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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 4, 2016

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

Wichita State-66, Loyola-58

THE MODERATOR: Student-athletes Milton Doyle and Devon Turk are with head coach Porter Moser. Porter will open with a statement on this game.

COACH MOSER: Very proud of our effort. Very disappointed we lost, but very proud of these two young men are and the effort they gave.

Q. Being thrust into this environment and hanging with Wichita State, how much do you credit that to the CBI run, the run you had last year, and that experience?
MILTON DOYLE: I think it helped out a lot just because we had a lot of guys that came back that played big minutes in that run. I think we have the experience to make a push in this tournament. We just fell short.

DEVON TURK: We had a lot of confidence coming into this game because last year we played in the CBI. We know what it's like to be in a hostile crowd. So confidence playing in this game was what we had a lot of.

Q. For either one of you guys. I just wondered if you could comment on what they do, what Wichita State does best that makes them so difficult.
MILTON DOYLE: They're just a real disciplined team. It's hard to play against a team that doesn't make too many mistakes, and if you make a mistake, they feed off of it. So it's hard to kind of flow with that in the game.

DEVON TURK: Building off of what Milton said, every little mistake, everything that you do wrong, they feed off of.

Q. Devon, what was going through your mind? You really were making some big shots out there and helping your team. It seemed like every time you'd hit a three, the bench would kind of erupt. What was it like hitting those shots and trying to will your team to stay in that game with such a tough opponent?
DEVON TURK: Just staying aggressive, being confident in myself and knowing that if I'm doing something good for the team and showing my confidence with the team, the team builds off of it.

Q. Devon, you forced 17 turnovers, which is a lot for Wichita State. Describe the defensive game plan and how you were able to get them off track as much as you did.
DEVON TURK: We have a group of guys that are aggressive defensively, and if we come out and just play aggressive and do those type of things that we practice on every day and the whole season, off-season and stuff, that will help us.

Q. Coach, you had them 55-51 with about four minutes left. I just wonder what you were thinking at that point, how the game was shaping up.
COACH MOSER: We were thinking the same thing. We want good possessions on both ends. We were thinking possession by possession. We weren't thinking about anything but that pretty much the whole game. We knew they were going to pick up their pressure, and Baker hit that tough shot at the end of the shot clock. It seemed like both teams were grinding it out. We had a couple at the end of our shot clock that we just didn't get the shot off, and then he got that shot off, and it kind of propelled them.

What I was thinking, I knew it was going to be possession by possession down the stretch. They made more plays down the stretch, and it stung. It stung a lot.

Q. Coach, what was your perspective on your guys' last few possessions on offense where it seems like things kind of stalled out?
COACH MOSER: Well, what happened was they denied so far out. All of a sudden, they picked up their pressure, and they denied 28 feet from the basket. We drove it to the basket a couple times, and that's when you've got to draw a crowd and kick it a couple times. We did it to Ben with like five minutes left, and Ben hit a three.

I remember two or three times Earl took it, and it's when everyone spreads it out, it was hard to get past it. You've got to drive when you spread. That's when you've got to kick it out a couple of times, and they just hammered it on a glass blocking the shots.

They really denied and extended the defense about 28, 29 feet, and we're really having trouble getting catches with that. Basically they just picked up that pressure and extended.

Q. Coach, what was it like to see your seniors fight the way they did in such a big game?
COACH MOSER: You know what I'll remember, just had a very, very tough locker room talk. I care about these guys so much. They've got such high character guys. One thing I think they'll take away the rest of their lives is they just got off to a horrible start in the league. We start out 0-5. They knew we were better than that. We have five games decided by six points.

I've gone through talking about life. You're going to have a lot of adversity in life. It's how you handle that. And these guys had a choice. They had a choice just to pack it in, and they kept fighting. We've lost some games, but it really wasn't effort. We had a horrible shooting year, but it was very hard to ask these guys last night, exhausted last night, wake up early, going over some things. We were walking through some things this morning in the ballroom, what we wanted to do, and they just were hanging on every word, and they gave you everything they had today.

It was very, very tough because it's the great Herb Brooks quote, great opportunities -- great moments happen with great opportunities. And we had a great opportunity today, and it was close to being a great moment, but it wasn't.

But I'm extremely proud of who they are as people and the effort they gave.

