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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 1, 2018Kevin HuerterMark TurgeonNew York, New York Wisconsin - 59, Maryland - 54 THE MODERATOR: Coach, an opening statement. COACH TURGEON: Well, I felt like we were fighting uphill all night. We had the lead 24-23, that was the only time we had the lead. We tied it a bunch of times. Really came down to two things: We fouled too darn much and we couldn't get a rebound when we had to get a rebound. And I thought we tried hard. I thought we competed. I thought we did a great job on Happ who is absolutely a terrific player. Didn't get a rebound. And so disappointed in the outcome. I thought our guys were dialed in a little bit more, especially defensively today. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. Coach, what were you hoping for there on the inbound at the end? I know you guys were wary of Iverson's defensive rep. COACH TURGEON: Not what happened. That's not what we wanted. We ran the play -- had a guy run the play wrong. So not what we wanted. Q. Is it surprising that that was, something like that would happen so late in the season? COACH TURGEON: It's disappointing, yeah. Disappointing. But it's disappointing. Q. In terms of trying to get the lead, you had a number of chances. Do you think like in a game like this getting the lead would have, with your team, made a difference, even a small lead? COACH TURGEON: Yeah, it would have been nice. We just couldn't get stops. And I think for the most part our defense was pretty good. We just fouled too much. I thought Davison made a really tough shot on the baseline. I think another one they made was another tough shot. But we just fouled them too much. Getting the lead would have been nice, but we just couldn't get it. Whether it was a rebound or a missed shot or whatever it was, we just couldn't get it. It's kind of the way the year's gone. Q. What was that last huddle like? Did it seem like you guys were going to -- you being down three, going to finally break through? COACH TURGEON: No, because they only had five team fouls and we had 12. So we knew they were going to foul us, which makes it -- takes more time off the clock. So you were hoping. Really, a minute 22 you were hoping you'd get a rebound. That's what you were hoping, when the score is tied, and have a chance to take the lead. We gave them two offensive rebounds and they finally scored and then missed a free throw. Had a chance to tie it again with 8.9 or whatever that was and we missed a free throw. Q. In terms of the start of the second half, you were talking about fighting uphill, is that what you were talking about when they jumped out seven right at the beginning? COACH TURGEON: I just felt like we were always behind the whole time. We never took the lead. Whether it was fouls, them shooting more free throws or whatever it was, I just felt like we were fighting uphill all day. It is what it is. It would have been nice to get the lead. Might have helped. Q. Defensive effort against Ethan Happ, excellent today. Did you change a rotation. Saw a lot of guys flying at him? COACH TURGEON: Yeah, we've gotten better at doubling the post. Our timing was better. And I think we made him work harder to catch it. And once he caught it, I think our timing was better and our rotations were better tonight in it. But obviously we just didn't get enough stops. Q. Kevin, just the quickness of Iverson to make that steal on that last play, were you aware that he was that close to you? KEVIN HUERTER: I was. Unfortunately, it's a play that we were supposed to be running that I wasn't the look, so I wasn't really expecting the ball. And Dion taking it out, had to get the ball in and didn't have a timeout. When it broke down, I should have tried harder to get open. Q. During those last free throws, looked like Ethan Happ was talking to the officials, buying time. What was going through your head as you were waiting to get the ball? KEVIN HUERTER: I didn't know why we weren't shooting yet. I don't know what was happening under the basket. But I'm not going to say too much. I just don't know why I wasn't shooting, and I was getting frustrated, just that I was getting taken out of rhythm. But that's not an excuse for missing. I just didn't know why I wasn't shooting the ball. I don't know why it took so long to get the ball. Q. Some of the games this year where you've fallen behind early in the second half, come back, and then couldn't make the plays down the stretch. Did this feel the same, or did you think it was going to be different at the end? KEVIN HUERTER: Felt different. We were making plays. We were kind of going back and forth. We never got over the hump, never made the shot to go up. But similar thing happened that's been happening all year. Coach Turgeon is going to take a lot of heat for it. Everybody is going to point to him; everyone's going to look at him. I'm sure he probably took the blame up here a couple of minutes ago. But Coach Turgeon doesn't miss rebounds; Coach Turgeon doesn't miss a free throw. Coach Turgeon doesn't throw the ball away. Coach Turgeon doesn't execute plays when we're supposed to execute plays that we practiced multiple times. That's all on the players. And so this loss is on everybody, especially the players, because we didn't make the plays down in the last minute 12 seconds to win the game. So everybody can say what they want about him, but we didn't make plays for him. Q. Did Mark talk about what you guys are going to do the next week, whether it's wait for the NIT or just what -- how hard is it going to be to wait for the next week, just about the postseason and everything like that? KEVIN HUERTER: We haven't gotten to talking about that. We really don't know what's going to happen. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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