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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 5, 2017

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

Wichita State - 71

Illinois State - 51

THE MODERATOR: The Missouri Valley Conference co-champions, the No. 1 seeded Redbirds are here with us. MiKyle McIntosh and Paris Lee represent the student-athletes. Coach Dan Muller is in the middle. He'll open with a statement on today's game.

DAN MULLER: Congratulations to Wichita State, terrific game, terrific season so far. We picked a bad day to have a bad day, especially shooting the ball. Certainly part of it was their defense, but part of it was us.

Could not be more proud of these guys, continued to fight and stay together. Obviously, we're looking forward to playing again this year. We're hopeful. But just got beat by a good team today. Played better than us.

Q. MiKyle, it seemed early on you had two pretty good looks inside the lane and the rim and couldn't finish them. Did that get you a little bit frustrated and maybe knock you off your game a little bit?
MiKYLE McINTOSH: I was just thinking about it too much. It didn't knock me off my game. I think I just missed them. Nothing you can do about it. This is how it goes sometimes. You miss some shots, and you make some shots.

Q. Paris, right before the second half, I saw you kind of gather the team together near the free-throw line. What were you kind of saying at that point?
PARIS LEE: Just keep fighting. We good. Don't play the score. Just take it one possession at a time.

Q. Paris, like Coach said, a lot of it was maybe you guys shooting, but a lot of it was their defense too. Could you talk about what they did defensively to handcuff you guys a little bit.
PARIS LEE: Credit their defense. They put different guys on them, certain guys, lengthy, and quick guys on some of our wing guys. We just -- it kind of messed with us, but at the end of the day, we just didn't make shots.

Q. Paris, what does it mean to be an Illinois basketball player, from high school into where you are now?
PARIS LEE: It means a lot. Just want to represent where I'm from the right way, and I think I did a pretty good job of that throughout my career.

Q. MiKyle, obviously, a couple of technicals at the end of the game for you guys. Was that basically just frustration there?
MiKYLE McINTOSH: It was pretty much frustration with the game and just how things were going. It was just pretty frustrating.

Q. This is a question for both of you, Paris first. What would it mean to go dancing? I mean, you guys are on the cusp of playing in this tournament. What would it mean to go and play in this tournament?
PARIS LEE: It would mean a lot to me. I always dreamed about playing in the NCAA Tournament, always watched great players playing in it. It would be a blessing to be in the tournament right now.

MiKYLE McINTOSH: It would be great. Like Paris said, I've always dreamt about it. I always watched it on TV when I was a little kid growing up. It would mean a lot to us and also myself.

Q. Do either of you guys feel like this game left an impression either way about your tournament chances?
PARIS LEE: I'm not sure.

MiKYLE McINTOSH: I'm not sure either.

Q. Paris, could you talk about the team's defense. It seemed like Frankamp was able to get off pretty early, and that maybe set the tone for them a little bit.
PARIS LEE: I mean, we knew from the scouting report we had to extend our arms because he can shoot the ball pretty deep. That's why we had a couple of breakdowns. There was a couple of rebounds there we didn't get that led to second chance points. A couple of his threes was kind of off tip-out rebounds.

Q. Coach, when you think of the NCAA Tournament and this performance, how difficult is it for you to accept that this might be the last impression you give them considering how good your team has been?
DAN MULLER: We can't control that right now. Obviously, it's past this. We didn't play well. Like I said, Wichita State had a lot to do with it. The foul trouble early really debilitated us. Our rotations were really messed up, and we had a couple guys have tough days.

If they go based on one game they saw -- probably don't watch as many games of ours as they watch other teams, but hopefully they'll look at the full body of work we have, and obviously, we want to be in.

Q. Coach, you went to ISU, and now you're coaching for ISU. No team from Illinois has been in the tournament in four years. This arguably was the biggest college basketball game in the state over the last four years. If you guys are able to go dancing, what would that say about the program and where it's at and where it can possibly go?
DAN MULLER: Well, Northwestern will be in, so that will be one team from Illinois. We're very happy for them.

Clearly, it's been a while. I want it for our players. I want it for the program. I want it for the fans, but I want it for the players more than anything, not even a close second.

We can't control anything the next seven days. We know we're going to play together again. We know that. But like I said, we just kind of hope we get our name called on Sunday. I think we should be in. I think we're good enough. But it's out of our control at this point.

Q. Coach, you mentioned the fouls that they shot, 31 free throws in the second half, and they even had nine in a row to turn a nine-point deficit into an 18-point deficit. Would you mind just touching on, I guess, their aggressiveness drawing the fouls.
DAN MULLER: Yeah, they were really physical. When we had -- I think our foul trouble almost made us foul more, if that makes sense, because we were a little bit out of position. We lost our composure some in that stretch.

A lot of it's them. They have five guys on the court at all times that are threats, and it's hard to guard, as physical as their bigs are, as deep as their two guys can shoot it.

