Puerto Rico Tip-Off
November 21, 22, and 24, 2013
Coliseo Roberto Clemente, San Juan, Puerto Rico
2013 Results & Schedule
November 21, 22 & 24 Tournament Results & Schedule
(all tip-off times Atlantic)
Thursday, November 21 Results
·
Charlotte 68,
Kansas State 61
·
Northeastern 63,
Georgetown 56
·
Michigan 85,
Long Beach State 61
·
Florida
State 85, VCU 67
Friday, November 22 Schedule Atlantic Time Tip-Off..........
Network
·
Game No. 5
- Kansas State vs. Georgetown 1 p.m.......................................... ESPNU
·
Semi-finals, Game No. 6
- Charlotte vs. Northeastern 3:30 p.m.................................. ESPNU
·
Semi-finals, Game No. 7
- Michigan vs. Florida State 6 p.m..................... ESPN2 or ESPNU
·
Game No. 8
- Long Beach State vs. VCU 8:30 p.m..................................... ESPNU
Sunday, November 24 Schedule Atlantic Time Tip-Off..........
Network
·
Game No. 9
- Game 5 & 8 losers 12:30 p.m.................................... ESPN3
·
Game No. 10
- Game 5 & 8 winners 3:00 p.m..................................... ESPNU
·
Game No. 11
- Game 6 & 7 losers 5:30 p.m...................................... ESPN2
·
Championship, Game No. 12
- Game 6 & 7 winners 7:30 p.m................................... ESPN2
PUERTO RICO TIP-OFF
GAME 1: CHARLOTTE VS. KANSAS STATE
68-61
Charlotte Coach – Alan Major
“It was really a hard-fought
win. When we talked about, before the game, how physical it was going to be.
Our mantra we’ve been chanting over-and-over is toughness. You’ve got to be
mentally tough to deal with the ebbs and flows of the game and physically tough
to deal with the intensity and the banging. And you’ve got to be team tough,
dealing with calls and all that stuff. I thought the guys showed great
toughness from beginning to end. That was a game of runs, both teams going at
each other. Everybody that played chipped in; it was a great team effort.”
“We want to get Willie
(Clayton) and Mike (Thorne Jr.) involved every game the best we can. I’m proud
of those two, they put two halves together between them. We try to be an
inside-out team, that’s part of our character.”
“We kind of got forced into
a small lineup. It actually may have helped our flow a little bit, trying to
get out and cover some three-point shots. Terrence (Williams) was playing a
small forward/power forward, we had three guards in there. I just thought the
guys did a nice job finishing. To go 14 of 18 from the foul line in the second
half, that’s just a great sign of keeping your composure.”
“Kansas State is a great
defensive team. I’ve known Bruce for a long time and knew that was part of
their DNA to really get after it on defense.”
Charlotte Guard – Denzel Ingram
“We were going through a
drought at one point, and I know that we needed a spark. Those loose balls, I
was just trying to do whatever I could to get them. I knocked down that three
and it really gave us a boost. We really got after them after that.”
“It gives us confidence.
Kansas State is a really good team. It’s going to look good later on down the
road and we are glad we beat this team.”
Kansas State Coach – Bruce Weber
“Charlotte played a good,
well-rounded game; mixed their defenses, pounded the boards, got to the free
throw line. For us, we didn’t start very well at the start of the second game
or the start of the second half. Both times we came back, fought back; got a
tie, took the lead in the first half, but never could get over the hump. They
made the plays when it counted and we didn’t. They didn’t make many threes, but
when they made them, they were big ones – kind of daggers. Obviously the boards
were the big difference-makers. And the points in the paint, you’ve got both
big guys with double-doubles, we knew that would be a factor. We can’t get little
ticky-tack fouls because we need our big guys on the court. We had a lot of
foul trouble and somehow we’ve got to see if we can change that.”
“I thought Nigel (Johnson)
did a great job of giving us a boost both halves. He played with a lot of
confidence, which was positive and allows us to put (Will) Spradling at the two
and allows him to get some things done also.”
