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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 3, 2018Patrick ChambersShep GarnerMadison Square Garden - New York, New York Purdue - 78, Penn State - 70 THE MODERATOR: Coach, we'll start with an opening statement. COACH CHAMBERS: Wow. It's very emotional for me to be sitting next to Shep and the way he played tonight. He really carried our team. So proud of this group. I'm really proud of this group for what we've done, what we've accomplished. So many positives. To be able to put us, on the evening of Saturday being in the so-called final four the Big Ten, it's a huge step for our program. And obviously he has a lot to do with that. Give Purdue credit. That's a great team. They have so many weapons. And obviously Carsen Edwards took over in the second half there. Our guys had an amazing year. I reminded them of that. And I reminded them we have a lot of basketball still to play. And we look forward to that. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Shep. Q. Can you just talk about setting the record, 33 points, No. 33. That number seems to be popping up a lot in your career. Can you just talk about not wanting to stop playing tonight? SHEP GARNER: I knew I didn't want this to be my last game tonight. And I told my teammates, you know, I'll give it everything I've got to get this win. I gave it everything I had out there. I left it all out there on the court. And I was filled with emotion because I didn't want to lose. I didn't want to lose, our whole team felt the same way. It was just a tough night for us. Q. How difficult was it playing these three games in less than 48 hours? SHEP GARNER: It was tough. We put a lot of work in though the summer to prepare for this. We knew we would be here playing on the weekend in the tournament. So we always preached that in the summer, back to backs, we need to be ready for back to backs early in the regular season. So we were preparing for this all year. Q. When things were kind of going the wrong way in the second half and you guys were showing your fatigue, what were you telling the guys in the huddle during the stop, with your experience, to try to get them going again? SHEP GARNER: Take it one play at a time, one stop at a team. We're built on defending and rebounding. So we wanted to stop them, stop them one play at a time. We didn't want to try to get it all back in one possession. And I guess late we started to do that a little bit and early in the second half. So just came up short. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. What did they do so well to slow down Tony? COACH CHAMBERS: I think they were very physical. Obviously that's why I felt like I needed to get T'ed up, my first T in a long, long time. But they were playing him very tough and very physical. And I was hoping that would help him out a little bit, and it did. It did early in the second half. But they shot really well. I think they made seven 3s in the second half. We scored the ball; it wasn't like we scored the ball. But we couldn't get stops. We needed to get stops. And Carsen Edwards played so well. And Vince being out there, you try to take that away then they go to Haas. That's a very, very good basketball team. Q. What happened that last three and a half minutes or so that turned that seven-point lead into a two-point deficit there at the end of the first half? COACH CHAMBERS: We weren't making shots. We started missing shots. We took a couple of tough shots. And they made some shots. Carsen Edwards, again, went on a little mini run on his own to end the half. And we know how explosive he is. He hit a deep 3 to end the half. But you can watch film all you want. Now you've got to go out and get it done. And give him a lot of credit, and give Matt a lot of credit. Q. How difficult is the next eight days going to be just sort of thinking about whether you guys are going to be in or out of the NCAA Tournament? COACH CHAMBERS: Well, I'm an optimist. You can ask Sandy Barbour and Lynn and Phil about that. I'm an optimist, very positive. You can ask all the Big Ten coaches that we played over the last month. Nobody's going to want to see us in the NCAA Tournament. We have NCAA Tournament talent. And I think the administration's going to see that. The teams that we've come up a little short with has been Purdue twice. We've played some really, really good teams. And on the road. So I believe we're going to be in. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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