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AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 10, 2017

Hartford, Connecticut

SMU - 81, East Carolina - 77

THE MODERATOR: Okay, we're joined by SMU head coach, Tim Jankovich; junior, Semi Ojeleye; senior, Sterling Brown. Format, we'll take an opening statement from Coach Jankovich, then the student-athletes.

Coach, your thoughts on the game, please?

TIM JANKOVICH: Sure. I really liked the first half a lot. I liked the seven or eight minutes of the second half, not so much. The way it went down the stretch.

But first of all, I've got to give East Carolina tremendous, tremendous credit. We had had two very, very, very good games against them before, and had some big leads and for them to not -- to not fold and play the way they did the last 12 minutes or so, I thought was just amazing. And, you know, it would be easy, I could get negative, but I actually think this was a complete positive for our team, I really do. Totally disappointed in our rebounding. 100% disappointed in that; I thought it was awful.

But -- could get down on our turnovers. But that part -- we needed this. We really did. We haven't been in a scramble situation for quite some time, and this is tournament time. You need to feel this. I think it was great. I really couldn't have scripted it much better, honestly. Now, we'll have to do a lot better in some areas, but for me, it was great to be tested down the stretch like we were today.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student-athletes only at this time, please. Raise your hand.

Q. Semi, you kind of took over there with four minutes in the game. What was the -- what kind of changed with you in that last stretch?
SEMI OJELEYE: Just too much -- found me in good spots. I felt like I had a couple good looks. The ball was going up. Like Coach said, they're a good team and I felt like they were coming back, so everybody was just looking to score and be aggressive.

Q. Semi, it's elimination from this point forward, essentially. So, what do you think you can take from this game, and apply it going forward, when you guys are in a tight game. How you need to handle it?
SEMI OJELEYE: We can't forget what's gotten us here. Our defense, our rebounding, our transition defense, stand together, stand unified. All of the little things that Coach talks about in practice, they show up in big games. Especially this time of year, you can't take teams for granted. Can't let teams back come on you like we did today. I think we just need to stick to our principles and help us continue to advance.

Q. Semi, in terms of this team going through a tournament game, you experienced that at Duke, what do you think was different about it, and do you think that going through that was significant for this team, at this time?
SEMI OJELEYE: Yeah. I think we've had a good year so far, and everything's been kind of going well for us all year. But being in a tournament situation with tournament pressure realizing that if you lose you go home, it's different. I think being battle-tested with this group is important for us and getting the win tonight is great moving forward.

Q. Sterling, if you remember back to 2015 when you were playing this same team in the same situation, they hit some timely threes, just some lapses in defense. What did you take from that situation two years ago, and applying it to now when they started to come back?
STERLING BROWN: Man, it don't matter what I took, they did the same thing. They came back. We just got to -- like Semi said earlier, stay with what we were doing all season. We got a little loose, and thankfully we come out with a win, but tomorrow we got to come and bring it.

Q. For both of you guys, Coach, you mentioned you hadn't been in a scramble situation for a while. What is that like for you guys as players going through some games earlier this year?
SEMI OJELEYE: You know it's coming eventually.

You're not always going to blow teams out. You hope you do, but that's not going to happening, that's not realistic.

Coach always says it during time-out, this is where you want to be. As competitors, that's what you like. You want to be in close games, and that's the time you really have to lock in and focus.

Q. What was talked about in that final time-out with a little over a minute left?
SEMI OJELEYE: Sticking to our principles, doing what we've been doing all year. Staying tight on defense, defensive rebounding, and getting a good shot on offense.

Q. Sterling, this was you-all's first tournament game since 2015, that UCLA game. What was it like to be back in the post-season and not being sitting at home watching it this time?
STERLING BROWN: It felt good. It felt good. We got a chance to sit out there and play for a championship. I felt like everybody came prepared. We didn't play as good as we wanted to, but we'll bounce back tomorrow.

Q. Semi, in terms of being out there in the tournament scenario for the first time in a couple years, a large portion which you had to sit on the sidelines, was there an extra added bit of motivation for you, and do you think that helped power what you were able to do down the stretch when you were taking over this team?
SEMI OJELEYE: Definitely sitting out and watching tournament situations, you imagine yourself in that situation. Not treat to every game the same. If I don't come out ready for a game, it's going to show and I'm not going to be successful. You have to have the same mindset, same aggression, same respect for the opponent every game, not matter if it's tournament or regular season.

