March 20, 2010
Spokane, Wash. - The No. 5-Seeded Aggie Basketball team met with the media today at Spokane Arena. The Aggies face No. 4-Seeded Purdue tomorrow at 2:00pm PT/ 4:00pm CT.
Quotes from both team's press conferences are available below. Texas A&M audio is available to the right.
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and get started with questions for the Texas A&M student-athletes.
Q. For Mr. Davis and Mr. Sloan, you're a very good rebounding team, obviously. It's a big component of what you do. Could you talk about how this team has evolved into a better rebounding team and why you think you guys rebound so well?
Bryan Davis: I think it's that we just don't give up on plays. I know earlier in the season we had problems with rebounding, we wasn't rebounding as well as we were supposed to and then we got back into the practice habits a couple times whenever we did have games back to back. We put a lot of emphasis on it and then I think during those practice times we became better in rebounding and then we went out and we showed it on the court.
Donald Sloan: I believe that earlier in the year guys had the mentality that if you hit a guy once, the ball will just kind of bounce your way. But now going through the long season we kind of realize that that's never the case. It's probably never going to happen often. Guys are fighting more. We got our bigs attempting to rebound one shot and more than once hit these guys.
Q. Bryan, how much are you looking forward to the defensive challenge? This game figures to be a defensive challenge. Both these teams can really guard. How much are you looking forward to that battle?
Bryan Davis: I'm looking forward to that a lot. We go out here and play every day. I'm looking forward to a game like this coming up tomorrow and I think it's going to be a battle to the end of the game it's going to be a 40 minute game of defense and it's going to come down to the team who executes and rebounds the most.
Q. Guys, every team talks about defense especially this time of year. Defense is important in winning but you and Purdue are two teams that really personify defense. What do you do in practice? Will you describe the atmosphere that Coach Turgeon creates defensively and some of the details of the work you guys do on defense?
DASH HARRIS: We start every practice with defense. And our majority of practice is spent on defense. We think our defense creates our offense so we do a lot of box out drills like you guys just talked about, just real physical. So we do that. Just a lot of basic things. Making sure our principles are right, make sure we're always on help side making sure everybody is on the right spot on the floor. It's real intense every day. We really we get no days off from defense, defense comes first.
Donald Sloan: Piggyback what he said. I think we knew coming in the season that our identity wasn't going to be the fastest team, the team that shoots the ball the best, from three or anything, but we knew coming in that it was going to have to be defense because we're all fast, athletic, and had troubles a lot scoring last year so coming into the season we knew that if we were going to be successful we were going to have to hang our hats on our defense.
Q. Dash, how you feeling today with the wrist and just kind of give us an update after playing on it for the first time?
DASH HARRIS: It's getting better every day. I can't describe what the doctors are doing for me. It's incredible. I told my teammates if I'm going to be out there on the floor I'm not going to think about it. I'm not going to make any excuses when I make a turnover or if I miss a shot I'm not going to blame it on my wrist, if I'm going to play I'm going to play like I'm at a hundred percent. I'm not going to make any excuses but I'm doing better. I'm trying not to think about it and I'm trying to make sure that we get these wins any way we can. I'm going to do whatever it takes to win them.
Q. What percentage are you?
DASH HARRIS: Close to 90. These days off in between games are definitely giving me some time to rehab and get it better. So I'm getting closer to a hundred percent, which is great.
Q. Bryan, it would seem like you have a huge advantage with size and with rebounding. Is that something that you think you can exploit to maybe get them into some foul trouble?
Bryan Davis: I think that we can come out and establish that from the beginning of the game and that we're going to take care of the boards and I'm quite sure that they're going to be trying to put a lot of emphasis on it too and boxing us out. That's what a lot of teams have been doing here in the past. But I think that with the guys we have, we have Nate, he's coming in working hard we have Ray coming in working hard and with me and Loubeau on the boards, I think we can really do some damage.
Q. Bryan, I assume you're going to be assigned Johnson. Have you watched him play and how do you figure you're going to handle that one?
