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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 11, 2016Mike LonerganJoe McDonaldKevin LarsenBrooklyn, New York Saint Joseph's - 86, George Washington - 80 MIKE LONERGAN: It was kind of a heartbreaking loss for us. I thought it was a great game. We really shot well, obviously, in the first half. We just kind of masked our defense, which wasn't the greatest. But I thought we lost the game in the first four minutes of the second half. We just had no energy and Saint Joe's came out aggressive with a lot of energy. We turned the ball over. We didn't box out, and we just really struggled, and I thought that really turned the momentum into their favor. But give them credit; they exposed us defensively. We were switching in the first half, they were still getting to the rim on us, but we play a big lineup. We have trouble guarding quick guards, so they exposed us, got us in some foul trouble and took us to the rim and try to play zone one possession and hit a three. Didn't really have any answers, and shots weren't really dropping second half. We littered the foul line. We usually do good job getting 20-some attempts, but we were playing a match-up man-to-man, and they got a lot of free throws and we didn't. But we've got to get tougher. They were tougher than us and I guess we didn't earn our free throw attempts like we normally do, so that was frustrating, but like I said, give Saint Joe's all the credit. I'm proud of our guys. We've had a great season, but really sad and heartbroken because we had a golden opportunity today and didn't take advantage of it. Q. Joe and Kevin, can you talk about what's difficult about going up against their zone, especially in the second half how that might have been challenging? JOE McDONALD: I just think they switched to the zone at a critical time. They were in man for a lot of the game, and then I think once they got the lead they kind of switched it up on us. We got pretty stagnant. We needed to find a way to get the ball inside, get to the line, and we just were struggling to do so. KEVIN LARSEN: I mean, yeah, they kind of took us out of our game with the zone, and we kind of expected that we do that after the last time we played them when they played the zone the whole second half. Kind of took us out of our rhythm and we didn't get good shots when they switched to it. Q. In the final five-and-a-half minutes, you guys just get three field goals. Did you guys force things too much maybe, or what happened in that final stretch of the game where it was difficult to score for you? JOE McDONALD: I just think we got pretty stagnant so we let the shot clock get down, and we struggled to go one-on-one, and you know, five seconds or less, you see us chucking threes, we're not going to win games like that. We need a bucket, had to make sure to run our offense early, make sure we get good shots, and we were pretty stagnant towards the end. We just got to have a little more sense of urgency, especially in a big game like that. It felt like we were, like I said, just too stagnant. Q. Sitting here, obviously you guys have played a lot of games. This must be a difficult loss, but what's going through your mind right now? JOE McDONALD: Yeah, this hurts because we thought we had it, a big lead early, and they just out-toughed us, especially towards the last few stretches of the game. We came out very lackadaisical to start, like Coach mentioned earlier. I myself had a few turnovers to start, so we just didn't have that sense of urgency in that second half. It's tough because being up 14, shooting the way we did the first half, we were feeling really confident. I think we maybe just relaxed a little too much, and better give Saint Joe's credit. Hard team, very, very good team, got great players, and they just made plays late. Q. Kevin, St. Joe's finished ahead of you guys in the paint 42-18. Were they doing anything to make it difficult for you or making it uncomfortable inside? KEVIN LARSEN: They were kind of switching up the way they were doubling me, so it was kind of -- had to switch it up a little bit. But I felt like we got great shots in the first half, playing out of the double. In the second half we kind of got away from it because they switched to the zone so it was hard to get the ball inside because they were focused so much on me. When Tyler fouls out we really don't have another big there to take some of the pressure off me, so we really missed him in the final five, six minutes. Q. Kevin talked a little bit about losing Tyler to foul trouble in the second half. What does that do for your team's mentality, losing that leader on the floor? MIKE LONERGAN: It kills us because he's an outside threat, and he's a good player, but Coach Martelli was smart. They just went right at him, and I think his last two fouls he gave up three-point plays reaching in. It's hard to