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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 1, 2018

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

Northern Iowa - 60, Evansville - 50

THE MODERATOR: Good evening, everyone. Again, welcome to the Bryan Burwell Memorial interview room. Post-game tonight will feature the UNI Panthers first, followed by Evansville.

Northern Iowa is the winner tonight. They'll play Number 1 seed Loyola tomorrow at noon. Hunter Rhodes, Isaiah Brown, and Wyatt Lohaus will represent the student-athletes. Ben Jacobson, the head coach, will start off with a statement once they're here.

We're going to ask Ben Jacobson to start off with a statement on this ball game. Ben, please.

BEN JACOBSON: We played a good basketball game. Really proud of that effort. Defensively, I thought we were -- that's as good as we have guarded them in the three times that we've played them. Had some great individual performances defensively. Isaiah did a tremendous job on Taylor, some other guys individually. But I thought our team defense was as good as we've had against Evansville, and we needed that tonight.

With them at full strength, we knew that we were going to have to play our best, or very close to our best, and I thought our guys executed well. I thought we were aggressive in transition, and we put together a good defensive game. We beat a good team.

Q. Isaiah, can you talk a little bit about that matchup with Taylor. Obviously, he had a big game against you guys at your place last time. What types of adjustments did you make, and how much do you look forward to that type of a challenge?
ISAIAH BROWN: He came in and gave us 26 points on our home court. We knew just as a team, not even me, as a team, we knew we couldn't let that happen again if we wanted a chance to win this game.

Coach emphasized a lot of defense. We love playing defense. We practiced a lot on defense. We knew we had to shut him down if we wanted a chance to win.

Q. Hunter, your role has been elevated these last few games with Juwan being out. How much are you just embracing this final stretch of your career here? How much did you guys need that tonight knowing that Bennett would, even though he played, was still a little hobbled?
HUNTER RHODES: I'm just going out there and being as confident as I can. Coach trusts me, and I'm just going out there to play my hardest every day. That's all I can do when I'm out on the court.

We knew Benny was a little banged up, but he's fine. He's a great player. Other than that, we just went out there and played really hard, and that's what got us the "W."

Q. Isaiah, I guess what did you see from Ryan Taylor? Any kind of -- I guess what did he try to do differently against you throughout the game?
ISAIAH BROWN: I could tell after the first possession, I was trying to get into him. He was kind of losing focus right off the jump. I was trying to get in his head and switch up the defense a lot on him. I did well, and my team did well getting me through screens and all that. They run a lot of action for him. So I was just trying to switch it up on him and stay in his head.

Q. Wyatt, how engaged were you guys off of switches when you had your chance at Taylor? Just your thoughts on kind of how the guards communicated and were able to work together there defensively today.
WYATT LOHAUS: That's something we practiced since our home game with them is switching a little more, seeing if we can deny him some catches. I thought, obviously, this was the best job we'd done all year with that. All the guys kind of played on a string, connected, did a good job talking. And then I don't really think they had many chances at slipping to the basket. I don't think we had many miscommunications.

So obviously, everyone who was involved in the switches did a great job.

Q. Wyatt, you've been in these scenarios before where you have to play back to back to back on a run here. What's the biggest key body-wise and everything over the next 12 hours or so to make sure you guys are as fresh as can be tomorrow?
WYATT LOHAUS: I would say, obviously, getting some good quality food in you and getting rehydrated. We obviously lost a lot of sweat tonight. And making sure we're doing a good job of getting our sleep, getting as much rest as we can. Obviously, it's a short turnaround, so you've just got to do the best job you can with it.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, we'll dismiss you. Thank you very much. Congratulations. We'll stay here with Head Coach Ben Jacobson for a while longer.

Q. Ben, you talked about being a good defensive effort against Evansville. All year, was this probably one of your better defensive efforts, do you think?
BEN JACOBSON: We had a good one on Saturday against Missouri State. This was better. I would tell you in the last three weeks, the last five or six games coming into this one, that we've been better at both ends of the floor. But this would be our best defensive performance for sure in a long time.

Q. The matchup with Isaiah and Ryan, how much obviously winning that matchup, did you know that would be one of the biggest factors tonight?
BEN JACOBSON: Yeah, after having played them twice, I think Isaiah knew that he had to do a better job. He's a terrific young guy. He really gets it, no matter what we're talking about -- offense, defense, set plays, doesn't matter. He understands it and he gets it. In this case, really without us making a huge deal out of it, he knew and took it personal that he was going to have to do a good job. He's just that kind of young man.

That obviously paid off for us tonight. If Taylor gets 25 tonight the way Dru Smith played, we were going to have to make some more shots because we defended them well. But if Taylor had gone for big numbers, if Isaiah had not done the job he did, we were just going to have to make some more shots. So I give Isaiah a ton of credit.

