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STATE FARM CHICAGO LEGENDSDecember 17, 2016John GroceMaverick MorganTracy AbramsChicago, Illinois Illinois - 75, BYU - 73 THE MODERATOR: Coach, an opening statement, and then questions for the student-athletes. COACH GROCE: That was a great game for us. Really good team, really well-coached. I knew it going into the game how good they were offensively. I have great respect for Coach Rose, and obviously Emory and Haws, those guys are a load, Mika is terrific down low. I knew they were going to challenge us rebounding the ball. I thought our guys, it was interesting, sitting there. I'll have to watch the film, but I thought there were some times during the game where we played as well as we played all year, and then I thought there were some times where we made too many mistakes and need to clean some things up. But we'll take a look at it when we get back. The one thing I will say is our guys stepped up and made some plays. Tracy's pass to Mav, the jumper Mav makes, the steal Tracy makes with the lay-up. Hill's two free throws. Some of the rebounds that we dug out. The activity that we got off of our bench tonight. There was a lot of really, really good things that we did. Got some stops towards the end when we needed to. I thought Malcolm came up with the big loose ball underneath our basket, and I'm sure there are other plays that I'm missing that guys made that were huge. Thought it took all of us. We had contributions from everybody. Happy for the guys. Great, great game for us as we move forward. Anytime you get an opportunity to learn from a win against a really good team, we certainly view that and see that as a blessing. We'll take a look at it heading into the game on Wednesday against Missouri and see how we can get a little bit better. Q. Tracy, after the way the last couple years have gone, what does it mean to be able to play such a big part in helping your team to this win and to do it in your hometown? TRACY ABRAMS: We've all been in this whole process together. In addition of myself, it's been -- we had Mike doing the run out, so it's been a great process for us. We learned a lot. I'll say we've just been unconditional with our approach, and we've got to keep it like that. Q. Maverick, the rebounds struggled getting to you in the first part of the season. Last two games, 17 total over the last two games. What's been the difference? MAVERICK MORGAN: I would say for me personally, I guess it goes in a broader sense, kind of everybody. It's just kind of more of a mindset deal than a talent. There are talented rebounders. We have some, like Leron Black, talented rebounder. He has a knack for it. I think for most of the other people it's sort of a mindset, and I've just been trying to change my particular mindset to rebound more. Q. Mav, you played a lot of good, big men in your time. What did you notice about Nico, what stood out about him? MAVERICK MORGAN: He was really good. I'd say one thing that stood out, obviously, drawing fouls, he's one of the top people I believe in the country of doing so. I think that is just big because we were trying to balance not fouling, post trapping, giving different looks. I think we did a good job of that. But if you do kind of go down the path of fouling him, you have to post draft, we post draft when we want to, which is good, but if you end up having to do that or have to adjust because of players doing something like that, that's really dangerous. I think that's something he can do better than most people in the country. Q. Tracy, you guys made a real effort to get the ball to either Mike Thorne or Mav in the post early on. Was there something that took you away from that, or did BYU take that away from you as the game progressed? TRACY ABRAMS: I don't think it was anything that in particular took us away from it. It was a matter of they went zone a couple times, they went man. Just adjusting to the game play and understanding we've got to get it down there to the bigs. I think we did a great job. We're talking about that in the huddle. I'm sure Mav can attest to that. But we understand our weapons. Coach talks about strength in numbers, and we know that. So we're going to keep going, keep working on what we can build on. Q. What's it been like for you to watch Tracy in that journey that he's been on and now he's making plays for you, not just tonight but throughout the season? COACH GROCE: It's neat. I said going into the year I knew he was going to be a better player than he was prior to the injuries if we could keep him healthy. The Lord has blessed him with that. But he's really -- you know, it's great having him out there. Just his voice, his competitiveness, his voice in the huddle. I trust him a lot with play calls and different things. You know, he's an extension, kind of, what he does academically, what he does as a person, who he is as a player is really models what we want to be about. You know, we're just grateful that he's been blessed with some health and played some really good basketball here at the outset of the season. Q. Morgan talked about the mindset he's had in developing that. What have you noticed about how he's maybe changed his mindset? COACH GROCE: You know, he's really -- you can tell he's really just a bright kid. He understands what's going on out there after being around for four years. Those guys have really taken a lot more ownership, and we've done that on purpose because I think they're ready for that. Whether that's in how we practice, whether that's suggestions during the game, whether that's letting them lead a huddle. Mav's right in the thick of that, and I think he really feels a lot of ownership right now and understands that the hourglass is shifting. Seniors tend to be that way. But he really played well today, gave us a huge lift. I thought him and Finke were absolutely terrific coming off the bench and helping us rebound and defend, and gave us energy and made plays for us. I thought they were really good. I thought Tate was good. I thought D.J., I'd like to get him in there a little bit more. But I thought he practiced well. I thought he was solid when he was in. I thought those guys gave us a huge, huge lift. Mav, obviously, with the