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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 3, 2018

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

Illinois State - 76, Southern Illinois - 68

THE MODERATOR: Illinois State Redbirds are with us. They have a date in the championship game tomorrow with Loyola. Coach Dan Muller in the middle. William Tinsley and Phil Fayne represent the student body.

DAN MULLER: Hard-fought game. Always credit to Barry and the way his teams compete. We had to gut it out, as usual. You feel like you didn't play your best, but we found a way to win. Phil was obviously huge down the stretch. A lot of guys made big plays.

Q. Phil, you missed two free throws. Coach Muller said some words to you. You missed the next one, and then you made eight in a row at the end there. What happened?
PHIL FAYNE: It's just my teammates kept talking to me throughout the stretch like, "Phil, we believe in you. You're here for a reason." We work on this day in and day out at practice. You shoot 100 free throws at every practice and everything. They kept giving me inspiration.

Coach Muller gave me inspiration. I knew I had to come through for him at the end.

Q. What did he say?
PHIL FAYNE: That's between me and Coach Muller. I can't let you know that one, but just know.

Q. Also, Phil, you guys are 5-1 in overtime games. Why are you guys so successful in overtime? What is it about this team that kind of lets you guys just pull through?
PHIL FAYNE: I think down the stretch we know we have to buckle down and everything. We're really good at end of games, like we worked on it a lot in practice. End-of-game situations and everything, we know that, when it comes down to it, we need to buckle down, lock down more on defense and everything. Real good when it comes to end of games just because we practice it so much, and we put it in a situation so much in practice, thanks to this guy right here. We're able to get it done in late-game situations.

Q. William, you had a little tough shooting night last night. What was the difference tonight for you?
WILLIAM TINSLEY: Shooting mentality. You know, just don't dwell on the past. I'm going to worry about the future, worry about this game, and get my shots up in pregame. My shot was feeling good. I knew I was going to make shots coming in, right mindset.

Q. Have to ask about the technical. From your vantage point, what happened?
WILLIAM TINSLEY: I was just being a competitor. Just being a competitor, the competitiveness in me and just being dumb. So that was my fault.

Q. Phil, in the overtime you guys got Pippen out of the game. Obviously, the emphasis was to get inside to you. Obviously, you had a really big advantage there when he left the game.
PHIL FAYNE: That was a big emphasis, and like I said, my teammates still had faith in me. I missed a couple early on, and they were still throwing it in. They get it in and try to finish to get to my shot.

Q. Phil, I think you scored the first 11 for them in overtime. Where did you go from "I'm having a good game" to "I'm putting the team on my back right now"?
PHIL FAYNE: Just like I said, my teammates put faith in me, and they kept feeding me the ball, and they depended on me to score the shot. So I knew I had to do it for them and everything. They just kept feeding me, and I kept feeling it. So I just -- once you got the hot hand, it feels like you can't miss. It feels like an ocean.

Q. Phil, in the beginning of the game, Southern was doing a good job of collapsing on the paint and making some of those looks near the rim really difficult. What adjustments did you and the other guys on the frontcourt make in order to get better looks near the rim and fake out Southern's defenders?
PHIL FAYNE: We were just hoping to spread the ball around, give it to our shooters. Like Willie had a great night tonight shooting and everything. Just giving it to our shooters to be able to spread the ball out and open up the inside for us.

Q. William, you're one of the new guys. What has the last two days been like for you, and what do you expect tomorrow?
WILLIAM TINSLEY: It's been fun preparing and the behind-the-scenes work. It's really fun. I'm loving every bit of it. Just losing myself in the game is just really fun.

Q. William, this is obviously your first year with the team, kind of an up and down ride this year. Can you talk about what it means right now to advance to the finals and have a chance to play for the Valley title?
WILLIAM TINSLEY: It means a lot. This whole season we're fighting through adversity. It shows a lot out of a man when adverse times hit, how you're going to answer back. We answered back pretty well this whole season, up and down with David and Keyshawn coming out and Phil being sick and all that. We all came together as one and just fought through hard times.

Q. Phil, you're one of the returning guys from last season. What did you learn from playing in a championship game that maybe will be useful tomorrow?
PHIL FAYNE: It's loud. No. (Laughter). No, just really keep your composure when you're playing and everything. Just -- you know it's a championship game, but then again, it's still a game, and you just got to keep your composure. Your preparation before the game has to be great and everything. So I'm just talking to my teammates about that, the ones who have never been in this situation before, saying I was here last year, and getting them prepared for tomorrow.

Q. Phil, last year before the championship, you guys had all the early games, noon, 2:30. Playing later, how does that affect your prep? Do you think that affects it at all?
PHIL FAYNE: No, I don't think that affects our prep at all. I think we're a great prep team and the way we prep and our mindset is amazing. So I think we're going to be good.

Q. William, you just played Loyola last week. You obviously had a great game there. What can you use from that game to maybe help you tomorrow?
WILLIAM TINSLEY: All like the little defensive mishaps we had. Besides that just look at our strengths, what we did well in that game. Other than that, just carry over for when we play tomorrow in the championship.

Q. Anybody on the team is injured right now? How are you doing, Phil? Are you feeling good?
PHIL FAYNE: Feeling great. Everybody's great. Feeling like Superman. Everything's all good.

Q. (No microphone) early in the game I think that you came back?
PHIL FAYNE: That was just a misunderstanding. He thought I was hurt. And he said, "Since I blew the whistle, you might as well step out." It was all good. I came back in. Came out of the phone booth.

