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MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 5, 2015Auston BarnesGeno FordNate WellsST. LOUIS, MISSOURI Bradley – 52 THE MODERATOR: The victorious Bradley Braves are here. No.10 seed will move on and play Northern Iowa tomorrow night at 6:00. Auston Barnes and Nate Wells are here as the student‑athletes. Head coach Geno Ford is in the middle, and he'll start off with a statement, and then we'll go to questions for just the two student‑athletes and come back to Geno. COACH FORD: I thought two teams that played well and played really hard defensively. It's kind of interesting. They had us scouted out unbelievably well, and we had them scouted out pretty well. I thought the two teams offensively struggled to get things going because of the high level of defense played both ways. Give Drake a lot of credit. They've got a young team that's going to be good next year. We were fortunate at the end we finally made a couple of free throws with the game on the line, and I was proud of our guys for finding a way to win. Q. Auston, can you kind of take us through the big three‑pointer you hit there at the end. You shot it pretty quick, but you were open, and just take us through your mindset there. AUSTON BARNES: My coaches, Coach Ford has been preaching to me about being more aggressive and just playing with some confidence. I toed the line, and I was open. So I put it in. Q. Jacob Enevold got involved early in the second half. As the second half went on, it seemed like he was going to the line more but wasn't scoring much. How did you guys adjust to not letting him get as many touches? NATE WELLS: He's a great guy, ducking in the post players, and we're just trying to work our way to get around. Seemed like it was going that way. He was, what, 12 for 12 at the line or something? But, yeah, trying to do our work early and keep him to limited touches. But every time he got the ball with the whistle calls, he got to the line. AUSTON BARNES: He did a great job of getting to the line today. The man can shoot free throws. He proved that today. He's so big, and he's so good at using his body and getting angles. It's really hard to guard him in the post, and Nate did a great job in the first half. He's 7 foot, and he gets angles on people, and it's hard to stop him. Q. Auston, when you got the ball there, when that play began there, were you thinking three right away? Or when did it occur to you that you could take that shot? AUSTON BARNES: I'm a three‑point shooter. My percentages might not say that, but I don't know, I thought the lane was open, but I toed the line, and I thought just shoot it, I don't know. Just playing with confidence. That's what we've got to do in the next game. Q. Both guys, can you kind of describe your defense. You played a lot of man tonight. Did you think Drake was not expecting that? Just describe not only how you played but just the aspect of your defense. THE MODERATOR: Nate, lead us off. NATE WELLS: We try to do a good job of mixing it up and keep our opponents on their toes, but the main thing that comes out is communication. When we do a good job on the back line between Auston and Josh and I and talk to Warren and Tramique on the wings. That allows them to not only get through screens and stuff, but on the help side defense. AUSTON BARNES: That team's so good at shooting threes that it's almost scary to play them. We've been playing a lot of zone the last four weeks of the conference, and they shoot the ball so well that I think it was better to just get up and pressure the ball a little bit more and maybe disrupt them. I know they've been scouting us and they probably thought we were going to play a diamond and one. But we did a good job switching it up and communicating, like Nate says. Q. Those free throws at the end of regulation, what was your‑‑ after the second one didn't go down, what was‑‑ how happy were you to see your teammate hit the three and then the other free throws? NATE WELLS: I was ecstatic that he hit those. I feel like I rushed those. If I was in my normal routine, but I put them up in the heat of the moment. I'm excited for Josh and Tramique hitting them at the end. So great, big time. Q. It's been four years since Bradley's won a game in this tournament. Could you guys both speak to kind of breaking that skid. I know you weren't here that long ago, but just what does it mean to finally break through? AUSTON BARNES: It means a lot. We want to give ourselves another opportunity to play. I just think, why not us? We're not done. That's what we were saying in the locker room today. I'm just grateful we have another opportunity to play tomorrow. NATE WELLS: Exactly. Why not us? We just leave it all on the floor and don't regret anything. Q. You got a big challenge tomorrow. Can you kind of speak to playing against the Panthers. AUSTON BARNES: Well, he makes all the game plans, and we try to go out there and execute. We've got one day to do it, and they're a great team. They've got Conference Player of the Year and a whole bunch of guys that can shoot. We're just going to come out here and then play our hearts out. NATE WELLS: We've just got to go out there and leave it on the floor and do our best and play for each other. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you very much. Congratulations on your win. We'll stay here with Coach Ford for a little longer. Q. The decision to go to man, was that because you knew they had you scouted so well with the zone stuff? COACH FORD: Well, we‑‑ to be honest, when we went up there, we showed some diamond and some triangle and some zone. We mixed a little triangle in. We played five possessions. We were 4 for 5 at getting stops. We threw the diamond on them only one possession. So we were just trying to keep them out of rhythm. And I thought that in man we had them scouted well enough that the players‑‑ it isn't about the coaches scouting. It's about the players on the floor communicating and recognizing actions, and I think it made it a little easier that it was the third time seeing them and the third time seeing us. When we were‑‑ when we called a play call, our guys were talking on the floor about who was going where, and they were doing the same thing when we had the ball. It's really kind of funny. You've had all those articles about college basketball scoring being down, and my point has been all along, with the access that we have to scouting, it's just really increased your ability to defend. I mean, they defended great too. If they make a three at the buzzer, we're in here talking about how we barely lost and talking about their great defense. Both teams were terrific. I thought the kids really absorbed the game plan both ways, and we're really fortunate we came out on top. That could have gone either way. We led almost the whole day. Felt like we were going to win, then it got late and felt like it could go either way. I thought our flow to the game was better, and we kind of led a little bit more often than they did on the day. Q. Can you speak to breaking your losing streak down here? COACH FORD: We've really ruined your writing because you can't talk about the west of the Mississippi anymore. We‑‑ I don't know. It's funny because, honestly, it was something you and I talked about because we needed to talk about, and I think you excitedly wrote it. I'm just kidding. It was something that had to be written about. To be honest, we've never had the discussion with the team. Today's different because of the tournament. So if you don't win today, it's over. Interesting thing about our team, for all the loss that's we've had, the close losses and the disappointments over the year‑‑ and there have been countless‑‑ I gave the guys off on Sunday and Monday. Monday night at 10:00, they came in and played pickup, and every guy on the team was in there playing. They organized it. I wanted them off their legs, and they wanted to play. They want‑‑ they're not ready for it to be over now. You spin that into tomorrow, you cannot want it to be over, and that's all fine and dandy, but we'd better play our butts off and play really, really well. We're playing a team that's a top ten team in the country. They're a great offensive team. For us, we're probably not going to score 75 points tomorrow. So for us to win, we've got to guard unbelievably well, and we're going to need them to miss some shots. But I think that it's something that our kids are excited about an opportunity to do. I was just proud of them. I thought we were relentless in the game today. It's one of the rare moments‑‑ and you've seen us all year. When we gave up the lead, as we held the lead the whole day, and mid second half, they got a quick lead. We came right back and got it, and about 4:30 to go, we were down by three, I believe. That's when we've struggled in the past to get a basket. I think it was Warren that hit one, and it just kind of got us back on track. But we haven't gotten over that hump quite enough. And give the kids a ton of credit because they just kept playing and grinding. It was a hard‑fought game, but excited we won. Enevold was terrific. He was terrific. We had no answer for him, but the rest of them, I thought we did a pretty good job on. Is that going to be your title tomorrow, Dave? Win west of the Mississippi? Is that what you're going with? Maybe? So I'll just keep talking. So if I keep filibustering you, you're done. Okay. THE MODERATOR: Geno, congratulations. We'll see you tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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