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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: SALT LAKE CITYMarch 16, 2017Sean MillerLauri MarkkanenRawle AlkinsSalt Lake City, Utah Arizona - 100 North Dakota - 82 COACH SEAN MILLER: Well, first I want to congratulate North Dakota. They have a really good team. And when we were preparing for them I think certainly I knew and really tried to let these guys know from an offensive perspective they're very difficult to defend. They push the ball at a fast pace. They have two really outstanding guards and they have tremendous movement. And everybody on their team knows their role. And at times we had some good defensive possessions. We had a stretch there in the first half where we were playing maybe our best. And we had times where we didn't. And when we weren't at our best defensively they certainly took advantage of it. On the other hand, offensively we had 7 turnovers for the game, 24-28 from the foul line. So proud of these two guys. I answered a lot of questions on how we've weathered a lot of the obstacles and adversity we dealt with this season. And a lot of times I answered by we have three freshmen who are excellent players but bring no drama to the table. They do their job. They're consistent. Tonight is a great example. First round of a NCAA tournament, you would expect freshmen to have a struggle. Lauri and Rawle were our two best players tonight. And in Rawle's case, it might have been his best game he's played at Arizona, 20 points, 5 assists, no turnovers, 8 for 8 from the field. It's a big reason why we scored a hundred points tonight and maybe offset a little bit of our defense. We'll take it and we're excited to move on. And again, back to North Dakota, just wanted to congratulate them on really a good season. They do a great job. Q. Lauri, just looking back to the first half, you guys had a pretty good spark to get a double-digit lead. Hooker made a basket to cut it back to seven and you had several big baskets to put it back to double digits. Can you describe your play in the first half and what really sparked you? LAURI MARKKANEN: I credit my teammates. They did a good job finding me in offense. I didn't have to create my own shots. So that helped a lot. But we just had to get stops. Good defense leads to good offense. Q. What was the feeling like for you guys? What was the experience for you going in and starting off the tournament on a good foot like this? RAWLE ALKINS: This is a great opportunity. Not every team in college basketball is playing in March. To be one of the few teams playing in March is a great feeling. We played a great opponent in North Dakota. They're a tough team. They play really fast and we had to stop them. And they had a great season. So I congratulate them. To back that up, I would probably say that Coach Miller and Lauri and the rest of us, we just wanted -- this is our first feeling in the NCAA tournament for me and Lauri and Kobi, and we just want to play hard and show we belong here. Q. Oregon and now North Dakota put some good offensive numbers against you guys in the second halves. What's the biggest challenge in bringing the defense from the first half into the second half? LAURI MARKKANEN: We have to rebound the ball. That's what we didn't do today. The game felt weird because we didn't get stops. We thought we were scoring on the offense, but they scored right back. The game felt a little bit weird because of that. Q. You guys led by 16 at the break. They fought back at the second half. What were they doing to cut into the lead and what did you do in response? RAWLE ALKINS: We didn't rebound the ball really well today and they had too many second shots. And they collaborated in that and they finished. They had great bigs who finished over the top and guards who hit a couple of 3's and opened the game up. Q. You're such a good shooter, can you kind of tell us about the process of that, how you got to have that quality of a shot as a big man? LAURI MARKKANEN: Probably because I didn't spend a lot of time on the block when I was developing my game. I tried to do stuff that guards do. That's basically it. Q. Could Santa Clara be any more different than North Dakota? COACH SEAN MILLER: From this year? Go ahead with your question. Q. Is Saint Mary's completely different than North Dakota? COACH SEAN MILLER: In some ways they have some real similarities in that they utilize ball screens a lot in the half court. They three or four per possession, four or five per possession, and they have some incredible shooters out there while all of this action is going. North Dakota plays at a much faster tempo, which I thought was a big part of their success against us. We talked about that at halftime. They really pushed the ball. And once they get in the half court they have a lot of movement that follows it. Saint Mary's is more deliberate, but they really execute. And certainly shoot the basketball. A couple of questions that were asked of these guys, if you give a team 10 for 22 from the three-point line, if a team makes 10 for 22 from the three-point line, you're playing with fire. And that's what they did tonight. And one of the alarming things, and it's something we have to get right here entering Saturday, two shooters that clearly we knew were great shooters, No. 21 and No. 1, Hooker and Baldwin, they went 9 for 17. The fact they shot 17 3's and made 9, and they were the players that we clearly knew, is concerning. But I'm just going to bet that if you look at how they scored their 3's, they got quite a few on a fast push in transition. And some of that starts with our running good offense. But it really starts with making sure that we're back. And transition can break your back. And at times I thought they created some great shots for themselves against our transition defense. Q. 54 points in the paint today, was that the plan going in, to take advantage of your athletes? COACH SEAN MILLER: It was. Offensively we did the job. 7 turnovers, and by the way, they're a team that can force turnovers, they have a lot of quickness, use their hands really well on defense, and they disrupt you. 24 for 28 from the free throw line. We're an excellent free throw shooting team and we got there. And you're right, 58 percent -- we had 36 field goals, 32 were from two point. We utilized our size. That's important in a game like tonight to play to your strengths. I think if you listen to us, I think the sentiment up here is we wish we felt better about our defensive effort and I think we'd have put together one heck of a game. But I credit North Dakota on the way they played. Q. Can you talk about how important Lauri was early on, he got 16 the first half and helped extend the lead early on? COACH SEAN MILLER: He did. He was terrific. And so was Rawle. And back to my point, those two guys were freshmen, and I thought they were the most consistent players on our team and made big plays when we really needed it. If you look at who answered their run in the second half, these two guys made a lot of plays to answer that run. But I wish we would have done a better job getting the ball to Lauri in the second half. Teams go to great lengths to try to take him out of things. And sometimes it opens up other opportunities for his teammates. And although maybe in the second half he didn't score as much, maybe we didn't even get him the ball in scoring position, as much. That's because they really loaded, switched, fronted, did a lot of things to take him out of it. And sure enough Dusan had 12 second half points. We have balance on offense. And we did a lot of goings things as a team tonight. Lauri obviously was a big part of that. Q. Looking at the second half, North Dakota at one point cut your lead to 68-61. And then Kadeem Allen comes in, gets a 3-point play, ignited a 12-0 run. He's not the one that's going to jump out on the stat sheet. How big is his contribution in the second half? COACH SEAN MILLER: Kadeem is our heart and soul. He's the only senior on our team. He's been with us from start to finish this year as a leader. The first game of the season in Hawaii against Michigan State he drove the ball coast to coast and hit a game-winning shot. And really from that point on, unless he was injured, he's played a big, big role in every game he's played. He didn't personally have as good a defensive effort tonight as he usually does. But those guards were hard to defend. And he picked up a couple of fouls. And I really believe he was more hesitant after he picked up his fouls. But you're right, Kadeem is always in the -- seems like always in the play, whether it's a big rebound, a defensive stop, a good pass, he does everything. He plays to win. He could care less about his stats, and I think sometimes that's his best quality. Q. How valuable is it to get the walk-ons in throughout the course of the season and how much do they contribute to your guys' success? COACH SEAN MILLER: They contribute an amazing amount. They're our quote, unquote, "scout team." We rely on them to simulate the other team. They do it as well as any group that we've had, selfless. Those are the guys you want to hire when college ends because they do all of the things that everybody else does, but they get very little credit. We have a great group of walk-ons. And I'm glad we were able to get them in. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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