#1 BYU 77, #9 TCU 64
3/8/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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March 8, 2007
BYU
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Brigham Young university head Coach Dave Rose and student athletes Trent Plaisted and Mike Rose.
Coach, if you want to begin with some general comments on the game.
COACH ROSE: Well, I thought that TCU played really, really well. They played hard. They battled. Our guys needed to respond to that. I thought that we had a difficult time guarding them off the dribble. We probably fouled more than we should have.
In the second half I thought they did a good job of playing together. We hit some shots, were able to get a little bit of a lead, then kind of ride that lead in.
THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student athletes.
Q: Trent, did they play you guys any differently than they had the previous two games, especially inside the post?
TRENT PLAISTED: You know, not really. I mean, they got a lot of big guys that are really strong. I mean, they're good defensively. Ibikunle, he's a wide, wide body. To get around him is pretty rough.
No, they were real physical with us inside, but for the most part it's just what they did the last couple games.
Q: Keena was a little off. Did you feel pressure to assert yourself more in the offense?
TRENT PLAISTED: You know, not at all. Everyone has off nights. There's nights where some people are feeling it. We're a good team that plays as a team.
You know, some nights it's my night, some nights it's Keena's night. Mike Rose stepped up. Everyone stepped up. I didn't feel pressure whatsoever.
Q: Mike, your role is to come in and all of a sudden turn it on. Can you describe how that challenge is?
MIKE ROSE: I don't think it's a challenge. I enjoy it. Some nights you get lots of shots. Some nights you don't get many looks. You just can't force it on those nights you don't get many looks.
Tonight there was a lot of open shots.
Q: Trent, can you describe the offensive rebounding you had tonight, what created those situations.
TRENT PLAISTED: We maybe didn't shoot the ball as well as we could have. A lot of long rebounds it seemed like. We were able to attack the boards and be aggressive. That's one of the areas where we did really well to make up for our lack of defense in transition baskets and stuff like that.
You know, sometimes it's just good bounces and rebounding is all effort. We really wanted this first game. It was a big game for us. We wanted to get to the glass hard.
Q: Trent, when Mike is making those outside shots, is it noticeable to you that it gets easier inside at all?
TRENT PLAISTED: Absolutely. I mean, Mike is such a good shooter, when he's on, which is most of the time. When he's feeling it, they really have to honor him. That opens it up for the inside game.
I like to think when we're doing well inside, it opens it up for him as well. Everyone's got to honor Mike because he's one of the best shooters in the nation. It really helped me tonight.
THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, we'll let you two go. Thank you. Questions for Coach Rose.
Q: Seemed like TCU's entire game plan was shutting down Keena, in particular, and Trent getting the inside game under control. How important was your bench, those other weapons to your team?
COACH ROSE: I think that TCU did a really good job of controlling the pace of the game. We really like to kind of initiate offense and push the ball. Defensively Keena had guys all around him when he would make a catch.
I think it took a little bit of time, but we finally figured out that some of those perimeter guys were going to be open when they were sagging in a little bit and we were able to hit a few jump shots, especially there in the second half.
Q: Offensively do you feel like you have many, many options? Who are the guys you look to particularly? Is it just Mike?
COACH ROSE: I think we've had balanced scoring all year along. Keena has been extremely consistent for us. Trent has been consistent for us. Those are our two leading scorers. Our perimeter guys are all capable of having big nights. When we shoot the ball well from the perimeter, it really, really helps the inside game.
Q: Brent Hackett was held scoreless from the field. Can you talk about what it was you did specifically defensively today to shut him down?
COACH ROSE: Lee Cummard does a great job on perimeter scoring guards. He's done it from the very first game of the season. He works hard at it. He gets tired. We wear him out a lot. It might affect personally his offensive game, but defensively he's long. He's just figured out a way to get through screens.
I think between Lee and Mike and Jimmy, they just did a really good job on him.
Q: Obviously that hampers TCU because they really have two leading scorers. Take one away and...
COACH ROSE: We think that's a big part of our game plan when we play TCU this year, is that to really focus in on a couple guys.
Langford has been really, really hard for us to contain and guard. We had to actually start doubling him in the second half because he was such a match up problem for us.
Again, your guys have to be focused defensively and just play together. I'm proud of them. I think they did a good job tonight.
Q: In the first half you had 10 turnovers. Seemed like the press might have thrown you off a little bit. What did you do to remedy that? Did that throw you off?
COACH ROSE: That was interesting because at halftime we go in, we have 10 turnovers. One player with three, then seven players with one turnover. I think it has to do with a little bit of maybe first round jitters or trying to get that first game underneath your belt.
You're bringing guys in there, obviously we had a huge emotional weekend last weekend. Guys needed to settle into this game. That's why I thought in the second half we did a better job.
Q: How big is it having Keena on the floor? Seemed like they really wanted to key on him, especially in the beginning, opened it up for Trent?
COACH ROSE: I think between the two of them, they really have been able to play off each other all year long. I've said that many times. Having both of them in there causes some real problems.
