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March 3, 2017
St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness
Southern Illinois - 55
Loyola Chicago - 50
THE MODERATOR: Clayton Custer and Ben Richardson represent the student body. Porter Moser, the head coach, is in the middle. We're going to ask Porter to start off with a statement on this game. Then we'll go to questions on just the two student-athletes. Porter, please.
PORTER MOSER: I first want to start off by congratulating Southern. I thought they played terrific defense. That's as good a defense as we've seen all year. They were aggressive. They were scrambling. We had some opportunities. I thought we had a bunch of unforced turnovers in the first half that was uncharacteristic of us. I think we were wired pretty high.
Coming into the game, I can remember two or three fast breaks that should have been layups that turned into either a turnover or kind of out of bounds.
You've got to credit Southern. I thought they played really, really good defense. They made opportune shots down the stretch. O'Brien hit back-to-back inside-out threes, and I thought he made two really nice plays there.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Clayton or Ben.
Q. Ben, like Coach just mentioned, you had a bunch of unforced turnovers in the first half. How frustrating was that? You guys were just trying to get in a rhythm and get out of the funk you started the game in?
BEN RICHARDSON: For me personally, I know I picked up two early fouls, and that was kind of frustrating. But as far as the turnovers, just two sped up.
It is frustrating, but I remember halftime Coach was talking about how we had all these turnovers, but we're right in the game, and usually, if you make a lot of mistakes like that, you could be in a lot worse position. But we were still in the game, so we had confidence that, if we could turn it, that we'd have a good chance.
Q. Ben, you hit three of your first four. How long did it take you to get in a rhythm today shooting-wise?
BEN RICHARDSON: Well, I got found for the first one. I think Milt made a good play. And then the second one was kind of a broken play that ended up in a kick outside. I got two good looks everyone was creating. They made plays for me, so I got good looks. Once I saw the first two go in, then we ran a play for me. Then it felt good after that. I got in a rhythm early, and it was good.
We couldn't really get a lot of other offense going, like we were talking about the turnovers kind of hindered us a little bit. That was a problem.
Q. Did you guys plan for the offense to kind of go through you two or just kind of like a game adjustment you made?
THE MODERATOR: Clayton, you first, then go to Ben.
CLAYTON CUSTER: No, we didn't plan on the offense going through us. We've done a good job all year of moving the ball, spacing the floor, and making the extra pass. Today we just, for whatever reason, it just didn't work like it usually did the whole rest of the season.
Me and Ben made a couple shots in the first half, but we don't care who scores. That's the thing that's fun about -- that's why we're hard to guard is that we space the floor, and we move the ball. It could be anybody's night on any given night. No, I mean, that just kind of happened.
BEN RICHARDSON: Just going off what he said, like he said, we've done a good job of spacing it and kind of having the ball find the open man. Sometimes it ends up like we have a loaded weapon, so it ends up spreading. And the guy who's got the open shot can usually make it and hit it. So that's why our offense is good and tough. Sometimes, me and Clay have some chemistry, and we have lots of good chemistry working when we spread it, and we're moving the ball well. But we didn't do well enough today.
Q. For both players, Milt has been your rock all year. Just how tough is it to see him go out of the conference in a tough game like this? Was there anything you guys said to him in the locker room after the game?
CLAYTON CUSTER: Obviously, Milt changed our program at Loyola, and we'll always thank him for that. I mean, he's a great player. He makes great plays. It was sad to see it end today, but we'll have a brother for life in Milt. All we can do is thank him for what he did for us and what he did for Loyola's basketball program.
We just all gave him a hug and told him we love him after the game because we wouldn't be here -- we wouldn't have been nearly as good without him this year.
BEN RICHARDSON: Yeah, if I had a vote, I would have voted him for player of the year in the conference. He does so many things. He's an incredible player. He makes everyone around him better, not just on offense, but on defense as well. Everyone has good games and bad games, but he's done so much, like Clay said, for us and the program.
It hurts just because I know how special the team is and how special Milt is, and I think we deserve to be playing -- going further, and that's what we all wanted. That was our goal. We had big goals this year, and it just hurts to fall short.
But after the game, I just told him I loved him, and he's a special player, and I'm just honored to be his teammate.
