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NCAA MEN'S FIRST FOUR: DAYTONMarch 14, 2016Gregg MarshallDayton, Ohio THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by the head coach of the Wichita State Shockers, Gregg Marshall. Coach, an opening statement. GREGG MARSHALL: Okay. We're glad to be here through the -- had to come through a hurricane -- not hurricane, but tornado warning. But we landed safely. I've been here before, 2001, with Winthrop University, it was the very first first game. I think back then it was called a play-in game. I realize it's First Four now. But then we started the 64th and 65th teams in the tournament, Northwestern State and the Winthrop Eagles. We played a game here. Obviously it was such a success the NCAA said they needed more. So now they've expanded it to 68. And four games instead of one. We lost that game. Kid named D'or Fischer, I think, blocked 11 shots, maybe set a record, and ended up transferring to West Virginia, if I'm not mistaken. Great atmosphere that game. I'm sure it will be wonderful tomorrow. Obviously we've got a challenge with Vanderbilt and their size and talent. But we're excited to be included. And we're looking forward to the game tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Marshall. Q. Every season has a personality. What's been the personality of this season? It's been, in my estimation, unlike any other that you've had at Wichita State. GREGG MARSHALL: I think it's been a testament to just dealing with adversity. This season, going in, there's high expectations. You've got the two seniors coming back that had options to go play professionally, high preseason ranking. And then in the closed scrimmage that we had against Oklahoma State, Fred VanVleet pulls that hamstring. And we tried to get him healthy. And we sit him out during the exhibition. And he sits out the first game. And tells us he's fine. He's going to then play and tries to play against Tulsa at Tulsa in our second game of the season and reinjures it and actually really pulls it pretty badly this time. So he goes down. And Landry Shamet goes in the starting lineup, and a game later he goes down with a stress fracture. He's yet to come back. He'll probably apply for a medical redshirt at the end of the season. And in the tournament in Orlando, Anton Grady goes down with a spinal concussion. So he's paralyzed temporarily. We don't know if he'll ever play again. So all of that was just very difficult. And trying to get through that and manage -- I remember walking off the court after losing the third game in Orlando to Iowa. We played in the seventh-place game against Iowa. And we were just -- the guys were really down, and it was a very difficult time, and I'm just thinking man, first of all, we've got to get some horses back in the stable so we can play this schedule that we've got upcoming. And then I've got to keep them confident. And that was the hardest part, coming -- Fred coming back, obviously not 100 percent, but working his way into being 100 percent, that probably didn't happen until middle of January. Anton Grady then coming back after missing a handful of games. Conner Frankamp becoming eligible as a mid-year transfer for, I think, the UNLV game and then the Utah game was his second game. So we had to just deal with a lot of adversity this year with injuries. And we finally got him healthy, as healthy as we're going to be with Landry not coming back, and winning like 22 of 25. Unfortunately, when you lose in the Valley now, late in the year, people said, well, what's going on? Why are they losing in the Valley? You can't lose in the Valley. UNI is a good team, and they'll represent tomorrow or Thursday, whenever they play, against Texas. We lost at Illinois State, another fairly talented team. They stormed the court. It's a big deal. And ultimately our metrics were good enough, all the analytics and whatnot to get us in the tournament. And now it's on us to play and hopefully advance and prove that we belong. Q. Coach, if you've seen enough of Vanderbilt you know they're a different team when Damian Jones is in foul trouble. Is that the way to combat a big like him, especially him, to go at him, to attack him? GREGG MARSHALL: Well, that can work both ways. I mean, he moves extremely well for a seven-footer. When you look at him, you think you're looking at a 6'6" kid out there because of the way he moves. He's so naturally gifted athletically. You can also attack him and eat some leather. He's going to send it back at you. So I'm not sure. I think you can try that, and if you're successful that's great. But if it doesn't work, you know, your shooting percentage is going to be way down, because he's definitely a rim protector. And he's going to meet you at the rim and challenge everything. Q. Gregg, I just talked to Anton. The kid's just beside himself how excited he is. This is why he came here. Have you had an opportunity to talk to him about this moment. Has he said anything? Have you noticed it? GREGG MARSHALL: You know, the reaction of our team yesterday was not surprising when it popped up in the first bracket in the South Region, 11 seed, going to Dayton, playing on Tuesday. Very matter of fact. I didn't know what that meant. I didn't know whether they were upset, despondent, just nervous. So didn't really say anything, told them to go home, get some rest. We practiced this morning before we left. But after our practice today, I brought the team together, and I asked Anton specifically in front of the team, I said: Have you ever been to the NCAA Tournament? I knew the answer was no. And I said: What do you feel about this? I mean, are you excited? He goes: Oh, absolutely. And he lit up, just as you mentioned, Will. And I think that's when our team -- his excitement then permeated through the team. And I think that we'll be ready to play. We've got to make some shots and we've got to defend a very talented club on the other side. But it's great to not be jaded. I mean, Ron and Fred, they just sat here and you would have thought they were just a couple of businessmen giving a presentation. They're so used to it. They've been doing it their whole careers. But it's not something that's your God-given right. It's something that you've got to earn and you should appreciate it and hopefully we can make it special. Q. How important is that to have that influx of new fresh energy? I know he's not a young kid. How important is that? GREGG MARSHALL: It's just the nature of our game. You can only keep these guys five years max. They play five years to play four, even