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

March 16, 2017

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Middle Tennessee - 81, Minnesota - 72

THE MODERATOR: Joined by Minnesota student-athletes, Amir Coffey, Jordan Murphy, and Head Coach, Richard Pitino.

If I can ask Coach to make an opening statement, and then we'll have questions for the student-athletes, please.

COACH PITINO: Well, give credit to Middle Tennessee. They were the better team tonight. They played extremely well. I thought that, you know, when Nate got banged up, tried to tough it out in the second half, they were able to keep subbing and go to their bench. And obviously that got to us. We were not very deep late in the season and that caught up to us. They -- we cut it to 4, and I think Upshaw made a big play, hit a 3. That really hurt us. Give them credit. We couldn't stop them.

We talked about defending and rebounding. We didn't really do either one. So, you know, Kermit does an awesome job. That doesn't surprise me. They're a really good team.

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

Q. Either one of you guys, did you expect them to be changing defenses? You knew about their 1-3-1. What kind of problems did it present as far as --
AMIR COFFEY: Yeah. We kind of went over those defenses in all the walk-thrus and practices that we had, and, you know, the things with those defenses kind of gets you late in the shot clock, kind of slows you down at first. You have to make a play pretty quick.

Q. Your team only had 4 offensive rebounds. What do you think led to that?
AMIR COFFEY: Out rebounded us. They boxed out and took that away from us. That's usually something that we're good at. They keyed in on it.

Q. You guys played night-in-night-out against big physical teams. Is this a No. 12 seed in your mind?
THE MODERATOR: Jordan, take this one.

JORDAN MURPHY: All in all, they determine seeding. Whether they're a 12 seed or any number of seed, I don't really know how to answer that question. So, I mean, they're a really good team to their credit, so, I mean, I really don't know.

Q. Jordan, how much do you think foul trouble impacted the play of your forwards?
JORDAN MURPHY: I think foul trouble affected us a lot. Reggie got two early ones. Eric got two early ones, if I'm not mistaken. May have made us a little bit less aggressive going down the stretch. So it really hurt us. Got 4 in the second half late. That kind of affected us as well.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else for the student-athletes?

Q. How big an impact was it that Akeem wasn't able to play again for you guys on and off the court?
JORDAN MURPHY: Akeem is one much our main leaders, so of course it's going to leave a big impact, volume shooter. I think he's a good 3-point shooter. It's going to affect us in some way. Other guys have to step up. I mean, we tried our best without him so, yeah.

Q. What was the feeling on the bench after you guys brought it within 4 late?
AMIR COFFEY: We made a little bit of a comeback and just didn't get over the hump. But, you know, when we were in that comeback, we were excited trying to get over the hump, trying to get it up and take the lead but just didn't get there.

Q. Richard, you got a young team --
THE MODERATOR: Ask for the student-athletes. He'll take questions in a moment.

Q. Sorry. Amir, Jordan, what do you two hope to take away from this experience or what do you plan to take away from this experience?
JORDAN MURPHY: Just the whole environment, I guess. I mean, this is a pretty high intensity game. We played in games like this before. It's a different time of year, teams are going to give you the best shot no matter what. I'll take away that. Our guys will take away a whole lot from this experience.

AMIR COFFEY: This time of year seeding doesn't really matter. Every good team makes the tournament. You have to play hard no matter what seed you're playing or who you're playing.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else for the student-athletes? Thanks, guys, you're released.

Questions for the Coach, please.

Q. Same question for you Richard, lot of guys coming back, lot of guys that come out for the first time in the tournament. What do you hope they take away from all this?
COACH PITINO: You know, I don't -- they didn't seem affected by anything. None of it really felt a whole lot different. These guys played in a lot of games. The only thing that felt different were the timeouts were longer. Other than that, their approach was good. You know, we just kind of ran out of gas. When Nate started -- he was hurt and couldn't sub guys out. That was very, very difficult. So, probably give you a little bit more confidence that you were there, you know, and you just know how to deal with things.

But I didn't really feel like we were nervous. I thought we were ready to go at the beginning of the game. We just couldn't get stops.

Q. Richard, what was Nate's injury there, and also do you feel like their matchup affected him in any way that early?
COACH PITINO: You know, he hurt his hip. I don't know when he did it, but it was in the second half. He was trying to fight through it, you know, as best he could. The defense, their defense? I thought we were attacking it pretty good. Shot 54 percent in the second half, which we couldn't get stops. I mean, you let them shoot 48 percent, you give up 81 points, I didn't necessarily have a problem with the offense, I had a much bigger problem with the defense and the rebounding. I kind of liked the way we were attacking it for the most part.

You know, Nate had a couple turnovers, obviously, but again, when you can't sub, really, really hard because he needed a break.

Q. Coach, could you follow-up that rebounding question? What did Middle Tennessee do that kept you guys away from getting your rebounds?
COACH PITINO: They did a good job of blocking out. Give them credit. They were really blocking out well, being physical with our guys. You know, some of it is probably on us, sticking in the backs a little too much. They're a big, strong, physical team. We were getting tired and they were -- they kept subbing and subbing and getting sharper as the game went on. It's not the ending you want.

Q. Are you able to put this into perspective yet, given the turnaround you had overall this season?
COACH PITINO: I will, you know. Obviously, I will. Now probably -- now isn't the time. I told our guys after the game, listen, this tournament is tough because, you know, you sit there for five months or whatever and you do some unbelievable things over 33 games. To flip it like we did, our players deserve a lot of credit to be able to do that.

I know that now going into next year -- you know, they raised the expectations so quickly. And next year it's going to be even more, obviously when you have almost everybody back and you got some exciting recruits coming in. Davonte will be back.

I looked down yesterday during practice and I said I looked at Jarvis, Davonte, and Akeem, wow, it will be nice going in there with that depth. Obviously, that will help. I've been in some tournaments before. I kind of know the way it works. Our guys won't feel that way. But I think in a couple days they'll be very proud of the way it is. They won't feel it now, but eventually.

Q. With the interchangeability of their two bigs with JaCorey and Reggie being able to play from the outside and moving in, is that difficult to replicate in terms of the flow of their offense versus a traditional team where the guys tend to stay more down in the blocks?
COACH PITINO: It's a tough cover. We put our 3-man on JaCorey Williams, you know, this week because you don't have anybody who can really simulate it. I thought Reggie was bothering him at the beginning and some silly fouls. UpShaw, he's a talented player. There's a lot of guys at our level in the Big Ten that want a guy like that. They're able to make plays and Upshaw was able to do that.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach?

Q. I know it's early, but back to Nate Mason. Do you think that's any kind of serious injury or could it be lagging or just got banged up a little bit?
COACH PITINO: I have no idea. I don't think it's serious, but I don't know. He's got plenty of time to recover. I know that. I expect him back next October, but I don't know. I'm not sure.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else?

Q. Just curious, what happened on the technical?
COACH PITINO: I yelled at the ref and he gave me a technical. I deserved it.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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