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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 3, 2016

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

THE MODERATOR: The Northern Iowa Panthers are with us. They are the 4 seed. They'll play Southern Illinois in the second game on Friday. Matt Bohannon, Wes Washpun, and Paul Jesperson are here. Head Coach Ben Jacobson will open with a statement.

BEN JACOBSON: We're playing great basketball right now. It's been a really good five-week stretch. These three guys that are sitting next to me made it happen. We said it a couple times the last ten days, boy, we were spinning our tires for about 2 1/2 weeks, and these three guys just made it happen. They would not quit. They just continued to believe in who we are and what we do, how we do it, and really proud of them for doing the things that they had to do to get us going again.

Like I said, man, we're playing great, and these guys are just doing awesome.

Q. Coach, the biggest difference coming in this year as compared to coming in last year?
BEN JACOBSON: We were playing really good last year. We're playing really good this year. You know, our teams are different, if you look at it. We had five seniors and three juniors, so we were older last year, and we were playing 9 1/2 guys instead of 7 1/2 guys, I guess. Those would be the two biggest differences.

In terms of how we're playing, obviously, we're doing some things that are different offensively. We've got to defend a little bit different because of who we've got. But we were playing good when we got here last year at this time, and like I mentioned, we're playing great right now. So some similarities, as well, in addition to, I guess, the obvious differences with the teams.

Q. This is for the three players. You kind of had a rough stretch at the beginning. Could you just tell me how you got that back, how you got your mojo back, and how much it was you and how much it was guys like Klint and some other guys that hadn't played as much and just developed.
THE MODERATOR: Matt and then Wes and then Paul will finish.

MATT BOHANNON: Like Coach said, we kind of got off to a slow start in conference and just weren't playing the way we knew we could. Defensively, we're not taking as much pride as we needed to, and just overall toughness needed to be a little better. We kind of came together and said we're better than these guys and we need to come together and make it happen.

We did that. We fought through it. Even when the breaks weren't going our way, we just tried to keep fighting and play like we knew we could and turn that around.

WES WASHPUN: Yeah, it was a little tough stretch, like Matt said, and we just kind of came together as a team. The younger guys had a lot to do with that. They never quit on us. They know how much this year means to us three seniors. We've been working really hard. It really helped us come together as a unit and as a team and be able to come through that rough low patch.

PAUL JESPERSON: Yeah, definitely think it was just a mindset for our team that we weren't going to lay down. We weren't going to give up. We got to practice and worked extremely hard each day and tried to get better each day.

Those younger guys, they just came along with experience. Before this year, obviously, they weren't playing significant minutes. So as the season's went along, they've improved a lot, and they've been a huge part of this year for us.

Q. For Wes Washpun, Wes, how much improvement have you made from your junior to senior year? What ways do you think you've improved? And how much influence has your dad had on you in your basketball career?
WES WASHPUN: My dad's had a huge impact on me in my basketball career. I mean, he's the one who put the ball in my hands when I was young, and he's the one who's mentored me up through high school, middle school, all the way through college. So he's been very important to me.

As far as how I've improved, I'm doing a lot of things different. Obviously, I have a bit of a different role this year than I did last year. But just trying to focus on keeping my turnovers down and getting these guys involved and being able to hit them in the right spots, that's what makes our team go right now.

Q. For Coach Jacobson and Wes, every year it seems like we read criticism or opinions on the transfer culture. Wes, it obviously worked out pretty well for you after leaving Tennessee. Does it get a bad reputation, and why was it the right decision for you? Coach, how have you seen him progress since his decision to change schools?
BEN JACOBSON: And Paul, as you probably know, transferred to us from Virginia after being out there, going out there out of high school and then transferred back. So we obviously have benefited from both of these guys making the decision to come back and play at our place.

I just think there's some of both. These guys can talk differently about their situations, but there are oftentimes good reasons. Getting closer to home is a legitimate reason. If you can look at the roster and you can see that it's going to be another year or another two years, it doesn't mean you're selfish because you want to play. You only get to go through your playing career one time, so, oftentimes, that can be a legitimate reason to transfer. Then there's some others. So I do think there are legitimate reasons.

Now, I would tell you on the other side of it -- and it doesn't fit our two guys here. On the other side of it, I think there are too many times where guys leave too quick for, let's say, not necessarily legitimate reasons. Don't give it enough time. Feel like they have to play. If they're not starting and they're not playing the moment they step on campus, even though the guy's a senior and he's going to be leaving or he's a junior and he's got maybe one more year.