“We’ve got to fight on the
boards, we’ve got to have five guys in there. We know we are a little
under-sized, so it’s got to be team rebounding, it’s got to be important for
us. The threes – I blame myself, the same as that Northern Colorado game. Start
the second half, the first five possessions are threes. For the most part I
thought four of them were good open shots, but we’ve got to get some inside
touches.”
“There’s some calls I
thought maybe we could’ve got, some things that didn’t go our way. We’ve got to
play stronger, go to the basket stronger and box out stronger. Hopefully we’ll
get the calls the next time.”
“Somehow, mentally and emotionally,
they have to be ready to start the game. It can’t be fake emotion, it’s got to
be real. We can’t let offense dictate it, we’ve got to have a defensive mindset
from the get-go. That will keep us hanging around in games.”
Kansas State Guard – Nigel Johnson
“Their switches on defense,
we prepared for it the last couple of days so we we’re ready for it. In a game
is of course a little more difficult than in practice, but we were ready.”
“It’s good preparation for
the rest of the year. We will be playing good teams like that all throughout
the rest of the year, especially when we get to Big 12 play. You’ve got to come
out ready, you can’t wait and try to warm up. You’ve got to come out ready to
play or you can get down early like we did.”
PUERTO RICO TIP-OFF
GAME 2: NORTHEASTERN VS. GEORGETOWN 63-56
Northeastern Coach - Bill Coen:
“I want to tell you how grateful we are
to be invited to this tournament. We get the chance to compete against
some of the very best competition in the country. I know our kids were
extremely excited to play against a program such as Georgetown, which
has such tremendous tradition and is an outstanding
ball club.”
“In
the first half we were a little bit awe struck. We had some turnovers
that we don’t normally have and committed some fouls that put us in some
rotation problems.
Scott Eatherton and Reggie Spencer really battled back the second half,
did a tremendous job on the boards and were able to carve out some
space down low and get us some baskets when we really, really needed
it.”
“They
just have to have confidence in themselves and confidence in their
teammates. Our (the coaches) work is done in practice, and when they get
to the games they’ve
got to communicate themselves and compete out there. We did a great job
of playing together and making the adjustments on the fly.”
“Georgetown
had 26 points at halftime on second-chance shots and turnovers. As soon
as we started to eliminate the turnovers and get it into a half-court
game it
was good. We can’t match them athlete for athlete, we have to take care
of the basketball and take those easy baskets off the table.”
Northeastern Forward Scott Eatherton:
“We knew how big they were, we knew
we had to use our quickness to get around them that was probably the
biggest player I’ve ever played against. I got in foul trouble in the
beginning of the game, so it was more of a team effort. Our guards
helped us rebound and were right there pinching on
their big guys in the bottom too.”
Northeastern Forward Reggie Spencer: “We never had doubt. In the beginning,
we might have played a little timid, but after we got the nerves out we were good to go.”
Georgetown Coach John Thompson III:
“This group quickly, quickly needs
to figure out how to compete. We can sit and talk offensive systems,
defensive systems, rotations, slides, everything – we have to compete. I
thought we did a poor job of rolling up your sleeves and competing.”
“I know what Bruce Weber’s teams have traditionally done. We’ll start to hone in on Kansas State now.”
“The
attempted zero threes in the second half. They decided to put their
heads down and drive by us or throw it inside. When they drove by us,
they got to the rim,
and when they threw it inside, they scored.”
“Losing
the rebounding battle is something I’m very disappointed about, it’s
something that needs to change. That’s part of competing – rebounding.
We have to get
better at that.”
Georgetown Guard D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera:
“I give them credit for the defense
they played, but at the same time I feel like we in our offense we
didn’t attack in our offense like we needed to. We were taking
unnecessary shots early in the shot clock. It was all about execution
and obviously the rebounds were not in our favor today.”
Georgetown Forward – Nate Lubick:
“Give Northeastern all the credit in
the world. We executed relatively well in the first half and then
didn’t do what we need to do to win games in the second half. That
really hurt us.”