tell a guy this, but after the fourth one we were losing all the momentum and I had to play him, and I was just like, if a guy takes it to the rim, just almost let him go. But he reached in and gave him a three-point play. It's not for lack of effort, but that was smart on their part. They just went right at him, and once he was out of the game, we're not that kind of a team, we play smaller, didn't box out, and made things really difficult. But you've got to give them credit for him fouling out because good coaches in this league, including Coach Martelli, and he went right at him. Let's face it, they shot 58 percent in the first half and 57 percent in the second half. Like I said, we didn't play a great defensive game. We haven't been a great defensive team all year, and that's our Achilles heel. We're a little bit slow and unathletic, but you can make up for it, and we haven't made up for it on a consistent basis this year. When you're playing a high-level team like that with a coach that knows your weaknesses, they went at us, and that's why we decided to switch and stuff, but even with the switches, they just took us to the rim, and we don't have a rim protector so we had one blocked shot, so it makes things difficult. But the last 30 seconds of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half cost us the game. We scored -- three guys were supposed to get back. We didn't get back, and Bembry basically hits a dunk. Watanabe made a nice block, but we have no point guard back, nobody back. We could have been up 16 at the half with the ball, and then first possession second half Yuta throws it out of bounds. I thought the end of the first half, that was a big bucket by Bembry, and then the first four minutes of the second half we were stepping out of bounds, throwing the ball out of bounds. That's really where the game was lost. Q. Even though you didn't get what you wanted accomplished in the tournament, where do you feel you stand with regard to the NCAAs? MIKE LONERGAN: You know, I still feel good about it. I think we have a chance if they judge our body of work. We went 11-2 in the non-conference. I mean, we lost the game today. Hey, it would have been our fourth top-50 win. A lot of these teams that people say are in have one or two top-50 wins. But we lost to a team with an RPI of like 30, so it doesn't kill you, but I truthfully thought if we won we were definitely in. I'm not going to lie to you; I'll be cheering for Seton Hall and Virginia and even Tennessee. Man, that guy is a great coach. He lost his best player, but they've won two games in their tournament. So hopefully that stuff will help us. When we beat them it was a good win. It was a good neutral win, Tennessee. If Virginia wins the ACC and Seton Hall wins or comes in second, something like that, I hope that's looked at. We lost to a really good team here. We lost two games in a row, once all season. We didn't lose to any low major -- one mid-majors, one mid-conference teams, and I think we played a good schedule. It's not just Virginia and Seton Hall. We won some good league games. We beat Penn State. Even Central Florida and South Florida. I know they're not great teams, but we'll play anybody in the American Conference. It's not like I chose to play those teams. We'll play anybody, and it's very difficult for us to get those teams. But if our worst losses are at Saint Louis and at DePaul, a Big East team with Big East refs, then hey, it's out of our hands, but I feel pretty good about what we accomplished, and we'll see what happens. I feel bad for our guys because we did blow a couple opportunities, but so does everybody else in the country. Q. You had a big lead at halftime, but they were shooting nearly 60 percent and controlling the paint. Did you feel comfortable at that point, and what did you tell the team at halftime? MIKE LONERGAN: Nope, not at all. I told them we were 11 for 16 and that's great, but it's a little bit of fool's gold. We were averaging seven made threes a game, and then you see in the second half we're 4 for 15 from threes. You know, they did a good job keeping Kevin from getting the ball too much. We didn't make the threes we took. We shot because we didn't get open threes, and we don't have a guy that can drive and create for others, and when we did drive, we turned the ball over or missed easy shots, and so we suffered. But told them at halftime, we're in great shape, but this game -- we're not playing defense, and then I said, if you don't play defense in the second half, it's going to be a dogfight, and that's what happened. I just didn't think we'd go out the first four minutes like we did. And then Garino made two threes in a row, and I'm like, all right, we got it back, and then he gambled and leaves Isaiah Miles and we gave up a wide-open three. But that's kind of how we've been. I didn't expect to lose, but I didn't expect to win by 