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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 3, 2017

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

Wichita State - 82

Bradley - 56

THE MODERATOR: Bradley Braves are here. Student body is represented by Darrell Brown and Antoine Pittman. Head coach Brian Wardle will start off with a statement about the game and then we'll go to questions for the two student-athletes.

BRIAN WARDLE: I thought we were ready to play to start the game. Competitiveness was high, talk, and then they were defending, we were guarding. I thought we were doing really good things, and we just kind of hit a lull offensively. When we did get a good look, we just didn't knock them down. When you play a good defensive team and you've got those opportunities, you've got to seize the moment, and we weren't able to do it.

And then that got us a little frustrated as the half went on, and you could tell we were getting frustrated. We weren't scoring and that definitely affected the other end a little bit, and they made that run.

Proud of my team this year. They made big strides for the program. Not at all where we're going to be, but we definitely made positive strides, and it just wasn't our day today. It just wasn't our day. You've got to play well today, and we just didn't play well overall.

Q. Darrell, was their defense tougher on you guys today as far as getting open looks than it was in the first two games?
DARRELL BROWN: No. I think the first game was the toughest their defense was, but today we just didn't make any shots. But for the most part, we got the looks we wanted.

Q. Darrell, on the intentional foul, what happened on that play from your perspective? And then what was the exchange between you and Coach Marshall?
DARRELL BROWN: It was just the heat of competition between the two teams. I just tried to stop him from getting a layup, but they called intentional foul.

Q. Pitt, you got some things done offensively when you came in. Usually, you're in there for your defense. You were attacking the basket more. Can you just tell us what you were seeing open at that point.
ANTOINE PITTMAN: I was just taking what the defense gave me. Attack the gaps, that was the game plan and that's what I did.

Q. This ends your guys season. Can you just give us an assessment of how you feel it went. Obviously, you finished strong until tonight. Just give us kind of a summary of the season from both your perspectives.
DARRELL BROWN: I mean, there was a lot of ups and downs, but we learned a lot of things throughout the season. We're still young, but next year we'll be better and ready to play.

ANTOINE PITTMAN: So just to piggy-back off D.B., we will be ready next year. A lot of ups and downs, but that just comes with this young team that we still have, and next year we're going to grow in the off-season and come back ready.

Q. How do you feel you've grown from the beginning of the season until now as both players and as a team?
ANTOINE PITTMAN: Myself, it's been kind of up and down for me, but it's a process, and I just got to continue to work hard and stay in the gym and keep growing as a player. And as a team, just the same, just the same.

DARRELL BROWN: We've got to keep working and keep listening to the coaches. This summer we'll get back to the things we got to do like the basics and fundamentals of the game. And we'll just keep listening to Coach and get better in that way.

Me, as a person, I think I just got to keep listening and keep maturing. I cut down on most of my turnovers I had this year, but I'll be ready next year.

Q. Brian, pretty much the same question I had for Darrell. On that intentional foul, how did you see that play, number one? And then you had an exchange with Gregg there. Was that because of his talking with Darrell? What's your thoughts on that whole sequence?
BRIAN WARDLE: Well, I didn't see the foul really live, but it was just competitors competing. I think it's a very physical game. We obviously were trying -- I challenged my team to compete to the very end, to play physical, and we just -- during that segment, we just -- obviously, it was a tough foul, it looks like. I haven't seen it yet. After that, it was just more of competitors competing.

Q. And just your exchange with Gregg?
BRIAN WARDLE: I saw some talk going on with Darrell, and after that, it's just -- I just said don't talk to -- let's not talk to each other's players. Let's just coach our own players.

Like I said, competition, heat of battle. It can get emotional. That's why sports is so great.

Q. You were getting some things done with the double-team early on in the post. Do you feel it was as effective as it was in Peoria during that stretch? What changed it?
BRIAN WARDLE: Yeah, it was effective when we played them last time. I thought we started the game aggressive and executing our game plan, so that was good to see. But then, you know, they do -- they're so good offensive rebounding, they eventually got to us on the backboards.

Obviously, we fouled too much today. I think that was a huge factor in the game. I think they had 20-some free throws at halftime, 45 in the game, and we only get to the line 19 times.

So we lose the free-throw war and obviously the rebounding war. They're tough to beat if you do that. And you've got to win one of those two in this game, and we were unable to do that.

Q. You had the big deficit at halftime. What did you talk to your team about, and did you see some fight in them in the second half?
BRIAN WARDLE: I saw some fight. Just challenged them. I thought we started the game, like I said, ready to go, ready to play. We just struggled to score. The shots, when we did get clean looks, we did not knock them down. It frustrated us a little bit.

That's where we've grown this year, just our maturity level of responding and playing both ends, no matter what's going on. I thought it affected us on the defensive end, especially in transition. We were letting them dribble drive us into transition, getting to the rim, fouling, and we could tell we got frustrated because we couldn't put the ball in the basket. We've really grown past that as the year's gone on, but it definitely got to us a little bit in the first half.

We talked to it a bit at halftime. We came out obviously in the second half, just turning the ball over to start the half. We talked about that at halftime. Let's take care of the ball. 18 turnovers, you're just not going to win when you're playing in this type of game.

Like I said, it just wasn't our day. We, unfortunately, didn't have our best game. I thought we were very ready to compete and play. We just couldn't sustain it.

Q. Like I asked the players, if you could kind of summarize -- I know it's a long season, but you did finish strong before tonight. Just give us a quick summation of how you saw the season play out.
BRIAN WARDLE: Well, I'm excited about the strides we made. Obviously, people know we're inexperienced and young, but I loved how we finished. I love how we got better each month. I thought our young guys really came along. Our newcomers were really good for us this year. And it's going to be a long off-season of improvement.

We've got to make some big steps in some areas, but we developed, we matured. That was big. Our leadership got better. Darrell being one of them, Jayden, Donte. As the year went on, our leadership got better in the locker room, and it needs to continue to improve.

But there's a maturity and a belief. They kind of figured out how to win down the stretch. I think they went into games expecting to win, and that's part of the process is we needed to learn how to win this year. Now, next year you've got to sustain it, and it's got to be from the start.

This off-season, we're going to really get back to kind of worked this past off-season and even take it a step further and get ready for next year.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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