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March 18, 2015
DAYTON, OHIO
DAYTON - 56
BOISE STATE - 55
THE MODERATOR: We're being joined by the head coach of the Dayton Flyers, Archie Miller, and student-athletes Jordan Sibert and Kyle Davis. To start, Coach Miller, if you would like start with an opening statement.
COACH MILLER: First, I'd like to congratulate Boise State. Can't tell you how impressed we were with their team this season. They were given a really hard deal coming in here tonight. And they played extremely well. And our guys, they may be the most together group in the country right now. They really, really fight through it. There's no fracturing. And we felt through probably about as much foul trouble and sort of tough going out there as we've dealt with all season. And they just stayed with it. And being able to shoot I think 72 percent in the second half, we started to get the ball where we needed to get it. And then Kyle the last couple of minutes just tremendous on defense, just tremendous. And praise around the world to all our guys.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.
Q. Kyle, take me through that last shot guarding Marks your thoughts was he going to drive, was he going to shoot, what was your game plan?
KYLE DAVIS: Coach was talking to us, brought us in the huddle and told us if Marks got the ball to trap. We knew the ball was going to him, but as a good defensive player that I am, when he got it in, Jordan helped a little bit, and just trusted me to stick with him on the last play. So...
Q. Jordan, talk about yourself stepping up and hitting that 3 there. You're playing with four fouls, you know. Just talk about that.
JORDAN SIBERT: I just wanted to come out there and just make a shot. Coach called the play. And I had, it was kind of difficult with four fouls trying to get into the rhythm of the game. But my teammates, they do a great job believing in me. Coach, he called the play. He believed in me. When you've got a group of people like this around you who, no matter foul trouble, shots going in or not, they just keep telling you to shoot the ball and believe in yourself. It's easy to go out there and catch a good rhythm and shoot it.
Q. What's it mean going back to Columbus? You know what I'm saying?
JORDAN SIBERT: It's great. It's great just to be in the tournament still. Boise State did a great job today. But they're no longer in it and we are. And going to Columbus, it doesn't really matter where we go as long as we're in the tournament and we can keep advancing, that's all we care about.
Q. Jordan talk about the foul trouble you had to deal with and how frustrating it was to be on the bench three, four fouls at a time and just to watch and not be out there?
JORDAN SIBERT: It's frustrating, extremely frustrating. But you've got to stay with it. You gotta keep being engaged and not want to -- if I can't be on the floor, have my presence on the floor I want them to at least hear what I have to say and try to be as vocal as I can and motivate any way I can. And my teammates did a great job listening to whatever I had to say. And they handled themselves well on the floor. They played tough and they stuck together regardless whether I was out there or not.
Q. Kyle, picked up two fouls in the first two minutes. How does that change your approach for the rest of the game?
KYLE DAVIS: Having two fouls in the beginning, you know, Coach told me I'm going to have to play with two fouls. But I couldn't be that much aggressive on the ball like I was the second half. But either way, you've seen it, when I was on the court I was vocal and then even on the bench, I just wanted to make sure my teammates can hear me so they can lock down in defense while I'm not out there.
Q. Talk about the crowd tonight, what it was like being back inside the building?
KYLE DAVIS: Being back in the home building, we know our crowd get us going. And it was a great crowd tonight. They all came out, supported us, got us going. Just the UD crowd, period, every day we come out and play.
JORDAN SIBERT: Piggybacking off what he said. They were electrifying. I appreciate them so much. I got to relive another senior night, I guess, and it was electrifying. They kept us going. We knew when we got down they picked their intensity up which made us pick ours up. And I don't think we would have won that game without them. They're a huge part of our success this year.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach.
Q. Coach, it was clear in the second half you shot really well. It seemed like you attacked the basketball a lot more. You went after the inside game, and it seemed like it paid off for you?
COACH MILLER: Yeah, first half, I think, first half we shot 13 3s out of our 24 shots. That's not our team. It took us a while to figure out their game plan and they really just sold out. They sold out on giving us some open looks to protect the basket and stay out of foul trouble. And we missed some. And I think at halftime for the first time in a long time, you know, we had a couple guys having a little bit of a pity party. Whether it was their own individual personal fouls or I couldn't make a shot or I missed a layup and you saw how that run went on them. And at halftime we really didn't talk about a whole lot other than you better get back to being who we are and doing what we do the way we do it the right way or things won't end up the way we want them. I think right out of the gates in the second half you saw the toughness, you saw the energy on defense, we got some stops. And Boise State is a heck of a team. Hats off to those guys. That's the loudest I've ever heard the arena, and to come in here and play with these circumstances, that's a tough, tall task. They were right there for it the whole time.