Bryan Davis: I was just watching some film just now before coming in here and just looking at some of the things he do and just watching some film on him just trying to get a good feel for him right now. I can't really say much or how I'll be guarding him or how we're going to guard him as a team. We got to put a game plan in first.
Q. Seems like if he gets the ball he can get off the shot, is that going to be part of it, just denying him the ball?
Bryan Davis: Well that's always a part of our defense is making it hard for him to catch the ball first. He has to do all the work early and make him catch the ball out as far as he can and then once we do that it will be more of a team defense than it is more than it is one individual.
Q. What have you seen have Lewis Jackson, a guy who is basically playing on a broken foot, but went out there and had nine assists and one turnover. Talk about him. It looks like you might be going up against him.
DASH HARRIS: He's just told me somebody I didn't even know. So I finally have to take advantage of that, but I know defensively he's kind of a player like I am that likes to pick up 94 feet, try to wear the opposing guard down or whatnot and I seen the stats yesterday and I seen part of the game. He had a great game. I had to compliment him on that. He filled up the stat sheet there. But I'm just going to play the same way I've been playing. He's just another guard, I'll pick him up full court, pressure the ball and try to get them out of their offense and disrupt their sets and whatnot. But he's a good guard. A sophomore just like I am, so it should be a good matchup.
Q. All three of you guys, are you able to enjoy the rest of the tournament when you're in it or are you still focused on yourselves? Do you see other games, do you get to enjoy watching other players and other regions and things like that?
Donald Sloan: Yeah I would have to say. So it's almost like you become a fan of so many different teams while this tournament is going on. Because you play guys throughout the year, well you play teams throughout year, a lot of guys from other teams and you kind of want to see them do well. Kind of advance. So yeah that's in the off time, you know, while you're just relaxing you kind of become a fan of a lot of other guys and it just kind of helps you I guess relax more and just kind of just chill and mellow out.
DASH HARRIS: It's real relaxing. Not everything is so up uptight and always focused. We do have down time and we watch the games together and we do have teams, you want teams to win that's in our conference and you want our conference to look good or you know guys on the other team so you want them to succeed also. But when it comes down to it, it is about us. But we definitely take time to watch the games because basketball is just a bunch of situations and we may be caught in the same situation and we never want to be on the losing end. So we learn from other teams mistakes and then try to implement things into our game plan and whatnot.
Bryan Davis: Same thing they said. Sometimes we watch games but me personally I don't watch a whole lot of the games because winning or whoever wins or loses those games if we're going to have to play them or not, it doesn't make us any different. So I just try to watch other things, just take my mind off of basketball pretty much.
Q. Donald, would you agree with the Utah State coach that there are no knuckle heads on this team? Or is that wrong?
Donald Sloan: I would agree with that.
Q. How so? For you Bryan as well. What did you mean by that?
Bryan Davis: Not sure exactly what he meant. I mean we're a real humble team. I think that no one really cares who gets credit right now. You don't see anybody getting mad at each other. It's some teams you see playing fighting with each other, and that's one thing we all are a family on this team. We all get along and I guess that's what he could be saying.
Q. Stew Morrill go up there and said some things after the game about team defense. Does that motivate you guys even further to come out and play even better when have you an opponent come out after the game and say hey, their defense was the best we have seen all year?
Bryan Davis: That motivates us a lot. Even though he said that, that was probably the best defense they seen all year. I think that there's a lot of things that we did out there that we could do a lot better coming into tomorrow's game. So that motivates us to put a little bit more focus into some of the things we're doing and Friday apply defensive principles a lot more.
Q. Is there a team in particular that you guys have kind of latched on to in this tournament and pulling for?
Donald Sloan: No. Us. Us.
(Laughter.)
DONALD SLOAN: No one in particular. Like I said, we know a lot of guys and we want them I guess to do well. But when it comes to us, you know, we're always thinking of ways that we can get better and we can advance and play our best basketball. If it comes to us playing one of those teams, I hope the guy individually does well but of course that we come out with the win. That's pretty much it.
