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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: SAN JOSE

March 23, 2017

San Jose, California

Xavier - 73, Arizona - 71

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Arizona head coach Sean Miller and student-athletes Parker Jackson-Cartwright and Kadeem Allen. Coach, a quick opening statement.

COACH MILLER: Well, it's never easy when it ends, especially if you have a great team or had a great season. I think it's always important, especially as the leader of our team and program, that we define our own success. And I think if you're a team that is 32-5, you win both the Pac-12 regular season and also the Pac-12 Tournament, and our journey ends in the Sweet 16, it's hard to look at that as not getting it done or failure.

But our goal and aspiration is always to challenge for a Final Four and get there. And we pulled up short. I cannot say enough good things about Xavier. It's not because I used to be there. I think their coach is awesome. He had his way with us tonight. He called plays, after timeouts, underneath out of bounds, he got his players some great shots.

I knew going into the game it was going to be a challenge, and there were a number of breakdowns we had. Some of this is this is our plan, we have to execute it, and then there's some other things that, you know what, Chris is a great coach. And they have some clever older players in Bluiett and Macura. And they all know their role on that team and they executed.

We could not guard them. If you just go through the numbers, it wasn't the total points, it was the field goal percentage, 3-point percentage. And the thing that kept us in the game is our rebounding. Usually when we have a 35-27 rebound margin we win. And very few times, if we're up eight points with I think under four minutes do we lose. But we did.

When they had the opportunity to take a shot or make one, they made them. And we had a couple that didn't go in. Equally disappointed in myself. You know, our team never really ever established great confidence against the zone. And I think in some ways that was the reason, defensively, that we weren't as good as we usually are or maybe better than we needed to be, because the game never really felt good. And that's on me.

Your job when you get to this area, when you get to this level of college basketball, your best players gotta be confident. We have to get them shots. I don't care what defense they're playing -- 1-3-1, 2-3, man-to-man -- and I don't feel we did that tonight. And that's probably the worst feeling you can have as a coach.

This guy on my left, I'll only talk about him because he's leaving, there's never been anybody, and we've had some great players, great kids at Xavier and Arizona, that means more to me, that embodies the good in college basketball, than Kadeem Allen. And that's always the hardest part when you know that his time is up.

And Parker also did an outstanding job. And you know it's tough to look at our guys in disappointment, because we've had so many great moments. And that's what makes the tournament so special. And that's also what's the hardest part about dealing with it, unless you get all the way to the promised land. And in my mind it's going to be a great game between Gonzaga and Xavier. And I wish Xavier nothing but a great journey. I hope they go all the way.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Sean, the last three and a half minutes of your offense, what did you see there?
COACH MILLER: Well, first of all, you've got to remember our defense. We had an eight-point lead under the four-minute mark. They needed to make shots. And I thought that they hit two 3s in a row, and you have to make the shot you take, that really were barely challenged.

When you're under the four-minute mark and you have teams fighting to stay alive, you have to jump. You have to run at them. You have to close out with great effort. You have to make them miss. You have to understand that even a 2 is better than a 3. And we didn't do that. And they made the shots.

And then when you foul on an offensive rebound really late in the game at 15 feet, we gave them two more points that they didn't even have to work for. But from an offensive perspective, we had both going the wrong way. And did we get great shots? We have a couple we could have made, maybe we could have made a couple, but it's to my point: We weren't able to get great looks down the stretch or a wide open one.

And that's not these guys. That's on me. We have to be more comfortable this late in the season against that type of defense and we really just never quite established a rhythm that I think we needed to continue to play.

Q. Coach, there were a couple moments in the game where a media timeout was approaching, you used a team timeout. Was that something that just didn't cross your mind or you just wanted to stop the runs?
COACH MILLER: We were struggling. We didn't have a lot of confidence. We moved our lineup. We went small. And we had a burst where it looked pretty good. And then all of a sudden they would change defenses and we didn't have the right group in. So then we would put the right group in. And then we would establish a couple good things.

But when you're a coach, you can tell when your team's not confident. You can tell when your team needs some direction and help. And I called those timeouts because of that. Everybody focuses at the very, very end, but there were times when those timeouts really helped us. And, again, sometimes on those timeouts we needed to reorganize our defense. We had as hard of a time defending them as any team that we've played against this season.

We had really no answers, including -- they had a high-low, one-foot shot, basically, to put them up. And, again, they execute. They do such a great job of getting their players shots. And they did a better job of that than I did.

Q. Kadeem, this of course being your last game, has to be very, a lot of emotions going through you. What are your thoughts after something like this?
KADEEM ALLEN: Hats off to Xavier. They're a good team. I know one time in their conference they lost six in a row, and their coach did a good job to regroup them and get them back to playing the basketball they played.

Tonight they played a good game. Like Coach said, they made big shots, and we really didn't have an answer, and we couldn't get a stop.

But I'm proud of my team. When you win 32 games and only five losses, it says a lot about the program and the coaching staff. I'm just proud of these guys.

Q. Sean, I know you've been thinking about this game, but looking ahead to Saturday, what do you think will be the key points of that game in terms of what decides it with those two teams?
COACH MILLER: You know, I think Karnowski is just an incredible player. He's such a great passer that it's difficult to double him, and it's difficult to crowd him because he has the ability to both score but also move the ball and get his teammates shots.

Gonzaga is an excellent 3-point shooting team as well. And to me they're good against zone and man. So I think Xavier's scheme defensively may not affect them much.

But I'll tell you this, Xavier is capable of beating anybody. They're playing great basketball. I think, again, back to Trevon Bluiett and Macura -- two great competitors. In a game like tonight, sometimes those players can really rise to great heights. And Bluiett had 25. And in the first half we had no answer.

One thing that really hurt us in this game is Kadeem picked up two fouls early on. And he means so much to our defense, that we really almost played the entire first half without him. And although we were up two, not having him out there hurt our team.

And then in the second half, I thought Malcolm Bernard was great for Xavier. He went 3-for-3 from the 3-point line. And his 3s were big 3s. So I forgot the question you asked me, to be honest with you.

Q. That's fine. The key elements for Saturday's game. You mentioned some, but is there --
COACH MILLER: Karnowski is really a problem inside. He can do it rebounding. He can do it in the post. He can do it by passing. And Gonzaga is very underrated defensively. If you look throughout the season, they've been probably as consistent on defense as maybe any team that Mark has had. They're good on both offense and defense. And I mean, what, are they, 35 and 1. But they're a good team. They're playing a very good team in Xavier. So I think it's going to be a really good game.

Q. Kadeem, can you give us your thoughts on the comments your Coach made about you as a player about five minutes ago?
KADEEM ALLEN: It speaks for itself. My coaches, teammates, everyone in the program, they give me the confidence that I have toward the end of the season. And I just took it and I was just out there playing basketball. And I appreciate everything he's done for me and the coaching staff and my teammates. And I love these guys.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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