PUERTO RICO TIP-OFF
GAME 3: MICHIGAN VS. LONG BEACH STATE 85-61
Michigan Coach John Beilein:
“Long Beach State just wouldn’t go away.
Dan (Monson) has been waiting for his guys to shoot the ball a little
bit better and they shot it well in the first half. They hit six threes
and were right there. Thank goodness we shot it even better than that.”
“You
know at this time of the year, given the inexperience on both teams,
there’s going to be runs. They made a great run, but then we picked up
on the clock mistake
and Nik (Stauskas) made a big, big shot. That’s probably one of our
first big shots of the season, because it was going the other way quick.
He made a huge one. That wasn’t part of a play; that was Nik doing what
he does.”
“A
couple of things we saw during their run – we thought our spacing was
bad, it had crept back so we shrunk the court for them. We didn’t think
we ran very well.
And then our defense at times, it was just really bad. We just showed a
lot of inexperience.”
“I
wouldn’t say Nik (Stauskas) has taken over, but when we feel he’s got
it going…in the last couple games he did a good job. We’ve got a set of
plays we run through
him, and what I like is he’s finding open people. I don’t think he
forced a shot today.”
Michigan Guard Caris LeVert: “We did a great job the second half of really
pulling away, they played well the whole game though. I think our defense really helped us get the win.”
“I
think I rushed some shots against Iowa State. I watched a lot of film
and got a lot better from that. We played a lot better today.”
“I think we’re getting better at closing out games, each game we get more experience.”
Michigan Guard Nik Stauskas:
“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Long
Beach State. They gave us a really good game today, they were really
competitive with us. Like Caris (LeVert) said, I think we did a really
good job in the second half. That last 10 minute stretch we really just
pulled away and took the game away.”
“Guys
were just doing a really good job of getting into the lane and finding
me when I was open. Caris (LeVert) and Glenn (Robinson III) had a couple
of really
good passes to me today. Anytime I can get open shots, I hope I can
knock them down.”
“Trey
(Burke) was National Player of the Year so, and Tim (Hardaway, Jr.) was
a first round pick so it’s kind of tough to replace that. Me and Caris
(LeVert) put
in a lot of time this off-season working out. We’re just trying to do
our best and we’re just happy we have this opportunity right now.”
Long Beach State Coach Dan Monson:
“This is our third BCS game – Kansas
State, Arizona and Michigan – we’ve just got to be able to take
scouting reports and be able to disrupt somebody and not get people
comfortable right out of the gate so easy. Part of it today was my
fault, I tried to start in a triangle and two on Stauskas
and LeVert and then Robinson III and Walton Jr. hit threes. Right out
of the gate, they’ve got two guys who had been struggling a bit in a
rhythm.
“We’ve
been playing from behind so much in these games, you’ve got to hang in
for your opportunities. We fought back and got it to seven I think in
the first half
and then once again in the second half, but then we made a lot of
mistakes and beat ourselves. You can’t do that against a great team like
this. They have so many weapons offensively and we just didn’t have an
answer to slow them down on the offensive end
of the floor.”
“These
tournaments have always produced improvement for us, and that’s really
important. You know, I’m not in Vegas, but I don’t think the odds of us
winning this
tournament were quite what they were a couple years ago when we were in
there with some other teams. This is about us getting better for
March.”
“We
haven’t had a winning season in seven years, since I’ve been at Long
Beach State, in the pre-season. We have had the No. 1 RPI January 1st
the last
three or four seasons, just playing tough teams. Every year the last
three we’ve been able to win our league by getting better at this time.
So it truly is a preseason for us right now. We’ve got to get better tomorrow and if we play even better than that
on Sunday, then we’ll have an opportunity.”
