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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: PROVIDENCEMarch 19, 2016Gregg MarshallFred VanVleetRon BakerProvidence, Rhode Island Miami - 65, Wichita State - 57 GREGG MARSHALL: Well, first, it's been quite a week. This time last Sunday, we gathered around and were wondering if we were going to be invited and involved with this tournament, and we find out real early that we are and we're going to head to Dayton. So the next morning we take a flight on Tuesday and play Wednesday against a very talented Vanderbilt team. We win, and we fly in here. We got to our hotel at 5:20 a.m. on, I guess, Thursday morning. We slept most of the day or into the early afternoon and started preparing for obviously a very talented and well-coached Arizona team. Played really well. Had done it a little after midnight that night, and here we are on Saturday -- is it Saturday? -- Saturday. And just thank these guys to my right and all five seniors for allowing us to ride their coattails. They've taken us on the -- I term it a magic carpet ride for the last five years for Evan and Ron and four years for Fred. What they've done for this program, this University, the state of Kansas and college basketball, it's been incredible. Really appreciate how they've handled everything, how they've dealt with adversity. Like this past week, and then early in the year, we had to overcome injuries galore. Never seen a player paralyzed, never had an All-American try to fight through what Fred was fighting through. But they did, and they did it with dignity and class. They're tremendous professionals on and off the court. They're pros. They handle their business like pros, and I'm deeply indebted to them, as we all are. Unfortunately, we were a little short today. But that doesn't take anything away from what they've done for all of us, and I thank them publicly. Q. Fred, first 10 minutes, Miami's defense kind of really got you guys off course. What were they doing that gave you problems? FRED VANVLEET: I mean, to start the game, Rodriguez pretty much just kicked my butt and outplayed me to start the game. Gave him a really good start, and they were making everything early. Any time you can't get stops, it just takes your rhythm completely for the offensive end. And they were making shots, so they were ultra aggressive, and it was just not a good combination. Some of what you saw us doing to them the second half, they were able to do to us early, and it starts with me. Got to give him credit, he set the tone early and got it going. They got out and disrupted our timing and our rhythm a little bit, forced some uncharacteristic turnovers, and it just fueled them. We fought back, but you dig yourself a hole that deep, it's kind of hard to get out of. Q. Just describe the feeling of the careers now being over, and if that's even started to sink in yet. RON BAKER: A couple years ago, I told Fred that we would be back in the Final Four after we lost to Louisville walking down the tunnel, and I wasn't able to keep that promise to him. We weren't able to get back, and that goes to show how hard this tournament really is and how well you have to play, not only as an individual but as a group of five. The feeling right now, it's not fun. I feel disappointed. I feel like I disappointed my teammates, my family. I know that they've had a lot of fun through the years from our success, so that kind of levels things out. But it's always nice to make a deeper run in this tournament, and the more wins you get, the funner it is. Unfortunately, our ride has come to an end in this tournament and in our careers. FRED VANVLEET: It hasn't really sunk in for me yet. It's just surreal. I just want to go back and watch the film and break it down and get ready for our next team that we're playing. For it to be over, it will probably take a while to get used to. Like Ron said, we've been through so much together, and that's the only thing keeping my spirit up right now is just the type of teammates we've got, the family atmosphere that we have. It's all good when it's all good, and when you lose, you've got to wear it. It's tough right now, but I just want to thank everybody that I've ever played with my four years and all the coaches, and especially Shocker Nation. Talk about these crazy people traveling all the way out here to Rhode Island just to support us. Can't thank them enough. Just disappointed we weren't able to get it done and disappointed in myself. Like I said, the good thing about it is we did it together. We fought back together. We had each other's backs throughout the whole experience, and I wouldn't have it any other way. It's been a hell of a ride. All good things got to come to an end at some point, unless we were able to cut down the nets in Houston this year. I probably would have cried just the same just because it was over. We all sitting at this table came back for a reason this year, and I feel the same way today that I felt last year. I'm not looking forward in my future to anything else, just want to appreciate these guys and our fans and the program. Shocker Nation is real, so thank you. Q. Fred, you said Angel Rodriguez got the best of you in the beginning. How hard was he to defend in the early going from your perspective? Can you take us inside that one-on-one match-up? FRED VANVLEET: He's really quick. He's a great player. We talked about this yesterday, too. I think we played better in the first game than they did against Buffalo, so we were getting a lot of the attention. But I said it yesterday, any time you've got great players