Q. Porter, same question I just asked them. Was there anything you said to Milt after the game? How tough is it to watch him struggle like that in his last game in the Valley?
PORTER MOSER: You know, it was very hard. Like these guys echoed, I said to Milt in front of the team, I said, what he's done the last four years to help elevate where we were to now, it's very tough to end it like this.
But he's changed the expectations. He's changed people's eyes about possibly coming to Loyola as a recruit. He's changed a lot of things. There's no one hurting in the locker room more than him.
He did a lot of good things today. He just didn't score the ball. He had ten rebounds. He did some really good things defensively. He just didn't get going scoring. I told him, don't even think about thinking that this last game depicts everything you've done for us. It's hard because I know as a player you do. I know as a player you don't want to end your last game like that. But he's meant a lot to all of us. We say the same thing. Everybody told him we loved him, and he -- it's tough for us to fall short.
Q. Coach, piggy-backing what you've talked about with Milton elevating the program, Ben closed by talking about higher expectations. What's your message, what was your message to the underclassmen going into next season and into the future about building Loyola basketball and trying to build yourself into this conference?
PORTER MOSER: We talked a little bit about the future. I didn't want to take away from Milt right there. I did mention it to the younger guys. I said, a lot goes into being able to be ready to play on this stage. It's a big stage. A lot goes into it in the off-season. Sometimes younger guys, we had two freshmen guards playing a lot of minutes tonight.
In the off-season, that's when you're preparing to be on this stage. So we didn't get the scoring out of some key guys. We didn't get it off the bench. Key plays -- we cut it to two. We cut it to two and came through. Bol got the dunk. They had a missed screen coverage, and he got the dunk. Went to four. And then it went to seven on an inside-out three, just like that, right when you cut it to two.
Then we came back, and I've got to look at what exactly what happened, but I know they hit another three inside-out. We had it within striking distance again, and I think we missed back-to-back front ends on one-on-one. We picked and popped Donte at the top of the key and had a really nice look.
That stretch, we weren't doing a good job of making a lot of plays in the first place with some of the turnovers we had, especially in the beginning. I thought when the guys came out, these guys were so locked in. I've got to give Southern credit because I was really confident in the guys' mindset. They were really focused on this game. We came out, and I think in the first five or six minutes, the only basket they had was one was our freshman threw a pass, got intercepted for a layup, and it happened again. We had two interceptions for layups early.
We had a fast break ourselves that was like a three or four on one, and Milt usually finishes most of those. He threw it to Aundre a little early, and Aundre tried to throw it back, and it was a turnover. So those are plays that -- we haven't turned the ball over much this year. All of a sudden, that's four points there. That's two points we didn't get. It kind of snowballed a little bit for our turnovers after that.
But back to your question to the young guys, it was -- you know, for us, we've got a lot of guys back, but we lose a guy that was almost everything for us.
But you know what's a really good example? A good example is these cards up here right before us. They lost Anthony Beane. They lost Anthony Beane, and then Sean O'Brien stepped up to be an all-league player. Someone has to step up. These two guys, we have Aundre Jackson, Donte Ingram. A couple of those young guys off the bench we had to sit out this year. So we're losing a marquee player, and it's going to be opportunities this off-season for other guys because we do have a lot of guys back, but we do lose a big -- Southern is a great example. Everyone said, well, they're losing Anthony Beane. Sean O'Brien just said -- you know, he just stepped up big time. He had a great year. He's still having a great year.
The way they defend -- and if they can make shots like they did down the stretch. Rodriguez is a blur. I thought Rodriguez had a great game. I thought he played really well. He's really hard to stay in front of. If he turns the corner on a ball screen, it ends in a dunk. I thought for so much of the game we were containing that, and all of a sudden, he turned the corner, and it was a dunk in a key time.
Congratulations to them. I thought defensively they played really well. Offensively, they did too. They made those plays down the stretch.
Q. Porter, when I'm sitting there watching it, it just seems like such a weird game. Milton doesn't score until the final minute. O'Brien only scores two points. Jackson doesn't score at all. On the sideline, are you thinking what, is it a full moon? Do you feel like that in a game like that?
