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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: INDIANAPOLISMarch 17, 2017Gregg MarshallLandry ShametRashard KellyZach BrownIndianapolis, Indiana Wichita State - 64, Dayton - 58 THE MODERATOR: We've been joined by Wichita State, and we will open with an opening statement from Coach Marshall, and then we will take questions for the coach and the athletes. Coach? COACH MARSHALL: First of all, I want to praise Archie Miller and the Dayton Flyers and those four seniors for all they've done for that university, for that program and for college basketball the last four years. It's been longer than that for Coach Miller. But those dudes are warriors. They're tough. Scoochie Smith was incredible tonight with 25 points, but I'm also really proud of these young men to my right, and they made the plays to help us beat a very good team. Q. For any of the players, it's been a while since you've been in a hard-fought, close, tough game like this. What was the reaction to it and how did you overcome that? ZACH BROWN: You're right. It was definitely something a little brand new to us from how we've seen in the Missouri Valley. But I don't know. We just grinded it out. It was a tough game. Dayton Flyers are an amazing team. I've been watching Scoochie Smith since high school. All these other dudes he's been playing with, they had vets on a team that's won a lot of games. It was really hard fought. None of it came easy. The only thing we were able to do is stop their runs, stop as many runs as we could, execute when we needed to, just maintain the lead for as long as we could. But all in all, it was a big grind. And I'm proud, proud of everybody, like coach said, for overcoming not the deficit, but overcoming just the challenge of being in a close game. Q. Gregg, they went 8 for 29 in the second half. What adjustments did you make, if any, defensively? COACH MARSHALL: Well, they scored two real quick baskets in the second half. We blew a switch one time, and they got an easy one. And then Shaq Morris went for a steal and gave Pollard a dunk. After that, if they didn't get it in transition, our half court defense was incredible. Once we built the lead, I said all along, they're an elite transition team, and they were getting it out and spraying it up and attacking before we could get our defense set. They're really, really good at it, but I doubt they're any better than the two teams that are playing right now. So we'll have to continue to improve and get back and set our defense because we're pretty good once we're in a set defense. Q. Gregg, I'll ask you the same questions I asked the players. You've always prided your program on toughness, but there have been so many lopsided games. Did you have any doubts about how your team would react to a tight game like this? COACH MARSHALL: I didn't doubt. I was disappointed in the first half. I thought we were playing passively. I thought we were not executing. The three words that I talk about, verve, vigor and vitality, we didn't have those things. We played with much better energy and passion in the second half. We were tremendous on the glass. I think we were plus 19 on the glass against a veteran, tough team. Even though we turned the ball over way too many times, we blocked eight shots. I mean, we were -- one stretch, I think Markis McDuffie and Rashard Kelly, they were just pinning things against the glass. Big play was Landry Shamet's block in transition where Kelly sprinted back and got the defensive rebound. That was a huge play. Q. This is for Coach. How important was the bench tonight? COACH MARSHALL: Our bench has been key all year. I mean, we've gone ten deep all year, and we will continue to go ten deep. I thought even Austin Reaves, who only played four minutes, was probably a season low in a game he's participated in hit two big free throws. Everybody that played contributed, ten of those guys, and the six guys that did not play, and I've got two in the stands. We can only have 14 on the bench. I've got two in the stands. They all contributed to this win as well. This is the true definition of a team. These guys love each other. I don't follow them. I don't have the Instagram, but my daughter does. She follows them. She showed me some of the things they posted going into this game and what it means to them. It would bring tears to your eyes if you knew them. Q. Rashard and Zach, you went to a different lineup the last six minutes with you three, Marcus and Rauno, looked like a good defensive lineup. Why was that effective the last stretch of the game? RASHARD KELLY: It was more so just what we needed at the time, some length to bother their guards. And Rauno is a mobile five-man. He was able to hedge and get back. They were heating us up at first. We had to dig deep and get some stops. It was the match-ups and lineups coach went with, and it followed through. ZACH BROWN: I got to agree with Rashard. They had guys like Pollard and a lot of big guys that can move really well. And when Shaq got in foul trouble, Rauno really stepped up and made