Q. Semi, you were named the Conference Player of the Year. Yesterday you came out and had a career scoring night, double-double this season. Do you feel you have to lead this team at this point? Are you the guy who needs to take it on your shoulders when it get tight? What is your mindset?
SEMI OJELEYE: We have a lot of great players, one through -- I don't know however many --

TIM JANKOVICH: A bunch.

SEMI OJELEYE: Everybody can come out and have a great game, you know? If you look at the stat sheets all year, everybody's had huge games, double-doubles, big scoring nights. Tonight it happened to be me. I try to lead the team in other ways, just trying to talk to everybody, keep everybody calm, keep everybody's minds focused.

THE MODERATOR: Do we have one or two more for student athletes?

Q. Sterling, watching Semi that last few minutes, is that something you've seen before this season or did he hit something you haven't seen before?
STERLING BROWN: We've seen it a numerous amount of games, him step up, and make big shots, lead us to a victory. It's something he does. And we're happy and we're proud of it, and we are going to keep riding it.

THE MODERATOR: We'll excuse the student athletes to the locker room at this time. Now, we'll open for questions to Coach Jankovich.

Q. Tim, how would you describe --
TIM JANKOVICH: A lot of bright lights.

Q. How did you describe their body language when it got to within one possession?
TIM JANKOVICH: Not great. I didn't think our body language was great certainly to start the game, but that was a little understandable. It's an early -- it's an early game. It's -- you know, it's an afternoon game, the crowd is not revved up yet. It's 11:00 our body time. I can understand that when they'd already played a game. And then you could see that we really -- we looked like ourselves for the next, what, 15 minutes for the half, then got a little complacent, obviously, and allowed them to get their head up. I think that was the biggest lesson as a take-away.

But I didn't like the way, the look, although, we were calm enough. But I've seen grittier looks on these guys' face than we did there. That's why I say I think, honestly, I mean it sincerely, this is the best thing that could have happened. We needed this. This will help us. Not that I'm saying, boy, wasn't it great in all areas? No, we needed some of the feelings that we had today. We needed to know that next time this happen, how we're going to sort it out better.

Again, we haven't -- this has been my concern. We haven't been in very many of these situations at all. And something else, I mean, I don't know what it is about East Carolina. You mentioned earlier, a couple years ago we played them and they made how many -- they must have made 15, 16 threes in that game. It felt like they made 100,000 down the stretch in this game. I do not know what it is about this building nor playing us that makes them just become one of the great shooting teams in the country. But, you know, I give them so much credit.

My gosh, they could have folded it up and they would not go away. I thought it was critical that the few times they did miss, they chased down their offensive rebound. So, the one thing that I'm really, really, really not pleased with was our rebounding. Hopefully we can get that fixed and look more like we normally do.

Q. Tim, whenever Semi transfer from Duke, or transferred to SMU from Duke, is this the kind of game you thought he might have at some point, going for 36 and 9 of that coming in the last four minutes?
TIM JANKOVICH: Yes, yes. He's capable obviously. He's had so many big nights for us. But he said it best, he had -- he was tremendous, and he's capable, but we've had a bunch of guys. That's one of the beauties of this team, is that -- and I love that, because I think when you're preparing for someone, if you just -- everyone focuses on one guy, and he has to carry you, then I think you're a little bit easier to prepare for. At least I feel like what if that guy has a bad night, but we've had so many guys have big nights.

He was amazing, by the way, Semi was amazing today, obviously, and he's so valuable. I did think he's capable. I think he's capable of doing it again. But I also feel we have some other guys that could have a break-out game. Tomorrow would be a good time for that.

Q. Coach, how much do you think the second half had to do with this team not being in a tournament scenario in years. And specific to the way you can learn from it, what are things you think you can take specifically and implement in situations like this moving forward that are going to be helpful?
TIM JANKOVICH: That's a great question and hard to answer. Hard to know what part of the -- of the emotion -- I think I would have said if the whole first half, we'd have looked really scattered, then I feel like that's -- we haven't been in post season for a long, long time. But we played our way into looking pretty normal to me.

Our first half was pretty normal, other than the first five minutes. I didn't think we -- I thought our defense was really, really poor, but I don't think we'd woken up yet. Second half, for me, I don't think it was about the post season, I think it was more about -- my best guess is, you know, we had had two great games against them before and won by wide margins. And I think -- psychologically, I think they let down just for a few minutes, not the whole half, just a few minutes, which allows confidence to build.