GAME 4: FLORIDA STATE VS. VCU 85-67
Florida State Coach – Leonard Hamilton:
“I thought our effort
tonight was a result of the healthy respect that we have for the VCU
program. They’ve done a tremendous job over the last four or five years –
how they have branded themselves and how well they have played in tough
situations. Evaluating them and trying to
come up with a game plan, we knew we had to be at our very best in a
lot of areas. We’ve been averaging close to 20 turnovers a game, and
that’s one of those fundamental basketball daemons we’re still trying to
overcome. But I thought we made up for it with
our effort, playing through each other with unselfish spirit and
fighting on the boards.”
“We
came in here averaging 86 points a game, so I think we were both kind
of playing at the same pace. We’ve got a reputation of being a defensive
team, but
what we’ve done is try to play to the talent that we’ve had. No we have
a little different team and we’re trying to utilize the strengths of
our basketball team.”
“Anytime
you press as aggressive as they are, you live up some opportunities. I
thought our guys took advantage of the opportunities that we had.”
“Most
of the teams that are rated high this early in the season, they are
rated for what they did last year. And so, quite naturally, we have been
playing
very good basketball for four years, we had to start over and regroup
last year and weren’t quite as successful, so we get recognized for what
we did last year. VCU went to the Sweet 16 and had a great season last
year, so they’re getting their recognition.
That’s one thing good about college basketball; you have the chance to
earn your rightful place. That’s what our goals are right now. It’s too
early to think about rankings, we try to keep it in perspective. We want
to be in the power place at the end of the
season. This is one victory, one game, and we’ve got a whole lot more
to go.”
“Michigan
is a very good basketball team, there’s no question about that. They
have all the ingredients of being able to get back to the Final Four
again.
For us, it’s just part of the kind of teams we face night-in and
night-out anyway, so it can’t do anything but help us prepare for the
ACC race playing against competition like Michigan.”
Florida State Guard – Ian Miller:
“Since I’ve been here, we’ve
been averaging about 20 turnovers a game. It something we’ve got to
keep working on, but we just keep finding ways to get it back on defense
or come down the next possession and fix the problem.”
“I
think we can average a lot more points if we don’t have those turnovers
in games. We need to slow it down a bit, take our time and think things
through
sometimes. We get a bit sped up, but we’ll learn. We’re young and we’re
still finding ourselves.”
VCU Coach – Shaka Smart:
“Congratulations to Florida State,
I thought they played a great game. There players were very aggressive
and overall they were obviously a much better team, tonight. I thought
for us this was definitely a wakeup call or realization that we can’t
just take the floor and be who we want to be,
we’ve got to make it happen. We’ve got to get back to being more
aggressive, but also playing with better discipline. We turned them over
25 times, which is great, but we did a very poor job of defending on
all the other possessions. That’s something that
we’re going to work hard to address and get better at.”
“It’s
a classic case of allowing our offense to affect our defense. We had
some really good looks early in the game that just didn’t go in – wide
open threes,
some shots around the basket. There’s going to be nights like that, but
the good teams keep playing, the good teams stick to the process that
brings them success. Part of that process is all the things that go into
getting them stops on the defensive end.
We did not do that tonight.”
“Florida
State was the more aggressive team, they were really highly motivated,
they were talking more, they were more connected as a team – all the
thing
that we pride ourselves on they had the edge in tonight. That obviously
showed on the scoreboard.”
VCU Guard – Rob Brandenberg: “We’ve just got to get ready for
tomorrow
for the next game. That was probably one of the toughest of my college
career, but like coach said we’ve just got to move on and learn from it.
The best teams respond. It isn’t going to be perfect, but we’ve just
got to come back tomorrow and fight.”
“At
the beginning of the game things weren’t going our way offensively and
we weren’t playing with that cohesiveness. We weren’t connected out
there, we weren’t
playing as a unit. Some guys started focusing on themselves.
PUERTO RICO TIP-OFF
GAME 8: VCU VS. LONG BEACH STATE 73-67
VCU Coach Shaka Smart:
“I
thought it was a hard fought win, these guys next to me did a great job
providing senior leadership and making big plays down the stretch. We
did not shoot the ball particularly
well, so that really kept us from extending our lead as much as we
wanted to, but we got some stops down the stretch. They threw some tough
shots in that made it tougher, but these guys did a nice job.”
