Harvard coach Tommy Amaker met with the media Wednesday at Veterans Memorial Coliseum here in Jacksonville, FL, to discuss his team's first-round matchup with North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night. Here is what the coach had to say:
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: Well, obviously we're incredibly excited about this opportunity for our basketball team, a wonderful year for our club. We're pleased to represent our wonderful institution and the Ivy League Conference. We recognize the challenge in front of us with the UNC Tar Heels and how terrific and great they are. They always have been. But our kids are excited to be here. We're very hopeful that we'll play in a manner that's deserving of being in this great tournament.
Q. How do you focus on controlling the pace of the game and the tempo that it's played at?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: Well, I think the tempo, and you can think about it in a couple different ways. The one that we're going to try to do, obviously, is being able to take care of the basketball. Tempo can change based on turnovers and bad shots, so if we can be efficient offensively, we like the chances of doing a much better job of managing the game.
Q. You talked on Marcus Paige a little bit yesterday but can you elaborate a little bit more on him?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: He's an outstanding, complete basketball player that plays the backcourt. He plays the 1, plays the 2. He's crafty. He's dynamic shooter and scorer, I should say. He's a kid that I think has played exceptionally well in bigger games for their program and has a knack for coming up big in the second half is what he's done in the past. We're going to do our best to see if we can limit great opportunities for him, but they do a lot of things to create shots for him, and he's a big time scorer and a big time shot maker and a preseason All American, a pre season Player of the Year candidate, so I think that tells you the quality of the player that he really is.
Q. Your players said none of them could see your reaction when UNC came up in the bracket with you guys
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: That's a good thing.
Q. Given your personal history, what was your reaction?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: I mean, I think we were looking in that range of the seeds, in terms of us being a 12 or 13 or 14, whatever the seeds are as you kind of go around the brackets. We were aware that we could be in those areas when those higher seeds were announced or unveiled. And certainly, the location was something that we were kind of intrigued about since we were so we've been shipped out in the past and gone far. So I think we were very hopeful for maybe a closer opportunity to our school and more of our fan base. But then seeing that the Carolina Tar Heels, that's who we were matched with, that's good news and bad news. Good news that we're actually in and here's our moment. And the bad news is, boy, this is who we have to play. So for me, thinking about how terrific and great they are and they always have been, it wasn't necessarily a very pleasant thought internally when I saw the actual draw.
Q. Without giving away state secrets, what are you going to try to do with your 45 minutes on the floor right now?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: You know, we've always just tried to get accustomed to the facility, to the arena, for our guys to get a lot of shots up, handle the basketball, go up and down a little bit, but just having a familiarity with the place we're going to play. That's the main thing I think most teams try to do when you get a short period of time in the facility that you're going to play, get some shots up, and hopefully feel comfortable in the environment.
Q. Tommy, other than the fact that you're playing a highly seeded team that's going to be very difficult to play, is there anything special about playing Carolina for you and having your history at Duke?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: You know, and I try to honestly keeping my history out of it. It's not about me. It certainly is about what these kids have accomplished in our program and what we've done over the last number of years and how excited I am for them. But certainly they recognize, and we all do, the history and the tradition and the greatness of Carolina basketball, and so anything with me is really irrelevant. I'm really, really pleased for our school. We're pleased that we are representing our conference, and we have been able to do that for a number of years now, and we're hopeful that we will play well to showcase Ivy basketball.
Q. Going back to your days at WT, when you were being recruited, did you consider Carolina, and did Roy Williams, was he a part of the recruitment if you did?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: You know, that's a long time ago to try to remember, first of all, but no, I wasn't. I was recruited by a few ACC schools, and my counterpart during that time was a good friend then and is still a good friend now, Kenny Smith was the guard that went to UNC. There was a lot of guards that were picking ACC schools, whether it was Keith Gatlin at Maryland, I was recruited by Maryland, I was recruited by a few other ACC schools, but not necessarily UNC.
Q. The obvious caveat that you and Harvard instigated a lot of the change, what do you is the biggest change in Ivy League basketball since you arrived in the league?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: Well, I think we're seeing great depth in our conference. I think through the years, Penn and Princeton have dominated Ivy basketball and have had great teams and terrific traditions. I think what we're seeing now is that you're seeing a league that has evolved and becoming an outstanding basketball conference. I think when you see postseason play last year, teams winning outside of our league, challenging games within our league on each and every day and every night. We play a schedule that we play Friday and Saturday, so that second night is a bear for everybody in our conference. I just think you're seeing a league that's very balanced, very challenging. You're seeing teams that are playing at a high level, not only within our league but certainly outside of our league. And maybe that was done to a certain degree in the past, but I think it was certainly thought of as a two horse race with Penn and Princeton. I think now you're obviously seeing Ivy basketball taking a step forward with everyone.
