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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 10, 2017Dave PaulsenJalen JenkinsMarquise MoorePittsburgh, Pennsylvania VCU 70, George Mason 60 DAVE PAULSEN: You know, we're really disappointed, heartbroken. The guys in the locker room obviously were devastated, and it's really hard for me as a coach, especially having these two guys up here, Jalen and Marquise, because these guys have given everything they have had. They have really, really, really bought in, fought exceptionally hard, and proved tremendously. They poured everything they had out on the court and so we're disappointed. But I thought we really, really competed. I thought we played really well. I think we had VCU on their heels. We wanted to have some of their guys that maybe aren't their leading scorers beat us, and for 32 minutes, they didn't. In the last seven or eight minutes, they made some big plays. We just had some empty possessions. But I don't think I've ever been proud of a team in defeat, and the guys have made a lot of progress. You know, we'll get a chance to reflect on this and figure out our next steps. Q. Marquise, in the tight game with about six, seven minutes left, what do you think the difference was down the stretch? MARQUISE MOORE: I think they had -- they made timely shots. Like Coach said, the guys we wanted to make plays, did make plays in the late game, and that was really the difference. Q. You guys held Tillman and Alie-Cox to seven points, and Tillman in particular had given you a ton of trouble earlier in the year. How were you able to bottle them up tonight? JALEN JENKINS: We put emphasis on it, during film, during shoot around. You know, that was obviously one of our, you know, keys to get a victory, keep them off the glass, especially with us being a team that plays four out, one in. We had a huge disadvantage in height. So when he came in the game, we wanted to make sure that if they drove the lane, they had to finish, and we wouldn't rotate over and give guys like Tillman and Alie-Cox easy dunk-downs to get them going. Q. You guys from your freshman year to now, the program has really changed back to a winning program. What does it say about what you guys have done to be a huge part of turning things around like that, to get Mason back to a 20-win team? JALEN JENKINS: It hasn't been easy, but it's kind of been -- it's been fun, especially like the last three years. Obviously last year, we only won 11 games, but there was a lot of potential in the team that we had. And this year, I think we just, you know, it manifested. From it springboarded when we were in Florida and we started the nine-game win streak, and after that we got into conference play and we kept winning and losing, winning and losing, and finally we strung, I think it was three or four wins together, and then from there, we just, we kept going. It's been fun. Q. When you look back on this season, what will you take from it? MARQUISE MOORE: Just the progress we made, how we all came together as one, fought every day. Stuck together through the ups and the downs. Just really became a family out there. That's what I'll remember the most. Q. With such a young group, aside from these two guys, will you try to keep playing this season, one of the secondary tournaments? DAVE PAULSEN: We're going to evaluate that. You know, we're going to try not to make an emotional decision right now. You know, our hope, and maybe you get an NIT bid; that's going to be a hard thing. We'll evaluate one of those second -- one of those other tournaments. But I've got a little time to reflect on it. Q. When they were going on their run, what is your process on calling a time-out, and do you think you should have called one a little bit earlier? DAVE PAULSEN: Yeah, you know, we only had two left, because we had to burn two in the first half, and I wanted to try to get one after a basket. And we had a couple good looks. You know, Marquise got deep penetration -- and you know, I thought maybe he got fouled. Obviously that wasn't the call. But we had a couple of good trips down, but they came up empty. Hindsight being 20/20, yeah, but we needed -- we played the last two minutes because we were pressing the trap without a time-out. You know, you'd like to think even last night, we're in a similar situation; that you could get a basket and get a time-out, set your defense, and go on a run. Obviously it didn't happen that way. Q. How do you take like an 11-win team, lose a guy like Shevon, and turn it into a 20-win team with such a young roster like that? What was the big difference this year from last year's team? DAVE PAULSEN: Well, I think the two guys who were up here, you know, were a big part of that, a huge part of it. You know, that's not how they maybe, you know, they came and were recruited by one coach and the change and it took a little time for them to figure out who I was and what we wanted to do. And these guys, from maybe January last year, Marquise and Jalen, really, really bought in and helped lead a really young team. And they played at a really high level. You know, I think Otis Livingston and Jaire Grayer had really, really good sophomore years, and those guys have played a lot of minutes. Jaire especially in the conference play really elevated his game. When they are all clicking, we had four guys, even though Otis and Jaire are only sophomores, they played a lot of minutes. They have a veteran presence. And our freshman group, they improved. I think as a group, you know, that practiced hard virtually every single day was bought in. So I think the buy-in from the guys was really a key. Q. Saying all that, how do you look at the immediate future now stepping forward? DAVE PAULSEN: You know, I think the future's bright. I think most important thing is the foundation and the culture that you create. I think we made tremendous strides in that in terms of how hard we work, our attention to detail, our coach-ability, things like that. You know, I think we played -- you know, you're going to have two sophomores that will be juniors next year and five freshmen who played a lot or at least a decent amount. I think we've got a couple good kids that have signed that are having really tremendous senior years. We're going to need -- you know, we're going to miss these two guys, there's no question about it. But as your question said, we're worried about replacing Shevon, and I think you want to build your program where tradition never graduates. Players graduate, but your tradition never graduates. Q. We saw Daniel get some minutes today. What do you see from him in the future? DAVE PAULSEN: Daniel played really well tonight. You know, Daniel, to be honest with you, we didn't even know if he would be able to play this year. He wasn't able to do anything all last year after knee surgery. He wasn't cleared to practice until probably mid-October. There was uncertainty whether or not, would he last the whole year. And some days he could move better than others. His knee is still not 100 percent. I thought all year long, he gave us tremendous job defensively and on the glass, and he's a work-in-progress offensively. So really, I don't know what his ceiling is, because I don't know what it's going to be like when he gets a couple weeks off and he can heal, and what kind of progress can he make. You know, I don't know where he's at in terms of his athletic potential in terms of how well the knee will continue to recover. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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