BOSTON – The day before the East Regional semifinals saw each team have a practice open to the public, which drew a good crowd. Not surprisingly, a good crowd was there to see Duke at the end of the day.
One thing just about everyone there commented on was the new court. It isn’t the parquet the Celtics are famous for playing on, but a more generic setup just like the ones seen last weekend. You could tell it was new without even looking, because the moment you stepped out near the court, the smell of the new court took right over.
Here are some notes from the press conferences held during the day.
- Naturally, Xavier head coach Sean Miller was asked about playing against his alma mater. Not surprisingly, he tried to keep the attention on his players, but he admitted that there’s a little bit of modeling his program after them.
“A lot of the things their program has become known for, we, too, try to take great pride in what we do at Xavier; physical play, tough defense, trying to be a solid rebounding team, trying to develop players,” Miller said. “Whereas the years change, faces change, you have different players becoming the new leading scorer, the new leading rebounder. As they’ve had that in their program, we’ve had some of that in our program, as well. So there’s more of a healthy respect than anything.”
- Pittsburgh has had a tremendous run that began with Ben Howland’s days, and Jamie Dixon was part of that as his top assistant before taking over as the program’s leader. In looking back at the program then versus now, he remembers an intangible that went a long way, besides something many would think is obvious in looking at the teams that were winning at the time.
“You go in with an open mind,” said Dixon. “As you go in, you don’t think you have all the answers, I think that’s important. Oftentimes people come in and think they have to have all the answers. I didn’t have all the answers. We’re just trying to learn and learn from people who had success and learn from other people’s failures, too.”
- Panther players were asked about how they pulled out close games last weekend to get here. Not surprisingly, the way they look at it is they made the plays they needed to win the kind of game they’re likely to see later on.
“Being No. 1 seed, everyone is gunning for you,” said senior guard Levance Fields. “We think we did a great job taking the team’s best shot and making plays we needed down the stretch to win the game.”
- Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski had fun with some of the terminology used in the questions he received, which certainly gave the media a few laughs. One of the big words was “primer”, and when asked for one on his timeout philosophy, he gave a little insight into how he operates on the bench during a game.
“I coach a game by feel,” said Krzyzewski. “You have a game plan and that, but I try to get immersed in the game and to follow my instincts. And that means to call a timeout even if it’s a possession even before you think you would get a TV timeout, not to worry about the so-called rules or what somebody would say, like they should have saved that, because they were going to get one.”
- When asked about playing in the Garden with all its history, which includes that of his father, Gerald Henderson noted what a few others saw when walking out on the court.
“They took the banners down,” the junior wing said. “It’s pretty nice to be playing in Boston, where my dad had his best years as a pro. It’s pretty cool to be playing in the same place as him. I’m sure he’ll have fun coming back here and hopefully watching me having some of the same success that he had.”
- Villanova head coach Jay Wright admitted he was asked often about playing last weekend’s games close to home. While he noted that it’s an advantage, as much as they could, the Wildcats actually treated last weekend like they were on the road. They stayed in a hotel and didn’t leave, so this weekend is much like last weekend.
