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AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 10, 2017Frank HaithCorey Henderson, Jr.Sterling TaplinHartford, Connecticut Cincinnati - 80, Tulsa - 61 THE MODERATOR: Take an opening statement from Coach Haith. Coach, give us your thoughts on the game, please. FRANK HAITH: Thank you. I want to gave Cincinnati a lot of credit. They are a really, really good team. I mean, I'm excited to watch their run in the NCAA Tournament. I think they're -- they got a lot of good talent and they played the game the right way. I thought our guys in the first half, we were playing extremely hard. I think we just had some nerves and we missed a lot of shots around the basket, hit some open threes. I think we just -- we were playing extremely hard. I thought in the second half obviously we shot the ball better but we continue to play hard. So I'm proud of how we finished the game, 40 minutes of this game against Cincinnati, who I think is extremely, extremely talented. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Sterling and Corey at this time. Q. Sterling, did you feel some of that nerves maybe in the first half obviously it didn't affect you all's effort. Do you agree what your coach said about nerves? STERLING TAPLIN: Oh, yeah. It was a little bit shaky coming in. We came together and said we got to play. We got to play for each other and we want to be here, just play hard. Q. You know, it seemed like the effort was there for the whole game. I know that's something that maybe hasn't always been there. Was that something you guys really were determined to do in this game? STERLING TAPLIN: Yeah. Effort and playing hard was our key things, to come into this game, and Cincinnati is a great team and it's a learning experience for us, but effort and playing hard are definitely the things that we talked about coming into this game. COREY HENDERSON, JR.: That's every game. Effort and coming in and playing hard. That's what we focus on, you know, every game. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for the student-athletes? Take questions for Coach Haith. Q. Coach, you said in your opening statement that Cincinnati plays the game the right way. What did you mean by that? FRANK HAITH: Well, they -- defensively, they're terrific. They stay between you and the basket. They play great help defense. They block out. They rebound. You know, they've got -- I've been in this league playing against Mick's teams and teams been watching from afar. I think now they've got really talented offensive players. They can really shoot the ball. They can play inside out with Washington, and he and Clark are just a load in the paint. They've got -- they got no weaknesses so to speak. I've always respected Mick's team, how hard they played and how they competed. Now, I look at their perimeter talent with Jacob Evans, and the true leader that Troy Caupain is, I'm excited to watch their run in the NCAA Tournament. Q. Mick was asked a lot when he was in here about the offensive improvement you just alluded to. As a coach, how do you approach them defensively? What do you try to stop? FRANK HAITH: First of all, you don't want to give up paint points. You've got to defend the paint and then you've got to contest their shots. You play the percentages. When they get the ball in the paint, and Clark can back you down or Washington can post up and score in there, it makes it really tough. So you try to take that away, but then when you double them or do something to try to take that away, they are good passers. They throw it out. And you have Jacob Evans and Troy Caupain making shots and Kevin Johnson. That's tough to defend. When they're making shots like that, they're going to be hard to defend. Q. You lost by 19, you gave up 19 second-chance points. How many of those offensive boards hurt? FRANK HAITH: They hurt a lot. And I thought we guarded their first shot sometimes very well. But they -- they kicked us on the boards, and you look at the point production out of that. And that's something we've got to grow. You look at a couple losses this year we've had, that's been something that's hurt us throughout the year. And physical block-outs, the mentality of blocking out on that end, is important and we've got to get better at that. Q. There was a moment with, I think, six minutes left, and you-all were down like 20 points and you still have guys diving on the floor. As a coach in that situation, that has to be something you want to see? FRANK HAITH: It is. That's something, Kelly, we have to build on. I'm really excited about the future of our program. What we had to do this year is really just start a team from scratch. Ten new players. And I told Pat this, too, being our only senior. He's had two tough situations. Last year he had to come into a team that's a veteran team and find his niche and fit in, and he helped us get to the NCAA Tournament. Then he had to come to this year's team and nurture ten new guys. That's tough for his two-year experience at Tulsa, but I think he handled it well. With that said, I think now the building and the foundation has been set for the future of our program. Will Magnay, Junior Etou, Martins Igbanu, all those young guys on the front line, T.K., are going to get better. Jaleel, Corey, Sterling, all going to get better. I'm excited about our future. I wanted us to continue to play hard today and continue to lay that foundation. Q. You had two shots the first half, two points, scored the first six points for you in the second half. Was there more concerted effort and what were they doing? You had 16 points in the last five games? FRANK HAITH: Junior Etou? They did a good job on him. I think Junior struggled a little bit handing the ball in traffic. They kind of ran a couple guys at him. We've got to get Junior to be more forceful when -- because he's our front-line guy and that's something he's got -- in the future he's got to be more consistent with that. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks so much for your time. Appreciate it. FRANK HAITH: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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