|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2015Porter MoserBen RichardsonChristian ThomasST. LOUIS, MISSOURI Loyola – 81 THE MODERATOR: Christian Thomas and Ben Richardson will flank head coach Porter Moser. We'll have a statement from Porter on this game and go to questions for the student‑athletes and then come back to the head coach. COACH MOSER: Proud of our guys. They had a tremendous‑‑ they played hard. Obviously, when you make shots like that. I've been on the other end of a snowball like that. We have a lot of respect, so much, for Indiana State and their program. They got us earlier this year, and our guys really took it to heart. Watching the first two games when they beat us earlier in the year. The preparation these guys did, the focus, and the belief. Our defense created some offense. Obviously, when you make shots. Q. Christian, can you talk about what you saw in those first two games, what you corrected, and just the emphatic nature with the way that you corrected it tonight. CHRISTIAN THOMAS: For sure. Something that we talked about a lot was we felt that they just outmuscled us everywhere. They were more physical than us, and they really just pushed us around. So we decided this time, not only were we going to match in intensity, but we were going to be the aggressors. We were going to try to use a lot of our strengths to our advantage, and I think we did that tonight. Q. Christian, just playing at home today and having such a nice night and also getting a chance to play at home at least one more time, what's that mean to you? CHRISTIAN THOMAS: It means a lot just because I had a lot of family and friends in the crowd today that haven't really gotten a chance to come up to Chicago to catch a game. So getting to come back and play a great game in front of them tonight and getting an opportunity to win another one tomorrow, it's going to be great. Q. Ben, when you look up and you see that you guys are up by 39 points against Indiana State in the second half, does it kind of seem almost unreal to have a game go like that? BEN RICHARDSON: You know‑‑ CHRISTIAN THOMAS: Answer yes. BEN RICHARDSON: We haven't had a game like that, but I think it's a good reflection of how we've worked in preparation for this tournament. I think we all believed that we could play like that. I think the coaches all believe that. All of us in the locker room did before the game. It was just a matter of us, like Christian said, going out there, being more aggressive, taking the game to them, and executing the game plan. Q. Ben, as a freshman, just what are your first impressions of Arch Madness? You had such a great night tonight. BEN RICHARDSON: It's legit. I know last year, going through the recruiting process and after deciding to come here, I was looking forward to this tournament for sure. Getting to play close to home in a great venue, we had lots of good support down here also. It's been real exciting, and it's been fun. Looking forward to keeping it going. Q. Christian, you talked about wanting to be the aggressors, and I imagine you feed off of that from your own aggressiveness, but when you start to see your opponent react in a way you want to to your own aggressiveness, how much do you feed off of that as well? CHRISTIAN THOMAS: It means we just turn it up even more. We had a mantra going on in our time‑outs that we weren't going to let up because they hadn't let up. They had beaten us‑‑ the past five times, they hadn't let up on us. So we had to keep taking the fight to them. We weren't just satisfied with playing hard for 30 minutes. We had to execute for 40. Q. A lot of St. Louis guys that have come back here have struggled to play here. What are the pressures? Why is it difficult? You obviously were able to overcome that tonight. Have you talked to Coach Looney lately? CHRISTIAN THOMAS: Honestly, I didn't feel any pressure coming back home. To me‑‑ I can't say it was just another game, but I just know that I have a lot of support from my family and friends. I could have gone out there and had the worst game of my life, but I knew they would still back me up with everything I was trying to do. Q. I'm not picking on, but Christian answered the last one, and it's your turn. With the defensive stops you were getting, how easily was the offense coming? You guys just seem to have gotten in a flow there. How was it? BEN RICHARDSON: It's always good when you're excelling on defense because it does fuel your offense, and you can get good transition opportunities off good stops. I think that was a big thing for us, stopping them, stopping their penetration, keeping their shooters covered. It definitely feeds into offense. Getting the ball pushed and putting the pressure on them was real important, I think, in that game. Q. Thoughts on the next round, playing Northern Iowa. CHRISTIAN THOMAS: Just another great opportunity for us. We're getting a team that's beaten us twice during the regular season, just like Indiana State did. I think we'll be up for the challenge. I know we'll be up for the challenge. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you very much for your time. We're going to dismiss you and stay with Coach Moser. Q. Porter, when you hear your players talk about wanting to be the aggressors and really taking it to heart to do it and perform, what kind of gratification does that give you as a coach? COACH MOSER: I've said all along we've got great character guys in the program. We've been talking. Obviously, you get some time to repair when you get to the Friday game. We talked and showed film, the pregame, everything we talked about was that. I told them I made a mistake, and what Christian just‑‑ I made a mistake the last‑‑ talking to them the first time at Indiana State. I said, you've got to match their toughness. I told them I made a mistake. I said, you can't just match their toughness. We've got to be tougher. We've got to do all that, and they just took it to heart. We showed them so many plays where they outmuscled us, out physicaled us in the first two games. They get it going. They really hurt us in transition the first two games, and we came in at halftime, and the first thing I said was they had zero fast break points. Like they all erupted. As a coach, you really try to‑‑ you achieve what you emphasize, and there was about three or four things we were really trying to emphasize this week at practice. Credit to them that they did it. I have just a tremendous amount of respect for Greg, his program, and what they do. I said it before, I think they've got a ton of pieces, and we just got on one of those rolls. But I'm really just proud of our guys. Q. Porter, when you first walked into the arena and had this huge smile on your face, are you able to put into words how much you love this tournament? COACH MOSER: I love the Valley. I said so many times in my career, I said, God has a plan, and it sent me to St. Louis with Coach Majerus. And now it sent me to Loyola, and all of a sudden, we're in the Valley, back to the league I played in and coached. I told the players, I'm totally jealous of you. I'd love to play in this. It's just walking out and seeing all the maroon and gold scarves. Loyola, there just wasn't much excitement there. Now you're seeing people get excited. That's how you want to elevate your program. We're not there yet. I told the guys, last year when we beat Bradley, we thought it was like a National Championship. We got back to the hotel and saw all the fans. I told these guys, it's just one game. We want to learn from last year and be focused and come back and obviously be one of the top teams in the country. I just love the Valley, and I love Arch Madness. I just think, when you walk into that arena, it's something special. Q. They had shot well from three‑point against you guys in the first two meetings, and they missed their first 19 tonight. Anything‑‑ obviously, that had to be one heck of a defensive change whatever it was because it worked darn well. COACH MOSER: They did such a good job of penetrating and kicking. We were really trying to guard the dribble drive and not get beat so much to where we didn't have to help. We saw our stances. We were so open up with our stances, and they were just driving by us and creating because they're unselfish kids. They can create shots for others. They can drive by and shoot it. So I thought we did a better job at that. Did we do a good enough job to (indiscernible) for 19? Sometimes you get on a roll, you get tight. We've been on the other end of that. I know how well they can shoot it and drive it, and that was just a focus of ours. Sometimes when you get in that snowball and it gets tightened up, like I said, every coach has been on the other end of it. Q. Porter, my question was kind of asked, but to feed off of that point, it was a snowball offensively, but it was a snowball defensively. COACH MOSER: I was really proud of that, absolutely. I was really proud of our defense. We kept talking about deflections being tough. I thought our post defense was good. We were trapping the post. I thought our post doubles were very quick, and I thought we were getting deflections, and that was creating offense. We were getting‑‑ we were really trying to‑‑ you know, we talk about we're not the biggest team. We're one of the smallest, as a matter of fact. But we wanted to be quicker and create some offense with our defense, and I thought we did. I thought we got a lot of deflections that led into some fast break points. Q. Coach, you mentioned last year that it seemed like you guys won the National Championship after you knocked off Bradley. Did you notice in the immediate aftermath of this game a difference in the mentality? COACH MOSER: We were able to talk to the guys on the bench right there. How we won was in dramatic fashion last year. It was hard not to get so excited when you hit a 25‑footer at the buzzer, but it was‑‑ we kind of said something with like 30 seconds left, and we talked about it in the locker room. Our guys know. We've got a huge challenge of ahead of us. I mean, huge challenge. In a tournament, you want to string it together. When you get that mindset, that culture, teams that have won it before, they know. They know it's going to be a three days of locking in. Focusing in. That's where we're trying to head our program, and I really felt it in that locker room right there. They're excited. They know what they just did. But there was still a respect about coming back tomorrow and preparing tonight. We've got to prepare tonight. It's a late game. We've still got to do a lot of preparation. Q. Porter, talking about that, just talk a little bit about facing the Panthers tomorrow. And secondly, how happy are you for your seniors? They're really achieving some success in their final go round. COACH MOSER: I tell you, those three seniors‑‑ they were here our first year, and they had to endure a lot. I can't say enough about their character and resiliency to keep fighting. Christian being my first young man that I signed to come along. Probably never heard of Loyola coming from St. Louis, and to believe in it what we could do here, to having him come home and play like this, really happy for those guys. Second part of your question, Northern Iowa, what can you say? Just a very good team. Another team with a lot of seniors. And they're on a mission. A lot of respect for them. I know we've got our hands full. When we walked in the security gate, it was 36‑32. We got our team set, kind of thing, and I looked up, and it was 21. I don't even know what happened. I'm going to have to go watch that tape. It seemed like they went on a snowball too, which I'm going to‑‑ I'll watch that tonight. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Porter. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|