Q. You talked a few times this year about your team figuring out a way on different nights. They limited you to six fastbreak points tonight. What was that like overcoming that?
COACH MILLER: Well, we didn't have the normal push that we normally have at home. They did a great job getting back. Part of it was we really struggled the defensive rebounding and get long rebounds. There were balls getting knocked out of bounds. Deflected rebounds. Long rebounds we didn't get. So they took some of those opportunities away from us when we got stops. Second, we did a nice job getting back. I thought that at times that we had opportunities to run. They got back and did a good job. They kept it in the half court for the most part. The first half is very difficult for our team right now. It really is. We haven't practiced in probably close to ten days. It's hard to practice when you prepare to play three games in three days. You come off of that, you get done on Sunday and you play Wednesday, there's not a whole lot of reps. So you're seeing a team that's having to work through the game as the game goes. The one thing we really believe in is our defense, though. I think one thing that we hang our hat on, we found a way in every game to turn the tide at times with our defense. And then second half offense, we were pretty efficient. We took good shots. When we didn't turn it over we got the ball inside. We got fouled. And I thought our second half offensive efficiency was a lot better. But it took some guys to make a couple shots. This is a tough tournament to win a game if you can't make a shot. And we went through that spell there for a while where we just weren't making a whole lot of shots. And second half I thought it opened up a little bit more for us.
Q. Darrell has been clearly struggling the last couple of games getting shots to fall. He hit a clutch 3 in the second half how was he able to stay focused and keep a short memory?
COACH MILLER: Darrell is a young guy right now that's going through a slump. He wants to do well. He's accustomed to making shots and he doesn't know how to handle it real well right now. I think putting his bottom lip out or his dauber down really impacts our team because he played a heavy role in the first half. Got after them in the halftime. To his credit he took it. He came out in the second half and he banged a big shot and he's all smiles right now. At the end of the day it wasn't about him missing shots, it was him selling out for teammates at that time and digging on defense and working and then good things will happen for you. I thought he was about that in the second half and lo and behold the opportunity he had one and he made it.
Q. Talk about Derrick Marks, the kind of player that he is and the game that he had, and then late were you trying to double him so you get it out of his hands and let someone else have the shot, or what was going the last couple of possessions there?
COACH MILLER: He's a terrific player. We knew it coming in. An outstanding guard who plays unorthodox in terms of how he plays basketball. You want to play him with a game where the coach says you're only allowed to dribble twice because he can take eight or nine dribbles before he wants to shoot. He's got great pace. He was physical. Foul trouble mounted. Late in the game we sold out. Tried to double him, put two on him. Get rid of the ball as much as possible to protect ourselves from fouls. On the last one we were even going to try to double him with four seconds to go and I thought Jordan did a good job making him back it out and we got lucky. He took a tough 3. We were able to withstand it and win the game. But he's a great player. He'll be playing a long time. And I wouldn't be surprised if he's not like a first round pick or something. He's a Mountain West Player of the Year for a reason.
Q. What's it like to play on your home floor to go up 60 miles up the road to play in the next round. What does it mean for the team from a familiarity standpoint, if nothing else? Of course you've never played in Nationwide Arena, I understand that?
COACH MILLER: Being in Ohio. Being in Ohio is exciting. If we can take, if our fans can take over the city of Memphis they can certainly push up the road and go to Columbus. So I think being able to play close to home will be a good thing. I know Providence is absolutely terrific. Their personnel is great. Coach Cooley is great. They've been sitting for a long time and they're going to catch a really, really worn out team that had to battle tonight. We've got to get ourselves geared up. We've got to get up there and we'll see how it goes.
Q. You mentioned Kyle just a little bit. Particularly that one possession where Marks had the who shots and his ability to chest up on him and keep him from scoring, how important was he tonight?
COACH MILLER: Kyle is a warrior. We're not where we're at right now without him. And in particular if he's not on it or on the floor, our team changes specifically because of our style of defense. But he is a warrior. He's such a great kid. He's a great teammate. And you gotta win tough games with tough people. And make no mistake about it, they don't make them any tougher than him.
Q. Are you going to tell Dyshawn to tie his shorts next game or what's the deal with that?
COACH MILLER: I'm just glad -- I'm just glad he got the ball and he dribbled up the floor. A guy like him, he's liable to give the ball back to the referee and sort of fix himself and give the ball back. Crazy play. Crazy play. I'm sure he'll be on SportsCenter all night. Unfortunately, he'll be there for the wrong reason.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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