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ATLANTIC-10 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2015Marcus PosleyMark SchmidtDion WrightBROOKLYN, NEW YORK DAYTON – 75 ST. BONAVENTURE - 71 COACH MARK SCHMIDT: It was a great game. Frustrating in how we lost at the end but I thought, give our guys credit. Going into the game, Dayton had dominated us two games this year, you know, one at home and one away. They had outscored us 69‑9 from threes. So going into the game, we knew if we were going to win, we had to do a better job protecting the three‑point line and we had to do a better job of attacking them. I thought Dion couldn't have played better. Marcus couldn't have played better. We had guys step up, and it was back and forth. We need to do a better job in transition defense. We would score; they would come down and attack us. Dayton is a good team. But really proud of our guys. Disappointed in how it ended but I can't complain. Can't complain about the effort of our team. And it's disappointing, with Youssou and Chris, and then how it ended. I thinkit hurts, but I think it's a great learning experience, a great lesson for our young guys that you really have to execute at this level to win, especially the last two or three minutes. Dayton I thought did a better job in that area. Q. You get into a groove like that, starts early; are you thinking at some point in the game, I just might not miss a shot the entire game? DION WRIGHT: My teammates found me in good position and I just caught the ball wherever I was. I just tried to make it a basket. Q. Can you take us through the final possession, what you saw out there. MARCUS POSLEY: Seeing the gap, thought I could get to the basket. Unfortunately he got his hand on the ball. Unfortunately it didn't pan out the way we wanted it to, but proud of the guys. It was a great effort today. Q.  You guys put yourself in position to win the game from start to finish until the very last second of the game. Not a whole lot of bad you can say about it all. But just how tough is it that that effort just kind of went unpaid in the end? MARCUS POSLEY: It's definitely tough. Coming into the game, we knew the game plan like Coach said. We knew we were going to have to shoot the ball a lot better than we did the first two times we met them and depend the three point line a lot better. I think we had a great team effort tonight, but at the same time, Dion got hot, that helped us out big. That execution down the stretch was a must. Coming into the game, we wanted to do it for the seniors. Unfortunately we couldn't pull off the win for them, but it was a great year we had for them. Q. When you are playing that well, you did just about everything single thing you could do: You shot well, played great d, rebounded well, stayed in it till the end. What is going through your mind there at the very end. You're like, you have a chance here, and then to watch it slip away. COACH MARK SCHMIDT: Yeah, you try to coach each possession, and you're not looking at the end result. You just try to figure out what we're going to do next both offensively and defensively and really don't get caught up in the moment and looking ahead. You just try to get guys in the best position for them to be successful. You know, it's disappointing‑‑ when it's all said and done, when it's over, then it's frustrating. It's disappointing. And most disappointing for the seniors because you know it's the end and how much work they had put in, Chris for two years and Youssou for four years, and you just build up such great relationships with them. You know how disappointed they are and with all of the hard work that they have put in. Q. We know Dayton is a really good defensive team and obviously they gave you guys troubles in the first two meetings. Today, you really shot over 60 percent the entire game, really good offensively. What was different about‑‑ COACH MARK SCHMIDT: We had a bit of mentality, we were attacking. Whenever you knock down shots, it makes your offense look better. I thought we had shots in both games against Dayton that we missed. We were I think three‑for‑25 in those two games, and a number of those shots were open shots that we missed, and today we knocked down some shots. Dion shoots ten‑for‑11, that really helps your offense, too. But we attacked. We got the ball into the paint and that's what we needed to do. Q. Youssou was hobbledthere. What happened there? COACH MARK SCHMIDT: Yeah, supposedly he got hit knee‑on‑knee I guess, and he had been bothered all through the year with his knees. So, yeah, but that's part of the game and he came back. Yeah, it loosened up I guess, but yeah, he was blocking shots and doing what we needed him to do. Q. We mentioned Dion, but just another thought on what he was able to do today. He was 1‑for‑8 from three coming into the season, and then to get four out of five today. COACH MARK SCHMIDT: Sometimes when you start shooting the ball and a couple go in, the basket looks a little bit bigger, when you have this confidence and he played extremely well, and hopefully that can carry over to next year. But he's had a tremendous three years, and he's one of the most improved players I think in the country. He's going to be a big part of our team next year. Q. Obviously it's a tough way to end but such a great effort in this one, and again, to close the season, 18 wins, certainly exceeding expectations again from the outside, again this year. Just cycling through Twitter on my way in, just a lot of congratulatory stuff. What can you say about having kind of done that again with this group this year? COACH MARK SCHMIDT: Like I said, I haven't won a game, I haven't won a game in 30 years. Players win games, and I thought our guys really responded when Jay went down. I thought it really showed the character of our players to be able to handle such a big loss the way we did. Took a couple games to readjust but I thought our guys really were unselfish; changed positions, learned new positions, won five of the last seven games. So really proud of them. You never know going into the season what type of team you have. But I always believe that from a coaching standpoint, you want your team to improve from the very beginning to the end, and I think we did, and that's a credit to our guys and my assistant coaches working with them daily; being able to go from an unfinished product to what you saw today. Q. Will you consider any of the small postseason tournaments? COACH MARK SCHMIDT: Yeah, I'd love to play more. I think it would be great for our seniors. I think they deserve it. Win 18 games and to go 11‑9 in this league goes a long way, and I think they deserve it and hopefully we can. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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