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

March 17, 2017

Sacramento, California

Rhode Island - 84, Creighton - 72

THE MODERATOR: For the Creighton Bluejays we have Isaiah Zierden, Cole Huff and Zach Hanson along with Coach Greg McDermott. Coach, would you start us off with the impression, analysis of the game today?

GREG McDERMOTT: I would like to congratulate Rhode Island. Coach Hurley has done a terrific job throughout the season and obviously has them playing their best basketball at the right time.

For us, we really needed to play defensively in the second half like we did the first half and play offensively in the first half like we did the second half. Our offensive numbers were poor the first half, but defensively we did enough to keep us in the game. The second half we had a hard time guarding them without fouling, and even though we moved the ball and put 46 points on the board, it was a little bit too little, too late.

But extremely proud of our team and especially these three guys that are up here with me. Zach and Isaiah have been part of a team that was a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and they've also been part of a team that finished 9th in the Big East and went 4-14. That was Cole's redshirt year. The three of them are hugely responsible for getting our program back to where it is today and I'm forever grateful for them. Not just for what they've done for us on the court, but the way they've conducted themselves off the floor. They've been first-class representatives of Creighton, of our basketball program and certainly of their families. They're going to be successful in whatever they choose to do, and it's been 100% my pleasure to have the opportunity to coach them.

Q. Isaiah, the natural question is what did they do defensively to knock you off kilter? They pressure well and extend out, but just what was it about their playing that knocked you off in the first half?
ISAIAH ZIERDEN: It wasn't anything that we weren't ready for, just got a little sped up. They try to body you, push you around, make you go where they want you to go and catch. And they did a good job and tried to speed us up and that's exactly what they did.

Q. Coach, what went into the decision of starting Ronnie, not starting him, but playing Ronnie Harrell at point guard a lot today?
GREG McDERMOTT: A couple things. Part of it is he played really well against Villanova when we put him in in the second half. I thought he gave us a great lift at both ends of the floor. He's continued to practice well since that time. Because of the length they had across the guard court his ability to see over some of their -- they were aggressive on ball screens and he could see over it better than Davion and Z and Tyler.

So we went with it and when he went out there he played well. So we rolled with it and it's been that case with this team all year. When a guy's number is called we expect him to be ready, and fortunately Ronnie was ready today because he impacted the game in a positive way.

Q. For all the players, I don't know how you sum up this season. I know it hurts at this moment, but given the adversity and trying to reshape your team the way you did down the stretch, what do you take way from the way you finished and what it meant the last few weeks to still stick together and get wins despite not having your full squad?
ZACH HANSON: I just think top to bottom from our coaching staff to all the guys on the team, I think it really speaks to the character of everybody on this team because with all we went through with injuries and just adversity and everything, it could have been easy for us to divide as a program and at times even give up a little bit. That's never what we did. We always stuck together. We always kept our heads up. We always showed up and worked and we always kept our goals in mind. We never let things that could have brought us down and I'm really proud of our guys and our program in general because I think it speaks to how good of people we have in this program.

Q. Coach, how much did they maybe resemble a Big East team defensively in terms of their physicality on the perimeter and their depth among their guards?
GREG McDERMOTT: I would say very similar. As you watch them over the course of the season, watch their early games and obviously watched the run they've had the last two or three weeks, there's noticeable improvement in what they're doing defensively and their attention to detail. They're extremely physical and today they were able to play that physical defense without fouling. They've had times during the year where they fouled a lot and we were the ones that fouled a lot today. This is a very good basketball team. That's a top-25 basketball team and a team that can on the right night can beat anybody in this tournament.

Q. Greg, what did you see that you guys didn't do effectively offensively in the first half that once you got settled in you figured out and started having a little bit better possessions offensively?
GREG McDERMOTT: We had opportunities early with some shots that came as a result of Justin or Zach getting to the rim after a ball screen and we sprayed it out and missed some of those, missed a few shots around the rim and when you're not making the shots you don't really make them adjust.

You're not going to adjust as a coach until something is really hurting you, and we weren't able to do enough in the first half to force any adjustments with how they were defending with their pressure. They're really good. They're really good, and obviously we didn't have our A game today and to win today we were going to need that.

Q. Defensively you mentioned fouling too much, but it seemed like you assign Khyri to guard E.C. their best player, but their point guard, Jeff Dowtin, got into the teeth of the defense and hurt you a little bit maybe off ball screens. What did he do and why did he find a way to bring you guys down the way he did?
GREG McDERMOTT: I thought he played with a great pace. While he didn't have any assists, he also didn't turn it over. If you would have told me E.C. and Terrell were going to be 6 of 20 between 'em, I would have said we're probably winning the game, until you tell me that Justin and Marcus went 9 of 31, so that kind of trumps that.

Obviously, Hassan is special in there because he doesn't require the ball all the time, but when they need a basket you can go to him. He kind of got what he usually gets and we did a good job on those other two. Jeff Dowtin hurt us and Kuran Iverson, the 3-point shots he hit were really critical, especially the ones late in the half.

I thought our defensive plan was good enough, certainly good enough the first half and we just couldn't score and once we got behind we fouled a lot and that's got a lot to do with the free throw differential.

Q. Cole, how tough is it to swallow knowing that you guys didn't play your best, that there was more to show, like Coach mentioned, layups and shots that you there you just didn't finish? How do you come to grips with the season ending in this fashion?
COLE HUFF: It's tough just like any other loss. You're always going to look back at the few plays that you wish you could have had back, things you could have done differently. Unfortunately, this time there is nothing to look forward to, moving on to a next game or preparing for something else. It definitely hurts, especially in the NCAA Tournament, us three, I know these two have been, but Isaiah was hurt the first time and Zach had a minimal role.

So this was our first appearance in the NCAA Tournament and we wanted to put out a better effort than we did. It hurts. It sucks, but at the same time we don't have anything to hang our heads about.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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