March 13, 2008

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POST-GAME QUOTESHEET

Pitt vs. Cincinnati, Big East Championship First Round, March 12, 2008

 

Quoting Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon and players Keith Benjamin, Ronald Ramon and Sam Young:

 

COACH DIXON:  Well, that's a team that we've battled three times now and came away with this one; the second one for us.  So we knew what we were getting into.  It was going to be a physical game.  Two tough competitive teams, and senior-dominated team. I'm just glad that we're not going to have to play against Vaughn here this week anyway.  So he had a big game against us last game.  He had 30 again tonight.  I tell you, I thought we did a pretty good job for the most part.. He did go away for 25, so we did make him take some shots.  But again, he hit some of those at the end that I was hoping he would be a little more comfortable going into the last minute or two.  But that's what he does and he's a great player. We got great performances from a number of guys.  I think Tyrell Biggs was big for us in the end.  We had to do some things with Vaughn, we were concerned about what he was doing.  He allowed us to play a little smaller, little more versatile.  And it helped us defensively. But Levance ran the show.  Did a great job by getting guys shots.  And Keith, there were two seniors, Keith and Ronald, two seniors from New York, played big tonight and knocked down shots and made plays. So again, we talked about win the battle of the boards; we got outrebounded by one.  That's a challenge with that team, they're a very good rebounding team, Cincinnati.  And we've got today a better job rebounding.  We held them to 38% from the field, and our defense is getting better.

 

THE MODERATOR:  We're joined by Keith Benjamin and Ronald Ramon.

 

Q.  Speaking of defense, can you talk about how Sam asserted himself in those last three minutes with those blocks.

 

COACH DIXON:  That was key.  We did some things differently.  Adjusted to what they were doing.  We wanted Vaughn to dribble rather than shoot, make him put it on the floor.  Sam became the help guy, and it did change some shots as Vaughn was not able to shoot the three.  Really had to lower his shoulder, get in the lane and in some traffic which enabled Sam to help out and get some blocks there or change some shots, anyways.  That was key, but I thought we defended pretty well.

 

If we could have knocked down -- we missed some free throws we normally don't miss, and that would have made the margin a little bit more.  But that's a very good team who, again, started out a little slow this year.  Got their guys back, got healthy, had their point guard out.  Once they got in the league, they were as tough a team to play as anybody in the conference.  And that is a very good team who we beat.  Proud of our guys how we played.

 

Again, as I told our guys, we're playing our best basketball right now.  We've won four of our last five.  We've got our guys healthy.  We've got Levance practicing.  We're able to practice and do things we haven't done since December in this last week.  So we've put ourselves in a position where we're playing our best basketball here now in March.  And that's a good feeling right now.  We're coming along.

 

THE MODERATOR:  We've been joined by Sam Young.

 

Q.  Ronald, you were chasing Vaughn, going around the whole first half, doing really well on him.  Then you look up and he's got 30 points.  What can you say about him?

 

Ronald Ramon:  First, he's a great player.  We tried to stop him in the first half, he did a great job coming off the screens.  Making sure the team defense was there.  And in the second half he was just coming down trying to drive to the basket and using the ball screen pretty well.  He was using the ball screen, coming to the same side and he was getting wide open shots.

 

We adjusted, we switched every ball screen.  Then Sam and Tyrell and everybody did a good job guarding him.  He still shot, you know, a low percentage, so that's what we wanted him to do.  At the same time, he did have 30 points.  He's a great player.  So he found ways to score.

 

Q.  Sam, did you think this game would come down to your defense?

 

Sam Young:  I think every game's going to come down to my defense and the team's defense.  I knew as of late one of the guards said something about we don't block as many shots as we did in the past.  I figured not just this game, but past games I tried to block as many shots as I can.  And the opportunity presented itself today.  And Ron is kind of a short guard coming into the paint, and I was able to get a lot of shot blocks off of him.

 

Q.  Sam, you guys get asked this a lot, but there is a common theme of how well you guys do in this tournament.  And tonight's more of the same.  Could you put that into your own words what is it about the Big East Tournament that seems to bring out the best in Pitt?