But clearly, fouling killed us. Not only the foul trouble, but the free-throw line. Our defensive field goal percentage is solid. Our numbers are okay except the foul line when Frankamp got loose on us, and then our offense was no good.

So we lost a little bit of discipline, maybe a couple of tough calls. But in the end, Wichita State is the main reason for that.

Q. Coach, you mentioned about the -- I thought there was two very critical fouls early on with Fayne. It kind of messed up your rotation a bit. Can you elaborate on that? You mentioned your post players, you couldn't get on your defensive flow like you usually do.
DAN MULLER: Without a doubt. Phil played 14 minutes and fouls out. We got three guys that fouled out. Daouda was in foul trouble all night. So when you're in foul trouble and you play against a team that's so physical, it makes it very difficult. It just does.

Again, how different would it have been? I don't know. But I know the foul trouble and our inability to make some shots that, if you're going to beat a really good team, you have to play really well. When you play really well, you have to make shots, even some tough ones. We just didn't do those things today. We really didn't.

But I couldn't be more proud of this group. I love them to death. Again, just a bad day to have a bad day.

Q. Dan, I know you've been reflecting on Paris' career, especially recently with his award and everything, but did he kind of show that warrior side of him today and the impact he's left on the program?
DAN MULLER: Without a doubt, he did. He had the fight in him. Other guys did, but not like him today. It could have got away from us in the first half. He brought us back to three or five, and they stretched it again. But without his play, his competitiveness, I don't know where we would have been tonight. At times it felt like he had to do too much on his own, and we kind of got back in the, hey, let's see if Paris can make a play mindset.

But their length is really good, man. They're long at every position but one. They make it hard on you. When you're not making shots -- I think they're going to win some games. They're not done winning.

Q. Coach, they lose two guys to the NBA. How different do they play without those guys? Is it just a matter of plug and play now for those guys, the way they --
DAN MULLER: Well, I wouldn't say plug and play. It depends on their players. They've been -- I use this in a good way. They've been stockpiling talent for years. We knew they had guys waiting in the wings that were going to step in. How good are they going to be? We don't know until they play. They've been recruiting at a high level really since their Final Four run and before that.

They run a lot of the same stuff. Clearly, this is the best offensive team they've had, might be the best defense. I said it the other day, this might be the best team they've had. I mean, a 38-0 team is hard to beat, whatever they were, 35-0. But as these guys have grown and they don't have one senior, I mean, they are -- they're really, really, really good.

Q. Dan, what do you do the next week to kind of prepare these guys, hoping for the best but preparing for the worst, which would be not making the tournament?
DAN MULLER: We'll give them some days off. I'll call some people and get some suggestions. We haven't been in this situation yet. I wasn't in this situation as a player. So I've got to make sure we manage their bodies a little bit. Of course, time off, but also stay sharp so we can prepare.

Like I said, we're going to play. We're going to play -- not this week, but next week, we know that. We've got to stay sharp. We'll have to develop some new goals when we figure out what we're in.

This will be hard for these guys to get over, though. I will say that. I know there will be hope, but we also know it's out of our hands.

Q. Coach, you were clearly frustrated on multiple calls. Can you just touch on how you tried to keep your team going even though some of the calls weren't going your way.
DAN MULLER: Yeah, that's an experienced, big time officiating crew. They do a great job. It was frustrating, and yet it just affected the game. I just knew how critical those fouls were going to be with our bigs. I knew that. And it showed in our play. It showed in our mindset. It showed in our confidence. If you get your bigs in foul trouble against this team and you don't have the depth with the bigs, you're in trouble. Not to say we couldn't have snapped out of it and recovered, but we didn't.

Q. Dan, I just got in. Sorry if you've been asked this. What's the biggest difference between this Wichita State team you played the last couple times and the one that you beat pretty handily in January?
DAN MULLER: Yeah, we played really well that day. We made shots, number one. So I would say some of it was our play, but the second part is two things, their two guards the last 12 games, whatever, shooting like 60 percent from three. Coming in, they were probably shooting around high 30s.

Second is they're much better defensively. They've improved defensively. It shows on paper. But they're just more sound. They're better defensively.

Q. Coach, as a state, Illinois in the Chicagoland area is thirdmost when it comes to producing NBA talent, and keeping a guy like Paris Lee in the state at this institution was crucial to what you guys were able to do this year. How can you do that and replicate that going forward with keeping guys from the IHSA?
DAN MULLER: Well, we love to recruit Illinois kids, but we'll go anywhere to find the right players. We're glad Paris came to play for us. He's had an unbelievable career to this point. He'll continue to. I've said it many times. He'll go down as one of the best players in Illinois State history.

Q. Dan, you missed some shots inside early. Do you think that was kind of a carryover effect there?
DAN MULLER: I don't know about carryover -- now, possibly, but I know you have to make those to win against a really good team. It wasn't just the threes. As you said, Paris missed a couple shots at the rim. MiKyle missed a couple shots at the rim. Deontae missed his patented shot. You have to play well to beat a really good team. We're really good, but we didn't play well today, and you have to make those shots.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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