DASH HARRIS: Just us. I watch those teams and like Donald said, we hope they do well, but it's about Texas A&M with us, you know. And it's about us getting better every day and watching these teams just in case we do matchup with one of them, we don't want to look too far ahead but anything's a possibility, so we want to know what they like to do, what they don't like to do and how we can apply our game plan to that team. So that's it.
Q. To follow-up on that, so when Wake Forest and Texas are playing, you guys don't have any kind of investment in that emotionally, you're not rooting one way or the other, Big-12 or your arch rival or anything?
Bryan Davis: I wanted Texas to win that game. I was fighting for them to win. I thought they were going to pull it out but unfortunately you always want to root for a Big-12 team though.
Q. Anyone else?
DASH HARRIS: That game that was kind of up in the air, didn't matter. I have two former high school teammates that played on Wake Forest's team so it was either roll with them or roll with the Big-12, so whichever one it really didn't matter.
Donald Sloan: I was pretty much going for Texas. I thought they had it. They let it slip away in the end, but I was pulling for them, so...
THE MODERATOR: We'll have questions now for Coach Turgeon.
Q. Coach Painter's talked about how he's watched your team evolve into a better rebounding team and your guys even said earlier in the year they just kind of sometimes felt the ball was going to fall in their hand but they have gotten better. Can you talk about the process of how this has become a better rebounding team?
COACH TURGEON: We talk about it every day. You get tired of the coach telling you it's the worst rebounding team he's ever coached and I probably said that 50 times early in the season. Because we were just getting whipped on the boards. But I think it came down to this: When D Ro got hurt, we had to change our lineup. Khris Middleton was a four. You insert Dave Loubeau into the lineup and he's a better rebounder and then our guards just started to rebound more for us and that's really helped us. What's crazy is we have changed our transition defensive rules and we have become a better rebounding team. And that don't mean nothing to you guys, but I was just talking about it and calling it in practice if they don't box out in practice it they get on the line and run a sprint. It's that simple. And it creates habits that way.
Q. What stands out whether you look at this Purdue team, especially since the Hummel injury and where are they right now?
COACH TURGEON: Just toughness. Defensively, the ball pressure and the shot blocker in the back, Johnson, so just defensively and toughness. I think that's what this team's about.
I see a team yesterday with a little bit of chip on their shoulder, everybody telling them they're no good any more without Robbie and they're going to lose to Siena and they kind of stepped up and played pretty well. I saw a different team than I saw in the Big-10 tournament. I thought they played really well. But defensively and toughness.
Q. From with just one year you coached against each other in the Valley as head coaches but Matt has a lot of admiration for you. I mean he just -- you're a guy he likes and it sounds like it's mutual. Can you talk about what you appreciate one about his coaching and two about the person that he is?
COACH TURGEON: He's number one a family man, which I appreciate in this business and he's always put family first. I appreciate that. He's just a good person and when he was an assistant at Southern I got to know him when I was the head coach. Whether he was working for Bruce or just spent time with him and heck we could never beat them. Southern Illinois was really good back then. I think we beat him three times or four times in my seven years, maybe five. And Matt -- I think they were 17-1 in the league and beat us at our place in a great game. So he does it the right way, he recruits good character kids, he makes them better, they play as a team, they play with toughness, and him and I would do anything just to stay in man and not play zone. And so we're a lot alike that way.
Then I think offensively we believe in teamwork and sharing the ball and everything. So I just think he's a great guy that does it the right way and works extremely hard and I appreciate that about him.
Q. If you had to pick three keys to victory, what would those be?
COACH TURGEON: I won't give away my game plan, no, we have to guard their motion, and guard screens, that's going to be real important with that transition defense because they have been scoring in transition especially against Siena. So transition, guarding screens would be big for us. Rebounding's always a big part of what have we do. And then just offensively being able to handle their pressure, execute well, that's going to be important for us. We talked about that. And maybe last thing is, I know it's more than three, I think you asked for three, but it's just who is going to be tougher? Because you got two tough teams, who is going to be tougher tomorrow at 2 o'clock? That's what it to me is going to come down to. And it should be a real physical, low scoring game tomorrow.