When the two of them kind of figure out how they're being played, the game plan that's against them, they get more and more confidence about what they can do themselves.
We really like it when we get that thing in there, they collapse, we get it out, get a good shot.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, coach.
COACH ROSE: Thank you.
TCU
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by TCU head coach Neil Dougherty and student athletes Kevin Langford and Neil P. Dougherty.
Coach, go ahead and open with some general comments on the game.
COACH DOUGHERTY: First of all, I just want to congratulate BYU because they are a very, very sound basketball team. They do a lot of things well. They created a lot of problems for us today, main one being rebounding the basketball.
I felt that if we could have rebounded the ball better that we may have had a lot better chance to come out with a win today. But they were just too good on the backboards for us. Probably the biggest factor in why they come up with a win, a 13 point win.
THE MODERATOR: Questions now directed to the student athletes.
Q: Brent was held without a field goal from the floor. Can you talk about their effectiveness on the perimeter defensively.
Neil P. Dougherty: They did a good job guarding us on the perimeter. Obviously, Brent had a pretty hot game a couple nights back. They tried to key on him and tried to limit his touches.
I mean, you just have to give it to him, congratulate him. They did their job defensively, on the boards.
Q: Kevin, knowing that you were struggling from the floor, did you feel any extra pressure or sense of duty to carry the offense?
Kevin Langford: No. It was just about going out here and doing what we got to do to try and get the win. There was no pressure on us. I mean, nobody was a lot of people weren't expecting us to even put up a challenge.
We were pleased that we were just going out there and trying to do what we do and get a W.
THE MODERATOR: Guys, we'll let you two go. Thank you.
Questions for Coach Dougherty.
Q: Can you talk about the job they did on Brent, specifically Lee, his length?
COACH DOUGHERTY: You're going to get me up here bragging about Lee (smiling). You know, for a coach who's trying to beat a team, Lee Cummard has probably become one of my favorite players that I shouldn't like a whole lot. He just does an awful lot of things for their basketball team. He rebounds it. He handles it. He can shoot it. Then he just guards whoever they tell him to guard, regardless of size, athleticism, position, and he can do it.
He did a good job on Brent. We were trying several different things to see if we could get him off of him. We used Brent as a screener today. We used him as a lot of different things just to see. Lee just never budged.
He's a very good defender. Obviously he's a key reason why their team has done so well.
Q: You really limited Keena Young, but Plaisted, he wasn't in foul trouble like the last two games. He really hurt you guys. Can you talk about what your plan was against Young and Plaisted?
COACH DOUGHERTY: I think when you play them, and this is tough for us and it's tough for probably just about everyone else in this conference right now, you have to be able to defend them inside one on one because you have four or five guys who are shooting mid 40s from the three point line that they can surround him with. To get help down there, and from where, is a very difficult question to answer.
I thought for the most part we did actually a decent job of contesting threes in the halfcourt. They got a couple in transition on us. But this is probably the best job we did at guarding the perimeter and getting down in there, too.
But Plaisted had a real effective game, was just too big inside for us. It was difficult for us to play in a game that's going to have a high number of possessions in it with the foul situation that we have in our three big guys, and Alvarado not being at a hundred percent.
I think we chose not to come down there, and Plaisted had a big game and hurt us. He took advantage of it and hurt us.
Q: Can you talk about the season as a whole, the way you were able to close things out, to get these guys to play good basketball towards the end.
COACH DOUGHERTY: Well, it's like what I told them. This wasn't a miracle. Miracles are things that happen without maybe explanation. This team has learned how to fight through an awful lot of things that most people would quit on.
There weren't a whole lot of good moments during an 11 game losing streak. But what you could see on film is that we were not real far away from being able to win a lot of games. We weren't real far away from playing some good basketball.
Understanding our physical situation, it was difficult at times to really hammer 'em, particularly in practice, to create an atmosphere that I thought would allow us to win those games for fear of having nobody left on the roster come this time.
As the season became a shorter season for us, it was a lot easier to do that. You know, I wish we could have been a little bit luck ier and got a healthy Parker to Las Vegas. We almost did. He hurts his knee in San Diego.
I think the biggest turnaround is the character that was already in these kids gained confidence with just one win. As soon as they won one game, a lot of things that they had been told or they'd been saying to each other began to make more sense to 'em.
As we all know, this age group, confidence can be a sensitive thing. As it started to grow, it was amazing. I wasn't sure whose locker room I was in at times. I'm trying to get them to play against a team that, in my opinion, had so many other areas in their advantage.
My guys are telling me, That's not true. We're way better than them. That was the kind of the feedback that was going.
I just enjoyed these last couple weeks probably more than I have in a long time in coaching 'cause it's frustrating when you can't get your guys to the finish line. Seeing them finish some things this last couple weeks was real good. It was good for me. It was good for them. The change came from work.
Like I said, wasn't a miracle. It was some kids who hung in there, didn't quit, made some things happen for theirselves down the stretch.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach.
