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AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 10, 2017Mick CroninKyle WashingtonJacob EvansOrlando, Florida Cincinnati - 80, Tulsa - 61 THE MODERATOR: Welcome, gentlemen. Joined now by Jacob Evans and Coach Mick Cronin from Cincinnati. We'll be joined by Kyle Washington. Coach, if you would lead us off by giving your thoughts on the game and advancing to the semifinal round, please. MICK CRONIN: First of all, I want to congratulate Tulsa on their season. In my years, over 20 years in college, I've never seen a team lose nine seniors before and have to play one guy that played last year in the rotation, Pat Birt. So, I thought their kids played extremely hard all year, and they got tougher. They learned how to battle, and they're going to be a formidable team next year. For us, I thought it was a tale of two halves. I thought our defense was excellent in the first half. In the second half, our offense carried us, especially Kyle Washington in the low post, but he and Jacob both had very effective games. Like I said, defensively, we're not at our best in the second half. Give Tulsa some credit. They kept playing and made us keep playing until the end. THE MODERATOR: Take questions for Jacob if you would. Q. Jacob, I think you guys hit something like five your first seven shots at three-point range and led for all but 17 seconds in this one. Was the plan to try to get a big early lead on this team then you guys went inside the second half? Did you change strategies there? JACOB EVANS: Well, coming out of every game, we always try to establish our inside game. It's just depending on how the defense is playing us, the way we dictate where we take our shots. They were packing it, so we got some open looks. In the second half, we just got to take what the defense gives us. If they want to pack it in, we'll shoot open jump shots. If they want to close out on us hard, we can either play downhill or blow by or feed our big guys, like we did Kyle. Q. Jacob, in terms of your offensive efficiency, you guys have been much better shooting the ball this year than you have in the past. I'm wondering whether that at some level that took some of the pressure off defensively and not having to just win on the defensive end because you guys are able to score as well as you do now? JACOB EVANS: We work real hard in the offseason on our offensive as a team, also individually. But we still have the same mindset defensively as in trying to lock down every team we play. Q. Kyle, did you want to come out and make a statement, not just win but make a statement how you won today. Because you pointed towards the post season so much. KYLE WASHINGTON: Yes, we did. We kind of want to do that every day, every day we practice, every day we play, but that's just the way our team is. We just want to keep on proving how good we are as a team collectively. We just want to keep winning, you know? Post season, regular season, but definitely we had an emphasis on the post season for sure. We want to do well and make deep runs in all of the tournaments we enter. Q. Kyle, in a lot of ways it seems like you were the missing piece for the Cincinnati team. Does it feel that way to you, and has this fit been what you thought it would be when you came in? KYLE WASHINGTON: Sometimes people try to spin it that way, but when Coach called me when I was about to transfer, I just wanted a place where I could be told the truth and be able to have an opportunity to compete at the highest level. So, if people want to say that, that's fine. But, I mean, it's been a collective group effort the whole year. People have stepped up at different times when I haven't stepped up, and I've stepped up at different times when people were absent. So, you can spin it either way. I'm just glad to be with this team. Because we're a great cohesive unit, honestly. We deserve to be in these moments and we want to be in these moments. I'm just happy that I'm in a great place to be able to develop my game. Q. Jacob, a lot of teams use conference tournaments as preparation for the NCAA Tournament. This team has not won a conference tournament since 2004, conference USA Tournament. Is it a little more important to you guys to take down the nets here? Obviously, you want to prepare for the NCAA as well, but how much more important is it to you to get this one? JACOB EVANS: Well, we're competitors and we want to win everything we're in, whether it's a tournament where it would be in the summer, it doesn't count. Like even at practice, we're competing red versus black, and we also have three seniors that have never cut the nets down, and we just want to get one for them. Q. This is for Kyle. Kyle what allowed you to be so dominant in the second half? 15 points, not a missed shot between field goals and free throws. Was it game flow, game plan? Particularly in the second half you were pretty dominant. KYLE WASHINGTON: This may sound weird, but, honestly, it was me not worrying