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March 5, 2015
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
Southern Illinois – 55
Missouri State - 48
MODERATOR: Austin Ruder and Christian Kirk represent the student‑athletes for Missouri State. Paul Lusk in the middle as the head coach. We'll ask him to make a statement on the game and then go to questions for just the two student‑athletes, then back to Coach Lusk.
COACH LUSK: Congrats to Southern for advancing. I thought it was really an ugly game by both teams, but that's what generally happens. I thought both teams played hard. Either team was probably very efficient.
We got down. We got a chance to get back into it. We just had too many turnovers. But proud of Christian Kirk, our only senior, and he's done everything right. I thought Austin found some rhythm today.
But congratulations to Southern. It's been a tough season for us. We have to regroup. Guys have to make improvements. We have to move forward.
Q. Austin, were the turnovers something SIU is doing defensively or a lot of them just forced?
COACH LUSK: A lot of them were on us. We were just kind of casual with the basketball, kind of giving them baskets. A lot of them had the breakout layups and jump shots like that, so I think it really hurt us.
Q. You guys battled to get back into it, and then they went on a little bit of a run. Tell me how devastating that was to your momentum and then be able to fight the rest of the way.
CHRISTIAN KIRK: It was tough the first half. We were struggling with turnover, and we were down on the board. Second half, we made a great run. Me and Austin were just talking, we thought we were definitely in it. And then O'Brien hit a great three‑pointer, and that hurt us.
We were down, but I thought we made a couple good runs. There was just some bad mistakes for them to get up.
Q. Christian, you had a great first half and led your team in points and rebounds. In the second half, you didn't score quite as well. Do you think it was more something SIU did to stop you, or were you just not getting the same looks as before?
CHRISTIAN KIRK: I think they probably, definitely keyed on me a little bit in the second half. With me, I'm never looking‑‑ I try to be an all‑around player. So I don't try to force many things, and I don't take many shots every game.
I didn't have a lot of openings. And I thought I made some good passes and hit some open guys, but I just didn't have the openings in the second half that I did in the first.
Q. Austin, can you talk about how kind of frustrating it was in the beginning of the game for you, but then you finally found your rhythm, just how that kind of shifted.
AUSTIN RUDER: Southern Illinois plays me pretty tough. They follow me around pretty good. When they went zone there at the end of half and I got an open look, that kind of got me going. After that, I found some rhythm. So I think I was pretty lucky they went zone the last play.
Q. Austin, you kind of struggled to find a shot the first half and started getting it going, at one point hitting four threes. With the team down one, you kind of hit a long three. Would you have taken that back and maybe set up for a different shot on the shot clock.
AUSTIN RUDER: I don't think so. I was kind of feeling at that point it was open look, and I was make that shot. Probably 6 out of 10 times, 7 out of 10 times. So I thought it was a good look, and it would have been a momentum changer if I would have made it. So I wouldn't change it.
Q. Christian, only senior, looking back at this season, just tell me a little bit about your thoughts on what transpired and everything.
CHRISTIAN KIRK: We've definitely seen a little bit of everything. I think that's what me and the guys have talked about. There's some things that have happened. It's been a tough year, but we've stayed close in the locker room, and we joke around still. It's been tough, but we went through some things, and I think as a team we did really well, and it actually brought us closer.
That will be great for them going into next year. They have a great group of guys, and they'll have a really good locker room.
Q. Do you feel you were maybe robbed of something with everything that happened?
CHRISTIAN KIRK: No, I don't feel like that at all. I always think that things happen for a reason. This was a tough year, but I think it really showed what guys can do. It gave them opportunities and what their career will be like. Since they got that taste of playing time, they'll come back and work even harder. It will be a good next two or three years at Missouri State.
Q. Christian, as a senior, just the emotion that you feel when you walk off the floor for the final time.
CHRISTIAN KIRK: It was pretty crazy. I was talking coming off the floor, and we were just talking that it hasn't really hit me yet. He was saying it hit him when everyone else was going back to workouts and he was just going to class. I think that's when it hit me.
It was tough, but I had my family in the crowd and all my coaches showed me a lot of love coming off the floor.
It's been a great experience at Missouri State, and I won't forget about it, and I won't regret anything.
Q. Austin, just the drive that you need to do in the off‑season toward next year, what are your thoughts on that?
AUSTIN RUDER: We just‑‑ everybody has certain things to work on. Me personally, probably ball screens, coming off ball screens and stuff like that. And keep improving on shooting. You can never stop working on your craft. Everyone has their own things to work on, and everyone needs to find something that drives them.
Q. Austin, do you feel like ball handling is something you need to focus on too? With the press tonight, it could have helped out?
AUSTIN RUDER: I don't know if it's so much ball handling. I can handle the ball right. It's more just being confident in those situations, I think, is kind of what I need to work on, and kind of coming off ball screens and stuff like that. Kind of ball handling in different situations, I'd say. I'm going to get to work on that.
THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you very much for your time. We'll dismiss you and stay with Coach Lusk for a little while longer.