 

Sam Young:  This is like our home away from home.  We've got a lot of New York guys on the team.  Their family comes out and supports.  And they feel like they're home every time we step in the Garden.

 

For me, I mean, pretty much I feed off their energy.  They get hyped when they play here, and they start -- I just feed off their energy, basically.

 

Q.  Have you noticed any fatigue in DeJuan Blair?

 

COACH DIXON:  No.  I've been asked that question.  They've double-teamed him.  He hasn't done great against Cincinnati because of that foul trouble; he got in some foul trouble, too.  Then they read him, they double-teamed the post.  They didn't handle it great.  But we got some other things out of it.

 

So he's playing very well.  And he will have a big game, I'm sure, tomorrow.  It's all about adjustments, foul trouble is a big key for him.  But I thought he did some very good things.  He got six rebounds and less minutes than he normally plays.

 

We figured his scoring would be down a little bit because of how they play.  They double-team in the post consistently, and that's the guy we're throwing to in the post.

 

Q.  Can you talk about what the emergence of Keith has meant to the team.

 

COACH DIXON:  It says a lot about him as far as his work ethic.  His coming into this season.  He really wanted to have a great senior year.  He worked very hard on the drills in the off-season, and worked in our preseason practices.  Even before the injuries to Mike and Levance I was saying that he deserved to have more minutes because he was playing so well.

 

But right now he's taking very good shots.  He's knocking down shots and he's making good decisions.  And that's what we need out of him.  We just need him to play bigger defensively for us because we've got the three guards out there, but that's the challenge that we face.

 

You know, he stuck with it.  But he's been a big contributor for us for years.  A lot of guys' minutes are up this year because of our numbers.  But he's been a big part of our program and the success we've had for the four years even prior to this year.

 

Q.  Can you talk about any extra motivation in your last tournament here?

 

Keith Benjamin:  It's definitely extra motivation.  We sit up and we talk every day that we just don't want to go out like everybody else.  We've been to the championship game a lot, me and Ron have seen it twice.  Sam's seen it twice.  A lot of people on this team have been in this game the last two years.  We listened to Brandin, who is our director of operations now.  He talks about how it took him three times and all that stuff.  So the expectations are there.  The emotion is very high.  We just want to go out with a bang.  We come in here to play basketball and play great basketball in front of family and friends, like we always do and just play hard.  As long as we keep playing hard and stay together, we'll keep repeating what we do.

 

Q.  Any of the players can talk about what you expect from Louisville tomorrow and maybe what you can do better.  Your last game was a close game, but any keys to that game?

 

Keith Benjamin:  For us, it's just the same thing.  We're going to come out and play hard.  Last game was a fight inside of our building.  Now we're at a neutral court.  We can rebound the ball better than what we did last game.  We can play tougher defense than what we did last game.  We gave them a couple of easy looks last game.

 

So we're going to look to do the same things we did tonight; hold the numbers down, field goal shooting percentage, get better on the boards, look to outrebound the team.  Usually when we do those things we get wins.  That's what we're going to come out to do tomorrow.  Play tough defense.  Control the ball, because we know they press, and keep the turnovers down and rebound the basketball, and hope everything swings our way.

                       

Quoting Cincinnati Head Coach Mick Cronin and player Deonta Vaughn:

 

COACH CRONIN:  Well, we've played Pitt three times.  Three extremely physical battles, hard-fought games.  We were on the short end of the stick tonight.  Our guys fought, they competed, they never gave up, so I'm extremely proud of their effort.  Didn't catch a lot of breaks in the game.  So that was unfortunate.  And Marvin Gentry's injury, it really left us shorthanded on the perimeter.  I thought our guys got a little bit tired and that affected our defense. But you've got to give Pitt credit.  They're a great team.  They've been to six of the last seven Big East finals, conference tournament finals.  That speaks to what kind of program Jamie's helped build and continued over a long period of time.  He's a great coach, and they have a great program.  You have to give them a tremendous amount of credit.  We don't have a guy that's ever been in Madison Square Garden, let alone play in a Big East Tournament game.  So I'm proud we're back here.  Proud of the effort we put forth tonight.  Time to go back and get ready to fight hard to get back here next year.