Q. Coach, last year Matt Hein had a really difficult Saturday. Today he was huge for you guys, same team, same events. What was it like to see that kind of turnaround from last year to this year when he didn't have such a big game?
DAN MULLER: That didn't cross my mind, of course, until you just said it, but Matt's come a long way, and he's not only played well for us this year, but he's been a huge part of a lot of wins, big plays. He was terrific tonight on both ends. Had a lot of guys who improved a lot over the last year. Tried to help and improve player development, mental training, and he's a really good player.

Q. Care to share what you did say to Phil?
DAN MULLER: It's not a big deal. I just talked about shots he shot and the confidence he should have and just told him something to relax. He works on it. Just news flash, any bad free-throw shooter works on their free throws, not just Phil.

It can be tough. You're up there on your own, alone. It can get in your head. Obviously, he was huge on that line down the stretch.

Q. A lot's been made about Loyola's possibility of getting to the Tournament. It's been a while for you guys too.
DAN MULLER: Yes, it has.

Q. You probably remember in the past.
DAN MULLER: Yes, I do, unfortunately.

Q. But what would it mean for the program, especially given last year, just how close and possibly deserved it was?
DAN MULLER: You know, I'm not really sure yet, to be honest. It would be huge. Everybody wants to go. It's been too long for us. And I say "us" because I'm a part of this program, not just the last six years, but the last 24 years, I guess. Fans deserve it. All those good things.

But I said it before, I'm hoping if we win, we both get in, and our focus right now is obviously just have the right mindset to play Loyola. We've got to take care of our bodies and go out there and play. Last year's game didn't have anything to do with it. We've been there three of the last four years, but we don't have a lot of guys on the time that have experienced it.

Hopefully, we'll win. I'm not really sure what it would mean. I know it would be big, but I'm not sure how to put it into words yet.

Q. Coach, you've dealt with emotionally exhausting semifinal games. I remember 2015 Wichita State, in particular, and having to play Northern Iowa the day after that. How are you going to help your players get over an emotionally exhausting game like this one and transition into another important game tomorrow?
DAN MULLER: We did. We had a very similar run a few years ago. A tough Friday game, a really, really, really tough Saturday game, and then came back, obviously had a great first half. I don't know, we ran out of gas. We just kind of changed our mindset at halftime. I think it was a combination of both. But I'll certainly talk about that.

Look, these kids are fine. They're 21 years old. They'll be all right physically. Can they handle the mental part of it? There's pressure on both teams, same for us, same for Loyola. But we'll certainly work on that and talk about our experiences.

Q. Dan, how much of an advantage did you think you guys had going into overtime? Because Pippen was out, and obviously Wiley is not healthy.
DAN MULLER: You know, I thought they were getting tired in the first half, and then they just out-competed us in the second half. And so going into overtime, we -- probably the greatest advantage we had mentally was we're 4-1, and we talked about that. The second greatest advantage was Pip was in foul trouble, Fletcher had four, Smithpeters had four. So we knew foul trouble could be an issue. We knew they couldn't do certain things.

We went into Phil for a reason. Pippen out, I thought we had an advantage. He was making his free throws. And he delivered.

Q. Last weekend, Krutwig kind of beat you guys up pretty good. Do you think Pippen today was a good test for that? And how do you go about stopping Krutwig tomorrow looking ahead to tomorrow's game?
DAN MULLER: He dominated us. We've been really good in the post the last two days. Obviously, we don't have the most physical guys. So it takes a little bit more effort, a little bit more game planning. We've got to help them a little bit better. But the bottom line is Phil is twice as healthy now as he was a week ago, and you can see the way he's playing. David will play better.

So we've got to do a much better job. Krutwig had 20 whatever, and Jackson hurt us. Their bigs killed us. We've got to do a way better job on those guys.

Q. Coach, can you just kind of talk about what William means to you guys. Especially over this past month. I mean, I think he entered February averaging less than like four points, and since then, I think he's rattled off six double-digit games since. Can you just talk about what he means to you guys.
DAN MULLER: He was the last guy of our top ten to reach double figures this year. Which is amazing. And he's the only guy on the team who's played in every game. Sometimes it just takes a while for guys. We haven't changed one thing with what we've been doing in the last three months, not one. Just worked on mentality and understanding of the game and what shots to take, encouraged him. He's becoming a big-time threat. A big-time threat offensively, and he's becoming a big-time rebounder, which obviously our team needs.

And Boogie he never gets tired, I mean, ever. His body is naturally gifted with that. He's never tired. Like right now he'll be fine. So that allows him to play big minutes, and you literally never have to worry about him as far as getting fatigued.

Q. Dan, last year in this game, I think it was, Matt Hein had a really rough outing. The progress that he's made in a year, is that pretty unusual for a guy to do what he's done?
DAN MULLER: Yeah, it is. You know, it shows his development, number one, his toughness, but Matt's had a great year and been a part of huge wins throughout the entire year. It is somewhat of a coincidence it's the same team, same game, and he has this huge game. He's had games like this throughout the year.

Last time we played him, Keyshawn was out, and he was big time. So Matt's a big part of why we're playing well.

Q. Dan, what do you think the reason is that you guys have been successful in overtimes this year?
DAN MULLER: You know, we do work on it, but I think most teams do. I don't know if we work on it any more than anyone else. I think just the experience of being in them, been in a lot of close games, as you know. And then you get a little confidence, and that can snowball some. But in the end, you've got to make plays, obviously, and we've just been able to focus just a little bit more, maybe fight just a little bit more if we're tired, and get stops, obviously.

So I don't know. I don't know, but I like it, and you could see in our guys' face, and I said it, guys, we're 4-1 overtime. Yeah, we are. You could tell we had some confidence when we went back out on the court.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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