was a special program. I'm still going to wear Holy
Cross across my chest everywhere I go ranting and raving about my
experience here and being with the players and coaches that we had.
It's just been an ultimate experience. It was cut short tonight,
but we had a chance to win and we didn't do some of the things we
could have done to do to win, we didn't play to our strengths and I
give them some credit because they did play physical defense and if
I would have limited some of my turnovers, I think we would have
had a better chance of winning the game, so I have to put that on
my shoulders because I'm a senior point guard and if I would have
had a better day, we would have definitely won this game.
REPORTER: Can you just comment, you finally made it to the NCAA
tournament, was it everything you thought it would be, just comment
on that a little bit.
SIMMONS: We were really excited to be here, but this is very
disappointing for us. We really wanted to win this game and we felt
we executed our game plan -- if we'd executed our game plan, we
could have won the game. Like Torey said, I thought Torey played
better than I did, we take responsibility for that, but the
tournament was fun, everything about it was fun and exciting, but
this is still very disappointing for us and it still hurts a lot
and we have to bounce back and learn from it and better ourselves
as people because of this loss. Being in a tournament is not
something that -- we didn't want to just show up and have fun, we
wanted to win this game and this loss does hurt.
REPORTER: Guys, if you can talk a little bit about how your
defense changed and how things were different when Tim went to the
bench with his foul trouble.
THOMAS: Tim is a big space, six-10, 270, he's going to carve a lot
of space out in the paint. When he goes out, experience leaves with
him or other players come in who did a great job tonight, as far as
being a freshmen, he was awesome. It's just a big thing, Tim he
takes up that space, but he blocks shots without going over
people's backs, he really gives us an opportunity to go and get out
on fast break so losing Tim was a big blow to us, plus he came in
and was playing tentative because he didn't want to pick up those
fouls. And for how physical the game was, the calls were still real
tentative, it was real touchy fouls, the game was real physical on
both ends and I felt they came at us, but we came right back at
them.
REPORTER: Ralph, can you talk about what Torey and Keith meant
to the program.
COACH WILLARD: I think the biggest thing is not only have they
been great players in the program, but they've been great leaders
on campus, very selfless people, couldn't ask for better role
models, two representatives of our school. I'm very proud of them.
It's tough for them to go out this way. Keith had the cramp issue,
the first time he's had it all year and he has to get it tonight
unfortunately, and Torey, with Keith cramping and not being able to
execute, Torey really put the team on his back and scored 16, and
he made some great plays and did great things, we just needed some
other guys to step up. If Tim would have given us a better game
inside, we had a lot of opportunities and just didn't make plays.
When we missed that lay-up, we could have been just down two,
instead we missed a lay-up, they come down and score at the other
end. We need some guys to play a little better because obviously if
they concentrated like everybody else has for the past year on
Keith and Torey, but just two great kids, two great young men and
two great representatives of our school.
REPORTER: And as they stated before, Meister stepped up, but
Vander Baan getting in foul trouble had to hurt as well.
COACH WILLARD: When they got the transition game, they got those
three or four easy buckets on us, both Tim and Alex were in foul
trouble, Eric's a good player, he's only a freshmen, they scored
the out of bounds play in the second half, that was Eric just
falling asleep, referee's handing the kid the ball out of bounds, I
don't know what he was thinking, but we gave up a dunk on that play
to Falker, that's another huge play, that's what happens when you
have to play freshmen in this environment.
Southern Illinois Postgame Press Conference Transcript
COACH LOWERY: I just thought that our kids, the last thing I wrote on the board today was stay together, not knowing that something like we'd have a kid get injured at the end of the half after the buzzer and wouldn't be able to play again, and then for these kids to do that, stay together and really have a kid play a whole second half without being in foul trouble, executing on both sides of the ball the right way like Tony Boyle did today, that was phenomenal. I've been on him quite a bit his three years here and for him to reward it like this is hopefully something that makes him take off in the future.
REPORTER: This is for Tony. Tony, talk about the defense you
guys put on their two big players, it seemed like they just didn't
have anything.
YOUNG: We just went out there and tried to pressure the ball the
best we could. We knew they had the strength and what they try to
do, but that's always part of the game plan, try to take people out
of the game. They still played a good game doing all they did, but
we just tried to take them out on defense and make them
uncomfortable.
REPORTER: First off, what were you thinking when you saw Matt go
down at the end of the first half and what was your mindset the
whole second half?
BOYLE: First he was just laying there rubbing his ankle, you can't
really judge how bad it is, I really wasn't thinking. I was
thinking about just, I can't even say I was even think about him
not even coming back because I didn't know until 30 seconds before
it was over, halftime was over, so I really wasn't thinking much.
REPORTER: Tony, did you get tired the second half or did you
start getting more energy from how you were playing? Can you talk
about what it was like to be in the flow of a game like that.
BOYLE: It was probably the longest I've played in a row all year,
so I got a little tired, it's just a throw of the marbles, you just
have to suck it up and go.
REPORTER: For both guards, it seems as though you guys are very
comfortable when the shot clock gets under 10 seconds where most
people, the game speeds up. With you guys, it kind of slows down.
Can you talk about why you guys execute so well when the shot clock
starts winding down?
YOUNG: I think it's just maturity level. Last year we tried to
throw quick shots and get it out of the way. This year we realize
that nine seconds is a lot of time. We practice it all the time,
practice working at the end of the shot clock and keep your cool,
being patient.
