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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 2, 2017

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

Evansville - 83

Indiana State - 72

THE MODERATOR: Indiana State Sycamores are with us now. Everett Clemons and T.J. Bell represent the student-athletes. Greg Lansing is in the middle. We're going to ask him to make a statement on the game and then go to questions.

GREG LANSING: Just really disappointed in how we started the game, I thought at both ends of the floor. For one, Evansville is much more aggressive than we were. They were playing much more like a team that wanted to play at noon tomorrow, and we were not. We were out of sync on offense, quick shooting, taking bad contested shots early in the possession on one or no passes, really fueled their transition. I think they had 17 points in the first half in transition. So we got behind big to start and were battling uphill the whole way.

It's a little bit like our season. I hate saying it's been a disappointing season because of the way I feel about the seniors and how much I love the seniors, but I know they're disappointed too. They're terrific guys that are going to have tons of success once they leave Indiana State. T.J. is already in grad school. The rest of these guys are going to graduate and go on and do great things for their family for life. So I'm disappointed because of how good of people they are and how they represented us, but it's not Indiana State basketball and we've got to make some changes. We've got to be better. We weren't good enough this year. Just more motivated to get to work and do what we need to do and to get this program better.

These guys, the way Ev played the last 15 minutes of the game, nobody plays harder, competes harder, does more, wants to win more. So just disappointed for the seniors and the outcome.

Q. For both of you guys, as Greg mentioned, it was tough to get out of the gate today. What do you think Evansville is doing to make it hard, and what made it hard for yourselves to do that?
THE MODERATOR: T.J. first then Everett.

T.J. BELL: I think they really, they just pushed the ball. We just needed to talk and communicate. I think that was one of the biggest things. Other than that, they didn't do anything really special.

DUANE GIBSON: Like Coach said, they came out more aggressive, and we came out pretty flat. They beat us to all the 50-50 balls, and they were just more aggressive than us.

Q. Again, for both of you guys, I know the team was dealing with some illness and dealt with it tonight. Q didn't play at all or wasn't even here. How much did that affect preparations, and how much didn't it affect the game? Where do you put that in terms of this particular game?
EVERETT CLEMONS: I don't really like making excuses. It's next man up. We had more than enough to win. Q is a big factor on our team. He's a big defensive stopper for us, but we had enough out there. We just didn't get the job done.

T.J. BELL: Yeah, I agree with what Ev said. I think Q helped us get ready for preparation, and he was there. It was honestly shocking whenever he didn't show up, but he couldn't do anything really about it. Wishing he gets better.

Q. I know for both of you, it's difficult to reflect on the season right now. What do you take away from it, and what do you want your teammates that are moving on to be able to do to get better?
T.J. BELL: I want my teammates to learn from all of these -- from their mistakes and just to play hard and listen to Coach. He knows what he's talking about. I think he'll get them back on track and get them ready for the season, for the next season.

EVERETT CLEMONS: I just want them just to buy in and play together as a team. You have to understand that, in order to be successful as a whole, you have to play together, and winning solves everything. So off-season starts now for them. If I have a chance to go out there and help them while I'm still on campus, I'll be there every day. I still work hard.

It's just weird now that this season's it for me. I'm still a leader, though.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, we'll dismiss you. We'll stay with Coach Lansing a little longer.

Q. Greg, as you said, in many ways the start of the game was kind of a microcosm of a lot of things that have happened this season. Shooting wasn't there. The stops weren't there. I think Evansville had the first ten rebounds in the game. Unfortunately, it's kind of a pattern that's been happening all year.
GREG LANSING: Yeah, I think for the last month and a half, other than at Loyola, we've played better, we've competed harder at both ends of the floor. I thought we were getting better. Just went down to Evansville and had a really tough game and then a game that we could have won. It's usually a better fight than that.

We just didn't come and compete with them tonight. They came out and punched us right in the face, and we did not respond. They were more aggressive on both ends of the floor. The hungrier, more determined team won. They asserted their will, and we were kind of a punching bag there for a while.

It's easy to play when you're 20, 25 ahead. It's easy to do that. If you have any competitiveness in you at all, you're doing that from the start. So really disappointing. Really disappointing.

I've got to be a lot better. I've allowed this. I'm the head coach, and I've allowed this. I'm not happy about it. I know some things that need to change and how I need to change and how our program needs to get back to being what we've been in our tenure.

