	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: MILWAUKEE

March 16, 2017

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Butler - 76, Winthrop - 64

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Winthrop student-athletes, Xavier Cooks and Keon Johnson, also Head Coach Pat Kelsey. Coach will make an opening statement and then we'll take questions for the student-athletes. Coach, please.

COACH KELSEY: First, I want to credit Butler. Tip your cap to them. I think everybody kind of knows some of the things have been talked about, Chris and I are friends. I'm happy for him and his success and I think they're going to really make a dent in this tournament moving forward.

You know, they jumped on us early and, you know, it's a hard team to come back on because of their style of play and things like that. So, you credit them. Keon is the senior, and he's one of the best players in the history of this school, and I thought they did a very good job in their game plan in trying to contain him.

But, it's a very fun team to coach. I told all those guys in the locker room that they have nothing to be ashamed of. They should keep their heads held high. They had a phenomenal season. In about six, seven months there will be a banner put back up in the Winthrop Coliseum and this senior class has reestablished Winthrop basketball to its right rightful place as a force in Mid-Major basketball.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes, please.

Q. How much did their physicality impact the game and not necessarily like their height or anything, but kind of like their girth and how solid they were?
KEON JOHNSON: They were a big, physical team. 45, great player, big guy. They shot a lot of free throws. Most of the points came from the paint. So, I think they got to the line like at least 30 times, somewhere around there.

Q. You know, how were you guys feeling when you had the 7-0 run, got it to 7 points, timeout. What -- how did you feel at that point in the game? Did you feel like you guys could make the push?
XAVIER COOKS: We had confidence the whole game. We had a lot of confidence in that little run. We've been in that position before and really thought we were going to come over the hump this time. Unfortunately, we couldn't get it done.

THE MODERATOR: Other questions for the student-athletes. All right, guys. You're free to go. Thank you.

XAVIER COOKS: Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: We'll entertain questions for Coach, please.

Q. How good was the ball movement for them early in the game, especially with Woodson being on the end of that?
COACH KELSEY: Yeah. They do a great job playing inside out, and we worked very hard on our plan on what we were going do when the ball went into the post. You know, the speed of their ball movement early on was faster than the moving parts of our defense and got lost a couple times in rotation. And it let the Woodson kid get a couple open looks, and he's already a very, very good 3-point shooter. When you give him three, four steps where he can kind of lick his fingers and measure the wind and shoot it, he's going to make 80 percent of those. I bet if he's back at Hinkle with nobody shooting in the gym, he's going to make 80 out of 100 3s. You let a guy you got to run-off the 3-point line get some looks in the first half, I think he had five 3s and that set the tone for the game.

Q. In terms of what they tried to do against Keon, was it different than some of the things you've seen throughout the season, did they do anything new or just a different type of player?
COACH KELSEY: I think first and foremost this is a BIG EAST team. You know, I played and coached at Xavier, but my family is all Xavier fans, so I watch a lot of BIG EAST basketball, and they're some blood baths when you watch some of those games, and it's a strong, physical brand of basketball, and we obviously knew that.

They set the tone from a physicality standpoint, and I don't think we really met the physical challenge the way we needed to.

They're a little bigger and stronger at some positions, but you have to make up for that with your activity and your nastiness, and they beat us to some 50/50 balls. And you can't let bigger, stronger guys beat you to those balls where it comes down, you know, to that thing there in your chest cavity. But this is a team with a lot of heart, our team, and they fight their butts off, and I think they made the Winthrop fan base proud.

We're an eat-loose-balls team. You have to tip your cap to Butler for beating us early on, setting the tone on some of the hustle-plays-type thing. That's Butler basketball. I'm not here to do a recruiting documentary for Butler. They have a brand of basketball as well, and that's about toughness and it's about defense and it's about execution and it's about ball movement. And I like to think that sounds a little bit like Winthrop basketball as well.

Again, you tip your cap to them. They were better today. I think they got physical with Keon, bigger, longer, stronger defenders, try to limit his touches, you know. They ran at him off ball screens and tried to get the ball out of his hands and you know, it worked out for them.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach? All right. Thank you.

COACH KELSEY: Thank you. Appreciate it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297