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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: ORLANDOMarch 16, 2017Chris MackTrevon BluiettSean O'MaraOrlando, Florida Xavier - 76, Maryland - 65 THE MODERATOR: Quick note before we start, a career high 18 points for Sean O'Mara. Coach Mack will make an opening statement. CHRIS MACK: Any time you can advance in the NCAA Tournament, you're really fortunate. Played a very well-coached team in Maryland, a team that we had a lot of respect for. Their guards present a lot of problems, and I thought our zone, especially in the second half, for the most part, at least last eight to ten minutes, did the job and kept them out of the lane for the most part. These two guys next to me, Sean played the best game he's ever played in a Xavier uniform, which to save it for this stage is awesome. I'm happy for him. Trevon played a heck of a second half in an Xavier uniform. That seems like the theme. So I talked to him a little bit after the game, and hopefully we can get him going both halves. We're just fortunate to move on. Q. Congrats, fellas. Tre, this is obviously, Chris alluded to it, not the first time you've had a little bit of a slow start in the first half and come on very strong in the second half. What was your -- 1-of-8 tonight in the first half. What was your mindset coming out for the last 20? TREVON BLUIETT: Honestly, I felt like the first half just kind of felt a little sped up. Probably just kind of excited to be out there in tournament time. My mentality never wavered. It was just, still be there for my team, make the right plays, and once I just settled down a little bit, my team kept instilling that confidence in me to score the ball. So I just tried to read the defense, and it all turned out well. Q. Trevon, 7-of-8 in the second half. Was the basket getting bigger for you every time you took a shot in the second half? TREVON BLUIETT: I mean, it may have looked like it, but it was just, once I get a couple to go in, then you get a little rhythm going, and then everything starts to fall in, and everything you shoot just feels good. Q. Sean, 18 bench points at halftime for you guys, 30 for the game. How important is it for the reserves to step up in the absence of Tre in that first half? SEAN O'MARA: It's huge. Tre alluded to just getting a rhythm, and I think I got that in the first half, and to be able to have Kaiser come in off the bench too and hit some threes, especially in the second and in the first. He played a great game, too. Just having guys come in like that and help us, especially offensively, it's awesome. It's a huge benefit we have with this team. Q. Chris, when you guys were going down that stretch towards the end of the season -- I think it was six in a row that you lost -- what was going on? What did you do to get out of that and do well in the Big East Tournament and then come here and win this game? CHRIS MACK: It's a shocking deal when you lose one of the best point guards in the country. I thought our team responded well in the first two, three games out of the shoot. Quentin played an excellent last eight minutes at St. John's, and then we ended up beating Seton Hall, Creighton, and DePaul. And then Tre goes down against Villanova eight minutes into the game. So our team changed. All of a sudden, you have two of our best players out. So I don't think that we were as beat up as people think. We play in a hellacious league. A three-game road trip was sandwiched by two of the best teams in the country. And I'm just proud of our group for being able to stick with each other and not necessarily worry about outsiders' expectations or outsiders' perceptions of our so-called problems. We kept working. We kept battling. We knew we had a lot at stake when we went up to DePaul, and we handled our business and did the same thing in the Big East Tournament. I'm proud of these guys and happy for them they're able to play with a little bit of freedom in the NCAA Tournament that we didn't feel during that stretch you talked about. Q. Coach, you changed between zone and between man constantly throughout the game. Also, you subbed in Malcolm and subbed in Kaiser going all the way through the end. What prompted you to make so many changes tonight? CHRIS MACK: Just believing in my players. I also think that Maryland, they're really good man-to-man offensively. Against man, they do a great job of getting their guards in the lane. We're not playing 11, 12 guys. We're generally playing 7, 8 guys. So I didn't want Quentin Goodin to be chasing Melo Trimble all over the floor. So zone for us is fairly effective at times. I know some other teams like Iowa and Nebraska have had some success against Maryland. So we're going to do what we think it takes to win. Q. Chris, what's the biggest change since two, three weeks ago? Is