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MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2015Daishon KnightReggie LynchDan MullerST. LOUIS, MISSOURI Illinois State – 65 THE MODERATOR: Victorious Redbirds are now with us. They have a spot in tomorrow's championship game to be televised on CBS. Per custom, we're going to ask Coach Dan Muller to open up with a statement on the game. COACH MULLER: First of all, congratulations to Wichita State and what they're going to represent us in the NCAA Tournament. They're a great team. They got a lot more games to win this year, and we'll be rooting for them. Couldn't be prouder of our guys. Second half especially, the way we fought, the way we played together. If you're going to beat a team like a Wichita State, you're going to have to have somebody have a special day, and Daishon Knight had that. A lot of guys made big plays, but it kind of came down to just going out there and leaving it all on court, and we did that. Our zone was terrific. Our rebounding was good. It was a good day. We came down here to win it. We're certainly not satisfied, but we are happy about the win. Q. Daishon, was there any extra motivation for today's game, knowing it could have potentially been your last game as a Redbird? DAISHON KNIGHT: As inside our team, we look at it as‑‑ you know, we had talks among each other. We always just talk about how it's our last chance playing with this group of people. We kind of take that like personal amongst ourselves. We kind of go out there and fight with each other. That helps us out. That helps motivate us. Q. Daishon, could you just kind of talk about the mood at the locker room at halftime. Did you guys feel almost fortunate to be down just eight points? I think you went 1 of 15 in a 12‑minute stretch during that first half. DAISHON KNIGHT: We came in the locker room. Coach got on us a little bit. He let us know that it's basketball. Basketball is a game of‑‑ you know, people make runs. He just was telling us this is fun. It's going to be a fun moment. We came out, and we played the way we wanted to play. Q. For both players, you came close against this team the first two times. What was the difference in this game that enabled you to come out on the winning side this time? REGGIE LYNCH: Ask me that question again one more time. Q. What was the difference in this game with this team as opposed to the first two times you played them? REGGIE LYNCH: We knew that we lost to this team twice during the conference, and we wanted to beat them those two other times. We knew that whoever was in our way in the tournament‑‑ and it happened to be Wichita‑‑ was going to have to get beat by us, and we stepped up to the plate. We're not trying to win against Wichita. We're trying to win the whole tournament. So we stepped up, and we knew that this was going to be a tough team to play since we lost to them twice, but we stepped up. The second half, we picked it up a lot more on defense. The guys made great plays. Deontae, Teddy, was awesome. MiKyle was awesome at the end. It was just fun. Q. Daishon, what was the difference between today and the last two games? DAISHON KNIGHT: I think our energy. Our energy was unbelievable the second half. I kind of looked at players and players‑‑ it's the 11‑minute mark and 9 minutes played, and people are not tired at all. Even Coach asked me, he was like, are you tired? But we wasn't feeling it because it was just fun and it was just basketball, and we wasn't even thinking about fatigue. I think it was energy level. Q. Daishon, you guys go into the locker room shooting 32 percent, come out shooting 63 percent in the second half. What changed for you guys? What allowed you to get those scores going? DAISHON KNIGHT: We got some great shots. We used ball screen, and people make good plays for other people and got our teammates a great shot, and we knocked them down. Q. Daishon, you guys were down 58‑56, and you hit that three from the side. It looked like you were well guarded on that shot. How tough was that shot? How confident were you on it? DAISHON KNIGHT: It was a tough shot. For some reason, whenever I'm over there in that corner with Justin McCloud, I feel like I've got all the confidence in the world to shoot the ball. Q. When the clock winds down and the game's over, what is that initial feeling that you guys have when you realize you just upset the No.8 seed and you're moving on to the championship? REGGIE LYNCH: Well, I fell down at that point, but when I was watching my team, I knew guys were going to step up to the plate and get it done. We all know that last year we lost in the first round, and we finally won the game yesterday and we got farther than we wanted to ‑‑ or not farther than we wanted to, farther than we did. So the fact that we were up with the clock winding down, we just‑‑ we knew that we needed to just play as hard as we can for as much time that was left on the clock, and we did. DAISHON KNIGHT: It was a good feeling. It felt great to win another game with your team. You try to stay composed and know that you got another game to play tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: I have a note coming off that question, by the way. This is the fourth straight year that Illinois State has beaten a top 25 team. That came to me late. Q. Daishon, that three‑pointer that you were talking about just a few seconds ago, looked like Wichita State switched to zone. You looked at it and said, that's our best option at this point because you don't have much else working? DAISHON KNIGHT: I'm not sure. I felt a little bit of space there. I think it was‑‑ REGGIE LYNCH: Carter. DAISHON KNIGHT: Carter was kind of guarding me. He was guarding me for the drive. Coach say you've got to step up and make some shots. So I took it with confidence, and it went in. Q. Daishon, how much motivation was it for you to today, knowing they had shut you out in the game in normal? DAISHON KNIGHT: I put that game way, way, way back. I didn't even think about