|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FINAL FOURApril 2, 2016Lon KrugerIsaiah CousinsRyan SpanglerBuddy HieldHouston, Texas Villanova - 95, Oklahoma - 51 THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we're joined now by head coach Lon Kruger and student-athletes. We'll ask Coach Kruger to please make an opening statement, then we'll take questions first for the student-athletes. COACH KRUGER: Obviously not the result that we wanted. But proud of this group. Thought Villanova played great. Congratulations to them. I thought they popped us there in the first half and we didn't respond very well to that. We came out with a little better fight to start the second half. Villanova withstood that. Then popped us again. We didn't handle that very well. But, again, credit Villanova. Thought they were great. Disappointed these guys today have this feeling, but not disappointed in this group for what they've accomplished. They've been outstanding. I'm very proud of them. They've changed the culture of basketball at the University of Oklahoma and they will have an effect on the program for a lot of years ahead. Love every one of them. Very, very proud of them. Again, I know they're going to do great things going forward. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Isaiah, can you and Ryan talk about the frustrations of playing a game like that. ISAIAH COUSINS: It's just tough just playing like that. We just came a little sluggish. They made shots, and we didn't. Everything fall apart, even when we got stops. They was just making everything. RYAN SPANGLER: Same thing as he said. We couldn't get it rolling. We haven't had a game like that this year. But give them credit, they played well. Q. Buddy, you hit the first shot you took, a three. It seemed like it was the same thing we've seen all tournament. You could just never get that two or three baskets in a row. Were they doing something? Did you just never find the spark? BUDDY HIELD: Just credit them, what they was doing. Made it tough on me. Throwing a bunch of bodies at me. Just couldn't get it going. They made shots. We was trying to find a way to make shots. They just played terrific tonight. Sometimes shots be contested, and they made them, just played great. Hats off to Villanova. They deserved it. Q. Buddy and Isaiah, obviously trying to guard them on the perimeter tonight was really tough. Talk about that, trying to stop them shooting. BUDDY HIELD: Yeah, we just trying to find a rhythm how to stop them. I feel that early in the second half we got a rhythm. After that, missed rebound, Hart got it up. Got a three-point play, momentum went back their way. They played really well today. One of the best teams I ever played in college. Just got to give them credit what they did. They made it hard for us to guard them tonight. Q. At what point does it emotionally hit you that this game got out of reach? ISAIAH COUSINS: When they just started making everything. I mean, they just throwing it up there, and everything was falling for them. I just figured that they pretty much had the game. But we just had to keep on playing. RYAN SPANGLER: Yeah, same thing he said. We felt like we'd get a bucket or two and a stop or two, then they'd hit a big three. You know, we just couldn't never get a string of stops together. BUDDY HIELD: Like they already said. Looking at the stat line, everybody was five for eight, six for seven. They shot the ball very efficient tonight. If a team do this, I feel they can go win it all. Q. Buddy and Ryan, looked like you got off to a really good start offensively. Did they do something defensively to slow you up or was it just missed shots? RYAN SPANGLER: I think it's a little of both. We missed some shots that we usually make. But they were also making us take tough shots. BUDDY HIELD: Yeah, they were aggressive on defense. They got some turnovers, went the other way. We couldn't capitalize when they had us in the halfcourt. They just keep making good shots. Q. The way they shot the ball in the first half at 67%, did you feel maybe you had taken their best shot, there was no way they could maintain that? ISAIAH COUSINS: I figure they was going to come out with a lot of energy, since last December and what we did to them. I figured they was going to be their best at shooting, just moving the ball pretty well. RYAN SPANGLER: Yeah, you know, I thought they had a good first half, or a great first half. They didn't miss very many shots. You know, I didn't think they could do that again the second half, but they did. They've been playing well this whole tournament, shooting like that this whole tournament. BUDDY HIELD: They played really great. Coming in the second half, we made our run, we had momentum going in the first couple minutes. I thought it was it for them. But they're a great team. They move the ball well. You know, they made shots. They made shots in rhythm. You can't really stop a team like that when they making good shots every possession. Q. Buddy, Bahamians everywhere are proud of you. Do you have a message for them? They want to know what's next. BUDDY HIELD: I want to say thank you a lot. Just coming where I came from, I'm just glad everybody back home got to see me play, inspired the young kids back home to be the next me or even better than me. Got to go chase my dreams next. Play in the NBA if I get a chance, I'll take the opportunity and make the best out of it. THE MODERATOR: We'd like to thank the student-athletes. We'll continue with questions for Coach Kruger. Q. Obviously a team loss tonight. Buddy only having nine, he's just gotten more for you guys throughout this tournament. He didn't seem to force it, but he didn't get to the free-throw line. Talk through his night from your perspective. COACH KRUGER: Buddy and everyone else, I thought Villanova dictated everything. They were up into us the first half. We didn't rip it strong and attack. We were playing laterally instead of downhill. On the other end, you know, they were attacking us off the dribble, winning that battle as well. They just dictated on both ends of the floor. They were great. We didn't respond very well to it. Again, not happy about that, of course. But, you know, got whipped in every way. Q. Did they do anything differently with Buddy, or did they have different kind of athletes you guys have been used to? COACH KRUGER: They did a good job. They were up into him. They were very aggressive. They had good help when Buddy did drive it. I thought