NIT Press Conference
Coaches' Transcript
Temple Head Coach Fran Dunphy
We're excited to be here. I think once you get in the NIT, you're so focused in on the next opponent and for us in the first game it was Bucknell and they were terrific team to play against. They were really well coached and have really good players. For us we got into that game and I wasn't sure how we were going to be. We were fortunate enough to have a home game. Early on in that game, we were not playing particularly well and our senior captain Will Cummings sort of strapped us on his back and was not going to let us lose. We were thrilled to have one that game.
It looks like the next couple of games the rest of the team sort of bought in so we're playing with a confidence that I hope can continue. Obviously we have a tremendous challenge for us tomorrow night up Miami. But I like where we are. We've had a good defensive year. We've had a year where we've taken good care of the basketball. But for us at this point playing in New York City in Madison Square Garden and to be playing in the semifinals of the NIT, we couldn't be more thrilled to be honest with you.
We had a situation like most of us getting this every once in a while we're on that line of if we're going to be lucky enough to be in the NCAA Tournament. For us it was devastating. I will tell you we really wanted to be in it. It didn't happen for us. So we talked about a lot with our guys but I don't know and watch talk really means in this world; I think action means a lot more than that. I think that once we got into a situation where we were playing that first game and our guys started to buy in, then we felt much more comfortable about who we were.
So again we are thrilled; we're excited. Any time you can get to the Garden. I've coached in there a number of times and we had our most recent game was against Syracuse a couple years ago and we found a way to make more shots than they did. So we felt great about being in Madison Square Garden. But I think there's something special about the NIT and I'm thrilled to be here and I'm thrilled for our guys because they get a chance -- we tell them all the time that it would be nice to be playing late in March. Well we're still playing late in March and we feel very fortunate about that.
I want to wish all these guys great luck over the next couple nights to as well. So I know what we're in for and I'm sure John and Jeff know what they're in for as well in those first round games. So wish everybody great health and great success. Thanks a lot for having us.
Miami (FL) Head Coach Jim Larranaga
The first question I was asked by the media this is just after we beat Richmond was, 'you know you're going to be going back to New York what's your favorite restaurant?' I said there is only two places I absolutely go to eat when I'm in New York. The first is I get a dirty water dogs off the street vendor and I get a slice of pizza. So if you haven't done either of those are both you need to do that because that's the best eating you're going to find. This is thrill for me. My first experience in the NIT was actually when I was 9 or 10 years old. My brother Bob played at St. John's University. He was a scholarship athlete, played for Joe Lapchick and he brought me to Madison Square Garden for the Holiday Festival. I had a chance to watch St. John's play and he took me down to the locker room afterward and I met the Saint Johns players and from that moment on, I wanted to be a college basketball player. I wanted to play in Madison Square Garden. It' s a little different now because that was the old Garden and it was smoke filled. You guys remember what it was like? I didn't know, I thought that was what Madison Square Garden looked like. So, when they built a new Garden, I said but where's all the smoke.
In New York is there's no place you want to play other than Madison Square Garden. My first experience as a player was in 1969 Joe Mullaney brought our Providence College team to the Holiday Festival. We played against Kareem Abdul Jabbar and his UCLA team. I thought we outplayed them, really, but they snuck away with the victory but we lost that game. Then eventually in my my senior year we did lose to the great Carolina team under Dean Smith and they won the NIT 1971.
So I have great memories of New York City, the NIT and Madison Square Garden. And in particular my last experience in the NIT and in Madison Square Garden was with Jeff Jones who absolutely destroyed a great UNLV team in the semifinals. I don't remember all the number of assists. I'm guessing he does. It was like 14 or 15 assists. He led our team to the NIT Championship, and he carried Ralph Sampson and Jeff Lamp along with him.
