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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 4, 2016Gregg MarshallRon BakerShaquille MorrisFred VanVleetSt. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness Wichita State-66, Loyola-58 THE MODERATOR: I'll ask Gregg Marshall to open up with a statement and go to questions for the three Shockers. COACH MARSHALL: Just glad these guys made the plays that allowed us to survive, that's all I'm going to say. It was a strange game in many ways, and we made plays, we made stops. Shaq was huge inside. I thought Loyola had a good game plan, played well. So we'll move on to Saturday. Q. For Ron, you made two off-balance threes in which you were touched a little bit. The emotion of the second half, being behind in this game that's such an important game, making shots like that, can you just speak to that. RON BAKER: I had a pretty decent look, shot faked. I tried to draw some contact and was able to escape with my shoulders facing the rim and just shot the basketball, and it went in. Q. For Fred, a lot of turnovers. Did the foul trouble that kept you on the bench, did that just throw things off kilter and took a while to get it back on track? FRED VANVLEET: Yes. I mean, it's hard to get a rhythm any time you have foul trouble, but I can't blame anybody but myself. I didn't play very good. Luckily, these other two guys made some of the best plays we've seen all year, and they saved me and a couple other guys that didn't play very well. So looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow. It's always hard to play through foul trouble, but that doesn't give an excuse to turn the ball over three times. Q. Shaq, kind of describe the defensive philosophy there the last four or five minutes. Looked like you were kind of just waiting and playing goalie back there, not going to waste shots. SHAQUILLE MORRIS: Yeah, I just have to give credit to my teammates for helping me out, so I had to help them. I was just playing our defensive principles and just timing. That's all it was on all the blocks. Q. Fred, with the foul trouble, how did you keep your mind in the game to be able to hit those free throws down the stretch? 8 of 10, that's very clutch. Would you mind talking about your preparation for if something like this happens, how do you keep yourself ready? FRED VANVLEET: You've just got to stay poised. I've been through it before, been through foul trouble in my career. Sometimes you feel like you can't catch a break. Sometimes you make bone headed plays, but you stick through it. My teammates supported me. My coaches supported me. We all stayed together through the toughest runs they were making. It allows you to keep confidence in your teammates and coaching staff and stay up there late and knock the free throws down. The two I missed should have went in, but I rimmed out. Any time you're going through a tough game or tough stretches, to have a support system like this is always helpful. Q. Ron, could you describe Shaq's defense, I guess the whole defensive effort that last four minutes. I think you held them scoreless like 3:30. Was that a sense of desperation at that point? Couldn't give up any points? RON BAKER: Our defensive philosophy is trying to run shooters off the line. They were making some shots, and sending them into the lane. Trying to score over Shaq is a really hard shot. What Shaq was saying, trusting the defense, he's relying on someone from the weak side, like a guard, to check down his man so that they can't dump it off for an easy two. Shaq's doing a good job of just going straight up, being a rim tender, making sure no one can score over him or around him. Q. This is for you, Ron. You guys had beaten them pretty handily twice earlier. How does that impact this game for you guys? What did they do differently that made it tougher this time, if anything? RON BAKER: Maybe the changes I noticed is they were just spreading the court a lot more, driving gaps. Early on in the first half, they were driving gaps and kicking it to the corner and getting wide open threes. We started helping less and sending them into the lane, into Shaq, and I think that's where we made our progression, our run, and that's how we got stops. Q. Gregg, how uncomfortable was this game today? Loyola made a lot of shots in the second half, built a lead. There's obviously a lot of stakes to this game for you guys. How difficult -- and just talk about the shots that Ron made. COACH MARSHALL: Ron made some great shots. It was an uncomfortable game. That's one word for it, uncomfortable game. We have to play better. We've got to give Loyola credit, but Bake and Shaq and some of those guys making those plays, the stops, the big shots enabled us to survive. Everybody's desperation at this point of the year, and it's one and done. I thought Porter's team had a great game plan and executed it well. We had three starters with two fouls in the first half pretty early, including an All-American. So it was just we didn't have any rhythm. Q. Coach, constantly frustrated Montel James, with him having a big game, what was your emphasis for the team? Both Anton and Shaq played good defense. COACH MARSHALL: Yeah, Montel James is quite a good player. I told him that we missed on him. I think he was two years at Coffeyville, played great, had a really good career, tough guard, battles. Undersized, obviously, but he was a warrior out there. I was really impressed with him. Grady got the best of him at their place just a week ago, but Grady wasn't great today, and Shaq finally was able to shut him down a little bit late in the second half. Q. Coach, do you feel that your guys getting tested like this in the quarterfinals is something that's maybe good for you guys going forward and your team will loosen up a little bit as the rounds go on? COACH MARSHALL: That's the plan. Yeah, we hope so. We haven't had a whole lot of close games this year, and that was certainly a close one. Guys made plays at the end, big shots. So just got to overcome. Got to overcome whatever is thrown in front of you. Today we were able to do that. Q. Gregg, just talk about the intensity that Shaq played with on the defensive end. I mean, he was everywhere, swatting all kinds of shots. COACH MARSHALL: Really proud of him. He had early foul trouble, sat most of the first half, and then picked up a quick one in the third, right where we put him in the third -- probably didn't play a minute in the second half when he picked up his third. Grady was a little off today, not handling the ball as well, and Shaq was huge down the stretch and just patrolling the lane. He looked like the big guy that we hope he can continue to become. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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