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AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2015Will CummingsQuenton DeCoseyFran DunphyHARTFORD, CONNECTICUT TEMPLE - 80 MODERATOR: Good afternoon. Today we have with us from the Temple Owls, Head Coach Fran Dunphy, senior Will Cummings and junior Quenton DeCosey. This win advances Temple to the American Championship semifinals tomorrow at 3:00. It will be on ESPN2, and this win was also the 500th in the head coaching career of Fran Dunphy. Coach, an opening statement on the game? COACH DUNPHY: Yeah, just a great win for us. Any time you can advance in your conference tournament, we're delighted to do it. I thought we made some good plays down the stretch, I thought our defense was decent and yet we gave up a couple of easy baskets that we probably can't do, but we survived. And we survived and move on tomorrow and play a very good SMU team. MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. Questions for Will and Quenton. Q. Will, that final play when you get the ball to Obi and he fumbles it, what was going through your mind that play? WILL CUMMINGS: I would say just make the best play possible. I didn't really -- it was kind of a bad play to take it at the time, at the time of the score, but it kind of worked out, I just kind of wanted to get the ball as quick as possible to Obi on the break. It was a loose ball so I tried to just dive on the ground and get it, and fortunately we made a great play with that one and knocked out the free throw. Q. Will, how's your ankle after that play? WILL CUMMINGS: I'm great, I'm great. Q. Not having Jaylen to start that second half, what was the impact, if any? WILL CUMMINGS: I would say impact really just because he's a key part of our team, but ultimately we told guys they had to step up. Devontae came out strong, he gave us a great lift when he came in the game. We just tried to rally around each other and just pretty much trying to win the game. Q. You got to the free throw line 11 times and went 10 of 11 from the free throw line. Was that something you guys stressed coming into the game? WILL CUMMINGS: I would say that's kind of our game plan every game. We're a team that likes to get to the free throw line. I'm a guy that can get there, too, we are just trying to emphasize on putting guys in foul trouble and making sure we stay aggressive, and that's what we get through for doing. Q. Q, you had Shaq on you, Goodwin on you. It looked like you thought you could take him off the dribble, could you talk about your aggressive mindset? QUENTON DeCOSEY: Yeah, when I saw he was on me, honestly my eyes lit up and I just wanted to be aggressive and make a good play for our team. Q. What was it like playing defense in the second half without Jaylen, they went big. Just talk about the impact down there? QUENTON DeCOSEY: Like Coach said, we were decent, it was tough because four guards. We battled, they hurt us a little bit on the boards but we stuck it out. Q. Can you guys talk about the contributions that Devontae made with Jaylen out, he caught fire there, got a couple key baskets for you guys? WILL CUMMINGS: That's great for his confidence and the team's confidence with him coming off the bench, and giving us a great lift, that's what we really needed, that was a key part of our winning today, we need him to keep doing that, our presence on the glass and when we throw it down to him in the post. That what he needs to do and what we expect him to do so he did give a great effort today. Q. You've been here for four years, what does this mean to you and the rest of the team to get this win for Coach Dunphy? WILL CUMMINGS: It was great, just paying back Coach Dunphy for giving us all scholarships. It's great just being here from my four years, we've kind of been bounced out the first round of our conference tournaments every year. So this was an important game for us as a team, and glad we got the win for Coach Dunphy, too. Q. Just going off of that, also getting Coach's 500th win for the team. What have you learned from Coach? What has he really taught you over your career here at Temple? QUENTON DeCOSEY: Really just taught me how to be a great team player. It's not about you, it's about the team and that's what it was, a great team effort by everybody and we pulled out the victory. Q. Can you just talk about the poise of a young guy like Obi, late, stepping up and hitting those big free throws? WILL CUMMINGS: Definitely he's been growing over the year and that's what we expect him to do now. We say he's a sophomore, we don't say he's a freshman anymore, so we trust him out there on the course in situations and he's gaining our trust even more by knocking out free throws and making big baskets like he did down the stretch. MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. Questions for the Coach? Q. Coach, just to hear your players talk about what you meant to them throughout this time and now getting win 500, what does that mean to you? COACH DUNPHY: Well, as far as the 500, then we don't have to talk about it anymore, that's a good thing. I've been coaching a long time, so obviously I've had great people on whatever staff I've had, we've had some really good players and I'm just, you know, really happy for this group today that we could survive and move on and get this win. I think these two guys played terrific basketball today. Happy for a kid like Obi who really stepped up and made some big plays for us. That's what we do, we coach these guys. We just borrow them for four or five years and it's been a pleasure to borrow somebody like Will Cummings.  