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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 1, 2018

Matt Lottich

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

Missouri State - 83, Valparaiso - 79

THE MODERATOR: We're going to break a little bit from tradition since the lateness of the hour. You guys know each other very well. So you can make a statement on the game, Matt, and then we'll go to questions.

MATT LOTTICH: Obviously, it's hard to talk at the end of the year because it's been a pretty emotional time for our team. As I reflect on the year and really this game, I thought it's just hard to say good-bye to players like Max and Tevonn. We talk a little bit about what they meant and leaving your mark on a program, and they've absolutely done that. They've done it by being no nonsense people. They've worked harder than anyone than I've ever been around on a basketball court. They've just had a presence that's just been unbelievable.

So it's been, obviously, a pretty emotional locker room right now. The one thing that those young men have done -- I mean, they only won 15 games right now their senior year, and they've won 97 for their career, and it's just absolutely amazing.

As we look to this game, I think it's pretty easy to see that Alize, he's a fantastic player, and he's very experienced, and he's very experienced at a position where we're very inexperienced, and I thought it showed.

For us, one of our keys was to limit his offensive rebounds and limit his rebounding, and we just didn't do a great job of that. Obviously, we fought back, made it a game, had a couple shots there to tie it, and they just didn't go in.

Tevonn and Max have really left their mark on the program, and we've got big voids to feel with their leadership and toughness, but we're excited to be in the Valley. It's been one heck of a ride. This is a very well-run event and feels like an NCAA Tournament game, to tell you the truth. It's a really, really cool experience for us.

Q. Can you be proud of the effort that you saw late in the second half? I mean, do you take that with you into the off-season with these guys?
MATT LOTTICH: You have to. But the one thing, we didn't execute very well in the first half. It was -- I don't know if it was just new to the tournament, but we looked like a deer in headlights there for a while. It took us a while to kind of get out of our shell.

I thought, even though they pushed the lead to 12, I thought we were competing better in the second half. But for us, we've got to give a full 40-minute effort. And we've been doing that really well lately, and for some reason, our execution just wasn't great in the first half.

Q. What did you say on the foul early in the second half? And I guess kind of what explanation did you get from that play?
MATT LOTTICH: I guess Mileek was being physical. We challenged those guys at halftime to do a better job against Alize and keep him off the glass. Mileek, even though he's a freshman, he's very physical. He's 6'8" and weighs 220 pounds. I think he outweighs Alize, and I think he was trying to make his presence felt.

I don't know. I got an explanation that his hand might have grazed him down. We can't do anything about that.

Q. Tevonn had 22 points in the second half. We've seen him do things like that before. Just how special was it to watch him put the team on his back there?
MATT LOTTICH: He's a competitor. He didn't want to go out tonight. There's no doubt about it. We're a shot away from probably winning that game, and it just didn't happen. Very proud of him, though. Like I said, he left his mark on the program. That's all -- it's senior night, but those guys are always welcome at my house. They're better people than they are players, and Tevonn was a warrior tonight.

Q. We talked earlier in the week that you had conversations about other things, the CBI had taken sub-.500 teams. Do you think you deserve it?
MATT LOTTICH: We'll evaluate it. I'm not sure yet.

Q. And what was the overall message to the team in the locker room after the game?
MATT LOTTICH: If you want to win games like this, you've just got to execute for 40 minutes. We didn't really touch on that. I don't think now is necessarily the time or the place, but we did say that for us to -- we're young. Yeah, we're the youngest team in the Valley, for us to win games like this, we've just got to be able to match toughness, got to be able to execute, and for the first 20 minutes, we just didn't do it.

Q. My final question, Bakari going to the line, missing a couple of free throws, that's the kind of thing that can eat at a player for a long time. I guess, what did you say to him or talk out with him to make sure it doesn't become a Nick Anderson thing down the line?
MATT LOTTICH: I don't know. Bakari's got a lot of confidence in himself. That's something we'll address. I had full confidence in him going up to the line. I think it was a six-point game at that point. I thought, well, he'll hit all three. It will be a three-point game, and we've just got to get a stop, and it just didn't happen.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Matt.

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