I'm very fortunate to be here. We were down 18 against Richmond and I have no idea how we came back and won that game but we're very excited. My players are very excited to be in New York, my wife is very excited to be here in New York. She made me promise to take her to New York before the Richmond game and I said you have to talk to my players about that. I talk to my players about that and sure enough they delivered
But this is a great group of guys. I recruited Johnny Dawkins. I tried to coach Jeff Jones. He was really uncoachable at that time. And Fran and I are our contemporaries. We were both guards who never passed the ball. But I will say this about our game tomorrow night against Temple. John Chaney wrote the book on how to not turn the ball over, play great defense and have your guards just dominate a game and Fran and his team are doing the same thing. [They are an] absolutely incredible defensive team. They don't turn the ball over. I think it's going to be a great ball game.
I hope our players realize the opportunity they have because whoever cuts down the nets on Thursday night, it's going to be winning a national championship. A memory they will have for lifetime. So thank you very much.
Old Dominion Head Coach Jeff Jones
It is great to be here. I have great memories of my experiences with the NIT going back to 1980 and having the chance to play in the Garden for the for the first time and having that opportunity to cut down the nets. Also having the opportunity to meet Mr. [Jack] Powers and a lot of his friends and colleagues on the committee. I actually even had the opportunity to travel with PJ Carlesimo and an NIT All-Star team over to Europe and that was something that I will always cherish.
So when I was able come back as the head basketball coach at the University of Virginia in 1992. That was a lot of fun as well. We got to cut down the nets again and I remember George Steinbrenner sitting directly behind the bench and reaching over and, at that point I think I was 31, and he just said 'well done young man,' and that was that was pretty special as well.
Our basketball team is thrilled to be part of the NIT and certainly to make it here to New York. It's even nicer experience to be with these coaches who many of you may or may not know obviously they are outstanding coaches but they're also outstanding people and some of the better people in our profession so that makes it even better experience.
Our basketball team is . . . right now they're probably all walking around because there's a whole bunch of them that never been to the city so I don't know where they are at this moment we might need to start tracking them down. But they couldn't be happier to be here. Just three seasons ago a large part of our team experienced a 5-25 season and have used that motivation to just work and to just get better. We're probably not the most talented team but we got a great group of kids that understand other than our strength is in our collective effort. It's not about one player or stars. These kids really get it and I've had so much fun coaching them. Hopefully this ride would continue on. We know it's going to be a difficult challenge tomorrow night against an excellent Stanford team. We're really excited for this opportunity.
Stanford Head Coach Johnny Dawkins
For me being up here it is another great experience for us as a team and as a program. We look at this as an opportunity to grow and as opportunity to still compete for a championship. I want to thank the Committee for allowing us this opportunity. I realize from my experiences that you can't take this for granted. To still be playing late in March, to echo what a lot of coaches have said, is pretty special. Our guys are looking forward to the opportunity
We had an interesting season. We had a season with a lot of ups and downs like all of us. This game is about adversity and how you handle it and I thought our guys did a very good job of responding to some difficult situations. We had some very good wins. We won at Texas and beat UConn this year and that was just some of our out of conference victories. We had a good conference schedule and of course our conference was very good this season and I thought it was very competitive and I thought we were very competitive in it. We lost a lot of close games and that can make the difference in your season. We battle injuries this year which were very difficult for us. But our guys still found a way to overcome and when we were invited to the NIT we couldn't be more excited. I tried to share with our guys my experience of playing in 1986, we won the preseason NIT. A few years ago in 2012 we were fortunate to come back and win the postseason NIT. So it's been a very good memories for me and for my team.
We are looking forward to a great challenge coming up against ODU and Jeff's team. They've done a terrific job and all the teams here have done great job.
We are happy to be competing in this environment and looking forward to it especially for my seniors who have a chance to leave their legacy. Coming here and playing in the Final Four at Madison Square Garden is a great way to end your career. And for younger players an opportunity to continue to understand what postseason play is about; to continue to understand that if you want to go deep into March what it requires. So for our group it's a great opportunity to explore what we can achieve and getting better. We are very thankful for this opportunity. Thank the committee again for giving us this chance and really looking forward to competing against these outstanding coaches and these terrific teams.