TATUM: I definitely agree it's maturity level, I think there are
times Tony and myself last year with the shot clock at eight or
nine would come in there and shoot a backward shot off of one foot
and Coach would be yelling at us from the sideline. This year, when
we got it in with four or five seconds left, kicked it out to a
teammate and they knocked down the shot. Coach has talked a lot
about trusting our teammates, I think we've done just that,
listened and trusted our teammates.
REPORTER: Tony, what was it like getting that crowd reaction for
you at the end of the game and hearing the chants of your name when
you were coming out of the game?
BOYLE: Every time -- anytime something like that happens, it's
very special, it meant a lot to me, I heard it. I thank all the
fans for coming. It hasn't happened since high school, so I mean,
it's awesome, what can I say?
REPORTER: For any of you guys, when Matt came back to the bench
in the second half, did you guys notice that and did that give you
a little bit of a lift at all?
YOUNG: Matt's a soldier, so we knew he was going to come back
eventually, we didn't know if he was going to come back playing or
come back just being there. When he came back,es constantly talking
to us, he was down, we had to keep his spirits up, he kept us up.
It felt good just to have him there, whether he could get on the
court or not.
REPORTER: For Tony and Jamaal, I'm just wondering how it feels
to keep your careers here going?
YOUNG: To me, it's going to feel good to play another day. We're
going to keep going as long as possible and as long as we can stay
together as a team, it feels good to go out there and win.
TATUM: I didn't want to lose today and Tony didn't want to lose
today and I think everybody on the team felt the same way. This
team is very special and we all love each other. I don't think
anybody wants to see the season end, so we were playing for each
other today and like Coach said, we just stayed together.
REPORTER: Jamaal, how are you looking forward to the rematch
with Virginia Tech?
TATUM: I'm definitely looking forward to it. It's going to be a
fight. I know they're a much different team, so are we. It's going
to be a fight, just like this game was today. They've got a little
different personnel, you've got to match up against them and come
out with your best effort, I know they're going to.
REPORTER: The same question I asked your guards, why do they
seem so comfortable with the shot clock winding down where you
usually see that shot clock wind down and things get a little
hectic?
COACH LOWERY: Like they said, we work at it. We always say we're
not afraid to go to the end of the shot clock, and when we guard
people, we make them do that too so we know how to play on both
sides of the ball when it's on the line. The biggest thing is what
you make them learn how to do and we talk about life stuff
afterwards. If you can handle going to the end of the shot clock
five straight possessions and something positive happens, then you
can go run business, you can go do other things that are pressure
packed too, so we kind of trick them into doing stuff and they've
all gotten much better with it this year as they've gotten older.
REPORTER: What do you expect out of Matt? Are you expecting him
to be an to play Sunday or just no way to know yet?
COACH LOWERY: I didn't know he came back on the bench, so I don't
know. At this point, I addressed the team in there, he was smiling,
happy, just like everybody else was and I didn't even say anything
to him about it. We're just going to wait and see tonight, just go
back to the hotel, get with the doctor and see what happens.
REPORTER: Today was the first day in 45 games that Keith Simmons
didn't score in double figures. He helped out with that field goal,
how important was that in stopping holy cross' attack and what did
you do to stop him today?
COACH LOWERY: We guard everybody and we know how good he is, and
that was the biggest thing. We really wanted to pressure everybody
else and make it hard for them to do their sets that they run for
him, but Tony Young was very good defensively how we want to guard
him. Tony's guarded big guys a lot for us throughout his career, we
knew he was going to give up five inches, but we knew Tony was
going to fight and try to make him miserable and get under his skin
which I thought he did. He's a good player and this is a game, move
on, lose, you're done. I thought our kids really stepped up and
guarded well.
REPORTER: When did you know that Matt wasn't going to be able to
play in the second half and then did you say anything to Tony
before the second half started there?
COACH LOWERY: No, they went back out and we waited, I waited until
two minutes and he got off the table and walked a little bit and
was a little ginger and I just said, no, and walk out. At that
point I decided that I wasn't going to play him no matter if he
could or he couldn't, just a roll of the dice to see what would
happen. When I went out there, I drew something up and put Tony
Boyle's initials down and we just went on. I didn't even say
anything about it. That was the key. I think if I would have talked
to him, I think he would have panicked and gotten nervous and he
stepped up.
REPORTER: How big was it for you to get Clifford in foul
trouble? It seemed like when you went out, you got on the run there
in the first half.
COACH LOWERY: We wanted to go at him initially and they're very
good defensively and we had to overcome the first wave of having
Simmons and Thomas, they're very good at faking and dropping and
making you think they're not in lanes and getting in the lanes.
Once we overcame that, we had 12 turnovers in the first half
because we couldn't overcome the first wave of the guards. Once we
got inside, we really try to tell our guys to go to the rim. Don't
shot fake, don't do any soft moves around the post, they all
attacked the rim when they did get it in there.
REPORTER: Coach, let me ask that a different way. How different
were they defensively when Clifford was out as opposed to when he
was on the floor?
COACH LOWERY: They were different because he's huge. He's massive
in there. And he's not an athletic shot blocker, he's a space shot
blocker. He spaces you out, you don't think he's there and he's
there. That's when we really got it going to Randle, we got the lob
and we got some other stuff on him and obviously in the second
half, we got Tony Boyle some stuff because he was out too, but he's
smart and he's older and he understands what they do and how they
play on the back line zone so when he went out, younger guys less
experienced at running their stuff came in.