though some people think that Baker and VanVleet are on their second four-year term. And the reason is because they went to the Final Four as freshmen. They were part of a nice run and people got to know them. Then they followed that up with a 35-0 season. So they're known in college basketball for a long time now. But you've got Anton Grady, who gets his first experience with this. Guys like Markis McDuffie, the Missouri Valley Conference Rookie of the Year. I know Markis has got to be bouncing off the walls. He was a 17-year-old freshman when he arrived. And he's very excitable anyway. So he'll have the guys loose. Q. Could you describe Wade Baldwin and what he does for them, what kind of problems he poses? GREGG MARSHALL: Well, first of all, he's their point guard. He runs the show. Someone told me he's like 6'4" -- I haven't seen him in person -- but he has a 6'10" wing span. And I did see him just jump up and try to dunk a back cut. I went, man, I can't believe he tried to dunk that. It wasn't an easy dunk attempt. And he just reached back and tried to backhand dunk it on one of the videotapes that I've seen. Then one of my assistant coaches -- I saw him dunk in transition -- and one of my assistant coaches said he seems to follow Russell Westbrook's game. You see guys follow or emulate certain NBA players. And he's got some of that. And so obviously he's ultra-talented, long, can get to the rim, can shoot it deep, has a nice stroke. So I mean they've got a handful of very talented players. And we're going to have our hands full. They're bigger, they're more athletic. They're longer. They shoot it better. So I'm trying to find our advantage. Q. You mentioned that Fred and Ron looked like businessmen just talking about business up there earlier. There's some stoicism on this team. What's the blend? Is it good to have stoic players? Is it good to have excitable players? You're certainly not, I wouldn't describe you as stoic. What's the right blend for a team? GREGG MARSHALL: You know, I'm not sure. I think that you've got to have a little bit of everything. I think that plays off of -- one guy's strengths may be another guy's weakness. You just hopefully get a nice blend. This team has been easy to coach. They're great kids. We've said it all year. We've really enjoyed coaching them. They're nice guys. But once they're in the lines, they've got to turn on another switch. And hopefully they can do that tomorrow. Q. Talking about that, with so many seniors, guys that have played 120 games, you've called them iconic players in Wichita State history. How much have you had to coach them in their aftermath of Northern Iowa? Is part of you just saying, hey, you guys have been here, you've been to Final Fours, it's kind of up to you now? GREGG MARSHALL: We did work on the mental game this past week. We had a lot of time to do that. All we were doing is watching other people play, trying to break down the brackets, be prognosticators and watch film. The practices were short, but intense. The film study was longer and very telling, very honest, very open. And we talked about, to take nothing away from you and I, I think they're a tremendous team. Great coach. They do a wonderful job. But you're two for 24 from three and 16 to 18 of those are wide open looks. You've got to make more than two. And we've just got to perform better. And that's what we talked about. If we're going to make a run -- if I ask you in this room who performed well in the video room and you get one, maybe two hands go up, that's not enough. And in order for us to make a run, we're going to have to get a handful or more of good performances tomorrow and then if we get a chance to go to Providence, it's got to happen there, too. Because there's no -- you have one bad day in this tournament and you're done. Q. I asked Ron and Fred how to counter Vanderbilt's size. He said you guys will bring waves of bigs, you'll sub frequently. What's the goal there? If that works, subbing in a big every five, six minutes, is it to wear down the opponent's legs, foul trouble, if that works, what happens? GREGG MARSHALL: Five or six minutes? You're giving my guys the benefit of the doubt. It's more like two or three. Yeah, exactly. We want to keep them fresh. There's very little drop-off when you go from Shaq Morris to Anton Grady to Rauno Nurger. So we're going to try to keep them fresh and perhaps playing at 100 percent peak efficiency versus Damian Jones, who obviously has some good subs coming in. We mentioned Josh Henderson and guys like that. But we've got to make sure that we're the fresher, more energetic, more passionate team. And if we can do that, hopefully we can make a couple of shots and have a chance. Q. You hear people say all the time the importance of having a senior back court in the tournament. How important is that in your mind, an experienced back court, and what situations does that most manifest itself in games? GREGG MARSHALL: You know, with Fred and Ron's case, which is who you're speaking of specifically, it really hasn't changed much from in the last four years. I mean, they were very mature, dynamic performers that played well beyond their years. They were precocious if you will as freshmen in that Final Four run. I remember Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet both making big plays. We beat the No. 1 seed in the whole tournament, Gonzaga. And then to reach the Sweet 16. And then to reach the Final Four, both of them played great and hit big shots against Ohio State. And both of them played great against Louisville in the semifinals. So, really, it's interesting you ask that, because I was just joking with Ron Baker. I said can we get that freshman Ron Baker back, because you didn't care a thing in the world, you just balled out. And that's what we need tomorrow. Q. You just sparked a question there. You said to Ron: Can we get that freshman back? Do you feel like they're carrying too much weight on their shoulders? GREGG MARSHALL: I don't know. You have to get them back in here and ask that question. But it's interesting how free and easy they played as freshmen with not a care in the world, and now who knows what's on their mind, whether it's what's next. But I know that they'll give everything that they've got. They're obviously very mature and focused and strong-willed young men. So we anticipate them playing well. But they've got to knock down some shots. They've got to let it go; stop aiming the ball and shoot it. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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