I hope we have a long run now that we can do some good things tomorrow and Sunday. But I'm privileged to do what it is that I do at a great university. Q. Fran, obviously with no bond available, we saw the risks and the rewards of playing the four guards. Was it a no-brainer in your mind that you would be able to get the eight minutes out of that lineup going down the stretch? COACH DUNPHY: It's a hope, Mike, to be honest with you. You're hoping that everything will go okay and you've just got to battle. We did a lot of switching, there was that one stretch where Goodwin got two or three offensive rebounds and made a couple really good plays. You're worried about it, but there's a risk to it, and then there's a reward down the other end. I thought Q made some great runs to the basket as well. Will Cummings took it in there pretty hard as well. Sometimes that helps you on the offensive end what hurts you on the D. Q. Coach, do you have any update on Jaylen Bond and if he's not able to go tomorrow, what's the game plan? COACH DUNPHY: I'm not sure yet. We'll talk about it as a staff tonight when we go back but the trainer just came to us, trainer and the doctor were with him at halftime and they said we're going to shut him down for the rest of the game. I'm sure they will ice him down very well and hopefully there's not a lot of swelling and maybe he can play for us tomorrow, that would be great. If not, obviously we'll mix and match like we did a little bit today. Q. Coach, to see Obi battle in the later stages of the game with four fouls and knocking down free throws late and in a clutch situation, just what comes to mind? COACH DUNPHY: How good he's going to be as a college basketball player. He's already very good. There was another play, I forget, I thought it was Will that kicked it to him a jump shot in the corner that thing was in and out, that would have been a huge jump for us. He's really coming of age, he's a really good basketball player. He's a good guy. He doesn't say much. I would like him to be a little bit more verbal but he's really playing well. Q. Even before Jaylen got hurt, your bench was really coming off big, especially in the first half. Can you just talk about the game you got from your bench today? COACH DUNPHY: Devin Coleman played very well in that first half and you're trying to get him some minutes in that second half, he deserves them and he's probably going to do a good job for you but it's not just not how the game flowed at that point. So I thought he was big in that first half. Dingle made some good plays in the first half, Josh Brown made a huge 3 in that first half, he made two huge 3s for us, one in the first half to kind of get us back in the game a little bit and one in the second half that bumped us to 6, I believe, I can't remember exactly. Josh is a 6th starter. He's always in the game at the end of the game. I think that's a tribute to how good a basketball player he is. Q. Fran, exactly what is Jaylen's injury, and can you address the play of Will, particularly on that last, that late play where he kind of dunked the ball out and got it to Obi? COACH DUNPHY: Jaylen, it's ankle sprain, how severe I guess they'll determine in the next couple of hours. As far as Will is concerned, that was a huge play. The ball was on the ground, he jumped on that very quickly. It was sort of a blur to me so I'm going to look forward to seeing it on film. I'm not sure exactly how it all came together but I'm sure Will made a great play on that and obviously Obi's stick in the basket and the foul shot was huge for us. Q. Coach, this is a rare situation where you play back to back days. What's the itinerary like? COACH DUNPHY: We'll just get as much rest as we can. We'll sit down as a staff tonight and go over what exactly should happen. We talked as a staff about even coming over here this morning to get some extra shots in because you don't get a whole lot the warm up. I was worried about maybe getting these guys up too early but it worked out okay for us and we'll do the same thing. When we go and use our practice time tomorrow we'll talk about that and we probably will because it's not that long, we'll just get here, and we have some more space between us an the next game. We'll talk about that, I'm not sure exactly how it's all going to go, hopefully we will get a good night's rest tonight and be prepared for an outstanding SMU team. Q. Coach, two tough, really close games versus SMU this season. What is going to be the key for you guys to secure the victory tomorrow? COACH DUNPHY: Well, we have to play very, very well obviously. We'll see if Jaylen Bond can play. He's obviously our best, he's our best forward defender so if he doesn't play that will hurt us a little bit but we've got to control what we can control, we have to do a good job of running offense and we have to -- a kid like Nic Moore, he stepped up and hurt us a couple times in his last two games but we need to play really well. We have to be solid on the defensive end to take care of the ball and on the offense we had turnovers today, that's not something we can do tomorrow. Q. Last time you guys played up against SMU, Larry Brown said he doesn't like coaching against you because it's no fun to coach against friends. Coaching against Larry Brown tomorrow for you, do you like coaching against Larry Brown? What are the challenges of that? COACH DUNPHY: It's not a box of chocolates by any stretch but I have so much respect for him and he's a terrific guy and he's been very good to me. In the coaching profession, I would go to watch his practices all the time when he was coaching for the 76ers. But it's like everything else, I've coached against some really close friends and once the ball goes up, you're just coaching your guys and you're not concentrating too much on who's down on the other end of the bench. I just have great respect for he as a coach and certainly for his team as well, and we've had two great games against him, we just came out on the wrong end so we've got a lot of work to do before tomorrow. MODERATOR: All right, coach, on that note, thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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