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MAUI JIM MAUI INVITATIONALNovember 21, 2017Gregg MarshallRashard KellyAustin ReavesLahaina, Maui, Hawaii Wichita State - 80, Marquette - 66 THE MODERATOR: We now welcome Wichita State to the media room. Coach Marshall, Rashard Kelly, and Austin Reaves. We'll start by having Coach give us an opening statement, and then we'll take questions for players. Coach, your thoughts on this morning's game? GREGG MARSHALL: I thought we played much better, more like Wichita basketball that I'm used to seeing. We outrebounded them by 17, and we won points in the paint 44 to 22. So if we could just stop fouling them on the three-point shots, I think we'd be even better. But they battled. They battled. They were a tough team. But in the end, I think our size and strength wore them down. Q. You guys were pretty even on rebounds with them in the first half, and then in the second half you guys ended up with almost 20 more than them. What do you do to increase the advantage on the floor in the second half? RASHARD KELLY: We just kept crashing our offense and continuing to check out on defense. That's just really our motto. We really didn't think about the numbers during the game, but just the performance at the end of the game kind of showed our motto. GREGG MARSHALL: I think also we had a chance to get a couple of defensive rebounds because they didn't make every shot. Q. Rashard, after a great game yesterday, getting the start today, how -- did that energize you at all with the way you played today? Did you feel there was any difference for you starting? RASHARD KELLY: No, there's no difference. We just had to play and keep bringing the same mindset every day. It continued to be that glue guy. We have great scorers on our team. We have great guys that can shoot the ball. I've just got to find a different way to contribute. Q. Austin, there towards the end of the game, you made some pretty incredible moves. Obviously, you've got no shoulder problems left, huh? AUSTIN REAVES: No, sir. Q. You played really well. Tell me what happened the last three, four minutes of the game that just made you go totally unbelievable on your play? AUSTIN REAVES: It's just the way we play. We play with a lot of energy. If you're not sprinting the floor or crashing on offensive rebounds or rebounding, you get taken out of the game. Doing that stuff puts you in a really good position to succeed and do good things. Q. For both of you guys, what would a Maui Invitational title mean for you guys if it comes tomorrow? RASHARD KELLY: Coach, you had a championship here yet? GREGG MARSHALL: I've never had a championship here, Rashard. RASHARD KELLY: All right. It would mean the world to us. GREGG MARSHALL: There you go (laughing). Q. Rashard, when you look at your final stat line, only six points, you talk about the rebounds, the charges, the blocks. For someone like you, just how happy does that make you to see numbers as high as they were today? RASHARD KELLY: I'm glad I contributed. I'm glad we won. The numbers, they don't really matter to me how high they go. We have a plus-minus system, and the more pluses I have, that's the more satisfaction I'll get. GREGG MARSHALL: I thought his two blocks on the breakaway lay-up where he ran the guy down, blocked it, no one else sprinted. The guy gets the offensive rebound, he blocked it again. That's my favorite play of the year thus far. That was a tremendous play, and it epitomizes Rashard Kelly and hopefully our program. Q. (Indiscernible)? RASHARD KELLY: You got to come to one of our film sessions one day then (laughing). No, seriously, we've got to create a mindset, play angry. That's been our motto around Wichita State. Somebody's just got to fall in love with doing the dirty work. I don't want to be the superstar, the highlight-type player. I just want to get the job done. So if I'm the robber of the team, I'll take it. I'll give the Draymond, the bad guy. Q. Austin, if you could explain Rashard's importance to this team? Only six points, but probably the Most Valuable Player. What makes him so valuable to you guys? AUSTIN REAVES: He's an everyday guy. He never takes days off. He comes to work every day, practice. I mean, it's hard to practice five times a week, and as hard as we do. So he's an everyday guy. He does the little things. He's not worried about his points. He rebounds, takes charge and does the little things, like Coach says all the time. Those little things matter. Q. You guys come in ranked No. 6 and one of the favorites to win the tournament. How have you been handling the pressure and having your team focus on playing the game? GREGG MARSHALL: We didn't handle it very well at all yesterday, I thought, for 25 minutes. I talked about that. I was not happy with our poise that we exhibited nor the purpose or passion. I mean, we didn't play as hard as we needed to play, and Cal to the a huge lead. It took a monumental effort by our guys to come back in the game. Today we had a totally different mindset. We stopped fouling the shooter. Did a better job on those ball screens, which we did in the second half. Made some great adjustments. My staff had tremendous suggestions. It's just -- it's basketball. Don't put too much into it. We just need to continue to -- whoever we're playing, listen to the coaching staff, listen to the scouting report, and execute. We've got plenty of guys over there that can help us have more points in our column than the other team at the end. Q. Coach, on playing a team that you know is going to shoot a lot of three-pointers, over half their shots, their threes, made a ton early. What do you tell your guys? Evened out over the course of the game, but what do you feel was key to kind of keep that percentage down? GREGG MARSHALL: Well, we held Marquette to 66 points, and they were averaging, I thought, over 80. I could be wrong, but they were averaging over 80. So when you can do that, you have a great chance of winning. We got some really good -- we executed down the stretch too. Our defense was much better, especially in the second half. Howard was unbelievable. They don't miss wide-open shots, so you can't give them wide-open shots. You've got to have great communication if you're going to do any type switching on the ball screens. All those runner -- we call them runner when they come off the double screen, the triple screen along the baseline. But I thought Zach Brown didn't do his normal job early in the game, but I thought Austin Reaves was very good defensively. I thought Rashard Kelly was very good defensively. The thing that's amazing about our team is who we bring up here each time. Yesterday, these guys were nowhere to be found. It was Shaq and Landry, I think. So today it's Austin Reaves and Rashard Kelly. You just never know who it's going to be. Q. Outside shots still not falling down for you guys. I think you shot almost 70% on twos. How impressive is it that this team is still finding a way to manufacture a really good offensive performance without the threes? GREGG MARSHALL: Well, we shot 54%. We had 18 assists to 12 turnovers as a team, and we had ten offensive rebounds. So when you can score 80 points, I don't think we lose very often when we score 80 points. Obviously, LSU or Notre Dame could do that. They could score 81 or more. But our goal is to score 80. When we do that, we have a phenomenal record. Q. (Indiscernible)? GREGG MARSHALL: We didn't shoot it well yesterday either. That's been our MO. We try to crash the glass, we try to get the ball inside, try to get to the foul line. We didn't make our free throws today either. I don't know what it is. Maybe we're due for some outside shots to go in. Q. (Indiscernible)? GREGG MARSHALL: Well, our big guys are in there checking out and did a good job of that. Rashard Kelly, and Austin Reaves, he's so slight a build. He's very gritty, very tough. He gets nine, and Landry gets seven. Those guys are 6'5 now, and Landry's very athletic. So everybody has to contribute. The ideal situation is force a tough, contested shot. Everybody check out, and that ball can hit the floor, and the guards can swoop in and get it. Q. (Indiscernible)? GREGG MARSHALL: Lot of skin on the ground for both teams. Both teams played very hard. That's what you have to do to win these type games. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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