 

Q: Could you just talk about Rashad Bishop's performance tonight, this season, and what you expect from him next year.

 

COACH CRONIN:  I thought he played harder tonight than he's played in a long time.  The biggest challenge for Rashad is to play as hard as you need to play at this level.  That is a challenge for most freshmen, to be consistent with your effort.  I thought he was more physical tonight than he had been.  He's capable of being a 6, 7, 8-rebound-a-game guy at the small forward, which is what I'm looking for.  I was really proud of the way he competed physically tonight.  If he plays like that, he's going to be a great player for us.  It's all about consistent effort for him.

 

Q.  Could you just talk about Deonta's effort tonight and the scoring burden you have to put on him.

 

COACH CRONIN:  I've been asking him to do too much since I signed him.  But I guess if you're going to ask a guy do too much, he'd rather ask me to have him score than play too much defense.

It's been a tough road for him and for all our guys.  And the rebuilding of our program, there is a lot of excitement around our program with knowing that we're going to add Mike Williams this year.  I think it was a shell shock to us early, his injury.  And it shifted the majority of the scoring burden right back on to Deonta's shoulders.  But he stepped to the plate.  Guy's got 30 points, six assists, played 39 minutes.  I don't know what else I can ask him to do except drive the bus, and I've seen him drive, so I'm not going to ask him to do that.

 

Q.  Jamie Dixon said that his team's playing the best basketball right now that they've played all season.  How would you compare how they played today versus the other two times?

 

COACH CRONIN:  I think Levance looks better.  He looks healthier.  Tyrell Biggs is making shots from the perimeter.  So when they sub him in there, they don't lose a lot.  I think that's probably the best he's been playing.  Levance looks better.  It's all about personnel.  They've got guys playing a little bit better than they have played.  Obviously, Sam Young is a tremendous player.  I don't know how he wasn't a unanimous All Big East player.  I'd like to know who didn't vote for him.  The guy's done an unbelievable job improving his game.  You've got to give Jamie a lot of credit for that.

 

But they've shown tremendous perseverance as a group after all they've been through.  It's a credit to their coach and to their kids.

 

Q.  How did you think you got your spot after what happened Sunday night?

 

COACH CRONIN:  Regular season was over.  We fought hard to get to the Big East Tournament.  That's the bottom line.  We went 8-10 in this league with absolutely nobody that had been recruited for more than two or three months.  These guys banded together and they got us here.  That's all we were focused on.  So now that we're here, we wanted to make sure we showed what Cincinnati basketball was all about, fight hard, compete, never give up.  Anybody who is in the arena tonight saw that.  And I'm proud of them.

 

Q.  Deonta, maybe you had no choice now that coach put this burden on you, but you are you the kind of guy that really wants that responsibility?

 

DEONTA VAUGHN:  You know, it's been a lot on my shoulders my whole life growing up playing.  Being the go-to guy for every school I went to and played with.  And I was the go-to guy last year.  There was a lot on my shoulders.  Like he said, with the injury of Mike Williams it put a lot back on my shoulders.  And with John Williamson getting in early foul trouble, he couldn't be too effective like he was last game.  I had to take advantage of my opportunity and try to make things happen.  I try to do a lot for the team this year, previous to this game to help my seniors out so they can continue their college career.  We just came up short.  I just gave a lot of effort and hope my team loved my effort tonight and everybody else.

 

Q.  You guys held DeJuan Blair to one field goal attempt, all numbers way below his average.  What are you doing to throw him off?

 

COACH CRONIN:  He only played 24 minutes and we pretty much trapped him, double-teamed him every time he got the ball.  So we didn't feel we could play him one-on-one.  The first time we played him, the traps worked.  We did a bad job trapping him in the second game.  Also, he had six offensive rebounds in the second game at Pitt.  Really, it won the game.  If we could have blocked him out at Pitt, we would have won.  We couldn't keep him off the glass.

 

So he's a freshman, having seen him and having seen the smile on his face, I don't expect he'll get too down.  I think everybody in our league would love to have him on their team.  I think you'll see a different effort from him.  But we trapped him.