Q. You've seen some zones lately and you said that you don't think Purdue would play a zone, but with their size now do you think you might see some zones against them at all?
COACH TURGEON: No. I think one possession against Minnesota -- I think that might have been a mistake, but they just, they're not going to do it. How come all them Texas A&M guys are in the back?
(Laughter.)
Q. What about Chris Kramer, just how unique of an athlete is he, especially defensively and then talk about that game within the game that battle with Loubeau the great size and great moves against him defensively?
COACH TURGEON: Yeah, we'll see who they put him on, but, yeah, he's a special kid. He's had a great career. Not many guys like to play defense as much as he likes to play it and takes pride in it. He can guard a one through a four. He's smart. He's smart when he's giving up size. He plays with his feet and tries to get around front and then he gets stuck behind and then he tries to take a charge or whatever. So he is a unique player, a special player and he gives them toughness. You look at all the hustle plays yesterday he was right in the middle of it. So he's good. He rubs off on the rest of the guys.
Q. What makes Sloan special offensively?
COACH TURGEON: Well, he just has the whole package. He can shoot the three, he can share, he has a mid range game, he can get all the way to the bucket, he's very clever with the basketball.
He's deceptive. Looks like he's going to pull up and then he goes and he's just really good with the ball and then he's really strong too. He can figure out ways to get to the basket and figure out ways to get to the foul line and so he can score in a lot of ways and our guys understand that and we try to get him the ball, put him into positions to be successful. So he's just really having a good year. We didn't need him much yesterday, and he just deferred all day, which is nice. It's nice to be more balanced. It makes it easier on him, easier on everybody.
Q. Do you have a theory as to why we have had so many upsets and near upsets here in the first week more than I can ever remember? I don't know about you.
COACH TURGEON: Yeah, I don't have a theory. I thought it was the 8-5 rule a few years back when they limited the scholarships I thought that really balanced it out for awhile. But my other theory would just be that there's just so many darn good basketball players any more. And with 13 scholarships instead of 15, it allows more schools to get better players. And basketball's big in the United States and kids grow up and this tournament here gets everybody excited and to play in it and there's just a lot of really good basketball players and I think the coaching across, there's, I don't know, I don't ever want to say coaching's ever been bad, but if you're not a very good coach you don't keep your job very long. So I just think the coaching's just gotten better and better across the country. That would be my theory. That help you?
Q. Could I follow that up real quick. As somebody who cut his teeth with a mid major, do you derive some joy from seeing the way those teams are playing in this tournament?
COACH TURGEON: Yeah, yes and no. I wasn't feeling too good before my game yesterday knowing how good Utah State was and all the upsets and sitting around watching those scores and like, oh, boy. But no, yeah, it's great. I know how hard it is at that level to get involved with good players, and then to just to get into the tournament, how hard it is to get into the tournament. But I will say this: Once you're in, you're much more relaxed at that level than you are with a BCS team. Because you're supposed to win. And I just remember just being so relaxed and so calm when I was with Wichita State and how much fun it was to play in those games. And it was just, yeah, all right, we can do this, you guys are doing great. And you try to coach that way at this level too. I think I've done a good job, I think it's helped me when I got here. A lot less pressure on those schools when they get into these tournament games.
Q. You touched on it a little bit ago, with Sloan, is that something that a lot of people don't see the fact that he can defer to the rest of the team? Like yesterday he let the play go in the first half especially in the second half he just had that three or four minutes when the team started to struggle. It was like, okay, I got to take over now. Is that maybe one of the better characteristics of Donald?
COACH TURGEON: Yeah, he's gotten a lot better at that. Recognizing when he's got be two or three people on him and to pass the ball. And I think that as the season's gone on he's gained more confidence in his teammates. And that's helped too. I think as coaches when it got tight yesterday we started going to Sloan. We try to go to him right before half also and we made some plays right before half for him. But I thought that Utah State did a good job of double teaming him and making him give it up. But we were just, we got good players around him so if teams are going to do that, we'll make them pay. But he understood that they, most of the time he had two guys off him when he came off a screen and he had to defer to someone.