So I can see both sides of it. I guess my feeling -- I wish there -- there's too many guys that transfer now. I don't know if that number is 600, 700, whatever it is. I don't think it's great for the college game to have that many guys transferring, but, again, I think there's some legitimate reasons on both sides.

We're just -- we're happy, lucky, and fortunate that our two guys transferred for the right reasons and that we got them.

Q. Wes, regarding the transfer?
WES WASHPUN: Yeah, like Coach said, there are good and bad reasons to transfer. I personally transferred to be closer to home. I had a good relationship with the coaching staff throughout my high school recruitment and stuff like that. So it ended up being a pretty good fit. So I decided to transfer in.

And I knew the guys on the team like Bo and Seth and Max, Martino and Nate Buss and all those guys were on the team at the time, so I had a good relationship with those guys as well. So it was really just a perfect fit for me at that time.

Q. For the three players, Paul, Wes, and Matt, you guys were a big part of winning this tournament last year, winning Arch Madness. Anything you guys took from that experience that can help you now this year as the senior?
PAUL JESPERSON: No, I definitely think we can take something away from last year. Any time you get in a situation like that, you definitely learn a little bit about yourselves and about your team.

You know, the biggest thing I remember about last year is just how close it remained in some of the games we had. I think it would have been easy for us to turn around in some of those games and just accept losing, but we got closer in some of those situations, and we were able to fight through and come back and win some of those games. So I think that's the biggest thing that I took away from last year coming down to this tournament.

WES WASHPUN: The biggest thing I took away personally was just one game at a time, 20 minutes at a time, break it down like that. Just little stretches. There are going to be runs both ways, and it's the team that can weather the storm that's going to come through it all. Just got to take it one at a time.

MATT BOHANNON: Just like Wes said, you can't get ahead of yourself. This is a three-game tournament, but at the end of the day, you can't get to the second game without winning the first game and so on.

We've just got to focus on Southern right now, and the nice thing is -- not the nice thing, but even before last year, we've had some stretches where we come down here and played just one game and be done. We don't want to do that because that's no fun.

We've just got to understand we've got to give it a full effort for 40 minutes and understand it's our season on the line, basically come tomorrow afternoon.

Q. Coach, playing SIU for the third time, we asked you Monday about it, after reviewing film, has your opinion on that changed on how you're going to attack the guys?
BEN JACOBSON: You know, not really. Like we talked about, Jeremiah, and it's happened to us a couple times where you just get done playing a team, either the last game of the regular season or the game before that, and then you turn around and play them right away again. It just has a different feel to it. That situation is different. But we haven't seen Southern for a while. Like I talked about with our team, we're playing great, playing easily our best basketball of the year.

Southern has had a tremendous year. Being picked ninth and now having the non-conference they did, of course. But the way they have played through the Valley, they just had a terrific year, and I think it's happened because the guys that have returned got better. All four of those starters are better than they were last year. The guys they added fit perfect. It doesn't always go that way for us. As coaches, we're working hard to make it fit perfect, but it doesn't always happen. Well, Rodriguez has been the right guy to play the point for them so that Beane can get off the ball. And Vincent and the other guys that are new coming off the bench, it has all been right for them.

Our guys know we're playing a really good team, and one of the best players in the Midwest, for sure, as I've mentioned. Our guys know what we're up against.

Q. It's the time of the year when a lot of schools that are going to be hiring coaches are looking for their next coaches. What would your advice be to a coach that is having success as what's perceived as a mid-major school who's trying to debate whether or not to take the step forward -- or perceived step forward, let me say?
BEN JACOBSON: The only place I can go is my experience. And as we've gone through some of those conversations and had some of those opportunities come our way, my wife and I, and the only thing we talk about is making sure that we think about the fit. We don't talk about money. We don't talk about this, that, or the other thing, even resources or what -- we just talk about the fit. We've been extremely fortunate that we've got the right fit at our place.

Now, for somebody else, maybe the best fit is a move. Maybe it is somewhere else. The only thing I would say is give some thought to the fit. For us, our conversations, that doesn't include the money and some of those other things. For us, it's been about the people. Because we've chosen to do it the way we have and we think we've found the right fit, it means I get to be with these guys when they're seniors, and it's been awesome. I guess that would be the only thing I would say.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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