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AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 9, 2017Frank HaithPat BirtTK EdogiHartford, Connecticut Tulsa - 66, Tulane - 60 THE MODERATOR: As student athletes get settled, we'll take an opening statement from Coach Haith. After the student-athletes are done, we'll dismiss them to the locker room. With that, Coach, your thoughts on today's game advancing to the next round, please. FRANK HAITH: Thank you. I thought our guys competed hard. Playing these guys on Sunday, I was really disappointed in our effort down there, and I thought we came back. We had a great mindset, great focus, and defensively, we were really, really good. We just didn't make shots early in the ball game during the first half, but we still maintained our defensive focus and thought that was the key to the game. THE MODERATOR: Again, questions for the student-athletes, please raise your hand. We'll get a microphone you to. Q. For T.K. and Pat. What was the difference Sunday versus tonight, was it defense, was it effort? Both those things? TK EDOGI: I think we wrapped up our defense today. We were really disappointed we lost to them and just know we wanted to get them back today. PAT BIRT: Also, I think we moved without the ball a lot better. We had a lot better movement. Last game I noticed we were a little stagnant. It was hard to be aggressive on drives. Defense was staying. Today it opened up the gap for everyone, and opened up the offense for us as well. Q. Pat can you talk about you had a stretch where you made several shots? Were you feeling it at that time., I know later you got into foul trouble. What do you remember at that time? PAT BIRT: Like I said, we were just moving the ball really well. I was able to get open shots and it was going in. Like we said, just moving out the ball. There was times we didn't make shots, but even when we missed those shots, the fact we moved out the ball, it was easy for us to get offensive rebounds, which is what he did all game. So, we needed that. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for the student-athletes, please? Okay. We'll let the student-athletes get back to the locker room. Now we'll open up to questions for Coach Haith. Q. Frank, I know you did a lot of hard work the last few days. Was it nice to see that paying off here tonight? FRANK HAITH: I spoke to TV and talked about just that. We got back Sunday and we went to work. Even yesterday, we went hard at Hartford and competed. It's a mindset we have to continue to establish with these young guys. Understand how hard you have to play. Understand the toughness part of it. That was the thing that was disappointing about Sunday. We didn't have the right mentality. I thought our guys really embraced it, and when we came out, the first possession defensively was really, really good. We set the tone from that point on, in terms of how we were going to play the game in terms of our intensity. There have been times all year where we had good possessions, and then when adversity hits, we've let up on the defensive end. I don't think that happened. Maybe a couple possessions we lost some principal things, but I thought our effort was good throughout the ball game even when we weren't shooting the ball in the first half. Our defense kept us where we needed to be until the shots started to fall in the second half. Q. I thought Junior had a pretty crucial sequence late in the game, where he drove to the rim, had a basket and on the other end took a charge. It seemed everybody had moments like that but it came at the right time? FRANK HAITH: It was a great team effort. He's our guy. When the game's the line and we need big plays, we want him to step up and made those kind of plays. He had a heck of a drive in there on his left hand, good finish. And then he sprinted back and took a charge. Those two bang-bang plays were really big for us. Junior has been growing into that role, understanding he's our guy. He's our go-to guy, and I think he's had some growth throughout the year in terms of doing that. Q. I know that you haven't probably had a chance to really process this, but I'm going to ask you about your next game. What are your thoughts about playing Cincinnati again? FRANK HAITH: This time of year, you just want to continue to play in post-season play, and we get a great opportunity to play one of the best teams in the country. You know, they're well-coached, they are very talented. We're going to have to play, you know, a really -- we have to play well to win, and there's no question that I anticipate them playing. That's how they play with great intensity. We have to have the same kind of intensity that we had tonight tomorrow night against a very talented team. Like I said not just one of the best teams in the conference, but one of the best teams in the country. Our guys have to embrace it and look for this opportunity? THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for coach? Coach, thank you. FRANK HAITH: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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