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NCAA MEN'S FIRST FOUR: DAYTON

March 15, 2016

Dayton, Ohio

FGCU - 96, Fairleigh Dickinson - 65

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by the head coach of Fairleigh Dickinson, Greg Herenda, and Darian Anderson, Earl Potts, Jr. and Marques Townes. Coach, an opening statement.

GREG HERENDA: I want to give the credit to Florida Gulf Coast. We knew they were very good, very long, very well-coached. And tonight they played that way. I'm disappointed that we didn't play our basketball, Fairleigh Dickinson basketball in the first half. If we had, it could have been a competitive game in the second half. But the credit goes to Florida Gulf Coast. My guys are still champions. If I'm going to tell everybody they're the third youngest team in America to absolutely win a championship, the fact remains we're still the third youngest team. And tonight we played like that early in the game. But, again, Florida Gulf Coast gets the credit. I love my players. I think they'll realize what we did in days to come. In these minutes, I told my team there's going to be 67 teams that have the same feeling that we have. But the feeling, no matter when it happens, is really harsh and difficult. But, again, the credit goes to Florida Gulf Coast.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. I'll start with you Earl. Just what was it like being out there? Was it different than what you expected and what happened that let the game get away so quickly in terms of you guys missed a lot of shots to start, I guess?
EARL POTTS JR.: We just came out to a slow start. As you can see in the first possession of the game, we really just couldn't pick it up the first half. We got it in the second half, which was too late.

Q. Earl, was it their size and their speed that sort of caught you off guard early? Were they bigger and faster than you anticipated?
EARL POTTS JR.: No, we were expecting them to be big and long and fast as they were, we just didn't come out to the start that we should have came out to.

Q. For Marques and Darian, what do you guys take away from the season? I know tonight didn't go the way you wanted. But is it too soon to realize what you accomplished and what do you take away from this overall?
MARQUES TOWNES: Well, what we want to take about all this is we had one hell of a season. We had one hell of a run. We fought hard all season and we accomplished our goal, which was to get to the NCAA and play in March Madness and we just happened to come up short. But that doesn't diminish our season. We still accomplished what we came here to do and we just happened to fall short.

DARIAN ANDERSON: We did accomplish our goal. But we wanted to accomplish more. Not using the word "young", we just felt we didn't come out ready to play. And this is a learning -- we just learned from it, come back next to make adjustments.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach.

Q. Apologize for asking you to forecast FGCU forward a little bit. But they're built kind of with Power Five conference teams in mind. Can you just offer some thoughts on how they might do versus a 1 in this case, UNC?
GREG HERENDA: I'm a basketball coach, not a prognosticator. But if they play the defense that they played tonight, they really, really defend, all the things we said probably to them, they defend really well. They search out good shots. They're a really good basketball -- they need to take better care of the basketball. And if you turn the ball over in college basketball, it's a problem. And we forced 18 turnovers tonight, and that's what kind of kept us alive. But I heard Joe when I came in here, he's coached in every round of the tournament at Kansas and his kids are really good. I coached in Conference USA for five years and they're Conference USA caliber players, quick, athletic, shoot it. You have to make foul shots and not turn it over. But I loved the team. I really do. And I apologize to Joe, because we just didn't push them enough in that first half. And I just wanted to give them a better game. I think youth had something to do with it, but we were just a step slow tonight. And I think it's the quick turnaround. Our goal that we just made in the locker room is to come back here and win a game. Fairleigh Dickinson has never won a NCAA game, and that's our goal. Our goal previous was to get here. We got here. We won a championship. So proud of these kids. Now we have to get back, and I think going through it once is going to help us the next time we get back here.

Q. You said you were disappointed. Were you also surprised that your team didn't come out faster?
GREG HERENDA: Well, we've done this a lot. We did it in the Wagner game. But we were able to come back. But when you play at a level of caliber player and team that Florida Gulf Coast presented tonight, you just can't do that. And I think our guys have to learn. The one thing that we as a young group, we need to be more urgent, more often. And they play hard in practice, but I'm a very demanding coach and when we are going to win a game in this tournament, the players need to be more demanding of themselves. And I think that comes with experience. But I'm just -- I just said it before: The further we get away from this game, the more we'll understand how much we did this year. We were picked ninth in the league and won a championship. And it was a terrific year. It's just a very sobering feeling. When you compete, and these kids compete every drill, every possession, every day and the finality is hard. And that's why this tournament is the greatest tournament that God ever made, because the benefit's incredible, but the expenses of your heart and your soul are -- it hurts.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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