Q. I know you don't like making excuses, but tonight certainly, the illness that was running through the team had to have some influence. Not having Q being the biggest one. But as far as the hunger that maybe you wanted to see, how much of that -- where do you kind of put the illness in that context?
GREG LANSING: I didn't even think about it. Really, I didn't. We walked in here, and we had four guys get IVs today, but I didn't think about that. This is it. You're one and done.

I'm a coach's kid. Every day of my life, if you don't win a state championship or a National Championship, you end in a loss. That's what the competitive sports are all about.

I agree with both of these guys, what they said. There's no excuses, and we have plenty enough to win. The better team won. The better team wanted to win more and was more determined and did what they needed to do. It has nothing to do with anything. There's injuries and illnesses all year long. I think they had one guy out too that didn't play against us last time and didn't play again tonight. Everybody has that. I'm not going to make any excuses at all.

Give Evansville a lot of credit. They were better prepared, played harder, and a better team.

Q. When did you know that you weren't going to have Laquarious?
GREG LANSING: That was about last minute. I'd say a half hour before we get on the bus. We had stages where I think there was eight or nine of the guys that had the same thing, had the same virus. Some had it Sunday, Monday. Some had it Monday, Tuesday, and just kind of went through.

Q was okay this morning, but then he got sicker as the day went on. One of our GAs got sick, so it went through us pretty good. Demonte hasn't been playing and he wasn't here. He's sick. Donny hasn't been playing. He's the only other one that didn't play. We're very, very capable of competing better than we did tonight.

Q. What did you tell your team in the last 10 or 12 minutes to kind of spark that run towards the end of the game?
GREG LANSING: That's a position I hate, and I've been in it a couple times this year when you feel like you have no chance. I'm always going to stay positive, ask them to keep playing hard, keep competing, have some pride. Keep fighting, doing those things. It's not fun.

You know, you're down the whole game. There's been a lot of times in huddles and time-outs during games this year where I don't know what to say to them because I can't understand how you start a game like that. I don't understand how you can't compete every possession like it's your last. I don't get that. We haven't had that this year.

We have good guys. We have good people. But we were not near as tough and competitive. Those huddles are no fun. I don't think it has anything to do with what I say. You're either going to compete or not. If you're down that much, it's easy to keep playing hard.

Q. Greg, it's the toughest season you've had. You've had things you said you want to learn from it and improve from it. What are some of the things you want to do, and what are some of the first thoughts that come into your head? I imagine you've been thinking about it, but what are some of the things you want to change?
GREG LANSING: We have to keep recruiting. We have to keep working on our roster. I really like what we have coming in here to this point. We still have more guys to recruit. We're going to do it.

Staff's been working their tail off. I've got a great staff. There hasn't been many times in our tenure where we've made mistakes recruiting. There really hasn't. We've gotten guys we've liked and been good players for us. We might have overvalued some at times, and maybe that happened to us a little bit this year.

But in the off-season, it's got to be tougher. I think I said that last year. I'm going to be tougher on them, harder on them. And then you like the guys so much and they do work hard, then maybe I'm not -- I don't develop the leadership or the toughness that we need, and that's not going to happen again. That will not happen. I'm going to be very hands on and involved in everything we do.

These guys are good students. They're great students. They represent us in every way in the community, but my job has to do with our record. Our record has not near good enough this year. We weren't good enough, and that's going to change.

Q. Coach, I guess, to go on a positive, Jordan Barnes has had a fantastic close to the season. What are your expectations of him moving forward inside the program?
GREG LANSING: I wouldn't say fantastic. You know, he's all freshman team. That's pretty good. Good kid. He's got to get a lot better. All of the things I just talked about, that's got to come from him too. I have high expectations for him. Point guard. I was a point guard. The point guard's got to be a leader, got to be a tough guy. And to be able to communicate and talk, that holds you accountable. If you're going to be able to speak, you'd better be doing all the right stuff at all times and compete at a high level and he set a good example.

He's got to learn to do whatever Clemons did the last 15 minutes of that game. He's got to fight hard. He's showed glimpses of it. He's super talented. He can be special, and I'm counting on him to be, but he's got to get better too. He's got to get better and tougher and bring his team with him as a leader.

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