Q. Along the lines of those seniors, just when you take them out in those last few seconds, they got those ovations and you gave them a hug and you're also walking off the floor with Earl Peterson after you lose, what were those moments like? Having one last moment on the floor with those guys.
COACH MOSER: It's very tough because, when you get in this world of athletics, you spend so much time, almost more time, unfortunately, than your families. And those young men, you watch them grow over the years, and you just -- you know it's your last opportunity there. It's not the last opportunity we're going to be friends, but it's the last opportunity we'll go to compete on a basketball floor with those guys.

We're going to be lifelong friends, those seniors and myself. It's tough because it's the last time you'll compete with them, and that's a hard feeling. I don't know if you saw them, but two or three of them had towels over their heads, and I yanked it off their head. They had no reason to have their head under a towel. They need to put their head up. They're classy student-athletes. They competed on a great stage against a great team, and I wanted to tell them to keep their head up as you walk off the floor.

Q. Porter, Milton looked like a different player today versus yesterday, and then how can you kind of summarize Devon's career, all-time leading three-point shooter? And then Gregg said you guys had a good game plan. What was that game plan today?
COACH MOSER: The first part of your question was Milton Doyle. He just couldn't get in a flow last night with the fouls. He came in, and he was just frustrated. I've been bringing him off the bench all along.

I told him last night, Milton, I'm starting you. Let's get it going. You're going to be the freshest guy out here. He had that jump ball, tipped it to himself, and dunked it. Believe it or not, that's Milton Doyle's first dunk of the year. Believe it or not, that's Milton Doyle's first dunk of the year. I think that really gave him some confidence.

But just the kind of interaction we had last night, when I told him we're going to start him, we're rolling with you. Obviously, any time someone fouls out, five fouls, no baskets, 11 minutes, I try to spin it in a positive way. Hey, we got the win. We advanced. I'm starting you. Let's roll. I think that really helped him.

Turk, it's hard to summarize the kind of person Turk is. If you had a video how he interacts with my kids at my basketball camp or when he sees my kids up in the office, you'll be able to tell the kind of kid Devon Turk is. He's unbelievable. His three-point shooting, he really worked on his midrange game. He really developed the midrange game this year. Got a quick trigger. He's our all-time leading shooter. But I'll remember him for that, but I'll be friends and remember him lifelong about the character he is. His big smile that he has. But he's been a definite weapon for us for four years.

In terms of the game plan, we just played them our last home game, so it wasn't like we hadn't seen them in a long time. So we had some things that we talked about. It's very hard to guard them single coverage in the post. They're so big. They're so good. It's very -- you know, to give them looks, we tried not to give them open looks. We're trying to say tough twos, tough twos, that we were trying to make them get. You have to really focus in on being active and reaction. They run really good offense. They have good post players, good perimeter players. You've got to be really sound.

I think we were more sound with that today, and we talked about that in the hotel last night and this morning with that.

The rebounding, we had a stat that we set with five minutes left. At that point, 15 minutes into the second half, for that half, we were outrebounding them and had less turnovers. And we were really trying to pump that up because they pounded us on the glass in the first half, and I thought we were doing that. But you've got to give them credit. I mean, special players make special plays.

As I walked off the court -- and this is with every ounce of respect you could give, and I hope everyone takes this the right way. I gave Ron Baker a hug, and I said, dang you, Ron Baker, and I meant that with the utmost respect because that kid hit some daggers. And I mean that with the utmost respect. You can't have any more respect than I have for their program, their coaching staff, and their players.

Q. Porter, what's your assessment of Wichita State as an at large team, should they need that?
COACH MOSER: For sure, for sure. I know you hear -- you watch Selection Sunday all the time, and you hear the different things they say. Fred makes a huge difference, and he was out for those games. But to do what they do, to go in the Valley and to win 16 games in the Valley and to do it when everybody -- they attract the biggest crowd everywhere they go. They attract the road crowd.

There's no question they should be in. To me, it's not even a question. They're in, in my opinion.

Q. Coach, real quick, what were you guys looking for with that inbounds play you guys had seven seconds on the shot clock and couldn't get one off?
COACH MOSER: It was a curl knockoff for Montel to come back around. He's supposed to catch it and shoot it. And he caught it, and I thought he had a look, and he kind of froze. We're yelling seven seconds and everything. We were trying to get Montel a shot. They were denying so many guards. So we ran a little curl, knocked off Montel's man, brought Montel, caught it, and he didn't even look to shoot.

Donte Ingram had the same thing. We were yelling a couple minutes earlier. Donte didn't know the shot clock. Those were tough plays, trust me on that, not knowing the shot clock. Ron knew the shot clock. We got what we wanted, but Montel didn't catch it and shoot it.

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