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NIT POSTSEASON TOURNAMENTMarch 31, 2015Will CummingsFran DunphyObi EnechionyiaNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Miami – 60 Q. Can you talk about the 3‑point shooting tonight and the struggle you guys had in the second half especially? OBI ENECHIONYIA: Shots just didn't go in. That's really just all there is to it. Any other day, they are probably going in. We just didn't make them today. Q. What did Miami do specifically to stagger you guys on defense? WILL CUMMINGS: I would say they are very active. They were running ball screens and stuff. We got the shots that we needed. They just didn't fall. Just how it flows on us sometimes. But credit to those guys. They did a great job on defense. They made it hard for us to finish in the lane sometimes and they are just very active. Q. Will, how much did it hurt you guys not having Jaylen for the last eight minutes? WILL CUMMINGS: It hurt. He's a big part of what we do in the game on defense and on offense. Not having him was a vital piece. But at the end of the day, we just have to step up. Other guys were in his spot. Obi did a good job today, too. Not having Jaylen hurt us a little bit, but somebody else had to step up. Q. Can you talk about the confidence you were playing with almost from the beginning here and did you feel you were getting the team a real jolt off the bench? OBI ENECHIONYIA: Once I started, once I got going‑‑ whenever I start getting going, the confidence going up and everything gets a little easier. I mean, I was just trying to keep our team in the game, just doing what I could. I knew someone had to step up and I tried to make that me. Q. I know it must be tough to put it in perspective, but now your career is over. What did Temple University mean to you throughout your four years here? WILL CUMMINGS: It's hard to put that in a couple sentences. I would just say a great career, a lot of different teammates, a lot of guys that I had fun with. Overall, it's just been a great experience. If I could do it all over again, I would make any same decision.  I wouldn't change anything. It's been a great ride. Thanks to Coach Dunphy and everything. Just been a great ride overall. Like I say, it's just really hard to put it into two sentences or a couple sentences though. Q. I know it's a little bittersweet to have maybe your best performance of the season come in a game that ends your season, but is this something that you can build off to end your freshman year and come in stronger next year? OBI ENECHIONYIA: Yeah, it's something to build off of. Just having this kind of bad taste from this game and coming back and just trying to be more successful next year than we were this year. We had a good season, and I'm proud of the seniors. But you can always do more and I just want to do more next season. Q. It looked like you had a good shot the last shot; did you think it was going in? COACH DUNPHY: Yeah, it looked good from the bench. Obviously we didn't make too many threes in that second half. I thought we had some decent looks at it and that was certainly one of them. You knew they were going to guard us very tough on that last possession, so I was thankful and grateful we got that kind of look to tie the game. Q. Can you take about your team's struggles from three‑point range? COACH DUNPHY: Yeah, I thought obviously we shot poorly, 0‑for‑15 in the second half. I think most of them were decent looks. There was probably two or three that were rushed that we could have maybe shot‑faked and gone to the basket, maybe a little drive‑and‑kick action. There was maybe another possession or two that we needed to make an extra pass and we did not. Again, great credit to Miami. I thought they made‑‑ the two by McClellan were back‑breakers for us. I thought Uceda's early three hurt us, as well. They did a better job than we did the second half and they deserve a lot of credit. I thought we took care of the ball pretty well throughout. One turnover in the second half; I would have been pleased if you told me that was going to happen. We just couldn't put it in the basket. The three‑point shot didn't help us, but I thought we were at the rim a number of times, half a dozen times at the rim. I thought they made some great blocks. I thought maybe we got bumped a little bit but it wasn't meant to be. But we needed to finish it down there a little bit better than we did. Q. When you look at Q, how much has he grown as a player trying to do more things than just scoring? COACH DUNPHY: Yeah, he's had a good three‑year career and now it's time for him, really, to step up and become a real leader for us next year. That will be his role. And he's got the requisite talent to really do some good things as a college senior. Q. In Madison Square Garden, to rely on a freshman for 17 points, what was your mind‑set on Obi coming in? COACH DUNPHY: I thought it was terrific for a freshman to do what he did. Not only what he did on the offensive end, he had a number of blocks that sort saved us. I think I can only remember one time where he had stayed on the ground and not tried to block one. So he was terrific. He's got a great future ahead of him, and he played terrific tonight. Q. I thought the numbers in the first half, you only shot four threes, which is a pretty low number, maybe the lowest number of attempts you've had all year, and then far more attempts in the second half. What was it offensively that changed do you think that the team was doing differently? COACH DUNPHY: Well, I thought we tried to get it down inside. We would have liked to have had Jaylen for the whole half. But I thought Obi did a really good job when we pounded it down there to him. He scored a number of times. I think just‑‑ wait and see some of the film. Again, I thought we probably rushed two or three of them. Wish we had not done that. But really we got ourselves to the rim a number of times. We just didn't finish it down there. So I give Miami a lot of credit for that. I think just the flow of the game, sometimes the game dictates how many threes you're going to take. Obviously for us tonight, 15 in the second half was a couple too many, but I think that was just the culture of the game. Q. Only nine wins last year. What positives can you take from this season moving forward? COACH DUNPHY: Well, I thought we had a really terrific season for this particular group. I thought they played hard. They did what they needed to do for the most part. Would have been nice to be still playing on Thursday night. We needed to make a few more shots and we needed to do a better job on McClellan in those two possessions where he made those threes. But very proud of our team, certainly of our seniors. I mentioned in the locker room; obviously, Will has had an unbelievable career. Jesse did a really great job for us; a guy like Nick Pendergast was a great teammate. And maybe the best teammate of all was Jimmy McDonnell. He's been with us for five years, can't think of anything, any guy I've had more respect for how he runs his life and how he is as good a teammate as he is. Q. This marks the end of Will Cumming's career. What did he mean to you as a coach and this program on and off the court? COACH DUNPHY: I think he exemplifies what a good teammate is, a good leader is, a good player. I'm hopeful that his professional career will bare some great fruit no matter where that is. Obviously he'll start on that in a very short period of time. He's been a terrific guy. Wish we had him again but we're going to have say good‑bye to him.  He will be graduating in May and he's as great a representative of Temple University as we could ever have hoped for. Q. Obi had one of his best performances of the season tonight. Looking at guys like how he and Josh Brown, Devin Coleman stepped up as underclassmen in the Tournament right now; do you look for them to be key contributors next year and have an increased role? COACH DUNPHY: Well, no question about it. Again we'll probably wait about a week, but we will get our underclassmen in the gym and start working a couple hours a week, which doesn't sound like much. But it gives us a good feel for who is going to step up, who is going to be a leader, who is going to really start to work hard. Josh Brown, he worked harder than anybody we had in the program last year. I'm hoping he'll do the same thing and come back and have a terrific junior season for us. But you can go down the line, all the guys that are coming back. We need to get started on next year right away. Q. Just to follow that up, can you take a snub from the NCAA, combine it with a run from the Garden and use it as fuel going into next year? COACH DUNPHY: Well, we didn't do enough to get into the NCAA Tournament, no matter what we think. We just didn't do enough. We needed another win, maybe two, who knows, but we didn't get that done. But we were really proud to be in the NIT. I think it was a tremendous tournament for us. To make it to Madison Square Garden in the semifinals is outstanding. I'm happy for our guys. So moving forward, we should take some confidence out of this particular season in this late three‑game run that we had in the NIT, very proud to be in this tournament and very proud to play here in Madison Square Garden. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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