Q. I wanted to follow-up about the question about Matt. Just you obviously coached against him way back when he was at Southern Illinois do you see him as the same coach now or has the experience at Purdue changed him from what you've seen?
COACH TURGEON: I think he's a better coach because you get better with experience. And he was pretty good as coach of the year in the Valley that year in his first year. But I think he's a better coach. You just get better with age and you experience things and he's very calm over there. But no, same philosophy, get after it defensively, he does what he believes in. And he gets his players to believe in it. And it's amazing, think about where the program was when he took over. I'm not trying to slight Purdue or anybody that he took over for, but it wasn't in great shape and for him to do what he's done this quickly is pretty amazing. Their one injury away from being a number one seed this year. I think we all know that. And they still have a chance. They know that, everybody knows that to be a part of the Final Four in Indianapolis, that's what's driving them right now.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.
PURDUE QUOTES
THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with Purdue student-athletes. Take questions for them at this time.
Q. If all three of you would address this, obviously Texas A&M's a good rebounding team and that's been a concern for you guys all year long. I don't know if you've seen film on them yet but could you each talk about the importance and significance of rebounding in this game and why are Texas A&M players such good rebounders?
JAJUAN JOHNSON: Oh, man, rebounding is real important in the game. We know that's one of the things that if we rebound well we always give ourselves a chance to win.
As far as Texas A&M, they're a great rebounding team. They're really athletic. They have a lot of size inside and on the wing. So they really crash hard so we just have to man up to them tomorrow.
CHRIS KRAMER: I agree with JaJuan. They're very long and athletic. Loubeau and Davis are two big bodies. Their guards do a great job. So for us, rebounding's always been a concern but we just have to rebound by committee and just try to block out and make them be one and done.
E'TWAUN MOORE: Yeah, they definitely are big inside. And they're athletic. So I think the most important thing would be for us to go out and rebound as a whole, not just the fourth and five man rebounding. Take the guard, get in there and help, mix it up some and make them just get one at the offensive end and hopefully we'll do a good job of that tomorrow.
Q. For all you guys, most teams this time of year say hey, defense is important. We're built on defense. But you guys really personify that. Can you describe your practices, or the methods that you guys actually use for defense instead of just rolling the ball out and playing?
E'TWAUN MOORE: Defense, I think, is more mental a lot of times. Just keeping your man in front of you, not let him go past you and just being alert. Just having pride guarding my man. I think that's what it all boils down to. Just going out there and just saying, okay, he's not going to score 20 points tonight. I know he averages 20 but I'm going to hold him to at least 10 or eight or something like that. And it just comes from within yourself.
CHRIS KRAMER: I agree with him when he says defense is a about pride. Our practices are a majority of defense, he will mix in a little bit of offense, but he runs a lot of defense for us. So if we can keep the other team from scoring, not let them get in their plays or get in it there as cleanly as they would like that really disrupts the timing. So we try to stay tight on down screens and show. We mix it up on ball screens, depending upon the personnel of the team we're playing and it just kind of depends on those matchups, but it always all just comes down to having pride on the defensive end.
JAJUAN JOHNSON: Our coach, ever since we came to Purdue as freshmen, defense was the thing that he really stressed and was pretty much the thing that we are known by at Purdue is our defense.
So since the time I've been here that's the thing that he's always hard on and we start practice with closeouts every day, so we start practice with defense every day, just gets you in that mindset.
Q. How much are you looking forward to that game within the game, the matchup with David Loubeau, obviously you're giving up five or six inches and he's playing well but clearly you're tough to move. Just talk about that matchup tomorrow.
CHRIS KRAMER: Any time you're guarding a guy that's -- he's obviously a very skilled player, he has a lot of moves in the low box. For me I just got to try to make it hard for him. Try to get in front of him, not get the ball in position, get in positions where I'm deep where I'm very vulnerable. Try to make him get in the position where I can get up there and pressure him and try to make him work to get position in order to be successful. We have some of my other teammates there to help me out a little bit.