Q. Coach, obviously, with the quick turnaround, you've got Number 1 Loyola next. What's the idea for your game plan going up against the Number 1 seed?
BEN JACOBSON: They're just awfully efficient at both ends of the floor. They don't make mistakes defensively. They've shot a high percentage all year from the floor. They know what they're looking for. They've got good experience on their team, even they've got some young guys that have played great and some new guys, but they've got some good experience on their team. So they know what they want to get done, and most of the time they get into the things that they want.

So we're going to have to play our best game again. This was, as I talked about, this was as good as we have played, and we've played good basketball for a stretch here, but tonight was good. We put in a really good effort. We're going to have to play our best game tomorrow. But it's going to take good effort.

Q. Coach, just your thoughts on the minutes you got out of Bennett coming off the injury and where he's kind of sitting going forward as well with the short rest?
BEN JACOBSON: I think he'll be fine. He's not 100 percent, but I'm certain he's 85 to 90 minimum. So he'll be fine. As a senior, that isn't anything that's going to keep him out of minutes or extended minutes. He'll be fine.

Q. You talked about Hunter playing well as one of the keys coming in here. His minutes were kind of hit or miss to start the year, but with Juwan being out, what about him gives you guys a lot of trust and a lot of confidence sliding in here of late?
BEN JACOBSON: Yeah, his leadership and communication have made a big difference for us, and what he's done in transition with our offense, having his eyes up and throwing that ball up ahead. So the ball's moved pretty well, and he's got a really good sense for when to push it in transition and when to take a look over and see what we want to run. Most of the time when we're running something, it's either to throw it in to Ben or throw it in to Klint or use some sort of ball screen, and he's able to get to all of that stuff.

So I think, as much as his play, he's made shots for us and he's a good three-point shooter. He's comfortable shooting that pull-up. That's why we put him in a lot of those isolation spots tonight at the top of the floor because he's comfortable doing that. He's got a lot of confident in his ability to do that.

But his leadership and his communication have been great for our team. We've been a much more efficient team since he's been in that spot.

Q. Ben, just throughout the season, having played Evansville three times, what did you kind of see from them each time as the season progressed?
BEN JACOBSON: Marty's as good a coach as there is, and it's just -- you never like to see guys -- we've become very good friends. You never like to see guys that are great coaches and do it right and have become good friends, you don't like to see them go through a year where you're not healthy. There's just nothing -- none of us have any control over that aspect, and they had to play a year this year where they were not healthy. We saw it in the last home game. Dru Smith was terrific, and we saw again today that he was terrific. If he's healthy all year long, they're not playing in this game. They're in a different game, probably, most likely in the quarterfinals.

So you just don't like to see that happen because with a healthy team all year, they're going to finish somewhere in the middle of the pack or a little bit higher. Having said that, they're still a game or two away from being there just because they play so hard on every possession. And I think that probably gets tossed around a little too much. Guys say, "That team plays hard and they play with toughness," well, Evansville does. Having played against Marty for most of my 12 years as a head coach, they play as hard on every possession as anybody that we play against and harder than most.

So I think they had -- I know it's tough from a record standpoint, but with the injuries they had, I think Marty did a great job again, and his kids did a great job again.

Q. The second Loyola matchup was close for a while and then kind of got out of hand late. What's the biggest things you guys need to improve on and do differently from that second matchup?
BEN JACOBSON: Custer, his first game back was our home game early in the year, and he had a really good second half. He made some shots and plays in the second half that really helped him. Obviously, as the Player of the Year, their team, they're more in sync when he's on the floor, and that showed up in the second half of our home game with them.

At their place, he had a great finish to the first half. I think we were up 18-17. Either way, it was a one-possession game with two minutes to go in the half, and he went on a 7-0 run, maybe a 9-0 run to put them up seven at halftime.

So he's got the ability to do that. We're going to have to make sure we do a better job with him. The problem becomes everyone else can play. Krutwig had a great year. I've always thought a ton of Richardson. Ingram's having his best year. The other starting guard, Townes, is really good for a new guy to the league, and they're getting some help off the bench. So it's not like you can throw everything you got into slowing Custer down because those guys are either good players or they have experience and they're good players.

It's going to take a great defensive effort, we know that. And we need to have a little bounce in our step on offense like we did tonight. Get that ball moving up and down the floor. I thought Wyatt was aggressive in transition and found some shots. Klint had a great start to the game and was really aggressive. That's the way we've got to play on offense. We have great players. We've just got to have a little bounce in our step and get that ball moving on offense.

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