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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: GREENVILLEMarch 17, 2017Luke FischerJaJuan JohnsonSteve WojciechowskiGreenville, South Carolina South Carolina - 93, Marquette - 73 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Marquette. COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: First of all, congratulations to South Carolina. I thought the better team won tonight. You know, obviously they're a team that plays very hard and is incredibly physical. They were allowed to play really physical tonight. I thought over the course of the game that wore us down. And where they were able to get separation in the second half. So congrats to them. The kid Thornwell is a big big-time player and they have an outstanding team. I'm really proud of our guys, especially these two guys sitting to my right, these two guys were at Marquette when I was hired and they're two of the big reasons why we're back in the NCAA Tournament this year and I'm proud of my team. I thought we had a really good year where we had a mix of returnees and newcomers. And those guys were able to come together to put us in a position to be a part of the NCAA Tournament, which we haven't -- Marquette has not been able to do for three years prior. So it was a good year. It's a tough ending. But again I'm proud of my team. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. It seemed in the second half the interior defense kind of fell apart a little bit. Was it Thornwell, dealing with the fouls early, or maybe something else? JAJUAN JOHNSON: They just turned a couple of notches there. It was tough for us to get going on the offensive end, that's all I can say. LUKE FISCHER: Yeah, I would say they're a really physical team. They were able to get to the basket. We weren't always up on our ball screen coverage. We had some miscommunication plays and they capitalized on all that stuff. Q. How big of a factor was the crowd, their campus is about 90 minutes away. Especially in that second half where they got going seemed like they rode the emotion of the fans? JAJUAN JOHNSON: Yeah, fell like an away game almost. The crowd was loud and every time they made a run you could hear them. LUKE FISCHER: I definitely agree. I mean, with them being so close and being in their home state, we expected a large crowd for them and they definitely followed them for this game. Q. To face a 7 seed and basically be a road game, did you feel like you got the short end of the straw there? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: No, we didn't. One of the things about playing in this tournament is for us, if they said we needed to play in Timbuktu and they were only bringing their home fans, we'd be fine with that. They have great fans and they showed out tonight. But that's not something that we worried about nor should we be worried about. Q. Luke, it seems like your shoulder is a little more bandaged up than it was against Seton Hall, more of a serious injury or just precautionary? LUKE FISCHER: Just precautionary, we wanted to make sure the incident didn't happen again. This past week we made some adjustments and made sure that I could play this full game. Q. Obviously this is kind of a sour end to the season, but it's been really an exciting year for the team as a whole. Maybe more big moments this year than the past two combined, do you think about that, both of you, at all as this comes to an end or is it too soon for that? LUKE FISCHER: Some of the first things you think of is our time here. I mean, I thought back to my very first game right away and just how many great memories I've had playing for this university and the love I have for it. I'm really going to miss it. It's been a heck of a two and a half years playing here and I wouldn't want to play anywhere else. JAJUAN JOHNSON: The same. Marquette, I'm a Golden Eagle for life. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Steve, you said that the Gamecocks were allowed to play physical. Did you think the referee should have reined them in some more, or was it up to your players to step up to that level and combat them a little bit? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: I'm not an official. I don't want to speak for them. I thought the game was really physical. That's how Frank's teams play. I thought over the course of the game their physicality wore us down. And you have to be incredibly mentally and physically tough in order to win any NCAA game but in particular against South Carolina tonight and we weren't able to sustain that for as long as we needed to, and that's when they were able to create separation. Q. The turnovers really became an issue in the second half. Was that just the pressure South Carolina was putting on you? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: Yeah, I think when you play a team that pressures like they do, at times the effects of that pressure don't show itself until late. And we're not going to win a game where we give a team 25 points off of turnovers. That's just not how we're made up. We have to -- taking care of the ball has got to be one of the things we do best against a team the caliber of South Carolina. And we weren't able to do that. And the reason was because South Carolina was playing outstanding defense and playing really hard and we weren't able to sustain what we needed to do from a mental or physical perspective. Q. I asked Luke and Jajuan about the season as a whole and the big moments that Marquette basketball has had this year. As a whole, how do you feel about the season with your first NCAA Tournament run, would you say this was a success? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: Yeah. Anytime you're 20 minutes after a loss, it's hard to take a step back. But I'm sure when I'm able to take a step back, this has been a great year. To be back in the NCAA Tournament, after -- when I took the job, we had to reboot the program. And in a few short years we're back into the NCAA Tournament where we want to be consistently. And I give our guys a lot of credit. There are different times over the course of the year where, you know, if we didn't respond we wouldn't be in this position. When we were 6-7 in the Big East, and we felt like we probably had to get the 10 wins to put ourselves in a position to win, to be in the NCAA Tournament, our guys won four out of five games and we played our best basketball. I never made a big deal about it. We started two freshmen the whole year. And in a conference that's as good as any conference in the United States. We're integrating four new guys who played key roles for the better part of the first 40 percent of the season. And those guys ended up being real key players for us. So there's a lot to be proud of, I'm sure, as I step back and more things come to thought. But our group did a really good job this year. And it's hard to feel as good about it just because we left the battlefield. But I'm sure as we take a step back we'll feel really good and so should the people who support our program and support the Marquette community. This team did a great job to get us back into the NCAA Tournament. And I'm really proud of them and so should the people who support our program. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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