Q. Having been here before, is there any advantage or is there anything to not only having been here before but having won here before, or is each year its own entity?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: I think each year can certainly stand on its own merit, but there's nothing that can replace, in my opinion, a confidence factor of having done it before. I think that's obvious, and we certainly have that, and we're proud of that. That's not going to necessarily help us rebound the ball against Carolina tomorrow, but I do think the fact that our kids, we have a veteran team, many of our players have had experience in the tournament, have had success and experience in the tournament. We're hopeful to draw on that. We're hopeful that that will serve us well in those moments where we're going to be challenged greatly.
Q. Obviously Wesley took over in the second half of the Yale game last week, and you want to see that, but is that sort of a double edged sword when you want your offense to get going, especially in a tournament game when you don't necessarily want it to come from one source?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: Well, we certainly, as you mentioned, we needed that from Wesley in that playoff game, and how he put us on his back, and he's capable of that. We trust Wesley. We want the ball in his hands. We want him to make plays for us, and as we've said before, we trust his decision with that. There will be many times where the decision is the opportunity is for himself, and I thought he made really good decisions in the game against Yale, in that playoff game, and certainly came through for us. We're best when we have balance, but there are times and stretches of a game and certainly a stretch of a season where certain players kind of emerge, and we'll take off. And certainly if that's Wesley for us, usually that's a very good thing because he is a play maker and not just a scorer.
Q. Coach, when you spoke with Coach K last night on the phone, what was the scouting report about the Tar Heels from Coach K, because I'm assuming you talked to him?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: I was going to say you're making a big assumption there. We certainly, as I said earlier to someone else that asked about that, they have their own agenda and being a No. 1 seed, and they're certainly swamped with their thoughts of trying to do well in the tournament, get to the next stage of it. We were just going to congratulate each other on a great season. They have their scouting to do, we have ours. We're not trying to share thoughts in that regard, but certainly our staff will do its job in trying to get prepared for Carolina, and we have enough they have enough on their plate, we have enough on ours. But thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: Well, obviously we're incredibly excited about this opportunity for our basketball team, a wonderful year for our club. We're pleased to represent our wonderful institution and the Ivy League Conference. We recognize the challenge in front of us with the UNC Tar Heels and how terrific and great they are. They always have been. But our kids are excited to be here. We're very hopeful that we'll play in a manner that's deserving of being in this great tournament.
Q. How do you focus on controlling the pace of the game and the tempo that it's played at?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: Well, I think the tempo, and you can think about it in a couple different ways. The one that we're going to try to do, obviously, is being able to take care of the basketball. Tempo can change based on turnovers and bad shots, so if we can be efficient offensively, we like the chances of doing a much better job of managing the game.
Q. You talked on Marcus Paige a little bit yesterday but can you elaborate a little bit more on him?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: He's an outstanding, complete basketball player that plays the backcourt. He plays the 1, plays the 2. He's crafty. He's dynamic shooter and scorer, I should say. He's a kid that I think has played exceptionally well in bigger games for their program and has a knack for coming up big in the second half is what he's done in the past. We're going to do our best to see if we can limit great opportunities for him, but they do a lot of things to create shots for him, and he's a big time scorer and a big time shot maker and a preseason All American, a pre season Player of the Year candidate, so I think that tells you the quality of the player that he really is.
Q. Your players said none of them could see your reaction when UNC came up in the bracket with you guys
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: That's a good thing.
Q. Given your personal history, what was your reaction?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: I mean, I think we were looking in that range of the seeds, in terms of us being a 12 or 13 or 14, whatever the seeds are as you kind of go around the brackets. We were aware that we could be in those areas when those higher seeds were announced or unveiled. And certainly, the location was something that we were kind of intrigued about since we were so we've been shipped out in the past and gone far. So I think we were very hopeful for maybe a closer opportunity to our school and more of our fan base. But then seeing that the Carolina Tar Heels, that's who we were matched with, that's good news and bad news. Good news that we're actually in and here's our moment. And the bad news is, boy, this is who we have to play. So for me, thinking about how terrific and great they are and they always have been, it wasn't necessarily a very pleasant thought internally when I saw the actual draw.
