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AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2017

Orlando, Florida

Cincinnati - 81, UConn - 71

THE MODERATOR: And Cincinnati is here, welcome Gary Clark, Jacob Evans, Troy Caupain and head coach, Mick Cronin.

MICK CRONIN: Obviously, a hard-fought game, which only makes you better. Congratulate Kentan Facey, Amida Brimah, and Rodney Purvis on a great year. Those guys play extremely hard. That's what college basketball is all about. They never give in. They had unbelievably bad luck with injuries this season, and I have great respect for Kevin and his program, how hard those guys play.

That being said, our guys performed today, especially some of these guys sitting next to me. Kyle carried us a lot offensively this year, and he was obviously a nonfactor today with foul trouble, but we've got a lot of answers on this team, and they haven't gotten a lot of attention. I would say the same thing about SMU. They got great players as well. I was happy, extremely happy for these guys that they were able to perform on this stage today.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes at this time.

Q. For Troy, I guess, you played in a lot of games. Have you ever played in a game quite like this with so many stops and so many whistles? How proud are you and your teammates for doing so well from the line?
MICK CRONIN: Are you trying to insinuate that UConn got cheated? Okay. I'm just checking.

TROY CAUPAIN: We've been in a couple games, hard-fought games. Last year was filled with them. This year had a couple of them. Just being able to make that same play, that winning play, getting defensive stops, rebounding the basketball, and then focusing on free throws. We do drills in practice. It's all about making them. If you don't, you've got to run, so I'm glad we stepped up to the line and did what we were supposed to do at the line today.

Q. Gary, what happened to your tooth?
GARY CLARK: It was already, you know, chipped from earlier in the year. But I think Amida -- like his head went into my mouth on an offensive rebound.

Q. Whose head?
GARY CLARK: Brimah. I remember Coach always yelling at me not to swallow it the first time, so I just tried to run over there and give it to somebody.

Q. So you had experience getting your tooth knocked out and that paid off today?
GARY CLARK: Yes.

Q. Where did you get the free throw stroke you had today?
GARY CLARK: Just concentration. Coach has been on me all year just to focus, stay with my same --

TROY CAUPAIN: Routine.

GARY CLARK: -- routine, and just focus and lock in.

Q. Did you lose part of the tooth or all of it?
GARY CLARK: Just part of it.

Q. Troy, how excited are you all to get another shot at SMU and to keep them from one of their second titles in three years?
TROY CAUPAIN: Excited that we get another opportunity to play on Sunday. I'm glad we get the opportunity to play them once again. We're just going to focus on the scouting report and focus on the little things and come in and play well and perform on Sunday.

Q. Troy, for you in particular, how gratifying is it to win this after what happened last year?
TROY CAUPAIN: It's my first time beating them since my freshman year in the Conference Tournament. So individually, it's exciting. Something to talk about with my family or something. But I'm glad we got the win. We had a great year. Don't stop now. Having an opportunity to beat UConn at XL Center is a great feeling, but it's time to put this one behind us and focus on tomorrow.

Q. Jacob, you've had a couple of big offensive games in a row now. Is there anything you attribute that to in particular? You've had a good year, but you've picked it up here in the last couple days, obviously.
JACOB EVANS: Well, you know, I just feel like if I'm aggressive -- I try to pick my spots and it's just March, so it's just time to perform.

THE MODERATOR: If there's no other questions we'll excuse the student-athletes to the rocker room.

We'll take questions for Coach Cronin at this time.

Q. Coach, what did you see with Brimah and Gary Clark? What did you --
MICK CRONIN: I did not -- last week I saw him throwing a flagrant elbow that wasn't called. That's why his tooth was loose, but I did not see whatever happened today.

Q. Coach, how well do you feel you all are playing right now and what did you -- and what do you see at SMU given what you've seen this weekend?
MICK CRONIN: Well, yesterday's meaningless, come Sunday. So when Saturday becomes yesterday in March, it's all a one-game world. Michigan State looked unstoppable last year. They got to the NCAA Tournament and lost to Middle Tennessee State. None of that matters. You better be ready to play if you're trying to win a tournament.