about offense. When I try to dominate positioning and just understand where I'm supposed to be at every time -- I mean, Coach will co-sign on this, like he always does, and he will tell me all of the time, when I don't worry about offense, that's when I flourish. If I can do that every time, maybe I'll have that result every time. I mean, I just want to be focused and close a good Tulsa team out. They can sneak up in the second half and we just wanted to win. I just wanted to be part of that effort. Q. Jacob, specific to the offensive improvements you were talking about over December, what were the areas you were looking at getting better at? When you break it down, it seems you guys are more efficient in just about every area. What were you focused on in particular this summer? JACOB EVANS: Myself? I was just focusing on being a multidimensional player, not just being a jump shooter. Being able to attack the rim and finish the contact or draw fouls when I know I can't score. Q. Jacob, in terms of your experience with Coach, and, you know, what that's been like, you know, since you came back from this layoff, do you feel or see any sort of difference in terms of your experience with him? Do you see anything different emotionally, anything differently in terms of coaching, or not? JACOB EVANS: Well, I can definitely see the hunger, the hunger, and I can hear it in his voice at practice, see it in his eyes during the game. And I felt like it's really starting to carry over to us as a team. It's putting us in that hunger mode, especially since it's March, it's really time to win. THE MODERATOR: We'll excuse the student-athletes. MICK CRONIN: You were talking about when I was out, he wasn't on the team. He was only a sophomore. That was a couple years ago. Q. Thank you very much. THE MODERATOR: We'll open up to questions for Coach Cronin, please. Q. Coach, you've been emphasizing offensive rebounding lately. I know you've been talking about it. Once again, a strong effort in that category. Can you talk about what -- how that makes your team better? How key that is for you, let's say in the post season especially? MICK CRONIN: Well, we tried to explain to guys there's multiple ways to score, and this team, we have multiple options. So, first it start with us, with not turning the ball over, because then you get a shot. We have five guys that can make shots and score. But then it becomes every time you get it, the more shots you get, the more opportunities you have to rebound. So we lead the country in fewest turnover, steals against our team, which allows us to get more rebounds. We've had much better rebounding teams, but we didn't shoot the ball the way we shoot the ball. We didn't pass the ball the way this team can pass the ball. But we're trying to make sure, in the last month or so, that we still have the same mentality of getting three people to the glass, at least. Offensive rebounding is about numbers. If you just send one or two, you're not going to be successful, so, that's really been our -- something we focused on is getting our second, third, and fourth rebounder to the rim so we have a chance to keep balls alive. You're just -- there's multiple games, I can tell, you we wouldn't have won if we didn't have second-chance points. Q. Coach, just to jump off of that point -- MICK CRONIN: Sure. Q. You've been consistently a top 15 defensive team year after year. This offense is a relatively new thing this year in terms of being the top 35 team nationally. Has it changed what you need to do defensively that, again, your ending possessions more with made shots, and does that -- does it make it easier to find that rhythm on the defensive end? MICK CRONIN: Oh, yeah. I think what you were alluding to earlier, Kyle's a humble guy. He is exactly what the doctor ordered for our team. But Jacob as well, you know? I said this in -- at the American Media Day, when Gary and Troy were voted unanimous First Team All League. I said, well, if they are, we're a lock because they struggle to be our best two guys in practice because at times, it's Kyle and Gary. Kevin Johnson's had a great, great senior year. I knew what Jarron Cumberland was capable of as well. It definitely takes pressure off our defense. To be able to make runs in tournaments, you have to be able -- you have to have a game, like tonight, our second half, our offense carried us. We gave up 36 points in the second half, but we scored 40. You're right on the money. We're just more capable. We have more weapons. It's just not scoring, the passing as well. It is skilled players. Our talent level is a little bit higher across the board and on the bench as well. Q. Nine players played at least 11 minutes tonight. Can you talk about how big of an advantage that is when the goal is to win three games in three days to have that much depth in this tournament? MICK CRONIN: Well, we all get 13 scholarships. I always said this about the bench. You're allowed to play them. You've got guys over there in uniform. Coming