Coaches' Transcript
Temple Head Coach Fran Dunphy
We're excited to be here. I think once you get in the NIT, you're so focused in on the next opponent and for us in the first game it was Bucknell and they were terrific team to play against. They were really well coached and have really good players. For us we got into that game and I wasn't sure how we were going to be. We were fortunate enough to have a home game. Early on in that game, we were not playing particularly well and our senior captain Will Cummings sort of strapped us on his back and was not going to let us lose. We were thrilled to have one that game.
It looks like the next couple of games the rest of the team sort of bought in so we're playing with a confidence that I hope can continue. Obviously we have a tremendous challenge for us tomorrow night up Miami. But I like where we are. We've had a good defensive year. We've had a year where we've taken good care of the basketball. But for us at this point playing in New York City in Madison Square Garden and to be playing in the semifinals of the NIT, we couldn't be more thrilled to be honest with you.
We had a situation like most of us getting this every once in a while we're on that line of if we're going to be lucky enough to be in the NCAA Tournament. For us it was devastating. I will tell you we really wanted to be in it. It didn't happen for us. So we talked about a lot with our guys but I don't know and watch talk really means in this world; I think action means a lot more than that. I think that once we got into a situation where we were playing that first game and our guys started to buy in, then we felt much more comfortable about who we were.
So again we are thrilled; we're excited. Any time you can get to the Garden. I've coached in there a number of times and we had our most recent game was against Syracuse a couple years ago and we found a way to make more shots than they did. So we felt great about being in Madison Square Garden. But I think there's something special about the NIT and I'm thrilled to be here and I'm thrilled for our guys because they get a chance -- we tell them all the time that it would be nice to be playing late in March. Well we're still playing late in March and we feel very fortunate about that.
I want to wish all these guys great luck over the next couple nights to as well. So I know what we're in for and I'm sure John and Jeff know what they're in for as well in those first round games. So wish everybody great health and great success. Thanks a lot for having us.
Miami (FL) Head Coach Jim Larranaga
The first question I was asked by the media this is just after we beat Richmond was, 'you know you're going to be going back to New York what's your favorite restaurant?' I said there is only two places I absolutely go to eat when I'm in New York. The first is I get a dirty water dogs off the street vendor and I get a slice of pizza. So if you haven't done either of those are both you need to do that because that's the best eating you're going to find. This is thrill for me. My first experience in the NIT was actually when I was 9 or 10 years old. My brother Bob played at St. John's University. He was a scholarship athlete, played for Joe Lapchick and he brought me to Madison Square Garden for the Holiday Festival. I had a chance to watch St. John's play and he took me down to the locker room afterward and I met the Saint Johns players and from that moment on, I wanted to be a college basketball player. I wanted to play in Madison Square Garden. It' s a little different now because that was the old Garden and it was smoke filled. You guys remember what it was like? I didn't know, I thought that was what Madison Square Garden looked like. So, when they built a new Garden, I said but where's all the smoke.
In New York is there's no place you want to play other than Madison Square Garden. My first experience as a player was in 1969 Joe Mullaney brought our Providence College team to the Holiday Festival. We played against Kareem Abdul Jabbar and his UCLA team. I thought we outplayed them, really, but they snuck away with the victory but we lost that game. Then eventually in my my senior year we did lose to the great Carolina team under Dean Smith and they won the NIT 1971.
So I have great memories of New York City, the NIT and Madison Square Garden. And in particular my last experience in the NIT and in Madison Square Garden was with Jeff Jones who absolutely destroyed a great UNLV team in the semifinals. I don't remember all the number of assists. I'm guessing he does. It was like 14 or 15 assists. He led our team to the NIT Championship, and he carried Ralph Sampson and Jeff Lamp along with him.
