	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: OKLAHOMA

March 18, 2016

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Texas A&M-92, Green Bay-65

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by the Green Bay Phoenix, Coach Linc Darner and his student-athletes Carrington Love and Jordan Fouse. Coach, your thoughts about tonight's game?

COACH DARNER: I think we played an outstanding team in Texas A&M. I think they're good enough to make a run at it. I was telling their guys afterwards that they've got a heck of a team.

I thought the first ten or 12 minutes before we got into foul trouble, I thought we caused them some problems. I thought we got them to turn the ball over. I think we turned them over 10 or 11 times in the first eight or nine minutes of the game. I thought when we got in foul trouble and we couldn't keep pressing them because we had to play rotations that we hadn't played much this year, I thought they made a run.

In the second half, they just got on a roll that we couldn't stop. I think their size, their length bothered us. Shooting the basketball, which I was worried about. And we had a tough time guarding them down low. I mean, they're huge down low compared to what we are.

I give these guys a lot of credit. Our two seniors, what an unbelievable job they did for us this year getting Green Bay back to the NCAA Tournament. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be sitting up here. I'm just glad I had an opportunity to coach them for a year. I wish I had them for a couple more.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for our student-athletes.

Q. Jordan, can you summarize their inside presence?
JORDAN FOUSE: Like Coach said, they're a big team and that's where they wanted to get the ball. You look at the stats, they had 46 points in the paint. I mean, there is almost no way we can win with those numbers. But they're a big team, and they knew that we were undersized, and that's what they did. They just pounded the ball inside and we had a tough time guarding them.

Q. Carrington, I know this is a tough way for it to end, but do you think, when you look back on it, it will take away at all from the excitement that you guys have felt during this run to make it here?
CARRINGTON LOVE: It's going to hurt for a little while, you know, realizing that we're done with our collegiate career. But I love what this team has done for the program and the excitement it's brought back to Green Bay basketball.

Like Coach said, we haven't been to the NCAA Tournament in 20 years, and RP40 will be on the map for years to come.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Darner.

Q. You were about 20 points or so under your average today. How much of that was what you weren't doing and how much of it was A&M's defense?
COACH DARNER: I think a lot of it was their defense. We had a tough time scoring against them. Even when we got steals and we got out in transition, we had a hard time scoring. They're an outstanding team defensively, and that was one of my big worries coming in with this game was if we'd be able to score enough points to stay with them. We just weren't able to do that today. We probably shot too many threes, but that's kind of what they make you shoot. Now all of a sudden we're shooting over 6'6", 6'7", 6'8" guys, and you can't simulate that in practice for our guys. That makes a big difference.

Q. Tyler Davis for them, does he play like a freshman?
COACH DARNER: I don't think so. This time of year I don't know if anybody's a freshman. But he was a load down low. We knew they were going to look to pound it into their guys down low, and we talked about getting down there and digging it out and forcing them to throw it out. The only problem is he's really good at sealing you right at the basket, and he did a great job of that and they did a great job of getting him the ball.

They're a lot bigger than us inside. They're a lot more physical than what we are inside. We knew if it got inside we were going to have trouble. Like Jordan said, they got 46 points in the paint.

The other big thing that hurt us too was we got 14 steals. We only got 16 points off turnovers. We turned them over. I don't think too many teams have turned them over like we were able to, but we just could not convert. If we could convert, I think that would have helped us a little bit. It would have put more pressure on them when we couldn't convert and they can come down and run all their stuff. It's too hard for us to guard them.

Q. Coach, did you feel like you had them rattled in the first opening minutes there?
COACH DARNER: I thought our pressure -- like I said, I thought our pressure bothered them. When they set ball screens for House, we trapped them. We watched a lot of film, and we didn't see anybody else do that. We were just going to do it on him. We thought it was very important to get the ball out of his hands. I thought we got them to play a little bit faster than what we wanted them to, and we got them to turn it over.

The only problem is we turned them over early and we weren't scoring. We needed to be up more than four or five. I don't know what our biggest lead became, but it needed to be bigger than what it was because I didn't know if we could continue to turn them over, as much foul trouble as we were getting in.

Q. For the end of the first half, they were going to the free-throw line but you weren't. Were you settling too much for the threes, do you think?
COACH DARNER: I think a little bit. I think a little bit. I think it had a little to do with their size. I thought, in the second half, we did a better job of attacking, which we've done all year. But, I mean, it's hard to get some good looks against them. They're so long and athletic and take up so much space. They can cover a lot more ground than what we can on the defensive end.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297