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AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 10, 2016Orlando AntiguaChris PerryAngel NunezOrlando, Florida USF - 71, East Carolina - 66 THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from coach and then take questions. ORLANDO ANTIGUA: I'm not much for opening statements. But really excited and happy for our guys. They battled and were able to come out with this victory and we talked about wanting to just take one step, worrying about the game we have in front of us, and they executed. So, happy that we get the opportunity to go out and compete again tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. Coach, I know you get to enjoy this for about five minutes, but could I ask you this since I'm from Philadelphia, your thoughts on Temple? ORLANDO ANTIGUA: Temple is obviously a really, really good team. A team that's very well coached. They're playing extremely good basketball right now. So, we will enjoy it for about five minutes and then worry about Temple later on tonight. Q. Chris, there were many occasions this year where you guys had leads and weren't able to close it out and didn't know how to win maybe. Do you think today you showed you do know how to win and you do know how to play down the stretch? CHRIS PERRY: Today we really played together. A lot more than I've seen this season. It was very -- it made everyone just feel so much better about themselves. When we made mistakes we just kept each other up, so that made us all positive. There was no negative vibes. So that was good. That worked for us. Q. Coach, what do you do at this time of the year to kind of get your team -- do you flip the script mentality wise or with the success you've had, at other schools, in your career, what kind of have you used this year to get the guys ready? ORLANDO ANTIGUA: Well, we just, to get ready for a tournament, you talk to them about the only thing that you're guaranteed is the game that's in front of you. It's important that as you go into attacking that game that guys are, one, on the same page, two, feeling good about themselves, and about each other and just going in knowing that they're going to fight for one another. In tournaments, in the single game elimination tournament, anything can happen. Anything can happen. And the team that's fighting together and staying together and playing with a little extra effort gives themselves an opportunity to be in it at the end of the game. Q. Could you speak to Angel's effort. He hit rainbow threes, tip-ins, he was all over the back board. ORLANDO ANTIGUA: Yeah, we just had a conversation about some of those threes though, but I was really happy and excited about his effort on the boards, not settling, and what he was able to do defensively for us. But not just him, as well, Chris -- Chris in the second half, he gave us some big minutes, big, big minutes, big rebounds, and we need that kind of performance from both of those guys. Q. It seems like your senior night performance against ECU was probably one of your worst of the year, and you come back two games later and play one of the best of the year. The lob seemed to be working. Was that designed to get them back in the zone? ORLANDO ANTIGUA: We knew that we wanted to try to attack the back side of the zone. Their guards are really long and tall and at times we may give a guard like Jahmal some problems. I thought Nate did a great job of being able to see over it and get the guys over the top and so -- and seal them back there. We did know that we wanted to try to play on the back side of the zone, and if they stayed back, then we wanted to attack the middle, which is where both Chris and Angel were able to get the ball and make some plays for us there as well. Q. Chris, on their final run they closed it to 60-58, and then Bo got a tip. You threw an alley-oop to Jaleel, he dunked it. Jahmal hit a long one. You guys had a great minute there. Talk about that sequence when they closed, almost caught you, and then you came up with those sequences. CHRIS PERRY: Once again playing together. Bo goes hard all the time and then on the fast break where I had the ball and the defender, he played up. So we do that all the time in practice, throwing lobs to Jaleel and throwing lobs to Ruben, so it just happened so easily and it was just a good team effort. ORLANDO ANTIGUA: My point forward out there. CHRIS PERRY: Yeah. (Laughter.) Q. Coach, you guys were able to hold ECU to 6 of 30 from three point shooting. Was perimeter defense something you guys were emphasizing going into this game? ORLANDO ANTIGUA: Definitely, we wanted to make sure our guards and wings were very active in our zone and getting to the shooters. I thought that if we can make them take contested shots, that -- contested shots and then rebound the ball after that, that we would be in good position. Our guys gave us great effort in doing that, in making it difficult for them to get clean looks. Well, besides Tejada. Tejada had hit a bunch of them. Q. Taking a look at Jaylen Bond, last time you played him he had 18 and 14. What stands out to you about Temple's big man? ORLANDO ANTIGUA: They're very good. They're skilled, they're tough. DeCosey is a really, really good player. Jaylen's a tough kid. So we're going to have our hands full, but we'll worry and deal with them later tonight. Q. Orlando, you had a tough season, as you tried to build this, could you describe what it means to -- you're playing the first game of the tournament and you win it and you move forward, that's another step and you go deeper in the tournament. That's what that means to the evolution of this thing? ORLANDO ANTIGUA: You know what, I'm really happy for our kids, because we push them, we're on them, and we're challenging them, and we're doing all those things so that they can have and taste some success. With all the obstacles and all the up-and-downs of the season, to be able to have a little bit of that success at the end of the season, in this kind of environment, with those kind of stakes, in terms of a single game elimination, I'm really happy for them. Q. Chris, you didn't face Temple either time this season, is that kind of tough going into a game against a team like that for your first game in the post-season against them? CHRIS PERRY: I didn't play them this year but I'm still familiar with the -- I played them before and I think the only addition that I think I missed is the freshman guard and then the number 0 with the long last name who can shoot the ball pretty well. So, but I know we're going to bring the intensity, bring the physicality and see where it goes from there. Q. Now that you've had a chance to kind of work with both of the Cousins brothers, do you see any key similarities between the two guys? ORLANDO ANTIGUA: They're both really big and they have a great mom and both of them eat an awful lot. (Laughter.) And they can rebound the ball. Q. I did see and not following you that closely, where Cousins was listed as a potential starter and he didn't start today. Was there any reason for that? ORLANDO ANTIGUA: No, I just thought that the layup that we started with has made us little bit quicker. We have played a lot faster in transition and I just thought maybe something, a wrinkle to try to change for us and the makeup of our team. Q. Angel, you and everybody didn't have a great senior night the other night against this team. What does it mean to you to have a game like this individually and to win in this tournament, after that performance last week? ANGEL NUNEZ: It's really special to just come out here and bounce back the way we did. Really what it means to me is I'm just glad we got the win and that's really it. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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