some big plays which people wouldn't think of big plays. But we go back and watch film, we're like, yeah, Rauno, you was in the right position. Rashard, you're in the right position. You made a winning play. And we just do what we do all year, just try and guard our man the best we can, be in the right positions where we need to be, and Coach made the right decision, like he usually does, in putting the right lineup in. Q. Landry, it was really hard for the guards in the first half tonight to find openings, to get Conner open, to get you open. Were there adjustments made that helped free that up a little bit in the second half? LANDRY SHAMET: We tweaked a few things in the second half. The first half, us guards just -- me personally, I just didn't play very well. I didn't play good enough to have us a lead or whatever. And we tweaked a few things in the locker room as far as offense goes to try to get Conner some open looks and really kind of manipulate their defense a little bit. So we just tweaked a couple things. Q. Zach, shooting like this tonight, does that come under the category of all the extra time you spend after practice paying off in a situation like this? ZACH BROWN: Yeah, it is. Every day, just about every day, I try to get in as many shots as I can after practice. I got to thank Matt and Gregg, Tommy, all the managers that really stayed in with me, all those extra hours of me just staying behind and getting up as many as I can, different types of shots. One thing I wasn't -- I haven't really been good in this year was shooting while moving. It's been kind of tough for me to shoot, you know, off of screens or anything instead of just shooting stationary shots. So, yeah, I'd say it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. Hard work pays off, just like Rauno said. Q. For Zach and Landry, it's hypothetical at this point because they're playing now. If you get a chance to face Kentucky, what would it take to beat a team like that? ZACH BROWN: It's going to take a lot. It's going to take a lot. We've definitely seen them play. Everybody's seen Kentucky play this year. They have guys that can take you off the bounce at any time. They're really good. They're really good defensively, and they get out in transition so we're really going to have to get back -- it's going to be a grind. It really is. They're not going to back down, just like we're not. It's going to be a classic game. We're all excited for it. We can't wait. Q. To follow up on the question for Zach and coach, we talked about this yesterday, Coach, Kentucky is obviously known for producing NBA guys. Your Final Four team from a few years ago produced three NBA players. What's the difference in philosophy between you and Cal and how you're getting these guys that get to the NBA and maybe Zach or one of the players can answer that as well? COACH MARSHALL: Well, the guys that they bring in are a little more ready made for the NBA with the size, athleticism, and he gets them better, and he gets them prepared for the NBA as well as anyone. Ours take a little more time in the incubator and developing and working with them and developing their bodies and their skill-set and teaching them to play angry. The bottom line is it doesn't matter how you get there. As you mentioned, we've had four, five in the last couple years, and we've got a couple more on this roster. You may not know it yet, but you will in a couple of years because we've got no seniors. Our guys don't normally do it in one year or two years. They do it in four years. ZACH BROWN: I don't know. You know, Kentucky produces NBA players. Everybody knows that. Wichita State guys like Ron, Fred, Tekele like I said before, we're shooting at 300. It came from hard work, great coaching. I see those guys when I was a freshman, and even last year, I saw Ron and Fred constantly working, Tekele constantly working in the gym before me 6:00 in the morning, you know. Like you would think that all these guys are really talented and a lot of people are, but it's really just a grind. They'd be in the gym just as much as we are. And they're getting better just like we are, so I would say just with that. Q. Gregg, that lineup to kind of close the game with these three and Rauno and Markis, why did you hit upon that? Why was it as effective as it was? COACH MARSHALL: I liked the lineup defensively. Once we got the six to eight-point lead, they were going to attack us pretty hard off the bounce. Zach was doing a great job. Markis was doing a great job and Rashard and Rauno. And Landry, obviously, we could switch a lot of the ball screen action with that lineup with a similar size. I just -- I thought, also, that that was a good rebounding team. I didn't know they were going to block as many shots, but they did. And I would like to finish by saying that, once again, I think Dayton deserved a better draw in this tournament. I'll finish with that. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. Thank you, guys. See you tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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