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MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2015Ron BakerGregg MarshallFred VanVleetST. LOUIS, MISSOURI Wichita State – 56 THE MODERATOR: Victorious Shockers are here. They are now 8‑3 as a No. 1 seed in this tournament. They have a date tomorrow against the winner of Illinois State and Evansville. Fred VanVleet, Ron Baker are here representing the student‑athletes. Gregg Marshall is here as well. We're going to ask Gregg to give us a statement on the game. COACH MARSHALL: We didn't play well. I thought Barry had a good game plan. We defended very well. Just glad to move on. Q. Fred, a lot of the times, the team had Anthony Beane on you, and seems to make it kind of tough on you to start the game. What were the some of the things you did in the second half to really get going and keep your team in the lead? FRED VANVLEET: He's a good player. We didn't do anything particularly special. We didn't really play as well as we could have, but we got the win. Just make adjustments throughout the game, however the game is flowing, and take what the defense gives me. Thought Tekele was big and made a lot of big plays with the ball, off the ball, and opened things up. We did enough to get it done. Q. Fred and Ron, how did you press change the momentum of the game there in the first half when you were down? RON BAKER: I think it changed when we got the game. Any time we can press and speed the other team up and get the steals and start our transition game, it definitely gets us flowing and gets us energized and helps us out a lot. FRED VANVLEET: We just didn't come out aggressive enough early. Obviously, they did, and they had the momentum. Like he said, the press changed the game and got us on our toes and being aggressive, got a lot of deflections, speeding the game up. So that helped a lot. Q. Ron, what did you feel you guys didn't do today? RON BAKER: Rebound. Q. For both players, how much of a factor did the fans play in today's game? Obviously, a neutral site, but it seemed like a home game with the amount of fans. FRED VANVLEET: Like I said yesterday, obviously, we've got a really big fan base. Not sure how much of an impact it had on the game, but we really appreciate everyone coming out. We just try to pay it back by playing as hard as we can. Q. Ron, about the fans, what did you think? RON BAKER: Our fans travel well, like I said yesterday as well. Our fan support is, I think, best in the Valley, and you saw that today with the amount of black and gold in the stands. Q. Fred, you mentioned Tekele playing well with the ball. Is that something he's gotten better at? What does that add to the offense when he can kind of facilitate and help run things? FRED VANVLEET: It definitely adds another dynamic when he's aggressive and driving downhill. He's definitely gotten better throughout the years, but especially this season, he's taking what the defense gives him. A lot of teams like to sag off of him, and when he gets it going downhill, it just makes it harder, puts more pressure on the defense and kind of collapses everything. He had a few good drives in the first half, and then in the second half as well, that just kind of opened up the game for us. So we need him in attack mode at all times. Q. Fred, with about five minutes left, there was that nice alley‑oop pass to Zach Brown. What did you see there? Did you see that as kind of a dagger, as something to really get your team going motivation‑wise? FRED VANVLEET: No. We were just trying to close the game. I think Ron and Darius were fighting over a rebound, and they crashed the glass so hard, I think they had all five down there. If we're able to get the outlet pass, it was just me and Zach by ourselves basically. But I wasn't really focused on the dagger or anything. It was still five minutes to play, and those guys aren't going to quit. We just did what we had to do to get the job done, and we did. So I think all of us are looking forward to moving on. Q. Ron, when you guys were making your run there in the first half, it looked like Shaq really ran the court well, and you hit him, I think, with a bounce pass for a dunk. Is that the kind of play he maybe wouldn't have been able to make two months ago and he's doing more of? That kind of running the court well and getting more open. RON BAKER: He might have made the play two months ago, but he would have started at the three‑point line where we're on the other end of the court. But he's coming along, and those are the little things we've been asking Shaq to do‑‑ run the court, screen, roll as hard as you can, and just do the little things right. Q. You guys said you came out a little slow. Was there anything said on the bench to wake you guys up, or did you guys just wake up yourself? FRED VANVLEET: I think we got a pretty damn good coach, but for the most part, we just take the onus on ourselves. There wasn't just any conscious decision to come out in the game and not be aggressive, but that's just what happened. We were able to turn around and get the momentum back. We got guys that don't like to lose, and I think that's all that is. RON BAKER: We just weren't‑‑ we weren't really efficient in the game on offense. Obviously, Beane hit some really tough shots, and that's how they got their lead. I just think we came out a little flat and on our heels in offense and weren't very aggressive. Q. Either of you guys ever have players on the other team come up to you and say something to the effect of we wish we had our fan base travel with us like your guys' do? FRED VANVLEET: No, not throughout the course of the game. I'm sure they do. I would if the shoes were on the other foot. But I've never had that happen in the game, and if it did, I probably wasn't listening anyway. RON BAKER: No players usually talk about the other team's fans to me, but I had a couple times when players come up to me and talk about Koch Arena and stuff like that. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you very much for your time. We'll see you tomorrow. Going to stick with Coach Marshall a little longer. Q. Gregg, there was a time in the second half when you had Kelly, Brown, and Morris all on the floor together. I know you've been working to develop those three all season long. Was that by design, and how do you feel they've progressed? Is that‑‑ can you see that as a future front line for you guys? COACH MARSHALL: No, it wasn't by design. I just‑‑ I obviously put those guys in, and I looked up, and I saw the same thing. Probably too many freshmen, but they played pretty well in that segment together. Didn't hurt us. I think they're all progressing at different rates. I thought Brown was pretty good tonight. Shaq was pretty good in the first half. I didn't think he had a very good second half, played with a lot of energy. And Rashard has had his moments. I like that group. I like those young players. They've just got to keep getting better. Q. Coach, I want to say congratulations on the win, and also I want to ask, what were your adjustments in the second half to contain Anthony Beane? COACH MARSHALL: I thought we did a pretty good job except for the first minute or two. He had three of his field goals in probably the first four minutes. They were contested jump shots. He's a talented player. He can score when contested very well. We really didn't change anything at halftime. I think we‑‑ the latter part of the first half, we were much better, and he stopped making those shots he was making earlier. But Cotton just continued to guard him. Q. In your opening statement, you said something about the game plan for Barry Hinson. What were some of the things that the Salukis did early to take that early four‑point lead? COACH MARSHALL: I think they went to Beane and got their best player involved, and he was making some incredible shots. Then they were trying to work some clock and make sure they got the ball back to Beane at the end of the clock so he could use the ball screen. They were changing defenses, just looking to make sure we didn't have the ball for too long. They were shortening the game, if you will, I thought, early. I just think he does a great job. Q. Coach, what impressed you the most on this win? COACH MARSHALL: I would say what impressed me the most was our defense. We allowed 16 field goals, 34 percent, 27 percent from three. We forced 18 turnovers to 5 assists. So you hold teams to 45, you have a pretty good chance of winning. Q. Gregg, did you go to the press mostly just to get some energy, get something going? COACH MARSHALL: Well, we normally press after made free throws, and we have a variety of presses that we can go to. We were pressing early in the game, more of just a man token press. But then I thought we needed some energy, and I thought they had been suspect in terms of the way they handled the ball against full court pressure. So that was the decision, and it worked well. We went from like down four, maybe even more than that, to up five or six pretty quickly. Q. Fred mentioned Tekele's ball handling. How was it helpful? COACH MARSHALL: Fred sees it as well. Tekele, when he decides to go north and south, he's very effective. He drove it in a couple of times tonight and scored around the rim, and it just puts more pressure on the defense when you have a third handler out there that can do that. Q. I'm just curious about tomorrow and kind of what your guys' routine will be tonight and everything, preparing, obviously, for short rest. You guys haven't played a tournament like this since December. COACH MARSHALL: We're going to watch the first half here. The assistant coaches will stay. I've been assured that the Westin will have the game on television, which they did not have last night. We had the Blues. I'm from South Carolina. I'm not much of a hockey fan. We watched the first half at Mike Shannon's last night, and then the second half, we thought we'd be able to watch in our hotel room, and we got hockey instead. So we'll go back and watch the second half. Assistant coaches will stay, and then we will eat. I'm sure they'll eat probably twice. It's still early. It's 2:30. I'm sure they'll eat now when we get back, and they'll eat again tonight, and we'll watch some video of whoever wins this game and tuck them into bed. Q. Gregg, what kind of unique challenges do each of these teams that are getting ready to play present no matter who you play? COACH MARSHALL: I think Evansville is their motion offense, and D.J. Balentine. Many times what a great job Marty does running that offense, and you've got to defend screens for 40 minutes. You're going to get hit hundreds of times. And they're very tough. Then the Illinois State team, just their size and athleticism. They're big and athletic and pound the glass. We weren't great at that tonight. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Gregg. See you tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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