Q. Without giving away state secrets, what are you going to try to do with your 45 minutes on the floor right now?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: You know, we've always just tried to get accustomed to the facility, to the arena, for our guys to get a lot of shots up, handle the basketball, go up and down a little bit, but just having a familiarity with the place we're going to play. That's the main thing I think most teams try to do when you get a short period of time in the facility that you're going to play, get some shots up, and hopefully feel comfortable in the environment.
Q. Tommy, other than the fact that you're playing a highly seeded team that's going to be very difficult to play, is there anything special about playing Carolina for you and having your history at Duke?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: You know, and I try to honestly keeping my history out of it. It's not about me. It certainly is about what these kids have accomplished in our program and what we've done over the last number of years and how excited I am for them. But certainly they recognize, and we all do, the history and the tradition and the greatness of Carolina basketball, and so anything with me is really irrelevant. I'm really, really pleased for our school. We're pleased that we are representing our conference, and we have been able to do that for a number of years now, and we're hopeful that we will play well to showcase Ivy basketball.
Q. Going back to your days at WT, when you were being recruited, did you consider Carolina, and did Roy Williams, was he a part of the recruitment if you did?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: You know, that's a long time ago to try to remember, first of all, but no, I wasn't. I was recruited by a few ACC schools, and my counterpart during that time was a good friend then and is still a good friend now, Kenny Smith was the guard that went to UNC. There was a lot of guards that were picking ACC schools, whether it was Keith Gatlin at Maryland, I was recruited by Maryland, I was recruited by a few other ACC schools, but not necessarily UNC.
Q. The obvious caveat that you and Harvard instigated a lot of the change, what do you is the biggest change in Ivy League basketball since you arrived in the league?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: Well, I think we're seeing great depth in our conference. I think through the years, Penn and Princeton have dominated Ivy basketball and have had great teams and terrific traditions. I think what we're seeing now is that you're seeing a league that has evolved and becoming an outstanding basketball conference. I think when you see postseason play last year, teams winning outside of our league, challenging games within our league on each and every day and every night. We play a schedule that we play Friday and Saturday, so that second night is a bear for everybody in our conference. I just think you're seeing a league that's very balanced, very challenging. You're seeing teams that are playing at a high level, not only within our league but certainly outside of our league. And maybe that was done to a certain degree in the past, but I think it was certainly thought of as a two horse race with Penn and Princeton. I think now you're obviously seeing Ivy basketball taking a step forward with everyone.
Q. Having been here before, is there any advantage or is there anything to not only having been here before but having won here before, or is each year its own entity?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: I think each year can certainly stand on its own merit, but there's nothing that can replace, in my opinion, a confidence factor of having done it before. I think that's obvious, and we certainly have that, and we're proud of that. That's not going to necessarily help us rebound the ball against Carolina tomorrow, but I do think the fact that our kids, we have a veteran team, many of our players have had experience in the tournament, have had success and experience in the tournament. We're hopeful to draw on that. We're hopeful that that will serve us well in those moments where we're going to be challenged greatly.
Q. Obviously Wesley took over in the second half of the Yale game last week, and you want to see that, but is that sort of a double edged sword when you want your offense to get going, especially in a tournament game when you don't necessarily want it to come from one source?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: Well, we certainly, as you mentioned, we needed that from Wesley in that playoff game, and how he put us on his back, and he's capable of that. We trust Wesley. We want the ball in his hands. We want him to make plays for us, and as we've said before, we trust his decision with that. There will be many times where the decision is the opportunity is for himself, and I thought he made really good decisions in the game against Yale, in that playoff game, and certainly came through for us. We're best when we have balance, but there are times and stretches of a game and certainly a stretch of a season where certain players kind of emerge, and we'll take off. And certainly if that's Wesley for us, usually that's a very good thing because he is a play maker and not just a scorer.
Q. Coach, when you spoke with Coach K last night on the phone, what was the scouting report about the Tar Heels from Coach K, because I'm assuming you talked to him?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: I was going to say you're making a big assumption there. We certainly, as I said earlier to someone else that asked about that, they have their own agenda and being a No. 1 seed, and they're certainly swamped with their thoughts of trying to do well in the tournament, get to the next stage of it. We were just going to congratulate each other on a great season. They have their scouting to do, we have ours. We're not trying to share thoughts in that regard, but certainly our staff will do its job in trying to get prepared for Carolina, and we have enough they have enough on their plate, we have enough on ours. But thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