Q. Have you been amazed at the number of upsets and near upsets here in the first week as you watch the games?
JAJUAN JOHNSON: Not really. Something like that happens all year, where some teams just upset a lot of teams that weren't supposed to win. This tournament's pretty much so wide open, we had a -- from the top seeds they got upsets sometime during the year for the lower seeds, so I really wasn't too surprised about it.
CHRIS KRAMER: I'm not surprised at all. That's why they call it March Madness. That's why you go out and play the games. The seeding doesn't really matter. You might be a higher seed because you have the chance to play some people and beat some very good people and those mid major teams are just coming out and showing people they can play and they can play with some of the best teams in the country and they kind of play with that chip on their shoulder because they didn't get he recruited by some of those higher-named schools and they come out and lay it on the line every night. So I'm really not surprised at all.
E'TWAUN MOORE: I think that anything's expected during the tournament. Everyone try to play for a championship and everyone will come out and play hard and try to fight and try to win. It's definitely going to be a lot more close games and some more upsets hopefully, I mean maybe in the upcoming next few games, man. I don't know. Some of them I think some of them are surprising. Like Georgetown game, I didn't think they would lose that one, but I mean that's why you got to come out ready to play from the beginning and knowing that every team is coming out trying to win the championship.
Q. Can you guys all talk about the importance in getting Keaton Grant off? Obviously he was huge in the second half yesterday, the importance of him contributing offensively to you guys.
E'TWAUN MOORE: Man, he's definitely huge. I think he scored on our run the second half like 11 out of 13 points. And that was definitely a big momentum boost, taking over the second half.
Hopefully tomorrow he'll come out and knock some more shots down and man, just he's just a great contributor to the team.
CHRIS KRAMER: I think that one of the ways for to us get Keaton really involved is keep getting him these open shots. In the first half he had some great looks, they tended to fall down for him and we just kept going back to him. In the second half he got hot and then kind of rode his wave there for awhile. We went on that big run there so we had to set good screens and try to get him some open looks and just keep that confidence instilled in Keaton.
JAJUAN JOHNSON: When Keaton's hitting, it just opens up things for myself, E'Twaun, and Kramer. It's just another weapon out there that they have to respect the three ball of his and once they do that, it just opens up everything for everyone.
Q. For E'Twaun, since Hummel's injury it seems your field goal percentage has been a little lower than usual. Do you think there's a correlation between the two or is it something completely different?
E'TWAUN MOORE: No, I've been taking the same shots as before. Nothing changed. It's just a few times that they didn't fall the same shots, same flow, the same 3-point shot, but just got to keep my head up and just keep going and still take the next open shot.
Q. Guys, you were picked as possible being upset in the first round. Do you need any motivation tomorrow or what is the motivation for tomorrow?
JAJUAN JOHNSON: I don't think our team needs any more motivation. We have dealt with our share of adversity this whole year. Pretty much we know as long as the guys in that locker room believe that we can accomplish something, that's all that really matters. I know we'll come out and play as hard as we can tomorrow.
CHRIS KRAMER: Personally what motivation do you need? You're a senior, if you lose you're done. And for me that's my motivation and I think that it really showed in the second half against Siena that our guys didn't want to let us go home. They kind of rallied around us. And you always pick up on that intensity. So we just got to come out again and show that intensity and maybe take it up another level for this game against Texas A&M, but the only thing we can do is lay it on the line and hopefully things will go in our favor.
E'TWAUN MOORE: We're trying to win a championship and that's our goal. Our guys in the locker room all have faith in ourselves. Even though a lot of people might doubt us at times. But we just got to stay strong as a unit and make it to Indianapolis to the Final Four. That's definitely the motivation for us. So hopefully we can reach our goal.
THE MODERATOR: All right. We'll dismiss the student-athletes and we'll have coach in and take questions for coach.
Q. They're a good rebounding team and that's obviously a key and when you're playing well you usually rebound well. Talk about what you like about the way Texas A&M rebounds the ball and then the second half of the question that's going to be a great challenge for you tomorrow, isn't it?