That said, SMU, in my opinion, is one of the best teams in the country. They've proven it all year. They are extremely hard to play defense against, because of their intelligence level. They're extremely well-coached. They've got veteran guys and their talent level is high. They've got guys that can make shots, and they really pass the ball to each other. They totally play to win. They do not care who scores. They're just trying to win the game. They've got some unbelievable winners on their team. My respect for their personnel is why I voted four of them First Team All League.

Q. Mick, you alluded this in your opening statement about not getting much from Kyle, but still gutting out a win. How much does that say about -- you talked about this before -- the balance that you have and weapons that you have. Is this like a testament of the overall strength of your team?
MICK CRONIN: Well, you've got to try to develop it as much as possible. This year we played with ten scholarship guys with Cane Broome sitting out for next year. So, it's been a -- I've been constantly preaching to our bench that they're going to be the key to any run we make in March if we make one because games like this happen. Foul trouble happens to a guy like Kyle. Jacob had foul trouble for awhile as well. Another team starts playing really well against you. Obviously Jalen Adams really was breaking us down at will in the second half. You've got to have some answers. You've got to have some guys perform off the bench and in different spots. Quadri was very good for us. Obviously Jarron Cumberland, he's like another starter. I think it's going to continue to be a big key for us if we're going to continue to advance.

Q. [ Inaudible question ]
MICK CRONIN: I would say Adams was able to do what he did because he's really good. He was not healthy last week, at least not totally. He definitely got his explosiveness back. He's just a really, really good player. He's like Barry Sanders with a basketball out there. His change in direction and explosiveness is just tremendous.

Q. Mick, you figured going in, their .500 record --
MICK CRONIN: Yeah, their record meant nothing.

Q. I was going to say --
MICK CRONIN: They were 2-0 coming in today.

Q. You figured they're going to throw everything at you, hard physical game. Is that good for you to see at this point? How did you take it?
MICK CRONIN: I think the worst thing in basketball is to get false hope. You play teams that do not challenge you or do not have the personnel to challenge you or do not physically challenge you. So, I think sometimes you can fall into bad patterns as a team, and you start to have success in ways that are not going to happen when you play a quality team. So, playing UConn on the road with Vance Jackson back in the line-up, with Jalen Adams healthy, obviously we knew what was coming today. It just makes you better.

Q. Not trying to insinuate anything here are, but does the flow of the game kind of get wrecked when so many calls are being made both ways?
MICK CRONIN: Let me say this, those guys are paid a lot of money. If there's fouls on any team, they should be called. In the last two or three weeks, all around our league, there's been a lot of stuff going on that needs to be called. It's a basketball game. So whether it's an elbow -- on teams, it needs to be called.

You're talking to a guy that was part of a horrible incident a long time ago where stuff was not called and stuff escalated. And it was a terrible, terrible scene for two great universities. That stuff needs to be called. Any foul needs to be called. If it's a foul, it's a foul. You always have a choice, then don't foul. So I thought -- those aren't easy games to officiate, but you know what? Sometimes those guys play a lot of money, and both teams play zone and nobody touches each other, and they get to go to dinner. So today they had to earn their money.

Q. What did you all -- going back to the preview of tomorrow's game, what worked well for you all in that first game against SMU that may not have worked as well in that second game?
MICK CRONIN: Well, we played really well in the second game. We led until the ten-minute mark -- the last 15 minutes we scored ten points. That's because they're really good on defense. They were at home, their intensity level ratcheted up. Much like a team like Virginia, if they force you to just shoot all jump shots, you're going to lose. It's fool's gold. So you've got to find a way to get some lay-ups an free throws, whether it's off the post-up, the drive, the second shot. But it's not easy against them. There's a reason they're as good as they are. Their players are very smart too.

It's really hard to break their defense down. The first game we made a lot of shots early, same as the second game. But I would say, I think too many coaches say we didn't do this, we didn't do that. They're really, really good. They took a lot of stuff away from us. They made it really hard on us to score inside. It's a credit to their players. They stepped up and got the job done, just like we did the first time. I'm just a big believer in performance, and we're going to have to perform really well to win them all.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, congratulations on advancing. We'll see you tomorrow.

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