that game. I just wanted to go out and compete as hard as I can with my brothers. Q. Reggie, talk about what you guys were able to do in the second half to really slow down their scoring and take a hold of this game. REGGIE LYNCH: We went to our defense, our zone defense. That really worked well in the second half. We stayed with those, and we were able to take care of the middle of the court. I was able to get a few blocks down there. Guys were defending well on the perimeter, and we just did really well, got in some nice steals that led to some breakouts. It was a good feeling to have. Q. Reggie, yesterday the team had trouble, as far as fouls go, but the message still from the bench, you could hear it today, was to be physical. How tough is it to be physical inside but not commit those fouls? REGGIE LYNCH: It's hard. When you're trying to block some shots or contest some shots, but you have to stay down on shot fakes and make sure the posts don't get the ball close to the rim. But I've been working on it a lot of our guys have been working on it. I've been defending the post a lot better. I got some nice blocks tonight. So I guess it worked. Q. Talk about that last play on defense where you had to get one more stop in, the emotions and just the excitement of getting that last stop, for both players. DAISHON KNIGHT: You talk amongst your team, and the coach tell you what to do, but he's not out there to play with you. You talk among your team, and you tell them just ball in for the last little time remaining and go as hard as you can. When that shot go up, miss or make. If it's a miss, go crash, get the rebound. If it's a make, get ready for your offense. Q. Reggie, during that first half run, where you guys made only 1 out of 15, what wasn't working? How did you guys get through that and not get blown out of the game by Wichita State in that time? REGGIE LYNCH: I was watching the game yesterday, Wichita State playing against Southern Illinois, and they were getting some steals, and they went on a nice little run in that game. Similar to what was happening in the first half in our game. We know what happens when Wichita State goes on runs like that. We needed to immediately stop what we were doing and play with confidence like we were at the beginning of the game and in the second half, and we got back to it. Q. Reggie, now you guys have to think about tomorrow a little bit. How much maybe did the experience in the Virgin Islands help you guys prepare for that game tomorrow? REGGIE LYNCH: Repeat the question, please. Q. Three games in three days tomorrow. You guys have done it earlier this year, and you weren't able to pull it off in the Virgin Islands. How is that experience going to help you tomorrow? REGGIE LYNCH: The Virgin Islands tournament, we won the first two games. We know we can't come out sluggish, especially in the championship game. We know we've been in a situation like this before, and we know the team we're playing tomorrow is going to be coming out and trying to win it. So we need to come out, and we need to win it. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you for your time. Congratulations. Q. Coach, obviously, coming into the game this afternoon, your bigs are going to have to play well today, and they really rebounded well. Can you expound on that a little bit? Especially inside the paint, where you had six blocks by Lynch today. COACH MULLER: We got whooped on the boards our last game. We knew it would be a physical game. Wichita State is an extremely physical team. They're tough. They play without fouling. John Jones has been playing great basketball. Reggie Lynch had a terrific game on the boards. But it was a team effort, of course. When that ball goes up, those guys, they go after it. We showed some tape this morning of offensive rebounds from our last game, what we did wrong, and I thought we did a good job. They still had too many offensive rebounds, but I thought our effort on the boards was terrific even though they still got 15. Q. Coach, did you tell your team anything specifically to handle the full court pressure that Wichita State is using? COACH MULLER: We worked on it a little bit. At this point of the year, you've worked against everything, and we have a quick turnaround. That was one thing we walked through last night. Really the only thing we walked through because they have three different presses. What they do is they kind of methodically press, press, press, and they hit you with the run sometimes. First half, we had a lot of turnovers, but they're in the half‑court. Second half, we had five. I thought our ball care against the press was critical to our offensive efficiency. Q. Back at the preseason thing, you said, boy, I think my team is going to be the best team by the end of the year in the league. You got one more game to prove it. You've got to feel pretty good about the way the team has developed here at the end. COACH MULLER: I do, and I did. I thought we'd have a chance, if we stayed away from injury, to be one of the best teams in the league. Northern Iowa and Wichita State, to be honest, are better than I thought they might be, and I thought they'd be really good. So I might have overestimated us a little bit. But as you can see, we've got some talent. We had some injuries we had to deal with and some learning experiences, and we had to grow up. But we have talent, and that's what I saw. I don't know who we'll play tomorrow, but they'll be really good.  