COACH PAINTER: I think Texas A&M's a very good team. They are a good rebounding team. But that's not their only focus. Sometimes you'll play a team that can really rebound and if you keep them off the glass you're going to beat them. They have proven with their schedule and what they have been able to accomplish this year that they can play a couple different ways. They can play in the half court and use their size, but they also have very athletic guards that can break you down. They have a skill set -- yesterday they had some guys really step up and make some shots.
So I think it's going to be important for us to keep them out of transition, keep them off the glass, and make them score over us. But that's easier said than done.
Q. You've obviously got a history with Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon. Talk about that and how much are you looking forward to the challenge of playing against him again.
COACH PAINTER: He did an excellent job at Wichita State to put himself in position to land the Texas A&M job. And you know his teams are going to play very hard and they're going to be very good on defense. He gives his guys freedom to play through their system. He's done an excellent job at all the stops that he's been at.
To be frank, I'm not looking forward to playing against him. I think any time you get into the tournament you're not looking forward to playing anybody because you're facing very good teams. He's done a great job with Texas A&M.
Q. Have you been at all surprised, do you have a theory as to why there's been so many upsets this first weekend and to follow-up, as somebody who cut his teeth at a mid major do you derive a little bit of joy watching all these mid majors beating up on some of the power conferences?
COACH PAINTER: There's a lot of parity. There's a lot of good teams out there. And that's what you fight to get as a mid major team, you fight to get bigger schools on a neutral court. That's what the NCAA tournament is. You're going head to head and you're on a neutral court and you don't have that home crowd behind you, you don't have your officials with you, and there's a little bit more balance. You want to keep that edge. I think that what Turgeon has been able to do is when you're at a mid major you always have that edge because have you a bunch of kids on your team for the most part that got turned down by the high major schools.
I think he's been able to do that at Texas A&M and it's something we have tried to do at Purdue is to be able to get high level players but also get guys that have that edge to them that are going to go out there and battle and compete just like you're at a mid major school.
Q. How about the upsets? Are you surprised at all?
COACH PAINTER: I'm not surprised. I don't know if they're upsets. If you look at Siena's team, it's a great example. They had to play without Clarence Jackson, so that's a tough thing to do and it just happened and this is their first game to do it but those guys are all juniors and seniors. And that's what you see more at a mid major level. You see more juniors and seniors and that's their advantage. Their advantage is they have players but they also have older players and you just have more experience and have you more chemistry with those guys. So it might look like an upset, but those teams are a mid major that in the tournament are very good basketball teams. The one thing they don't have a lot of and it's a position we're in right now with no excuses, is size. It's hard to get size. Almost every kid we recruited here in the past couple years, they have eyeballed JaJuan Johnson and Robbie Hummell and said how do I get past them. And that's a tough thing to do in recruiting when you get two established guys as freshmen.
Q. If you had to pick three keys to victory, what would those be?
COACH PAINTER: I think that our keys to victory have nothing to do with who we play. We have had a couple games here in the past three weeks where we have really struggled to rebound. When we have been competitive on the glass we have won. It's been that simple for us. It doesn't mean that's an absolute and it's going to happen, but just rebounding the basketball, our shot selection when we take good shots and take care of the basketball obviously we shoot a higher field goal percentage, but we keep people out of transition. We don't make careless mistakes.
So I would say just that shot selection, the rebounding, and then just playing with a passion. Playing with energy. I thought the start of the second half we really showed that. We got after it but I didn't think we had that in the first half. But you lose a little bit that you have when you don't make shots. You got to try to keep your guys going when they go through a tough period when they struggle from the field. So I would say those three things are the most important for our team, no matter who we're playing.
Q. Could you just kind of discuss the way this game sets up as a real defensive struggle between the two teams?
COACH PAINTER: I think that's the strong point for both teams is their defensive play. Not to say on the other end of the court it's a weakness, because I don't think it is for either team, but that's what you have to hang your hat on, on the defensive end. That's where Texas A&M hangs their hat. When they're shooting the ball well, they're a very, very tough team to beat. Because of what they do defensively. But they have size, they have athleticism, they have guys that can break you down, it's going to be important for us with their size and our lack of size that we're able to stay out of foul trouble.
