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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2015Rick KreklowGreg McDermottJames MillikenNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Georgetown – 60 COACH McDERMOTT: Obviously, it goes without saying we're extremely disappointed. I felt like, in a lot of ways, we outplayed Georgetown tonight. Then in the last three minutes, they made some plays, and we didn't. But for us, the way we're built, to have four more field goals and outrebound them by three, that's a recipe for success for us. And for most of the game it was. Smith‑Rivera, obviously, made some big plays right before halftime and then made some big plays late in the game, and then we had some costly turnovers that you can't have against a team that's the quality of Georgetown. Give them a lot of credit. They went to the free‑throw line, and they made their free throws. Obviously, they shot a bunch of them. They're a good basketball team, and Smith‑Rivera played like the all‑league player that he is. Q. Both players, can you talk a little bit about Georgetown's zone late in the game and how much problems that caused you guys. RICK KREKLOW: What we were trying to do is really exploit how open that zone can be there at the free‑throw line. I think, to a point, we did a pretty good job getting it there. We had some good looks at three, there from those kick‑outs in the zone and getting the ball there quick. We just didn't knock down some in the last few minutes that would have definitely helped. They're a big team. They've got a lot of length. So when they're moving well in that zone, there's really not a lot of gaps to penetrate. It gave us a few problems. JAMES MILLIKEN: I feel, just like Ricky said, just trying to get the ball in the middle and break down the zone. I felt like we did a pretty good job getting it there. We just didn't make the plays at the end of the day. Q. James, can you talk about the play toward the end when you were looking to drive, make the pass, and threw it away at the end. JAMES MILLIKEN: Yeah, Coach had told me to attack, and they opened the gap for me, and I attacked it, and I saw Austin at the last minute. I thought he was going to flare out to the corner. So I just misled him. Q. James, obviously, you had a lot of your points in the first half and the start of the second half. What did they do to neutralize what you were trying to do? JAMES MILLIKEN: They did a pretty good job denying me. As far as our plays were coming off of down screens and ball screens. They did a pretty good job of denying that and making me change up my change of pace and stuff. I felt like they just adjusted pretty good the second half. Q. Do you feel that the game slipped away from you? You had a six‑point lead with a little over five minutes to go. RICK KREKLOW: There were a few plays there at the end that we weren't able to convert. As Coach said, we had a few turnovers there in the last few minutes. That doesn't help. But Georgetown hit some good shots there at the end. They put themselves in position there with a few minutes left to win the game. We had our chances, and they had theirs. Unfortunately, tonight we weren't able to hit the shots that we had or just let a pass or two get away from us. Q. Coach, as tough as this loss is, do you still see it as a successful stand in the tournament? You won last night and gave Georgetown a good run tonight. COACH McDERMOTT: Yeah. Like I told the team in the locker room, since the 0‑8 start, we've gone 5‑7 in league play, including the tournament.  Probably we're about eight possessions from being 10‑2 or 9‑3 in that stretch because of the close games we lost. Through the first 15 minutes of the second half, we held Georgetown to 14 points. So defensively, we were doing the things we had to do. There's teams across the country where, when you get off to a start like we got off to, that they just crumble from within their locker room. And the seven seniors I have on my team didn't allow that to happen. I think every coach aspires to have his team playing their best basketball in March. I'm not sure that that happens very often, but with our program it happened. Even through the adverse start that we had, our guys continued to practice with a great attitude, with great energy, and they committed themselves to getting better individually and collectively. As a result, we were a tough out down the stretch. So I'm disappointed that we're not playing tomorrow because we split with Xavier. We lost two last‑second games to Butler, and we just lost to Villanova by four the other night. So I was confident anything could happen, but Georgetown was good. I couldn't be prouder of my team. These seniors have been a pleasure to coach. They protected the culture of our program at a time where it was very, very difficult to protect the culture because oftentimes, when adversity hits like that and you start as poorly as we started, guys just start thinking of themselves. The season isn't going to be what we thought, so just worry about me. To our guys' credit, they realized they were part of something bigger than that, and they moved this program forward. I think their legacy is they got better, they continued to work, and they protected the culture of our program. That's really important. Q. Coach, what kind of effect does Josh Smith have on your offense when he's out there on the floor? COACH McDERMOTT: He's so big and so strong. His impact is when you're trying to defend him, I think, is where the problem lies because he takes up so much space, and he's got‑‑ he's big and strong, and he's got a soft touch, but he's got unbelievable hands. Anything that's close, Josh corrals. And everything he throws up on the rim is soft. We tried coming at him with some double‑teams at different points in the game. We forced a turnover one time, but he usually makes you pay for that. We just didn't feel we could keep him off balance. We had one big guy foul out and another one with four fouls. So trying to guard him makes it tough. Q. More for the players, Coach just talked about it in the previous answer, but he talked about the culture and how tough is it to maintain that culture of the program through some of the tougher losses that you guys have had. RICK KREKLOW: I mean, to lose kind of eight games in a row like we did at the beginning of the Big East, after we had a pretty successful run up until the Big East started, it's tough. You've got a lot of guys who had been on this team the past three or four years that have been incredibly successful. And it's a pretty big adjustment to make when you have to deal with having a few losses there on last‑second threes or a missed box‑out or free throws or the drive at the buzzer‑‑ I mean, to kind of have the lead there going into the last possession and to have teams make good plays, I mean, to beat you, it's tough. But I'm really proud of the guys on this team and the coaching staff who show up every day. I mean, despite those kind of losses, which can really just be demoralizing. To be able to have the short‑term memory to put that behind and you focus on the task at hand for the next game. It's really tough to do, and this team was able to do that. It's definitely been something, with the help of the seniors and a lot of the upper‑classmen here, to kind of protect the team‑first mentality and to not let guys give up or give in, which would have been real easy to do, and the season would have ended in a much different way. I'm really proud of the team for being able to do that. Q. Rick, as a guy who's not going to be back next year, what have you seen out of the younger guys that would give you hope that better days are ahead for this group? RICK KREKLOW: We've got a lot of young guys that are very talented, a lot of potential. Some guys need to work in the off‑season with putting some weight on, but that's something, if they work at, they can do. We've got a few transfers we had sitting out this year that are going to be great basketball players. They already are. It would have really been beneficial for us to have them this year as well. You've got a lot of talent coming up, and the more important thing, you've got a lot of right guys in the program coming up. This program is all about protecting the culture, and Coach has said that. You've got a lot of the talented guys that have that team‑first mentality that are going to be playing next year, and it's going to be real exciting to follow that team. Hopefully, they can learn from a lot of the shortcomings that we've had this year, in terms of being able to close those games out, and protect the leads there in the last possessions, in the last few minutes. I really feel like that's a team that can really put a special season together. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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