They'll play really hard. We're going to go out there and do our best. Q. Coach, the alley‑oop earlier in the second half, as well as the clutch three in the corner at the ten‑minute mark, can you just talk about your emotion and your team's emotion on those two plays. COACH MULLER: There were a lot of plays that were pretty emotional for me. What a terrific pass and dunk, and Justin's three‑‑ he passed up a three right before that. We got an offensive rebound. And I said in some different words, I said, you'd better shoot the next one, and he did. Justin's a great shooter. He's been terrific for us lately. I can name ten plays that I thought were so critical on both ends, but to shoot 60 percent against that team in the second half‑‑ I told the team, I told them last night, we're going to have somebody have to play special, and you've got to let it all hang out, and you've got to make some shots. You've got to make shots against Wichita State. You're not going to out trick them or grind them. You've got to make shots. Luckily, we did, and those were two really good ones. Q. Dan, after Daishon's free throws, did you guys think about fouling them before VanVleet was able to put that up? COACH MULLER: We usually foul in that situation. I didn't love my rebounding group if they went to the foul line. I thought we could take enough time off the clock with our press to, at the very least, force an incredibly tough shot. We've been playing so well, and our guys have been executing what we wanted to do so well that I trusted our group. He took a tough shot. He'd have to make a tough shot, but I didn't like our rebounding group. Q. Can you talk about the last two weeks about being able to get‑‑ especially the two games with Evansville helped the team in this situation today? COACH MULLER: I think that was critical. Those were our two closest wins‑‑ we had a great win at DePaul that was very close. We had a great win at UAB that was close, not quite as close as this one. In the conference, we hadn't won a close one like we did the last two games. To go back to back against a good Evansville team gave us confidence. We work on special situations all the time. We work on eight seconds left, down three. So you just got to trust your players at that point. Huge free throws by MiKyle. Huge free throws by Daishon. Huge blocks by some guys. Got to make enough plays. Q. Dan, what were you‑‑ what did you get out of the zone? What were you trying to accomplish with the zone? I know you play it some. Is that the most you played it all year? COACH MULLER: We played a full game against Bradley. We played it more recently. We played it a lot at the beginning of the year. We got hurt. Our length was bad. We went to man.  When we got healthy, we played it more since then. I thought we'd have to mix it up in this game. We couldn't guard them in man. They were killing us. So we went to our zone. I'll be honest, I didn't expect it to be that good against, but those guys are just locked in. They scored 22 points against us in the first half, except for just giving them dunks, breakaways. Our half‑court defense in the first half after the start, when they torched us, was terrific. It was just turnovers for buckets and then the start of the game. Q. So on the three by Daishon at 8:56, you were good with that shot? COACH MULLER: Absolutely. The clock was running down. They had gotten switched on different guys. Reggie was open in the post, but Carter was on him. He was backing off of him. I think there was about 8 seconds left. Daishon had been playing well. He'd been shooting it well. I always want my guys to play free and confident, understand what a good shot is. But like I said, if you're going to beat a team like that, you've got to have guys step up and be special, and Daishon decided to be. Q. In that run in the first half, where you missed 14 out of 15, what did you do to be able to stay in the game? When that's going on, are you thinking, this is not something you can do against a team like Wichita State? COACH MULLER: Well, you think that against anybody. It was, again, mostly our offensive efficiency, turnover for dunks, a long rebound for a layup. The reason why I wasn't too worried, I thought our half‑court defense was good enough, even during that stretch. We started the game great offensively. We turned it over, and we got shook. So our offensive execution after those turnovers, not that they did anything different, was really poor because we were scared to turn it over. Sat them down at halftime: Execute and make plays. But I do think our offense was good enough to win. Q. Coach, looking forward to tomorrow, national televised audience. Your team has played a lot of close games this year. In preparation for tomorrow's contest, how do you discuss that with your team? Will you make that a factor, remind them that you've been in this situation before this year? COACH MULLER: I think you always want to draw on your experiences from the year. That's why experience is critical in college basketball, unless you're Kentucky. So we've been in close games. We've seen presses. We've seen zones. We've played against this team two times. Anything that gives you focus and keeps your mind on what you want to do. It always helps if your talents are close or similar, execution. Game plan and execution. Ball care, playing with toughness, and efficiency. I think this was a huge win. I think this group truly isn't satisfied‑‑ I think. I'm pretty sure. We'll find out tomorrow, again, against whoever we play. But I think we truly came down here to win three. Q. Your bench has been very good this year. I believe you're 18‑6 when your bench has outscored the opponent's bench. How deep is this team, and how much do you rely on them? COACH MULLER: Deeper than we got tonight. I rolled with those guys who started. Our bench has been terrific all year. It showed up when guys have been injured and guys have had to step up and move in. Since guys have been healthy, other guys have been playing more than the guys that were playing during the stretch. MiKyle McIntosh comes off the bench and plays more than our starter. Justin McCloud has been unbelievable. John Jones playing his best basketball of the year. And Tony Wills and Bobby Hunter, love those guys. I can put them in at any point. Love the bench. We can play them tomorrow, but we've got 10 or 11 really good players. THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. See you tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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