I think that's the biggest takeaway from this game. We talk about it all of the time. We had a lot of big halftime leads. You can't feel like that's enough at halftime, and they just kept pecking away and pecking away and just, you know, a little bit here, a little bit there. The lead just kept shrinking and shrinking, and we never turned the tide. We never turned the tide. Just when we were about to, we coughed it up a couple times then put ourselves in a position where, basically, it's a possession, it's a possession, it's a turnover away from going home in this tournament.

Q. You mentioned the run from here to the ring.
TIM JANKOVICH: Absolutely. In fact, at lunch or dinner, or whatever we're getting ready to have, yes. That's why I love it. We can start talking about the way we handle it psychologically, the way we executed or lack thereof, of a press offense, of the way we didn't space the floor, the way we maybe didn't find the grid on our defensive end that we needed to have, the mistakes we made on the defensive end. There were several, several, down the stretch, just mistakes that we don't usually make those, you know? I mean, so we were not very impressive, you know?

More mistakes in a five-minute period than I've seen in four, five games. So absolutely we will talk about that. But I have faith in these -- I have a lot of faith in this group. They're bright, they're mature, and they're competitive, and when you're that, you want to hear those things. You want to learn from a performance like that. I'm just glad it's something that I think we can draw from.

Q. Coach, you talked about the rebounding. You weren't pleased with it. It's an area you've been pretty good in all year?
TIM JANKOVICH: Pretty good? I think we've been -- I think if there's one thing, we've been a great rebounding team all year long, and we were really, really bad today as a rebounding today. Now, very fixable, or I hope. Needs to be, better be, or we're not going to be having this conversation, about how we barely squeaked by, but we have been a great rebounding team.

Q. So, concern level after that, pretty low, considering?
TIM JANKOVICH: I'd say a moderate concern. I'll tell you after the next game. How about that? If you get two in a row, then I think we're starting to trend.

Q. Coach, in your four losses, the opposing teams had 12 three-pointers. ECU had 13 today. Might that be an Achilles' heel here and how do you address that in terms of perimeter defense?
TIM JANKOVICH: Well, I guess what I would say is you have to give up something. You're either a defense -- a defense, in my opinion, can only be -- you can be strong outside or you can be strong inside. But I don't think you can be incredibly strong on the perimeter and incredibly strong on the interior, unless you have a 7-foot-something shot blocker on the inside that takes away ten feet, but that's a whole other story.

So, for most of us, it's very difficult to be that way. So you have to make some decisions in your philosophy, and also with your team, you know, with your personnel, to determine, are we going to be better off trying to be strong in one area and give this up, or we're going to try to make sure we're over here? Yes, it could be an Achilles' heel, but so could it be for anyone else that tries to play the way we do. You could reverse that and say, my gosh, you guys, stretched out all over the floor, you try to turn it over, and take away everybody's three. Now you're going to be incredibly foul prone; now you're going to be rebounding prone, penetration prone. If you look at our team with the numbers that we play, I didn't feel we could ever survive a season if that's where we were vulnerable. Yes. It showed up today. If a team can hit enough threes, it will be tough on us.

I also know there's -- you know, in NCAA Tournament, you know, it's not always easy to just hit a ton of threes. There's some nerves and there's some pressure. Sometimes it happens, and I hope it doesn't happen to us, but, yeah, you do have to give and take, and sometimes that's what we give up.

Q. Coach, we've seen some other teams try to do it this season, maybe not as aggressively as East Carolina did today, but what do you think of the press they threw at you in the last four minutes, and how did you --
TIM JANKOVICH: How bad would I be if I said their press wasn't good and we just didn't execute? I thought their press was great. They had a lot of heat, had athletes and had hands all over everywhere. I thought they did a tremendous job putting us on our heels. I love when teams press, not today so much. But normally, it's a real positive for us or teams I've coached before. I actually looked forward to it. I've got to give them credit.

At the same time, having said that, I thought our execution was brutal. I didn't even recognize what we were doing a good part of the time, and, you know, we probably panicked a little bit, which is great, because hopefully we're not going to panic the next time. We learned a lesson. You slow down and you make some smarter decisions. We made -- we probably made five poor decisions down the last four, five minutes against the press.

So, their press was good and we were really bad against it, but I'm not -- again, a trend. I'm not worried, because I believe we know what we're doing, I think we got a little out of sorts. Kind of lost our mind a little bit.

THE MODERATOR: Coach Jankovich, thank you, congratulations. See you tomorrow.

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