I'm very fortunate to be here. We were down 18 against Richmond and I have no idea how we came back and won that game but we're very excited. My players are very excited to be in New York, my wife is very excited to be here in New York. She made me promise to take her to New York before the Richmond game and I said you have to talk to my players about that. I talk to my players about that and sure enough they delivered
But this is a great group of guys. I recruited Johnny Dawkins. I tried to coach Jeff Jones. He was really uncoachable at that time. And Fran and I are our contemporaries. We were both guards who never passed the ball. But I will say this about our game tomorrow night against Temple. John Chaney wrote the book on how to not turn the ball over, play great defense and have your guards just dominate a game and Fran and his team are doing the same thing. [They are an] absolutely incredible defensive team. They don't turn the ball over. I think it's going to be a great ball game.
I hope our players realize the opportunity they have because whoever cuts down the nets on Thursday night, it's going to be winning a national championship. A memory they will have for lifetime. So thank you very much.
Old Dominion Head Coach Jeff Jones
It is great to be here. I have great memories of my experiences with the NIT going back to 1980 and having the chance to play in the Garden for the for the first time and having that opportunity to cut down the nets. Also having the opportunity to meet Mr. [Jack] Powers and a lot of his friends and colleagues on the committee. I actually even had the opportunity to travel with PJ Carlesimo and an NIT All-Star team over to Europe and that was something that I will always cherish.
So when I was able come back as the head basketball coach at the University of Virginia in 1992. That was a lot of fun as well. We got to cut down the nets again and I remember George Steinbrenner sitting directly behind the bench and reaching over and, at that point I think I was 31, and he just said 'well done young man,' and that was that was pretty special as well.
Our basketball team is thrilled to be part of the NIT and certainly to make it here to New York. It's even nicer experience to be with these coaches who many of you may or may not know obviously they are outstanding coaches but they're also outstanding people and some of the better people in our profession so that makes it even better experience.
Our basketball team is . . . right now they're probably all walking around because there's a whole bunch of them that never been to the city so I don't know where they are at this moment we might need to start tracking them down. But they couldn't be happier to be here. Just three seasons ago a large part of our team experienced a 5-25 season and have used that motivation to just work and to just get better. We're probably not the most talented team but we got a great group of kids that understand other than our strength is in our collective effort. It's not about one player or stars. These kids really get it and I've had so much fun coaching them. Hopefully this ride would continue on. We know it's going to be a difficult challenge tomorrow night against an excellent Stanford team. We're really excited for this opportunity.
Stanford Head Coach Johnny Dawkins
For me being up here it is another great experience for us as a team and as a program. We look at this as an opportunity to grow and as opportunity to still compete for a championship. I want to thank the Committee for allowing us this opportunity. I realize from my experiences that you can't take this for granted. To still be playing late in March, to echo what a lot of coaches have said, is pretty special. Our guys are looking forward to the opportunity
We had an interesting season. We had a season with a lot of ups and downs like all of us. This game is about adversity and how you handle it and I thought our guys did a very good job of responding to some difficult situations. We had some very good wins. We won at Texas and beat UConn this year and that was just some of our out of conference victories. We had a good conference schedule and of course our conference was very good this season and I thought it was very competitive and I thought we were very competitive in it. We lost a lot of close games and that can make the difference in your season. We battle injuries this year which were very difficult for us. But our guys still found a way to overcome and when we were invited to the NIT we couldn't be more excited. I tried to share with our guys my experience of playing in 1986, we won the preseason NIT. A few years ago in 2012 we were fortunate to come back and win the postseason NIT. So it's been a very good memories for me and for my team.
We are looking forward to a great challenge coming up against ODU and Jeff's team. They've done a terrific job and all the teams here have done great job.
We are happy to be competing in this environment and looking forward to it especially for my seniors who have a chance to leave their legacy. Coming here and playing in the Final Four at Madison Square Garden is a great way to end your career. And for younger players an opportunity to continue to understand what postseason play is about; to continue to understand that if you want to go deep into March what it requires. So for our group it's a great opportunity to explore what we can achieve and getting better. We are very thankful for this opportunity. Thank the committee again for giving us this chance and really looking forward to competing against these outstanding coaches and these terrific teams.
