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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: CHICAGOMarch 25, 2016Steve ProhmMonté MorrisGeorges NiangChicago, Illinois Virginia 84, Iowa State - 71. STEVE PROHM: First off, just want to congratulate Coach Bennett and Virginia on a terrific win tonight and wish them good luck in the regional final. The biggest thing, I'm just disappointed for these guys, these two guys sitting next to me. I don't really want to talk about the game, it's more I just want to thank these guys publicly for their leadership because if they didn't have the character that they have, we wouldn't be in the Sweet 16. So I just want to thank these guys on a public level to say, thank you for what you've done for me and sticking with me this year. I appreciate that immensely, and I'll always be there for these guys. When you look at the whole scheme of it, these two guys have played in two Sweet 16s and these two guys are a big part of what's the resurgence of what's put Iowa State basketball back on the map over the last four years, and no one can take that away from these guys. We weren't good enough defensively in the first half. If you want to break the game down, our first-half defense wasn't good enough to win this level game. Our second-half defense was, but our first-half defense wasn't. When you get behind 10 with them, you've almost got to be perfect at times, and you know we had a couple shots rim in and out, some free throws to where we could get it to six and put some real pressure on them, but it didn't happen. Extremely proud of this group, every one of these guys, 1 through 12, 13, whatever we had this year, but I'm especially proud of these two guys next to me. Q. Steve, could you talk about Tobey and what you anticipated from him in your scouting report? STEVE PROHM: Well, the one thing that concerned me, they do a great job in their motion, their twirl action, blocker, mover, everybody has got a different name for it. I call it circles, their action. But the thing that's given our team troubles at times is the physicality up front. When you've got Tobey and Gill up there, we made them miss at times in some big possessions. You know, Tobey, you look at, I think he had four offensive rebounds and probably scored on each one of those and had 18, Gill had 23. Perimeter wise we did a pretty good job. But some of those were on dump-downs and against the press later on probably, as well. But Tobey is big and physical, and those guys like that have presented us a problem throughout the year. He was good today, Gill was good, and Wilkins. Q. Georges, could you talk about the foul trouble you were in and how frustrating it was to be over there with your fourth one? GEORGES NIANG: Yeah, I mean, fouls, they happen. I probably could have done a better job of putting myself in a better position, being a senior and not putting myself in position to pick up fouls. Obviously that was frustrating, but this is do or die, win or go home, so I really just had to figure out a way to get through it. My teammates did a good job of encouraging me, and I'm just bummed that we couldn't continue this run. Q. Georges, how much of a surprise was Tobey's performance? He came in averaging about six points a game and he put up 18 tonight. GEORGES NIANG: I wouldn't say it's surprising. Virginia offered him a scholarship, so they obviously thought he was pretty good. He did what big guys do, keep the ball high, rebound the ball, and put the ball in the hoop. I mean, his shoots were from point-blank range, and taking advantage of a mismatch. So obviously he did a great job when he thought he could score on smaller guys. I think we could have done a better job of making him score over the top, though. Q. A lot was said before the game about the different pace of the two teams. It seems as if you got the pace you wanted. What did you think about their ability to put points on the board? STEVE PROHM: Well, I mean, they're very good. They're 29-7, a top team in the ACC. They shoot the ball extremely well. They've got a couple guys that shoot it well. The biggest thing is in the first half, our first-half defense wasn't great. The second-half defense was. We put some pressure on them. I thought the pace of play wasn't a big deal either way. When you really look and break it down, we turned it over a little bit too much and they shot 56 percent from the field. In tournament play we can't give up that many. Q. What did you think about your fans and the support you got here today? STEVE PROHM: Unbelievable. It's what -- Iowa State is an unbelievable place. It's got to be one of the top-five fan bases in the country. I don't know if there's -- there may be as good, I don't really know if there's really any truly better. Our home games are unbelievable, the way we travel, the Big 12 Tournament, the way we traveled to Denver. Today is probably three quarters Cyclone fans, and you're disappointed for them. You're obviously more disappointed for your players, but you're disappointed for everybody part of Cyclone Nation and Iowa State today. Q. Monté, when Georges went down with his fourth foul, how did you guys need to step up during that second half? What was going through you guys' minds when Georges picked up his fourth foul? MONTÉ MORRIS: It was tough when he went out. That's our backbone. We look to him to provide a lot for us. He had it going tonight, and when he went out, we had to look elsewhere for production. We just didn't come through. We didn't get stops when we needed it, and it showed. We can't get it back. We wished he was out there, but things happen in this game of basketball. Q. Steve, on Georges' foul issues, you used him in the first half with three. What was your strategy in the second half when he picked up his fourth? STEVE PROHM: That was a stretch where we were really guarding, I thought. Georges, I thought he had really good defensive possession, good contest, and I'll have to look at the tape to see more on that. But I think it was around the 12-minute mark I'm guessing. I can't remember. Probably to the 10-minute mark, but it was a live ball action, so I ended up having to use a time-out because it was starting to get under 10. I was trying to keep him out until 10 and let him go back at 10, sit him out from that 12 to 10 mark. There was a live ball action going back and forth to where I couldn't get him back in, so I ended up having to get a time-out there. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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