matching up, it's about who plays the best, and he obviously played much better than I did, so got to tip the cap to him. But anytime you've got a guy that quick off the bounce, there's no rim protection there, it's going to be a long night for anybody trying to guard him, so early on he got some easy looks, and if you give a great player a start like that, it's going to be a long night for you. I've been there on the other end where, I mean, it seems like everything's coming easy and it just propels you. So I definitely know what was in his mind. He was just in attack mode the whole time. I'm taking full responsibility for that. But give him credit, it wasn't like we just gave him anything. He went and took it. Credit to those guys. They'd better not lose next week. Q. Ron, you guys got down early and yet there was absolutely no quit in you. What does that say about yourself and your teammates to battle back, playing your third game in five nights in your second city? It would have been easy to pack it in, and you guys kept fighting and really put on a great show. RON BAKER: Throughout my career here, the word quit has never sank in well with our vocabulary. Our guys fight until the end. I've been in a lot of -- not very many occasions when we're down 21, but we still fought back. Early on in the year, we were down similar to Iowa, and we ended up cutting it to single-digit lead. This team and group of guys just have a lot of fight in them, and it just goes to show how well they're coached and how their character is. Q. Ron, what got you back in it? How much did the zone defense seem to really help? RON BAKER: Our change of defenses, makes and misses, I think got us back in the game, trying to throw their rhythm off offensively. They started missing some shots and we were able to get some rebounds. We executed fairly well in the second half to draw the lead down and take the lead, and we started making shots. I thought we had some breaks here and there that didn't go our way. A ball bounced in the wrong direction. That's just how the game goes down the stretch. And they were able to hit shots towards the end there that were tough, and you've got to make those shots to advance in this tournament. Q. It's obvious that everybody up there is emotional. What was going through your mind as you listened to those guys speak? GREGG MARSHALL: Just how much they mean to me, they mean to all of us. They've been unbelievable ambassadors for our program and our University and our city. As I mentioned in my opening statement, they do everything well, not just play basketball. I mean, they're just really nice gentlemen, nice young men. It'll be the last time I sit on the podium with them probably, unless I coach them in the NBA one day. I hope that they get that opportunity. They're just class guys. They're class guys, and I'm very deeply indebted and appreciative of everything that they've done for the last five years. Q. When they get off to such a good start, they're making shots from the field -- I can't imagine that happens ever to your defense -- what's going through your mind there on the bench in terms of adjustments that you need to make and how to keep the guys in it? GREGG MARSHALL: Well, you know, they're a very talented and well-coached team. They scored too easily early. They made everything. They looked really fresh and bouncy, and shots were going in for them. They were taking us out of rhythm on the other end with their quality defense. Angel Rodriguez was just -- he was a man possessed. He really played well today. Everything he shot seemed to go in. He was 9 for 11. He makes circus shots at the end of a shot clock to really put the final nail in our coffin. But we just needed to get some stops. And we weren't doing great, so we changed up defenses, and that kind of gave us a better ability to defend them, and then we got going, and finally took the lead. I thought, wow, we may actually come back and win this game. I never doubted that it was possible with these guys. But then I think they threw in a half-court lob, they lobbed it and dunked it. And then we had the lay-up, I think it was Kelly, I don't know what happened but he lost the ball, and then they hit a three. We went down four, and then the last deal was Rodriguez' jump shot off the glass at the buzzer. The guys showed a lot of fight, a lot of determination. There's no quit in them or anyone in this organization for that matter. Just really proud of them, proud of those guys in the locker room for handling the whole season the way they have, because it has not been easy. We've been through a lot of adversity with injuries and whatnot to get this opportunity to play in this tournament. Today the better team won, and I want to congratulate them again, and hopefully they can go far in the tournament. I'm very familiar with their staff and a lot of those guys are friends of mine, so I appreciate their hard work and efforts. Q. The crazy schedule, the fatigue, do you see that playing any role in that first 10 minutes or so? GREGG MARSHALL: I don't know. I mean, I don't know how you could be fatigued in the first 10 minutes and not in the last 30. I don't know. I know that it hit me about yesterday. Yesterday was the first time I really felt tired through the whole thing. I don't know. When is the last time I stayed up until 5:20 in the morning? It was probably senior year of college. And we weren't taking a red eye, that's for sure. We may have had red eyes at the end, but we weren't taking a red eye. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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