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MAUI JIM MAUI INVITATIONALNovember 20, 2017Gregg MarshallShaq MorrisLandry ShamatLahaina, Maui, Hawaii Wichita State - 92, Cal - 82 THE MODERATOR: Coach, give us your thoughts on today's game. GREGG MARSHALL: Well, obviously, I was disappointed in the way we played in the first half. Give Cal credit. Their zone was interesting and made it hard for us. We kind of looked like the Bad News Bears for the most part. But, things that made this program pretty good over the years has been our grit and determination, and we certainly showed that in the second half. But we've got to play better. Give Cal credit for the first 20 minutes, and then it looked more like my team in the second 20 minutes. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the players, Landry Shamat and Shaq Morris. Q. Landry and Shaq, can you talk about what you tried to do to slow down Coleman after his big first half? LANDRY SHAMAT: Man, he's a good scorer, he's a good player. He's really aggressive getting downhill, and we knew that he was going to do whatever it took to try to get to the rim. Had some problems with him and we made a few tweaks here and there and tried to deny him the ball at certain times. I don't think we did the best of job at that. But we nevertheless tried to implement some of those schemes and stuff. But hat's off to him, he's a good player. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Landry. Shaq, anything to add to that? SHAQ MORRIS: No, what he said. Q. Describe the last 16 minutes of this game where you guys switched to that full court press. How crazy was that to end the game? SHAQ MORRIS: We got back to us. We take pride on defense, and in the first half tonight that wasn't us. We didn't recognize ourselves. But we rallied up at halftime, and just had to, you know, come back and do what we do, play sharper basketball. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Shaq. Q. Shaq, can you talk about the two resounding followed dunks? Do you feel like that kind of thing kind of gets your teammates going a little bit? SHAQ MORRIS: Of course. At that point when we were down we could take any momentum that we could get, but Coach Marshall in the huddle wanted us to the glass every time because we needed possessions to get us back in the game. So, you know, just being fresh and attacking the glass is a huge key for the night. Q. Landry, what kind of changed there for you guys? At what point did it seem like, okay, we have some momentum, we're back in this? LANDRY SHAMAT: Well, I don't know if there was -- I mean, I think when we got into the press and started speeding them up a little bit. Obviously our energy kind of just changed, and that's something we can't have happen. We've got to keep that energy from the jump. That's kind of the same thing Coach is talking about in the locker room at the end of the game. But just that press. Obviously, you're flying around. It's easy to get energy going. So I'd say just when we started doing that. Q. Landry, I guess it was obvious they weren't going to slow down. Did you have that in your mind there were going to be plenty of possessions and plenty of opportunities to keep coming back? LANDRY SHAMAT: Yeah, I mean, in film we knew that they kind of liked to play fast and get out and run. They are a younger team than we are, and we try to just utilize that to the best of our ability there down the stretch. Q. Shaq, can you describe the momentum swing? I think you're the one that gave the team the first lead in the opening minutes, and then you guys get a turnover, and add to it. You guys go down 18 of 8. What was that momentum wave like for you guys? SHAQ MORRIS: The momentum started with Rashard Kelly on defense. We hopped into the press and started to get stops and doing everything, deflections, and getting them sped up is what we wanted to do. I wouldn't say that momentum started with me. I was just executing Coach Marshall's program, and he was making plays for me to get the ball inside. We had an advantage. We fouled out their two big men, and we executed down the stretch offensively when we needed to, and defense did its part. Q. Obviously, you guys are in the winner's bracket, but an early call tomorrow. Any challenge for you guys as players for that? SHAQ MORRIS: No, I'm still waking up at like 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. just from traveling over here. So I'm on Kansas time. I feel like this game is like at 5:00 in the evening game. So I feel fine. I don't think it should be an issue. Q. Landry, you look at the stats in the second half, and you guys shoot 42 percent, only make one three. How crazy is that to look at those stats? How would you explain how you guys were able to erase an 18-point lead? LANDRY SHAMAT: It wasn't us shooting, it was them shooting, I think, what was it, like 70 percent from three and 55 from the two. So that's just us not guarding, and we knew that. I mean, offense comes and goes, and you can't have that be what you hang your hat on, and we just try to get back to defense is all it was. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Landry. We'll open up the floor for questions for Coach. Q. When you have four guys coming off the bench and going for 20, how can you sustain that pressure that you used in that second half? GREGG MARSHALL: Well, yeah, I was looking for bodies at one point. And Landry, we had to manage his foul trouble. But I thought the key to me was the play of Rashard Kelly and Rauno Nurger, they weren't up here. Obviously, those guys scored a lot of points. But I thought they gave us tremendous energy, offensive rebounding, stick-backs. We shot the ball very poorly the whole game. And we're normally a very good shooting team. I can't really explain it other than it was somewhat like an outer-body experience in the first half. They would shoot the ball, and we didn't play great defense now. I don't want to say that. We did not play great defense. But they would hit the rim, and it would be bouncing out. Then all of a sudden, it would suck back in, just the basket would suck it in. And on the other end we had wide-open shots for really good shooters and then come close. At the half, we had 11 baskets or 12 baskets and 11 turnovers. We turned that around with 18 baskets and two turnovers in the second half. More efficient. We got great offensive rebounding. 24 offensive rebounds and finally looked like a basketball team that we were expecting. But, again, it's my fault. This is obviously the best team that we've played. I think Charleston's going to be really good but they were without one of their better players. This is the best team we've played. I needed something to get us ready for this, and I didn't do a very good job of scheduling early. Now that we've seen a taste of what big-boy basketball is like, we'll see what we can do against Marquette tomorrow. Q. For you, how tough is that 8:30 a.m. local time call tomorrow morning? GREGG MARSHALL: Well, I don't care. You want to play in three hours? I don't care. It doesn't affect me. I've taken enough aspirin during these last two hours that I'm pretty good, I'm pain free, I'm ready to go. So whenever you want to tip it up, I'm good. Q. Your intensity stayed up strong through the rest of the game. Last five minutes it look like they got worn out. You really ran them to death. But the two guards were on their knees most of the last five, six minutes. That's got to be a tribute to the bench play? GREGG MARSHALL: Yeah, we got good -- again, to me, Kelly and Rauno Nurger, I thought Austin Reaves played well, other than not shooting it well. He and Conner Frankamp, you don't want to play those guys in a horse game, but today they couldn't buy one. Samajae coming off the bench really played well too. So it was our depth. And we are deep, but we needed that depth, and we needed that depth. Brown's exhausted. He played 32 minutes and 1 for 7. But his defense, and then he got four steals and he just competed. That's what we've been about. We kind of lost sight of that. And we can't do that. We're not that talented, we're not that well-coached. We've got to have our identity of being gritty, tough, and defensive minded like in the second half more than the first. Q. Marquette put up 94 points against their opponent. They're going to be tough tomorrow. How are you going to keep that intensity going tomorrow against them? GREGG MARSHALL: Well, it should be a great game. I know they're going to play hard. They've got some really good sharpshooters. I watched most of the first half before we came over and watched some of the second half. Whoever wins has a chance to play for a championship. So I'm anticipating a really good game. Q. If you could describe how tough it is to pull off and pretty much outscore a team by 28 and only doing it with one three-pointer in the second half? GREGG MARSHALL: Yeah, we didn't shoot the ball well. I kept thinking and I'm encouraging Conner and the next one's going to go in, and I really believe that. But it didn't. You couldn't get one to fall. I thought he was going to make a big one that was going to give us the lead or give us a five-point lead or seven-point lead and really put us over the top, but it just never fell for him. I still want him shooting the ball. I'm going to ride with Conner Frankamp's jumper, Landry Shamat's jumper, Austin Reaves' jumper, Shaq Morris, Rauno Nurger, Darral Willis, they all shoot the ball very well in practice. I've been doing this for 33 years, and this is a very good shooting team. But we couldn't make a three-pointer tonight. 6 for 25, not very good. And Landry had four of those. Not much time to work on mechanics. You can go to church tomorrow or whatever before the game, but you've just got to go with the guys you've got, and hopefully they can make the shots. Q. Did you guys do anything specific at halftime adjusting to Coleman and the first half that he had? GREGG MARSHALL: We tried to limit his touches a little bit. We didn't do a great job of that. I knew he had a great half. I didn't realize he had 26 at the half. But he's a tremendous scorer. The thing that we did was extend the pressure. We just needed -- the way the game was going and the way we were playing, we just needed it to be as long a second half as possible. We needed to get as many possessions as possible. That's why we amped up the pressure even after made baskets. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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