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AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 8, 2018Johnny DawkinsB.J. TaylorA.J. DavisOrlando, Florida UCF - 66, East Carolina - 52 THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from Coach and then take questions for Coach and the student-athletes. JOHNNY DAWKINS: Well, I thought it was a great game. Kind of what we anticipated. When both teams are playing in a do-or-die situation, I think it brings out the best of the opponent. It brought out the best in us. Give them a lot of credit, I thought they made a great run in the second half, cut it to one and that just showed their commitment to trying to compete and wanting to continue to play. But our guys felt the same way. I thought our guys were hungry, they still want to play a lot more basketball, and I was really proud of the way they responded to their run and was able to kind of build on our lead and establish another run and was able to win a good basketball game. THE MODERATOR: Take questions, please, for Coach and the student-athletes. Q. Can you talk about your defense, Terrell Allen had five steals but overall forcing 20 turnovers. Just talk about your defensive effort. JOHNNY DAWKINS: I thought it was a great defensive effort. We knew coming into this game we were going to have to defend well. We hadn't played them since the beginning of the year, but I had seen them on tape enough to know they were scoring the basketball well, they were playing with confidence. So we knew the only way that we have been able to be successful is by hanging our hat on the defensive end, and I thought our guys gave us a really good effort tonight. Q. For A.J. and B.J., you guys have played ECU in March since 2015 and it hasn't been successful. What was different this time, and did it feel good to get that March win over them? B.J. TAYLOR: Yeah, it definitely felt good. As Coach said, it was a great team victory. They're a team and a school with a lot of pride, and like Coach said, we knew they were going to come out and compete the entire game. So we're just happy to get the win tonight and get ready to play tomorrow. Q. From a pride standpoint the last time you guys were here, you guys lost in the first round. Was that at all in your mind as far as like how you wanted to come out and kind of get this win? A.J. DAVIS: Yeah, I think that was definitely very important to us. Especially being in Orlando, us being right down the street, I think it was big to be in front of our fans and in our hometown to come out and get the win. And coming into this time of year, I think every game is that important. I know I definitely had that last game on my mind. Last time I was sitting right here, I was talking about a loss and my season was over, and I didn't want to be in that same situation. So coming into my senior year I'm glad that we were able to come in and get this win. Q. Coach, can you talk about a little bit Terrell Allen. Is he one of those guys that you're kind of hoping steps up in this tournament? JOHNNY DAWKINS: No, absolutely. I have a lot of confidence in Terrell. He's done an amazing job for us this season. In B.J.'s absence I thought he really stepped up and gave us some valuable minutes and he did again tonight. His role has changed, but he understands that and he's done a really good job of giving us a nice spark off the bench in a number of games, and he did it again this evening, and I'm really proud of him. Q. When ECU went on that run to cut it to one, what was your message to the team then? JOHNNY DAWKINS: Well, we needed to get back to the basics. Usually we fuel what we do defensively and actually A.J. said in the huddle at that timeout and it was great because echoing the things that we know we talk about, and he was telling our guys, we feed off our defense and let's not let offense get in the way of what we do on the defensive end. And that was a mature way of saying basically, let's continue to defend get out in passing lanes, see if we can't turn them over, try and get something in transition and get something easy. And that kind of sparked us, and I thought it was a really good message to the team and they responded. Q. How important was the crowd getting behind the guys tonight. It's a pretty solid crowd tonight, so what were your thoughts on the crowd tonight? JOHNNY DAWKINS: I loved it. Like I said, it's going to be a community effort for us, and our crowd has always given us great support. That's one thing I know, when they come out they're going to cheer, they're going to be loud and that gives us a huge advantage. So I was really happy to see them out there tonight. I definitely felt their energy, when they got into it with a teammate or when ECU made a run, I could see the crowd getting into it, they were responding, and I know that helped our guys down the stretch as well. Q. Last time you played Houston, sluggish start for the game, you narrowed it. Talk about Houston as an opponent tomorrow. JOHNNY DAWKINS: They're a talented team. They're one of the best teams in our league and they play fast, they have shooting, they have an inside presence, they're a well-rounded group. So we're going to have to prepare. I hadn't seen them since that last time we played them. So our preparation starts now. Once we leave here, we have to watch them a little more, start developing a game plan for them. But they have had a really good year and they're playing some good basketball. They have one of the best players in the country in Rob Gray, and a great coach in Kelvin Sampson. Q. You've done the nine o'clock start thing, you've done back-to-back but you haven't done both. I don't know how you meter out the minutes tonight to kind of keep yourself fresh for tomorrow or is that a factor or since we're at tournament time it's not a factor? JOHNNY DAWKINS: Well, I don't think it can be a factor. Whenever you're playing a situation where it's one-and-done, I don't think you can afford to be worried about who is playing and who is not playing. You need to make sure that your guys are out there and giving us what they have. These players, they train all summer long, they play hard all season. I think they're capable of playing multiple games in a row at a high level. You're watching college basketball at this time of year, you see it happening all over the country, and our guys are no different in that regard. I think our guys are capable of going out there and maxing out every time they play in a one-and-done situation like this. Q. How do you structure out the days when they have these late starts and what is a day like leading into it? JOHNNY DAWKINS: Well, we want to break the day up as best we can. Whenever we have a long day, fortunately we've played some late games this year, so we kind of have a formula for how we want to prepare our guys. But we like to get them out of the hotel at least one time to make sure we're not in there all day, and then pretty much everything else works around our normal routine that we have set up all season long. Q. A.J. just said sitting here last year he was talking about a loss. How important was it for to get this one, get one under your belt and get them into something as you move on? JOHNNY DAWKINS: Well, it's definitely important for us. We want to gain some momentum, you want to come here and you want to win. Everybody's fighting for a championship. We are as well. This is the opportunity for an AAC championship. So every one of these games are hugely important. It's a one-and-done situation. So I was really proud of our guys. I think our players really responded well to that, and we have been preparing for this all season. So we're happy that we're in this situation we're happy that we're still competing. Q. How do you guys get better? You guys are playing back to back to back to back, so how do you guys get better from today to tomorrow night when you guys have to play? A.J. DAVIS: As far as getting better, I think we just got to kind of move on. Learn from our mistakes from the game before and move on to the next game. Every game is one and done, so we're just taking it one game at a time and just focusing on the next game plan, and learning what we -- taking what we did bad from this game and bringing it into the next game. So I don't think we -- we'll watch this game and see what we did bad, but we got to move on and just take it one game at a time. THE MODERATOR: UCF, thank you. JOHNNY DAWKINS: Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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