http://www.rolltide.com/Mens%20Basketball/10110.asp
TUSCALOOSA – For the 17th time in school history and the third year in a row, the University of Alabama men’s basketball team will participate in the NCAA Championships.
The Crimson Tide, 17-12 overall and an eight seed in the NCAA tournament, will play Southern Illinois, 25-4 and a nine seed, on Thursday, March 18th in Seattle, Washington, at KeyArena. Game times have not yet been released. The winner will play the winner between No. 1 seed Stanford and 16 seed Texas-San Antonio in the second round to determine which team advances to the regional in Phoenix, Arizona.
“I’m really proud for our players and I think we’re a team that certainly played our way into the tournament. I think everybody has, but our last month of the season I’m really proud of what they were able to accomplish and what they were able to do,” said Alabama head coach Mark Gottfried. “Like all the teams in the tournament, you just want an opportunity to play. That’s kind of where we are, don’t really care too much where it is and who it is, but we just want to play and I’m sure SIU feels the same way as the other 63 teams feel. You just want to get in there and have a chance, and that’s what we have.”
The Tide has played Southern Illinois once previously, in November of 1996 at the Top of the World Classic in Fairbanks, Alaska. Alabama won that second round game 79-58 en route to the Classics’s tournament championship.
Alabama advanced to the NCAA tournament in 2002 and 2003, making this the first time since 1991 that Alabama has advanced three consecutive seasons. Alabama made the tournament in 1989, 1990 and 1991, the last time it went to three in a row. Alabama’s selection to the 2004 field marks the 17th postseason trip for the Tide since its 1975 team was selected to the West Regional. Alabama’s best finish in the tournament to date has been the Sweet 16 which it has advanced to seven times, in 1976, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990 and 1991.
Gottfried was the starting guard on Alabama’s 1985, 1986 and 1987 Sweet 16 teams. In his sixth seasons as Alabama’s head coach, he has now advanced Alabama to postseason play five times, to the NIT tournament in 1999 and 2001 and to the NCAA tournament in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
Ticket information will be released on Monday for Alabama fans planning to follow the Tide to Seattle.
University of Alabama Head Coach Mark Gottfried:
On making the tournament field:
“I’m really proud for our players and I think we’re a team that certainly played our way into the tournament. I think everybody has, but our last month of the season I’m really proud of what they were able to accomplish and what they were able to do. Like all the teams in the tournament, you just want an opportunity to play. That’s kind of where we are, don’t really care too much where it is and who it is, but we just want to play and I’m sure SIU feels the same way as the other 63 teams feel. You just want to get in there and have a chance, and that’s what we have.”
On whether he was “nervous” as Alabama’s name was not called until last regional bracket on CBS Selection Show:
“A little bit only because of 2001, sitting in there and not going, that was such a hard thing. But I felt pretty confident that we were in. I watched and studied this thing the last 24 hours a little bit closer than I had and I felt like the teams where we may be seeded with, I saw who was already in and who was left and I felt pretty confident that we would be in that seven, ten or eight, nine game. I thought that’s probably where we were going to be. I wasn’t as nervous about not getting in maybe this year as I was a few years back.”
On any problems playing across the country may create:
“I don’t think it creates too many. Teams are flying all over the country whether it’s a two hour flight or a four hour flight, big deal. We’ll travel on Tuesday. We have a practice time on Wednesday that you can’t miss, so you don’t want to travel that day in case you have any problems and miss your times or whatever and miss your times. Those Thursday games, I think most everybody is getting on a plane or bus and traveling on Tuesday, and we’ll do the same thing and get out there and play.”