25. Q. Did you think that the success with three-pointers early made you get away a little bit from the inside game and getting to the foul line that's been a source of success for you all season? MIKE LONERGAN: Yeah, well, no, they changed their defense. I mean, if they were going to double Kevin -- I think he had like seven or eight assists at halftime. They kind of took him away, and we got stagnant and threw the ball around, and like I say, we don't have that jet-quick guard. But to me it wasn't the offense. It was more the defense not boxing out. I think Tyler's third or fourth foul, Bembry shoots, we don't box out, we're standing there, Tyler goes to the ball, Bembry gets it, runs into him, it's an accident, but it's a foul because the teammate didn't box out. Defense is a team thing and we didn't play good team defense, and they did a good job fouling out one of our best players. Q. NCAA Tournament or not, what's going to be the focal point moving into the postseason for you and your team? MIKE LONERGAN: Just to really try to get better defensively and to keep executing on offense. We've been pretty good offensively. The first play of the game we're getting ready to play a lay-up, missed a lay-up, but when we run our sets and stuff, we're pretty good. We keep sharing the ball like we did, I think it'll help us that we're going to play a team that doesn't know us very well. Nowadays you're in the league, guys been coaching forever, they see everything, so they know when a guy puts his head down he's going to drive. They know our strengths and weaknesses, and it makes it difficult. I've got to do a better job hiding our weaknesses, and these coaches know that. But sometimes you get into situation, there's not a lot of turnaround time, you find out a few days earlier who you're playing, and I'm hoping that's to our benefit and I'm hoping our experience can pay off, and whatever tournament we're in, we'd really like to try to make some noise. But it's hard to talk about right now. Just really bummed out and sad. I feel like crying because I thought today was just a huge game, and like I said, our guys came out ready to play. But we just couldn't get it done in the second half, and the tougher team won, all right. The toughness was there for them, and that beat us. Q. What was the game plan with three-pointers going in, especially with the success in the last couple games? MIKE LONERGAN: It wasn't really three-pointers, it was just that they decided to double Kevin. We really wanted -- we really wanted him -- he's a great passer and I told everybody, top of the key -- Saint Louis came in this tournament averaging five threes a game, lowest in the league, but teams, including us, didn't guard them and they made some threes. You know guys are really focused offensively coming into this environment, so I just said, hey, share the ball. If you're open, shoot it. Even Anthony Swan when he shot that three, I thought it was a great look for him. But they were wide-open threes. Our threes were great threes, and they tried to take away our inside game, but it gave us something else. They made adjustments, and those adjustments hurt us because we couldn't make an adjustment which we wanted to do was spread out and get penetration. We got the ball to Kevin. He felt he was getting fouled. Maybe he was not going up strong enough, so that wasn't working, and then we tried to spread out and drive, and when we drove we turned it over and we threw the ball all over the gym, and then most of our shots were a little more contested, and we just didn't -- even the open ones we just didn't really make in the second half. Q. With a loss like today, losing in the second half after a big first-half lead, do you expect different from your seniors, from Joe, Kevin and Pato, expect not to fall apart maybe like you did when they were sophomores and freshmen? MIKE LONERGAN: Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say fall apart. Yuta is only a sophomore. We had a 14-point lead. The play was executed perfectly. Instead of going to him he throws it out of bounds. So it's kind of a combination of things. Our experience, hey, I don't expect us to step out of bounds and some of the plays we made at the beginning, but I don't think it's like being nervous or scared. I just think it's a focus thing, and that lack of focus has hurt us in parts of games, and we're playing a pretty darned good league and against a really good team, and they have a lot to play for today, as well. That really hurt us, and our lack of depth has hurt us. It's definitely hurt us. Alex did a great job off the bench and some other guys did offensively, but when you're not a great defensive team and your bench's weakness is their defense, too, it makes it tough. It makes it tough to win close games. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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