here tonight, I don't know if you watched me on the bench, I kept checking the stat sheet. My goal was to keep everybody under 30 minutes because we ended the season on a Sunday. And if we were lucky enough to end the season again on a Sunday, there's a chance you can play Thursday at noon in the NCAA tournament. So, definitely was a game plan to make sure we tried to keep everybody under 30 tonight going in. But I will tell you, my message to my team all week has been, the key to our March are the guys who do not start. We have really good players. They're younger, Tre Scott, Nysier Brooks, are freshman; Justin is a freshman, obviously Jarron's -- I think he won sixth man of the year in our league, he's a freshman. I keep telling Quadri, he won a game for us and he's going to win another game for us. You have to try to keep those guys engaged. Got to practice and develop those guys. And you've got to give them some minutes. It's definitely important. Hopefully it plays out, but you've got to win Saturday to get to Sunday, where maybe it will matter a little bit. Q. Coach, specific to the passing that's been going on this year. Jacob, Troy, Gary, all three of them, have significantly increased their assist percentage over last year. Is there any difference schematically you've seen? Is this a developing of players? I was asking Jacob about it earlier. Is there something specific that you have implemented that's lead to this -- MICK CRONIN: Oh, yeah. Well, one is Kyle is an offensive -- it's easier getting an assist when you throw him the ball. That's one. Two would be Gary's ability to shoot the ball from the perimeter this year. So, we're not a predictable team on the offensive end. We can bring our big guys out plus they're a problem inside. And the guys, we try to teach the guys how to be a problem for our opponents. Some people can't -- struggle to deal with us inside. Some bigger teams may struggle when we invert and bring our bigger guys outside. Ball movement is obviously -- you talk about it all you want, but you can't run a free-flowing offense if you don't have the talent and the guys that make decisions. You've have to give up a lot control as a coach. We practice it all of the time. I just want the ball moving and they've got to read and play together. We've been working on it since last April. You say why haven't you done that before? You have to have players that can do it. You have to have five guys that make shots and make decisions. That's way I thought we got a chance to get better, this team, because the more you do, it the more comfortable they'll get it. We have some things we'll do structurally, but we try to let them keep playing and read the defenses. We think that's made us harder to deal with. You can't load up on this or that. We don't just try to jam the ball to Kyle. If you take that away, we have many other ways to beat you. I just try to teach them to read what other people are trying to do to us and then use that against our opponent. It's a never-ending learning process when you coach that way. I think it will be a huge weapon for us in March, that, and I've told them I want them to keep on playing. Don't walk the ball up the floor and start looking at the clock and late clock play. It's our opinion, we have great players on our team, let's go play. We don't want to play the game in the 50s. We think that gives our opponent a chance to beat us. Q. And just to follow that up, that's another thing you can do which is the numbers, I assume? MICK CRONIN: Oh, yeah, talent and numbers. Q. Collectively, you're in the tournament every year but it seems like this team is better set up to make a deep run. When you see even a game like tonight when you talk about the defense carries you the first half, offense in the second half, does that -- does a team that's able to do that, given you a getter chance? MICK CRONIN: Oh, absolutely. It's just like a team that's got one or two scores. If they have a bad night, you're going home. You got to be able to dance every dance that they play to win the award at the dance ball. You got to be able to slow-dance, you got to be able to do it all. Okay? So -- and those are the teams that keep marching on. You're not going to be able to win the same way. Because you're going to run into a match-up that they're able to take that away from you. You have to be able to do something else. The last part is we have different guys that carry us at different points in the game. So Jacob gets hots, Troy early, then Jacob, then it's Kyle. Like Gary Clark didn't really -- he led us in blocks and deflections tonight but didn't really get going offensively. In the last game in Connecticut, he was a dominant offensive player. Teams with more weapons have a better chance. They're not relying upon one way to win a game. THE MODERATOR: Coach. Thank you, congratulations. See you tomorrow. MICK CRONIN: I appreciate it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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