On playing preparation for Southern Illinois:
“We’ve got a video library up here. We tape games all year long. I’m sure we don’t have as many on SIU (as we’d have for an SEC team), but we’ll have some and we’ll be able to prepare. You’ve got to remember that every team in the tournament has earned the right to be there regardless of what conference they come from. Sometimes we may think a Michigan State or a Wake Forest is better than a Western Michigan or a team maybe from not a major conference, and that’s not necessarily true at all. Our players will understand that. Our players here remember a couple of years ago how good Kent State was. They were awfully good. People forget that year they beat Alabama, Pittsburgh and Oklahoma State in a row. That’s three pretty impressive wins. It tells you how good they were. We’re going to have our hands full. When you’re 25-4—and they won 16 straight in the middle of the year and they opened up the season with a win at Wyoming—this is a pretty impressive team.”
On disappointment that SEC did not get more teams in tournament field:
“I am disappointed. I really am. I just for some reason think that our league—it gets respect as far as one of the top two or three leagues but it just can’t kind of get over the hump to take the next step. And, again, I’ve made this point a lot of times. I’ve watched years where seven of nine ACC teams have gone. We’ve got 12 teams in our conference and we’ve never had a seventh team. You look at LSU’s RPI, you look at the quality wins Georgia had, I think that we had some other teams that were deserving to go. It just seems like there’s a ceiling on our conference. We just can’t bust through that ceiling and get a seventh team one time.”
QUOTES FROM SIU HEAD COACH MATT PAINTER:
On making the tournament field:
“Obviously we’re very excited about being in the tournament. We have stubbed our toe a little bit here in the past week and a half and lost two out of three games but we’re just excited about playing again and excited about competing. A lot of people want us to play a little closer to home. I know Seattle is a long way away but it’s also a long way away for coach Gottfried and Alabama. We have an opportunity, and after being picked fifth in our league this year to start the season we have a lot of guys who have proven the so-called critics wrong and hopefully we can keep doing the same thing and keep competing and playing hard and being able to pull out some victories.”
On state of the program and team’s confidence going into tournament:
“The main thing that we have is we have a lot of experience. And not only do we have experience, we have experience that have been successful. I think that’s a key component of any team and a lot of times at the high major level when guys have success they leave early. You have a tough time building that team, that chemistry year in and year out and that’s something we’ve been able to do here at Southern Illinois University. We just have a lot of coachable kids. Seventy five percent of our guys that are high school recruits are redshirt kids that are older; we have two fifth year seniors, we have three fourth year juniors—we’ve just got a good blend of guys that really play hard and pressure the basketball and get after it on the defensive end. It’s just been a pleasure to coach these guys every day at practice and every game.”
On familiarity with SEC type players having played Georgia in the tournament in the recent past & which of his players played key role in that game:
“I’m really proud for our players and I think we’re a team that certainly played our way into the tournament. I think everybody has, but our last month of the season I’m really proud of what they were able to accomplish and what they were able to do,” said Alabama head coach Mark Gottfried. “Like all the teams in the tournament, you just want an opportunity to play. That’s kind of where we are, don’t really care too much where it is and who it is, but we just want to play and I’m sure SIU feels the same way as the other 63 teams feel. You just want to get in there and have a chance, and that’s what we have.”
“Darren Brooks and Stetson Hairston—Darren came off the bench for us at that time as a freshman and Stetson Hairston was a starter as a freshman and then Brad Korn and Sylvester Willis were our backup big guys. Now they are our starting big guys. So those four guys played against Georgia. The one thing when we play high major teams really it’s the size. We have athleticism. We have quickness on the perimeter. Earnest Shelton is a very good player. Kennedy Winston is a very good player. And they have quickness in their point and in their off guard with that backups and their starters and that’s something that we are able to match. The one thing that we had a tough time matching after losing Rolan Roberts is when people have that dominant center and then that size inside keeping people off the glass, so that’s always a concern for us. But there’s no doubt that our guys are confident. They feel like they can beat anybody. And sometimes as a coaching staff we chuckle when they see guys on the screen and say, ‘oh we can beat these guys.’ But who’s to tell them any different? They just play hard and get after it and we’re just looking forward to the game against Alabama but we know it’s going to be tough.”
ROLL TIDE ROLL !!! RMc.
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