“Defense
is 90 percent want to and 10 percent technique and scouting report and
all that stuff. I think our want to got better down the stretch in that
game and
we did a nice job following the plan.”
“Juvonte
(Reddic) is a really good player. I think the foul trouble in some of
our earlier games frustrated him along with some of our other guys. This
new foul
dynamic is very, very challenging for a player and a coach because it’s
so different from game-to-game. We had a foul to give at the end of
that. There’s been a lot of halves earlier this year where the other
team’s been into the bonus five minutes, eight
minutes into the game or the second half. Juvonte stayed out of trouble
for the most part, which really helped. It was a big point of emphasis
for us to get him the ball. He led us in shot attempts which is a great
thing. If you add up the shot attempts from
Juvonte and Rob (Brandenburg) plus Melvin (Johnson) and Treveon
(Graham), who are our four best scorers, those guys shot 51 out of 63
attempts which is really good. Those are the guys we want shooting the
ball.”
“He
(Briante Weber) did a nice job running the team, a good job getting
these guys the ball, that’s his job as point guard. We don’t need him to
score a lot of
points, tonight he scored 15. He hit some nice pull-ups, he’s good at
that. Three for four from the line, rebounded the ball well. I thought
he really lead the way defensively for us. He’s just an energy guy that
basically is a spark behind our defense. He
was huge tonight and played big minutes.”
“It’s
a challenge guarding those guys. Georgetown’s offense is very exact,
very precise and they cut hard. This is going to be our third game in
four days so we’re
going to have to really be disciplined and on our stuff to defend them.
But hopefully some of the things that we do will be challenging for
them.”
VCU Forward Juvonte Reddic:
“Coach
Smart talked to me before the game. He’s been doing a good job telling
me to look past the play that just happened, you know if I make a bad
shot or have a foul called
on me, I just need to move on, forget about it and worry about the next
thing. He’s been telling me since the first game of the season. I’m
starting to understand it and it’s really helping me out.”
VCU Guard Rob Brandenberg:
“I
was just trying to stay aggressive and help my team anyway I can.
Briante (Weber) was finding me all game, so I just wanted to make sure I
was shot-ready and attacking,
putting pressure on their zone. I wasn’t really thinking this is what
we need to do, but I realized we had to play with some urgency at that
time. It worked out.”
Long Beach State Coach Dan Monson:
“I thought we controlled tempo and
were able to dictate the game for about 35 minutes, but we got up
eight, then missed a three and they went on an 8-0 run. That’s all it
took, two or three minutes against a team that dangerous, that
explosive. Our margin for error was very small and we used
it in three minutes and just couldn’t get the rebound or the next play
to get back in it. We had to play with the lead at the end there. That
little spurt, we had to play from behind and all the sudden we couldn’t
get a rebound. It was unfortunate because
I thought our guys battled, I thought they did everything we asked them
to do game plan wise. I played guys more minutes, you know Mike Caffey
never came out and I think became a factor also.”
“What
an opportunity, we’re going to get pressed all year and we came here to
get better. What an opportunity to play against the best press in
America. It is.
Our guys, we can’t simulate it in practice so we need to take advantage
of these two hours, so when we get to league we’re better against a
press.”
“The
problem with the press, if you don’t attack it, it gets suffocating. I
thought our guys made good decision on when to attack. We took a couple
threes in the
first half and I said we’ve got to have a paint touch if we’re going to
attack the press, but I thought they did a good job of attacking but
not getting sped up into mistakes. The biggest misnomer is you think
break the press when you’re over half court and
you think you’ve got it done. Then you make a ball handling mistake
trying to convert it. I thought they did a really good job keeping it
simple at the end of the press. We missed a couple bunnies in that 8-0
run that really hurt us. We came here to get better,
we came here to trust each other and it was a good step today.”
