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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DENVERMarch 17, 2016Kevin WillardIsaiah WhiteheadDerrick GordonDenver, Colorado Gonzaga - 68, Seton Hall - 52 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Seton Hall. We'll go directly to questions for the student-athletes. Q. Isaiah, 4-24 from the field. Was it what they were doing defensively or was it an off night? ISAIAH WHITEHEAD: I feel it was just an off night. I faced some of the toughest defensive groups in the country playing in the Big East. This is probably my worst shooting performance. I think it was just more missing shots. I had some good looks, but just couldn't knock 'em down. Q. Derrick, it didn't look like the Seton Hall team we've seen the last month. They seemed the more aggressive team. Was it the altitude? First time in the tournament for a lot of your guys? DERRICK GORDON: I mean, we rushed it a little bit, more so definitely me. We were just being too fast on offense and not being patient with things like we usually are. Especially just the first-round game, so this was quite new for everybody. That's my job. I should have stepped in and be able to calm everything down. But sometimes things don't go the way you plan on. Q. What did you think of Sabonis' game? ISAIAH WHITEHEAD: I mean, Sabonis, he's a great player. He finishes around the basket. I mean, he rebounds with the best of them. I mean, you just have to take your hat off to him. He had a terrific game. He really didn't make a lot of mistakes. Q. Z, how will you look back? I know it's tough right now, but what will you think of when you look back at the season and the things you accomplished? ISAIAH WHITEHEAD: I mean, we accomplished some amazing things, so it's probably a lot of amazing things that you guys didn't think we can do. I mean, it's been an unbelievable year with this group. A really young group. I mean, we only can look at the future. Q. Derrick, could you reflect on what your lone year here in South Orange has been like? DERRICK GORDON: It's been great. Just like I said before, coming in I didn't really know what to expect. More at the beginning of the season I had to get my feet wet. I mean, it's been an amazing year. I mean, my senior year, finishing out the way we did, would have wished things went a lot better tonight. But overall I felt, I mean, I had a pretty good career finishing off. So, I mean, I can't look down at it. Q. Isaiah, to go from the Garden last Saturday to tonight, describe the range of emotions. ISAIAH WHITEHEAD: I mean, our emotions was running high. I think part of the reason why is because of who we beat those last two games. I think we were real confident. Once we got out on the floor, we wanted to win so bad, I mean, we really just sped the game up when we really didn't have to. Q. What do you think the underclassmen will learn from this experience? ISAIAH WHITEHEAD: I mean, just knowing how to handle things throughout the year. I mean, just like I said before, it only can get better from this year. I mean, we had an amazing year, we won the Big East championship. There's not a lot of sophomores that actually did that, to win at Big East championship with a group of sophomores in one season. We had a great year. I can't really speak how happy I am with the year we had. THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student-athletes at this time. We'll continue with questions for Coach Willard. Q. Did it hurt you guys at all having to wait so long to play this game? Did that add to the nerves or anything like that? COACH WILLARD: No, no. I mean, they had to wait, too. They're a good basketball team. You know, they're a really good basketball team. They got redshirt seniors. Obviously Sabonis is really good. I thought we had a couple opportunities in the first half to kind of maybe calm our nerves. We missed a couple free throws. We missed a couple open looks. You just can't do that with such a good basketball team. I think we got stuck on 21 for about four minutes. They're just too good of a team to do that. Q. What do you think happened to Isaiah tonight? COACH WILLARD: I mean, you know, you play this game long enough, he had eight assists, two turnovers, and two steals. You have bad nights. He had probably three of the best games that anyone's had in the Big East tournament in a long time. He had some good looks. He got to the rim. You know, he just couldn't find it. I give him credit, though. He kept being aggressive. He's been aggressive all year. Sometimes you just don't make shots. Q. Would you rather him kind of defer more with the shot not falling or were you fine with him continuing to shoot? COACH WILLARD: You can answer that question. You think you're going to get him to defer? You know, I mean, he's been our guy all year. He's been our guy all year. You can't take the reins off it because, again, I have so much confidence I thought the next one was going to go in. When you have that confidence in your players, you're not going to sit there and say, Okay, stop shooting because you're not feeling it. I had the confidence he was going to make some. It wasn't like he was missing bad. He was in and out. He had a tough night. Q. A lot of front irons. Maybe the team looked a step slow, not for lack of effort. How much did the altitude affect these guys? COACH WILLARD: I don't think the altitude -- I mean, I think both teams really got winded. I don't think the altitude. I do think we've had a very emotional last five days. You know, Sunday night when we found out we were coming out to Denver, leave on Monday. We had a good practice on Wednesday. Again, you got to give them credit. Their three guards, Perkins, McClellan and Dranginis really work hard on defense. It's been a great emotional ride. To bounce back from Saturday night to here, I thought we did a pretty good job early. We just didn't make enough shots. Q. How is Ish doing? COACH WILLARD: Ish popped his shoulder out again. It's the third time this year. He's fine. We popped it back in. He'll get an MRI tomorrow, hopefully tomorrow night. He's bounced back from it before, he's been out for a couple weeks, but he'll be back. Q. Is Sabonis the best big you've faced this year? COACH WILLARD: I'd say he's the toughest matchup we've had this year just because of how good Wiltjer's been playing and how he shoots it. It makes doubling him really hard, I mean really hard. I thought he was really impressive. What I was more impressed from his scoring was I was more impressed with his rebounding. I thought he battled. He was much more physical than he looked on film. He battled in there. I thought he did a really good job of being physical on the rebounding aspect. That's what I was really impressed with him about. THE MODERATOR: Thank you for your time, coach. COACH WILLARD: Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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