RALEIGH, N.C.-- One day before taking the floor against Georgetown in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, UMBC met with the media and held an open practice session at RBC Center. Head coach Randy Monroe and three student-athletes -- Jay Greene, Brian Hodges and Cavell Johnson, -- answered questions at 12:05 p.m. The Retrievers then took floor for practice from 12:45 til 1:25 p.m. Below is a transcript from the press conference.
PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER: Cavell, Your team has won many of its games all season long based on its offense. You’re facing one of the top defensive teams in the country, how do you feel you’re preparing yourselves to match up with their post players?
CAVELL JOHNSON: First of all, we want to approach the game from a defensive standpoint. You get this late in the season and you know that defense is the key to winning the game. We know that when we run our offense and execute that we’re capable of scoring no matter who is defending us, but we want to focus definitely on defense.
REPORTER: Brian, Can you talk about talk about the Hartford game and coming back from the injury. Was that really the first time you felt comfortable coming back from the ankle injury and getting into a rhythm offensively.?
BRIAN HODGES: I would say so. I mean I was able to hit most of my shots coming right back after the injury. It was a struggle to back into a rhythm. But after a couple games, Hartford probably being the prevailing of all of them, I think I really did get back into a rhythm and my ankle felt great.
REPORTER: Jay, can you talk about quarterbacking the offense and being the guy all year and now against a very physical Georgetown team being ready to play 40 and be ready for those guys?
JAY GREENE: Ya, we’re all ready for them. This is something you dream for since you were a little kid and we’re all excited to have the opportunity to showcase what our team can do and we’re proud to be here and we’re ready to play
REPORTER: Brian, You’ve been at this school a while and you’ve never come close to (the NCAA Tournament) before, what is that like to be on that stage right now?
BRIAN HODGES: It’s a great feeling. Four years of hard work and determination just paying off. To end my career at UMBC, for it to come to a climax at the NCAA Tournament, it’s just a great feeling. I can’t express it.
REPORTER: This is a twist on a Beltway rivalry. Do you know any of the guys on Georgetown and what does that rivalry mean to you?
BRIAN HODGES: I grew up playing against a few of them. Roy Hibbert, Chris Wright, Austin Freeman. It means a lot because I grew up rooting for Georgetown.. They were the home team and always been a dominant team in the country. Being from the area it’s a great opportunity to play them.
REPORTER: Cavell, can you talk about the matchups inside and how you are going to approach that?
CAVELL JOHNSON: We’re obviously with their center Roy Hibbert, I feel like we need to focus on team defense when we’re guarding him. We always take pride in our individual defense, but a big part of guarding him is going to rely on team defense.
REPORTER: Brian, You said you played against Hibbert growing up. How did you stop him?
BRIAN HODGES: Growing up, it was mostly AAU and I don’t think we did stop him to tell you the truth. I think we’ll have a better chance at UMBC of stopping him tomorrow afternoon.
REPORTER: How many times have you watched that Pitt tape to watch how they slowed (Georgetown) down?
CAVELL: Two or three times. We’ve gotten together as a team and watched those guys and how they came out and went really hard at Georgetown. That’s the kind of approach, when you’re scouting a team, you want to see how other teams approached it and take a similar approach to how they stopped them.
REPORTER: You guys had talked a little bit about what Vermont did a couple years ago. Did you learn lessons from that, did you pay attention to that at the time or anything about how to pull off an upset?
JAY GREENE: I just think the first thing you take from that is that it can be done. No one gives you a chance, especially us being a 15 seed, but we believe in our team. No 15 seed has beaten a 2 seed that doesn’t believe they can do it and that’s the first step for us. We know we have a good team and we’re not going to back down for Georgetown.
REPORTER: Can you guys talk about your attitude going into the Hartford game? It just seemed like you guys came out and were loose and were out there having fun and got out to a big lead. Was that true and do you think you guys can carry that over to this game on this big stage?
BRIAN HODGES: I think we were pretty loose because we were playing at home and we were comfortable so we came out that way and that’s how we grew a big lead against Hartford. I think we’re going to do the same thing against Georgetown, just do the same things we’ve been doing all year. It’s gotten us win so we’re just going to stick with that method.
REPORTER: After you won, what did (Coach Monroe) do get your feet back on the ground for (the NCAA Tournament)?
CAVELL JOHNSON: One thing that coach has told us after every game is that success is never final. We keep our minds in the season and move onto to the next game. He tells us to enjoy the moment, enjoy the win, but then get ready to come back and prepare for the next game.
BRIAN HODGES. He brings us to back down to earth by telling us to enjoy the moment and also that we’re not finished but to take it a step further in the NCAA Tournament
JAY GREENE: He says never to be satisfied. We’re excited to be here, but we’re here to win. This is where all the hard work pays off and we’re able to represent our school.
REPORTER: How do you plan on stopping (Georgetown’s) inside game?
RANDY MONROE: Obviously Hibbert poses a problem to us. But we’ll come up with a couple of defensive schemes to try to negate him. I don’t think you can fully stop him from scoring. He’s done a terrific job of conditioning his body. He’s done a tremendous job of improving his offensive skills. So we’re going to try to contain him as best we can to negate a lot of his touches.
REPORTER: Barbosa and Johnson transferred into your place with only one year of eligibility remaining. That’s an unusual thing, especially two of them at one time like that. How much did you weigh that decision before going along with it.
RANDY MONROE: I weighed it weighed it tremendously. Usually as a coach you don’t want to do something like that. But once I met both Ray Barbosa and Cavell Johnson, individually, and found out who they were as young people I got tremendously excited and said they deserve an opportunity. Yes they were very good basketball players, but sometimes wheN young people transfer, they’re transferring for a reason and to get to know both those young men who are class acts, quality human beings, well respected at UMBC, well respected in their community, it was just a no brainer for me. If they weren’t’ good people, quality people, trust me they would not have been at UMBC, but the quality of their character was good enough for me.
REPORTER: Coach, can talk about Brian Hodges, what he means to this team and how happy you are for him that he can get this opportunit? He’s been there with you since the beginning and what a career he’s had.
RANDY MONROE: You have a couple Kleenex, because you’re going to make me cry? Brian Hodges is an intrical part of everything we do whether it be on the court, at the University or in the community. He’s just been terrific. He’s one of the most humble human beings I’ve ever met in my lifetime. I’ve had the good fortune to be a basketball coach for over 20 years and I’ve not bet a more humble human being. You almost have to pull it out of him to say that’s he’s a good player. He just doesn’t do those kind of things. He kind of lets his actions speak through his work. Just to watch Brian grow from his first year as a freshman, to his sophomore year and his junior year and now his senior year its just been very refreshing and rewarding as a coach and a privilege to say I coached a young man like Brian Hodges and also have a young man graduate in three years, its just phenomenal. He’s going to go on and be very successful in the business world and I hope he doesn’t forget his old coach and university and drops us a donation from time to time.
REPORTER: On selection Sunday, your guards seemed confident they could exploit Georgetown’s guards. How confident are you with this matchup?
RANDY MONROE: I’m confident in our guard play. I think this time of the year, just being at LaSalle University, we had good guards and were very effective. I think we have some very good guards. We have Jay Greene, who’s the straw that stirs the drink for us. We have Ray Barbosa, who’s a prolific scorer. Brian Hodges who can flat out score. These guys are ready to play. They’re excited about being here and excited about competing against Georgetown