PORTER MOSER: You know, Harry, obviously, it wasn't -- we went in there. Milt was focused. Aundre -- and Aundre was struggling. He was bobbling the ball. He had four turnovers in the thing. So we just really never got an inside presence. So we kind of just went with a small lineup with Donte at the 5, and they were having to adjust. They were pulling Bol out. Bol was really giving Aundre some fits.
But you don't go in there wanting to shoot that many threes. We're a very good three-point shooting team. I will look at the tape to see, but I thought we had some looks.
But it was a weird -- it was -- I don't know. I think Milt got his five points in like the last minute. So I don't know if that's happened in a couple years for us. So you've got to credit them. But you know what I loved about Milton? He was doing other things. He still got ten rebounds. He was still trying to attack, played good defense. He was still talking. He was still doing other things. But when we were struggling to score with Milt and Aundre, and I think Donte hit one late. But for Donte for a while -- I mean, at halftime -- I think I said it on the TV interview at halftime. If you'd have told me we would have had 14 turnovers, and Aundre, Milt, and Donte were scoreless at halftime, if you told me those three were scoreless at halftime and we had 14 turnovers, I would have told you we'd have been down 16 to 20, and we were down three.
I thought they did a good job of making -- you make your own breaks. I thought they capitalized on three breaks too. There was one in the first half when they were struggling to score, and O'Brien was laying on the floor right in front of me. He caught -- the ball fell into his hands, and he had the presence of mind to lift his shoulder blades up so he wouldn't go out of bounds. He wasn't out of bounds. He was right there. Threw it out, and they made a three. Then he had another presence of mind where it looked like it was about to be backcourt, and they made a play to save it, kicked it, kicked it, hit another three.
And then they had an opportune one in the second half off an offensive rebound, and they kicked it out, kicked it out, hit a three. They had three opportunities, and you make your breaks. O'Brien made his break. He came in there and had the presence of mind to get it out.
It was under ten on the shot clock, I think, and it was about to go over, and they made a play, play. You've got to give them credit. They made some breaks that way.
With that said, we're going into halftime going, we're down three, 14 turnovers and those three guys. We felt that -- like those two said, we were really at halftime talking about, man, we just got to stay the course we were talking about before the game. Just couldn't get it going.
Q. Obviously today is a little sore spot right now, but you've been talking all season about how you want to change the culture, and you've been trying, ever since you started here, that you want to change the culture. Obviously, losing Milton hurts maybe your Xs and Os of certain games, but what he's done for changing the program has been incredible. Can you tell us where do you see the program right now compared to when he stepped in, in terms of that culture you've been trying to build, since he stepped in?
PORTER MOSER: I remember when we inherited it, there was, I think, two winning seasons in 30 years. That's a long span -- not to mention a championship, but to have winning seasons. A winning season wasn't our goal this year. We wanted to go farther. We had a winning season. We're 18-14. It's not where we want to be.
But Milton has -- you know, I thought he had a great year. I mean, a great year coming off not a good year. That's a lot. That's something.
Where I see it, I see it that it's not -- I see it when I talk to recruits in the Chicago area, that it isn't just a blow-off. People are answering the phone. It's not, when you come in the gym, if you're going recruiting, people are listening. People know who Milton Doyle are. People know that. So I believe it's going to -- it's created an effect where people look at Loyola now in the city.
Think about it. Ten years without a Chicago kid before Milton. That's a long time to be Loyola of Chicago and no Chicago kids with all the talent there. So he's had a huge impact.
Where I see the program going is I see it going up. I see it going up. I mean, we've got a lot of guys, pieces back. You're not going to replace Milt with one guy. That's the message I'm going to tell all of them. You're not going to replace him with one guy. We have a guard sitting out in Marques Townes we're very high on, transferred from Fairleigh Dickinson, who played in the NCAA tournament. We signed two big kids. Obviously, our size is an issue with us. We got two really good young big kids.
Recruiting and my staff is going really well, but I see the program is -- you try to combine, when I got here, character with talent. I got an unbelievable -- I love this team. I'm disappointed we lost right now, but our talent level -- we did the same thing when we got here, tried to do it. But now same character, and the talent is better. And we've got to keep going up without breaking that model.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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