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AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 10, 2016Jeff LeboOrlando, Florida USF - 71, East Carolina -66 THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from coach and then take questions. JEFF LEBO: Well congratulations to South Florida on their victory. I thought they obviously hurt us in the paint area. Neither team could make a shot, but we, 6-30 for us we had a rough night shooting the basketball. Down a guy was really tough for us. Caleb White is one of our shooters who was sick. But give them credit, I thought they played very well, hurt us in the paint area, we just couldn't make -- 6-30, that's not going to, for us, as small as we are, we have got to be able to make those perimeter shots, didn't make it today. Prince and B.J. really struggled and we still have a chance to win, I thought Lance played very well for us and really gave us a lift. 5-9 from three was a big day for him. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. They seemed to get behind your zone a few times and then they got in the middle of the zone. Just a rough day for the zone defense in general? JEFF LEBO: Well, we missed a lot of shots. They didn't shoot it very well. It was more the offensive rebounding that hurt us. They got some buckets there. We did a good job on Morillo, we did a good job on McMurray. They drove it a little bit and their size in the paint. And they scored over us a couple times in there. Nunez got a couple in there, and Perry is a load for us to handle in there. We're giving up a lot of size to those guys in there. They're very big. That's okay, but we got to take advantage of our quickness on the other end and perimeter skills. We didn't do that like we needed to, in particular shooting the ball from the perimeter. But Nunez comes in, he made half their threes and he comes in 4-35 I think in conference play from three. So, we felt our emphasis was on Morillo and McMurray, keeping their numbers down. We did that, but Nunez played really well today. That was one of his best games. Q. A number of the seniors have played their last game for the team today. Is there a particular number of seniors that their departure is going to have a significant impact moving forward with the program? JEFF LEBO: Well it's always hard to see your seniors leave. We have five. Two of them are walk-ons that meant a great deal to our program. It's always hard to see them on their last game. And to know that they're going to step into another area of their life and this group won't be together again like it is. So it's always difficult, always tough, not a whole lot you can say as a coach. Michael Zangari, Kanu Aja, Prince Williams, our two walk-on guys, made tremendous contributions to us this year. Q. What kind of adjustments did you see USF make from playing them last week to today? JEFF LEBO: Well, I don't know, they ran a lot of the same stuff, but I think that they went inside a little bit. They got offensive rebounds that hurt us. That was the big thing. They shot the ball really poorly against us in the last game. And we did the same really today. And all three gamess we played against them, we didn't shoot the ball very well at all. We shot in the 30s each game. And we won at South Florida, shooting 36 percent in that game. So, the game for us, we've got to be able to make perimeter shots. We're a perimeter team. Q. Lance, first half I think you had three 3-pointers in the first half. At that point were you just feeling it? Feeling this could be a good night from long range? LANCE TEJADA: Yeah, yeah, when I hit the third shot, I felt like I had some momentum going. But I just really just wanted to get my team into it. Really, I just wanted -- I would try and do thing for to us win at that moment. But of course you hit three shots, three threes, you're going to feel it a little bit. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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