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ATLANTIC-10 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2015DeAndre' BembryPhil MartelliBROOKLYN, NEW YORK ST. BONAVENTURE – 60 COACH MARTELLI: Well, you know, it's always, in my humble opinion, it's been a numeric game, whether you are at the top, middle of the league, bottom of the league, it's a numeric game, and we are sitting here going home losing a game where we gave up 40 percent field goal, good defense, but the offensive numbers, we just didn't have it. I just told them; I apologized to the team. Should have had more. We actually spent our time working on offense Monday and Tuesday, but we didn't have it. Not lack of trying. In some ways, it was very good defense. We missed some tight shots and got tighter and the room got smaller on us. We've got to walk out together, because we walked in together, and started in September together. It's unfortunate. The toughest day of the year is tomorrow as a head coach, because you want to believe that you can fix everything if you just have one more day, and now we don't have one more day. Appreciate their efforts and look forward to watching a great tournament over the weekend. Q. What was it about the way you were shooting the ball tonight that you never really got going? DeANDRE' BEMBRY: Yeah, I was making it very difficult for myself, a lot of the lanes, floaters, a lot of fadeaway jump spots. I didn't really get my legs under me on most of them, and a lot of it was contested, as well. Just made it very difficult. Q. How difficult is it for you to be in that game when you're not making shots? COACH MARTELLI: Well, it's more as a player. I said it all year: When the ball doesn't go in the basket, when the ball doesn't go in the basket, you question yourself as a player. And the ball didn't go in the basket. And, you know, even though the number was low, the turnovers, like we had the lead in the first half, I think ten, and then we had three of our five first‑half turnovers. They took the lead on a kind of a broken play. James got the ball and he has played progressively more aggressively during the year, and on that play, he played passively and threw the ball backwards. But when the ball doesn't go in, and I mean this in the most respectful way; assistant coaches are telling me‑‑ and our defense was predicated on the ball going in. Every time we scored a basket, we were playing a two‑three zone and it worked in the first half. But in the second half, we came out and had‑‑ I mean, really, we had 17 points in the second half. We shot, what did we shoot‑‑ it's hard. It's hard. But I still should have done more for them. Maybe called a different set. It's a hard game when the ball does not go in the basket. Q. Not the note you wanted Chris to end his career on, but talk about his time. COACH MARTELLI: Yeah, he's going to graduate in May. He went to three post‑seasons. He's got a championship ring. And I just said to him, the highest of the guys‑‑ we're in the same locker room when we played last year in the championship game. You know, he had the highest of the highs and now the lowest of the lows. He's not going to be judged on this game. Obviously this is not a very good game for him. But we have all of our locker room and on our boards: "Act like a champion." It's going to sting. Go into hiding for a couple days with spring break, and Monday he's got to start with the rest of his life. But he's going to be successful. Q. Does that change the game in the second half for you guys‑‑ COACH MARTELLI: No, I just think that the basket got smaller. To begin the second half, we got, we had a nice flow and we missed two layups and missed a foul shot before the first media time‑out. And there was a little angst. There was certainly angst. And one of the things we talked about is we have been in that situation. Up at Bonaventure, same game, we had the lead. At Duquesne, we had the lead. You know, I could rattle these games off; at La Salle, we had the lead at the half. You judge it, take everything into account. But tonight, it was that stretch right away in the start of the second half. And the looks, some of the looks were hurried. I thought DeAndre' hurried tonight. And some of the looks were good. But if you shoot a ball in this game and don't think it's going in, it's not going in. And I think that you could tell by body language and facial expressions, that we were shooting hoping to make it, not thinking it was going in. Q. Obviously field‑goal percentage numbers are probably the biggest reason why your team wasn't successful, but do you think Javon found foul trouble, and then Jai, four first‑half fouls had any impact on the game? COACH MARTELLI: No, Jai played how many minutes‑‑ I mean, we are not going to get many more than 13 over a 40‑minute stretch. And Javon in the second half didn't have fouls‑‑ no. The referre'ing didn't have anything to with it. Their number of foul shots didn't have anything to do with it. Plain and simple offense, plain and simple. Q. I believe they were plus‑15 in the second half, or plus‑16.  Does the pace contribute to that on the glass? COACH MARTELLI: No, I don't think the pace did. You know, we are going to look at it, because like I was just saying, we've had a number of games like this. I think more mental than anything else‑‑ and then I'll go back and say, okay, so today we did a walk‑through in the hotel, was that too much, and I have them off their feet more. Everything is in play. Everything is in the conversation. But they played downhill and we played sideways early in the second half. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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