double-double is a big part of that. Q. You've talked a lot about getting paint touches and establishing that part of your offense. Was maybe the first half some of the better that you've done that this year? COACH GROCE: I think so. No question. I thought our guys recognized, as Tracy said, the guys get a feel for where -- he called it weapons, but obviously we've got some guys that can score in there, and they did a good job of getting the ball inside. I thought we could have gotten it in there even more in the second half. I know he mentioned the zone, but that's not an excuse. We've got to continue to play inside out and be better there. But I thought those guys were really effective when we got them the ball inside. Q. Between Tracy and veterans like D.J. who are both seniors and then local guys, do you think there is a heightened significance leading up to this game knowing how much it means to those guys being from here? COACH GROCE: Yeah, obviously, they got a chance to come home and play. In my experience in 22 years that can go one of two ways -- they can play out of character or they can play within character. That's such a delicate balance. That emotion. Making sure you're playing with emotion, but not being too emotional. I tell them, it's only a two-letter difference, but very important difference. So I thought they handled it pretty well. Obviously is it more special for them the fact that it's in their hometown? I'm sure there is an emotional element to that. But at the end of the day for us, we've talked a lot about climbing the ladder one step at a time, and today for our team it was the next step on that ladder. Fortunately, for us, we were able to win against a really good team. I thought we did some things good, and some other things not so good. We'll have to clean those up and continue on our path and journey to keep getting better. Heading in, obviously, to the next game, which is Wednesday. Q. Kind of following up on that good and bad. Where do you feel like you are in working out some inconsistencies? Or I don't know if that's the word. COACH GROCE: I think our effort's gotten better. For me, I think taking care of the ball is something that's gotten better from early on in the year. But we have a real high standard there. When you have three years in a row where we break school records, I mean, this is a heck of a place where there's been a lot of good coaches, players, teams. It's just kind of what we do, and that's not where it needs to be yet. We're working on that. Defensively I thought we took a step in the right direction tonight against a very, very potent offensive team. So I think we're getting better there. I just thought even at times, Scott mentioned it a little bit, our emphasis to get the ball inside, we could have continued to do that a little bit more. I thought at the half, we played really well. We were up 7 maybe. Is that what it was? 6. I felt like we should have been up 10-plus, but they got points off our turnovers. You look at the stat sheet, and 10-6 is not awful, but I thought there were a lot of live ball turnovers that gave them points. We've got to clean some of those things up. Q. Coach Rose was in here earlier. He said he thought you guys did a really good job of being patient against their zone in the second half. How would you assess your performance? COACH GROCE: Better. I told Doug it was weird because sometimes a team throws a zone up there and you struggle the first few possessions until you get adjusted to it. We were unbelievable the first three or four possessions, really good. Got a corner side, got the three for Ja Cole that was wide open. Then I thought we got stagnant to end the half. Then the second half, I would agree with Coach Rose. We moved it better, we were patient. We got the ball inside out, moved the ball. I thought we shared the ball a little bit better, and we were more effective against the zone there in the second half. Q. (Off microphone)? COACH GROCE: Yeah, with the fewest turnovers per game. Yeah, we've been excellent. DB will have -- I don't know what he's got on that. Ask him what year. DB, you've got the turnover deal, right? He can help you, yeah. Q. (Off microphone)? COACH GROCE: You know, they played pretty well together. We've got good production from guys that came off today. I liked what I saw there. Little more of a rhythm with the rotation, but everybody's got to be ready. We've got an interesting team when it comes to certain guys with certain strengths based on opponent and all that. A game where a guy may not play or plays less. He might play more in the next game, and I've explained that to them. They've got to be ready. It takes a certain level of maturity to do that and a very sacrificial spirit that really cares about the team. I think right now we have that, but that's something you have to -- it's like having a relationship with my wife. I can talk to her and connect and interact with her today, and if I don't do that for months, it deteriorates. It's something you have to do every day. So we've got to continue to work on that every single day, the connection that our team has. I like what I'm seeing and I think we're making progress there. Q. I don't know what the final attendance was, but not the hugest crowd, pretty quiet at times. Do you have any thoughts on how to get a better crowd? COACH GROCE: I don't, just because I can't control those things. Again, what I do know is we're staying tonight. We weren't supposed to stay. The band didn't come because of the weather. The cheerleaders didn't come because of the weather. I had several people text me that didn't make it because of the weather. So how much of that was affected by the potential of snow, ice, low temperatures, between the two cities, I don't know that. I can only guess. I don't have any idea. But at the end of the day for us, we've got to play the game that's in front of us. It was great to be here. Great opponent, great venue. Great to be in the city. Like I said, we feel blessed that we were able to win against a really good team, and we get a chance to learn from it and get better heading into Wednesday. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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