But we're also able to do that and stay aggressive. We can't go in with that kind of a mindset and play a passive game or they're just going to kill us on the glass. We got to do a good job of keeping them in front of us and keeping good rebound balance. But I think it's going to be a high energy game. Two teams that are going to play very hard.
Q. Are you far enough removed now from Robbie's injury that you created even a newer identity, a different identity with this team?
COACH PAINTER: We play smaller. It doesn't mean we can't play hard and we can't get after it. We have to use our small ball so to speak. We have to use that as an advantage. If that becomes a disadvantage, we're in trouble. But at times it's been a disadvantage for us, and at other times it's really been an advantage because we have been able to extend, use our pressure, and get after it. And hopefully create some turnovers that lead to points. I thought that happened yesterday in the second half for us.
Q. Ever since the Hummel injury E'Twaun Moore's field goal percentage has gone down. Do you believe there's a correlation between the two?
COACH PAINTER: I've thought about that. But I don't think so. We have stuck with E'Twaun, he's been very consistent for us and he's had a stretch of games, five, six games in the past three years where he's had a little bit of a struggle shooting. But I think that's true for every scorer if you went and grabbed four or five games at one stretch for Donald Sloan or you went and grabbed four or five games for Edwin Ubiles, they have periods of the season where they're struggling. But every big time scorer does and he's no different. We're coming back to him. We have a lot of confidence in him to step up and make plays.
Q. I know you talked about your respect for Mark Turgeon. Can you go back briefly and just remember your first associates or meetings with him and what -- it sounds like you guys get along pretty well as friends?
COACH PAINTER: He's great guy. Very good coach. Got a lot of respect for him. He does it the right way. He recruits kids that's going to fit his system and his personality and I was only a head coach at Southern Illinois for one year and so we just played a couple games. But they were always tough to play against. Wichita state, the city of Wichita's a great basketball city. He's done a great job here going to the tournament three years in a row.
Q. Could you discuss the challenge that Chris Kramer as an undersized guy having to play the post now defending a guy like Loubeau with all his moves?
COACH PAINTER: Right, Loubeau's a guy that I watched yesterday and he went to the middle a couple times and I said to one of my assistants I said, well force him the other way so he went the other way and he scored. Well force him the other way, well, more or less told me he's run out of ways. A guy like that that's 6'10" that can go over either shoulder and he's your forward. And you're forcing the other team not to put their biggest guy on him, he's a very good player. And I've been really impressed with him and in film but I've been impressed with all their guys. I think that's what happens when you get into the tournament. You just can't grab a guy or two and say shut these guys down and you're going shut down Texas A&M. They have a lot of weapons. And they bring weapons off the bench. But that's going to be an interesting matchup. Because we're going to need some help there. If we can't turn the tables a little bit where they need a little bit of help, also, with the perimeter guy defensively, then that is really going to hurt us.
Q. You're not playing for those of us that are Michigan State stories what do you see on them after playing them and what do they have to do well to become what Tom's looking for?
COACH PAINTER: I think where they have struggled is offensively, just clicking. The thing that he's always had questions going into the NCAA tournament, he always seems to find the answer at the right time. I think having a close game yesterday will help that team. They obviously lost in the conference tournament, they had a big lead in our conference race and then Kalin got hurt. And then at the end they were able to win their last couple games to have a share of the Big-10 title. But I think their defense is something that has remained solid. Obviously they're a great rebounding team. I think those are going to be constants for them. Their ability to defend, their ability to rebound, and just they always seem to find a way come tournament time to click offensively. I think that's -- there's a lot of people out there from Durrell Summers to Draymond Green to Korie Lucious, they have guys that have done it on a big stage before. So they're not asking guys to step up and do something they haven't done before. We have some guys that are capable for us that come off the bench, but they have done it in a Sweet 16 game or an elite 8 game or a Final Four game against UCONN. They have that and they have that reference point and I think that getting a big win, if they can get this next win I think they will get that swagger back and really be able to make a run deep into the tournament.
THE MODERATOR: All right thank you, coach.
COACH PAINTER: Thanks.