it Quentin getting more confident? Is it Tre getting healthy? What are one or two of the biggest changes? CHRIS MACK: I think those two are really big right there, Jeff. Quentin goes from being the backup quarterback to the starting quarterback of our team. He goes from playing 12 minutes to 35 minutes a game. When he was playing his 12 minutes, if he turned the ball over, you could pull him out, tell him what he sees, what he should be seeing. And beside that, he had Edmond Sumner who could sort of mentor him and tell him what he thinks Quentin needs to do and help him with that experience. All of a sudden, he's thrown out there, and he's got to play through his mistakes, and he's playing against really, really good players. So that's one. I think Quentin has grown a lot. Obviously, Tre getting healthy. But everyone on our team at times, like Sean and Kaiser did tonight, have stepped up, and that's what our team needs. Q. For both Coach and Tre, you had 17 second-half points against Butler, 18 tonight. What gives you the composure to not press when you start out slow and come back and have such effective second halves? TREVON BLUIETT: Coach harps about winning four-minute wars. We don't necessarily try to worry about the game. We worry about the four-minute wars in between TV time-outs. So we just stay poised and composed, and we just knew we weren't going to get it back all at once. We just have to keep itching away. I think the team did a good job of listening to that and going out there and doing it. CHRIS MACK: We've had some experiences with that, Brad. I know against Butler at Madison Square Garden, for instance, we got down nine points or whatever it was in the second half. I told our guys, hey, listen -- we were down 11 at Creighton with six minutes to go. This is a neutral floor. We should be fine. Like Tre said, we just have to sort of compartmentalize the game, worry about the next four-minute war. Can we win that one? Can we come back from the next TV time-out having won that war 5-2? As Tre said, we're not going to win it all back at once. We hit some shots, and our guys played looser in the second half. Q. It seemed like Melo was finding open looks and maybe not knocking a few down in the first half. But in the end it seems like Malcolm and Q did a good job guarding him. What's your assessment of how that went? CHRIS MACK: I think they did a terrific job. Just because you're in zone doesn't mean you're not going to have personal, individual challenges. You're going to face those all the time. Quentin got squared up a couple times with Melo Trimble and I thought did a great job of cutting him off, putting his chest on him and not necessarily let him get downhill and get an angle. Some of the pushes Maryland had to make, at least the last six, eight minutes, I felt like there was a Xavier player that was making it tough and staying in the play. That's usually the difference between missing those four- and five-footers and making them. I thought our guards did a really good job in that. Q. For Trevon and Sean, what fueled that 14-0 run you had there about midway for the second half, and what was the impact for you guys coming out of that? SEAN O'MARA: I mean, I think, like we talked about before, we got the four-minute wars that we're always focusing on. Obviously, we kind of went through one of them. Just to keep our foot on the gas no matter what the score says, just know what we're capable of and take care of the ball on offense. As long as we get a good look every possession, I feel like we're going to have a pretty good run. I feel like our defense is solid, as long as we're working together and communicating. To be able to do that is just what we need to do to win. TREVON BLUIETT: Just to piggy-back off what he said, just focusing on those four-minute wars and just winning those each time. When we really have good possessions on the defensive end, it translates to the offensive end. We try to emphasize putting those together back to back, and I think we did a good job just staying focused on the defensive end, and it just all translates offensively. Q. Sean, with a game like this tonight, what kind of momentum does that give you or confidence did you have going into playing Florida on Saturday? SEAN O'MARA: Yeah, we'll see who we're playing. I'm not really sure yet. But confidence-wise, it's obviously nice, but in the end, I've kind of had confidence in my teammates and confidence in my coaches, and my coaches have had confidence in me. Just to be able see it come to light in this game, especially how big it was, was just a great feeling, and hopefully I can keep it rolling for our team. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, congratulations. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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