Q. Paul, just the way they disrupted Dorrian tonight, maybe some of those turnovers unforced. I don't know.
COACH LUSK: There was a question about Christian getting shots. It's hard to get shots for anyone. I think we talked at halftime that, if we could correct our turnovers, we'll have a chance because we were actually guarding him okay.  I think the first time out of the second half, we had more turnovers than we had shots. You just can't turn the basketball over.
When it's hard to score and it's difficult to manufacture points, you cannot turn the basketball over, and we don't have a lot of handlers. But the guys that can handle it can't turn it over. We simply gave them the ball too many times. The second half, we cut into it. We made a sub, and we just gave them the ball two times. You can't do those kinds of things.
Q. Paul, you mentioned on the conference call that Anthony Beane was going to be tough to guard. Do you think that the team did a good enough job holding him to 10 points?
COACH LUSK: We did. It was an ugly game, as I said, both ways. We did a good enough job on Anthony Beane. We just turned it over 16 times. And literally, our turnovers were generally pick sixes. Just take the ball from me, take the ball from us, and just go get a layup or get a transition basket, and you can't do that. We really struggled on the perimeter tonight to find anyone that could play positive minutes and help us.
I thought Austin got some rhythm, and he did some good things, but we really struggled on the perimeter tonight.
And Dorrian has done everything he could possibly do for us. He clearly struggled offensively, but he guarded Beane. He's had a very long year. He's had to log a lot of minutes. For for us to have a chance, we can't turn the basketball over like that. I thought we did a nice job on Beane.
Q. Coach, it's not the ending you want to see for your team, of course. It's been a tough season, as you said. What are the positives you think you can take from this group who only has one senior graduating going forward?
COACH LUSK: I think Christian Kirk has been a great kid, great student‑athlete, just a model of what a student‑athlete is. When you don't have a bunch‑‑ I thought Ron Mvouika would have been our emotional leader and arguably our second best player, and I think we really missed him, just from an emotional standpoint.
Even him being on‑‑ he wasn't able to travel with us to Loyola or here just because of the back. But pleased with the guys. There was a lot of different adversity. I think guys were thrust into some positions that maybe they were not quite ready for. Now it's what do you do with those experiences to get better? Because we need to make drastic improvements across the board.
But I was pleased with our guys. They tried to listen to what we were trying to do. They didn't quit. We were down 11 tonight. We weren't very good. They didn't quit. They kept battling.
There were times when we had seven guys to practice. It has not been easy. We've brought basically nine scholarship players over here. They stayed positive. They let us coach them. They're good kids. We need to make improvements in a lot of areas.
I thought we had an opportunity to win some games after some of the things that transpired. Some games were close that we just weren't able to finish. Hopefully, with all the minutes that some of these guys have gotten, they can get better in the off‑season because we need to get better. We need to add some guys that can help us.
Q. Chris Kendrix only took three shots tonight and didn't make any of them. Near the end of the game, he looked like he had a pretty nice shot at the open three. Going forward, are you looking for him to take more shots?
COACH LUSK: Yes. We would like him to be more aggressive.
Q. Coach, you played‑‑ Coach, have you ever seen any kind of season like this? How do you feel about it?
COACH LUSK: You've been through tough seasons, but when you work really hard to get the program in position that we thought we had it in, even with some injuries last year. But we still had a good season. We thought we wouldn't be in this position.
To have some things happen‑‑ as I said, you can overcome some injuries. You can overcome some guys. We could have overcome Ron Mvouika, but that was going to affect us. Then the other situation, that really, really affected us. You take two of your better guys off your team, it's going to affect you.
And beyond that, we had some other things happen. But, no, it's been hard. It's been tough. You try to practice. You try to get things done. You don't have a lot of bodies, but you have to keep plugging away.
It's unfortunate. It's disappointing.
We need to make improvements, there's no doubt about that. As I told our guys, they've had such great opportunities. Everyone wants to play, and if your roster was intact, there probably would have been some grumblings because some guys weren't playing.
Well, that wasn't the case. Now be careful what you ask for. Be careful what you ask for because guys got a whole lot of minutes, and I think there were just too many times that you were rewarded minutes without earning minutes because we didn't have a lot of places to go.
But I like all those guys, and I like them. It's just we have to get better. It was hopefully a learning process for them as to what they need to do in the off‑season.
Q. You talked about guys playing a lot of minutes. Obviously, your freshmen had a lot of those minutes. Shawn played a lot against Wichita State. Chris had a lot of minutes, 55 in the triple overtime. Talk about the development of your freshman.
COACH LUSK: Shawn plays 40 minutes against Wichita because we had seven guys, and he was the only guy that could really handle the ball and do that. So he did‑‑ he had a better game against Evansville, where we only had seven guys, and he played 40 minutes.
Chris Kendrick has played a lot of minutes. Obviously, it's a long season for those young guys. We didn't think they would be in that row, but you can look at it two ways. It could be a positive thing or a negative thing. Hopefully, it's a positive thing for those guys moving forward.
But they need to make improvements. The sophomores need to make improvements. The juniors need to make improvements across the board.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Paul. Best of luck.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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