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MAUI JIM MAUI INVITATIONALNovember 22, 2017Gregg MarshallZach BrownConner FrankampLahaina, Maui, Hawaii Notre Dame - 67, Wichita State - 66 THE MODERATOR: We now have Wichita State, Coach Marshall, Conner Frankamp, and Zach Brown. Coach, your thoughts on tonight's tough game? GREGG MARSHALL: I thought it was a great college basketball game. Obviously, I wish it had ended three seconds sooner. I thought our guys battled against a very, very good team with great players and a wonderful coach. I have tremendous respect for Notre Dame, but I love the guys in my locker room. I love those guys in my locker room, and we're going to win our share of these. Unfortunately, you know, this one, just one play. We just needed one more play, one more stop, one more basket, and we could point to a lot of different things. But it came down to just that one play and three seconds. I thought it was a tremendous game, and I really am proud of the guys in my locker room. Q. How much can you guys grow from this experience all week, especially this last game? CONNER FRANKAMP: I think we can grow a lot from it. We played pretty well the better half of that game, and we'll get back and watch video on it and just learn from our mistakes and get better. Q. Conner, you had 12 points first half, none in the second, was it their zone that was the problem? What do you think happened there regarding your scoring in the second half? CONNER FRANKAMP: I just missed some open shots. I had some open shots and good looks. They just didn't fall down for me, but that's how it goes sometimes. I'll get back and get right back in the gym. Q. Conner, that switch in the zone, it just seemed like the offense was kind of bogged down since the second half. What was the difference, do you feel like? CONNER FRANKAMP: I'm not really sure. I don't think we attacked the middle of the zone the best we could. That's something we'll work on, I imagine, when we get back. Q. Zach, the three-point shot was falling today. Coming in, you kind of struggled the first four games. What did you feel like kind of got you going tonight to hit four? ZACH BROWN: Keeping my head up, really. Always staying confident shooting the ball. To go 1 for 30 and shoot the next one with major confidence. That's all it really is. Some people could go in the gym and put up a thousand shots, but if they don't have confidence, they're not going to make the shot. But at the end of the day, I feel like that's just about it. Q. For both of you, to be leading that game for 38 of the 40 minutes, what's the emotion like following a game like that? Where you guys pretty much had the lead the whole game, and you get it ripped out from under you at the end? ZACH BROWN: Big emotions in the locker room, you know, but at the end of the day, we're going to hold our heads high. We played a hell of a game, and I'm proud of everybody in that locker room. Like you said, just a couple more seconds, just one more play. Just certain individual things that we've got to continue to work on. We're going to come back way stronger than this. Q. The second half, what seems to bog down the offense? Why do you feel like the offense kind of took a dip the second half? GREGG MARSHALL: I thought we had some good looks. They get credit. They're out there defending, and they did a good job of limiting us to one shot. We tried a lot of different things, and we still shot 41%, 46% for the game, which is pretty good for us. We made 8 out of 23 threes, 17 assists, 10 turnovers. Just needed one more play. We needed a free throw or not turn it over against the press, or not get slipped to the basket on the last play. There's a lot of plays that you could point to, but every single play in that game mattered. We need to come up with the rebound at the end without the tie-up. I'm proud of our guys. That was a great team that we played. Well-coached, and they're trying to win too. So it was a high, high level college basketball game. Q. You seemed to muddle things up for them offensively in the first half. What did it change? Because I think they hit 14 of 24 shots in the second half. GREGG MARSHALL: They've got good players and they ran some good stuff. They got us on the back-cut once. Bonzie Colson is a first-team All-American. He got to the line quite a bit. They ran some good action, and we held them to 67% -- 67 points. I don't know how many times they'll be held to 67 points on the season. It's a 40-minute game. Q. Coach, how much does a game like this, an intense game in this environment help you guys for where you go from here? GREGG MARSHALL: I think it certainly helps us. It doesn't hurt us. I don't think losing to that caliber of a basketball team is going to hurt us. It's the first close game we've been in, so hopefully we can learn from this. Now, the coach adage that every single play matters, every defensive trip, every special situation, now it will ring a little more true when we're telling them that in the video room and in practice. So I think we've got probably arguably one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country. We're going to play a lot of games like this over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully we can win more than our share. Q. After that jump ball with 3.3 seconds left on the clock, what did you say to your guys about what they might do? How maybe you guys should try to defend? GREGG MARSHALL: One of the last things I said to him was don't help. Guard your man. We take away certain things and we belly-up. We show our hands and we fight screens. Somebody helped, and they were smart and looked for them. They were able to get it to their big guy, the last guy you expect them to throw it to. But we've seen that play on video. They run it well. He slips to the basket very well. But he's a 50% free-throw shooter. He knocks them both down. You can point to a lot of plays. You can point to a play 7 or 8 -- I don't know when it was. I don't have a box score here that has the play-by-play. But we went zone one possession with five or six, seven minutes in the game. But Gibbs almost broke the backboard with the three-pointer and it goes in the basket. It's been my experience when that happens -- it's been my experience when people bank in three-pointers, they generally win. I guess the luck of the Irish was with them tonight. That was a good shot. Q. The first free throw just seemed to hang on the rim forever. What was going through your mind? GREGG MARSHALL: I thought it would come out. I really did. Again, he knocked them in. To his credit. Austin Reaves, a young kid, goes to the line and he's probably an 80% free-throw shooter on his career. Knocked down free throws routinely and doesn't make this one. So he's crushed. There are a lot of guys in that locker room that are crushed, but that's what I love about them because they're winners. They're champions. They didn't win this championship, but they're champions and they'll be champions at some point. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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