their alertness, their awareness was just very, very good. They were quick to recover. They were playing with positive energy, having success, making shots. I thought their energy was just much higher than ours. Again, they played great. Q. Have you ever seen in a big game like this something snowball like it did? COACH KRUGER: Oh, it's happened, I'm sure. Don't like being a part of that. Again, I thought in the second half we made a little run there, cut it to nine early there. Then, you know, they got a couple buckets at that point, changed momentum back. We never did get a handle back on it after that. No, it's very disappointing. You'd like to think that you can stand up there and change that. We weren't able to. Q. How would you summarize kind of what Buddy meant for college basketball as a whole this season, as one of kind of the faces of college hoops? COACH KRUGER: Buddy's been a great story. When you think about, you know, being from The Bahamas, coming to the States, developing his game, affecting, like you say, a lot of people around him, not just those from The Bahamas, but people I think enjoyed watching the way he played the game, the enthusiasm, the joy that he played it with. Obviously, you know, great, great shooter, made shots, got good results on the floor. But I think even more than that, they liked the way he went about it with that passion and enthusiasm. And, again, disappointed for Buddy today. But just really appreciate everything that he's done for the program. I think college basketball, as well. He's a good story. Q. If you can, talk about the first four minutes of the second half. Coaches always mention that's the most important when you're trying to get back into a game. COACH KRUGER: Actually, first few minutes of the second half I thought we had good balance, good pop. Had good looks that didn't go. We had better activity, better movement. Again, cut it to nine at that point. Then they got a bucket or two and that kind of broke it back. Never recovered from that. Kind of snowballed downhill the rest of the way. Q. They shoot 71% for the game. Was it their great offense, your lack of defense? Also, this is a tough loss for your seniors. Do you give them a couple days, leave them alone? COACH KRUGER: We'll spend tonight with them, tomorrow. We'll get right back after it. Hey, we're disappointed. We're very disappointed. But this group is so special, mean so much. We appreciate them so much. Yeah, it was extremely disappointing. But these guys, you know, they'll bounce back. They'll get over it. They'll focus on all the great things they did throughout the year, and still not lose sight of the fact that this game was very disappointing. We own that. We're not shying away from that. Villanova was great. They played great. We didn't. So it was a combination of the two. But certainly defensively we didn't do a very good job. But certainly Villanova had a lot to do with that. Q. You talked about the snowball. Right after the TV timeout under 12, they throw that length-of-the-court pass for the dunk and the foul, their bench explodes. They end up with a 25-0 run. Was that kind of a back-breaking play emotionally a little bit? Also you talk about the great year you had. How unfair does it seem that this will be the senior's last memory of college basketball? COACH KRUGER: Well, it's tough, no question about that. I don't know that there was one play that broke our back during that stretch. Villanova had a lot of good plays. But, yeah, the seniors, they'll remember this. But again, in the long run they'll remember a lot of the positive things as well. And they should. They should. They've been a special group. They've worked hard. They've had a lot of great moments. Certainly this was a very disappointing moment. We'll remember a lot of the good times, too. Q. When it gets away from you the last 10 minutes, you were down 30, obviously you're not going to win. Were you pleased with the way your guys handled it, with the possible exception of Khadeem sprinting off the court after the game? How do you feel everybody handled the embarrassment of what happened? COACH KRUGER: Well, it becomes embarrassing right there. This is a good group of guys. They handled it well. Khadeem was disappointed with fouling out. That's okay. You know, we lost our composure there obviously and things came apart. You never like handling things like that. We'd liked to have handled their run a little bit better. Again, we didn't. They played great. Q. You had four core guys that started so many games for you. Three of them gone. You have a bunch of guys returning. When you look at the future of this team, what kind of boost will that give your program? COACH KRUGER: Oh, a tremendous boost. You know, what the seniors have done, what they've left as they leave the program in terms of a standard, work ethic, you know, as good of ambassadors as they've been in the community, the young guys have benefited tremendously from those guys. They'll be a great group to work with. They'll get right back after it next week, start trying to build that foundation for next year. Given so many are gone, graduating, a lot of open opportunities ahead. Q. 17-16, there's been 11 lead changes the first nine minutes of the game. Looks like we're in for a classic. You commit five straight turnovers. They go on a 12-0 run. What happened during that time? Did you feel there was still a chance? COACH KRUGER: Still early in the ballgame there, of course. So you always feel like there's that chance to bounce back. We didn't. But at that moment, we were very careless with the ball during that time. They made some shots, created a little bit of a margin. Still in the first half you always feel like you're going to come back and do things better, yet we didn't for any stretch of time. Q. Can you talk about some of the things that Villanova was doing that made it very hard for you guys. COACH KRUGER: Well, they did a lot of things that made it hard for us. I thought their spacing was very good. We close out, they beat us off the dribble. When Ochefu got the ball inside, he dictated to us in terms of coverage. They made shots when we doubled him in the post. He kicked it out. They were terrific. They were terrific. We didn't have any answer for them. We would have liked to, but we didn't. THE MODERATOR: We'd like to thank Coach Kruger for joining us and congratulate coach on a terrific season. COACH KRUGER: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|