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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 9, 2018Mike RhoadesJustin TillmanWashington, D.C. Rhode Island - 76, VCU - 67 MIKE RHOADES: Tough loss today. Really proud of our guys. Fought like crazy. We just had a stretch there where we just couldn't get a score, and even though we cut it, I think, to four there late, we just didn't have enough offensive execution or just enough offensive strength down the stretch there. They made some tough shots. They really shot the ball well from three and thought that hurt us. But credit to Rhode Island; they've had a fantastic year, and they made plays and we didn't, and that's how it goes. Really proud of our guys. Q. Guys, how would you evaluate how you played defensively? You used zone a little bit; how would you evaluate that and how they adjusted to that? JUSTIN TILLMAN: We just wanted to mix it up and see if we could catch them off guard, but down the stretch they ended up hitting big shots. Q. Justin, you had the VCU fans chanting your name as you went out; how did that feel? JUSTIN TILLMAN: It felt pretty good. The fans have been backing me and Johnny up since the whole time we've been here, since our freshman year. Going to always be thankful for that through good times or bad. They were always there for us. Q. You had some trouble offensively. I know you had some looks but maybe some shots weren't falling. What were they doing to cause some trouble offensively? JUSTIN TILLMAN: What was giving us troubles? We just had to make shots and then be aggressive, but some shots wasn't falling for us, that's all. Q. Coach, what kind of motivated the decision to use a zone today -- MIKE RHOADES: Trying to catch them off guard. It's not very good zone because when they did execute some stuff, we got stuck in between. We're not great at rotation awareness. But it did get them chucking a couple shots in the first half, gave us a chance to stay connected in the game and all that stuff and switching it back and forth. I thought our man-to-man in the second half was pretty good, and then we threw that in a little bit. They hit a couple bad rotations in zone, gave up a couple threes and a quick high-low, but it caught them off guard a little bit. It got them standing around. The one thing they are very good at is they are very good off the dribble one-on-one and big-boying you, and Terrell does that very well, and I thought maybe mixing it up just to get them flatfooted, standing around, and keep Dowtin away from the basket. He was moving the ball against their zone 25, 28 feet away from the rim instead of him going downhill or being close to the three, because he hurt us as well, too. So just mixing it up. We're not a great defensive team. We got better as the year went on. We've had some great stretches here late of guarding people but not for a full 40 two days in a row. Johnny played a ton of minutes yesterday, tried to keep him out there today, let's give it a shot. I thought it was pretty good in the first half; it sort of hurt us in the second half. Q. After Tillman gets his fourth foul and goes out, you actually took the lead and stayed competitive there. What does that tell you about some of your younger guys and going forward? MIKE RHOADES: Yeah, you know, they're capable. Look, the biggest thing this year is we're not tough enough. We're not strong enough. We've got a big off-season ahead of us. Our workload has to increase. We've got to get bigger and stronger and we've got to get better, but these young guys are capable of doing some really good things, and you saw that in that stretch against the best team in the league. But we have a ways to go, but I love that challenge, and our guys will love that challenge. But you know, it shows what you're capable of, but it's got to become who you are and it's got to become a consistent pattern of how you play and how you approach things. It was very up-and-down this year, and we played a lot of young guys, a lot of new faces, and they're going to get better because number one they're great kids and they really care about getting better, they want to be good. But just because you have VCU on your jersey doesn't mean it's a win. You've got to show up and you've got to produce, and this off-season is unbelievably important to our returning players of increasing their workload and getting stronger, getting tougher, getting better, and that's a good thing. Q. Would you have any interest in one of the non-NIT tournaments if that opportunity came -- MIKE RHOADES: I'll assess that. We haven't talked about that at all. This was all about this weekend. It was all about this weekend. We'll see. We'll evaluate that in the next few days. Q. When you came in in 2009 from making with Shaka, it was a pretty young team, as well. You had a few talented older guys but a limited number. I'm wondering what similarities you see between this group and that group, and how are they different? MIKE RHOADES: Toughness. We've got to get tougher. And I'm not knocking our guys. Part of it comes with maturity, just competitive toughness. We've just got to continue every day to get in the weight room, if it's on the track, it's on the court, wherever it is. It's about getting tougher, competitively tougher all the time. If you do that, your skills get better, your body gets stronger, you learn the game, you mature. I think that's the biggest thing. I thought that group in 2009 had a lot of upperclassmen and a lot of people around the program that can show them the way. There wasn't as much of that this year, but that was our job. These guys got thrown in the fire. A lot of guys in the last few years didn't get thrown in the fire as much as these guys did, especially these new faces. But hey, that's how it goes. It's great opportunities for them to grow. But I think the biggest thing is competitive fire, competitive toughness without a doubt. Q. What was going on with Marcus? I know he only played two minutes, had the wrap on his wrist? MIKE RHOADES: He hurt his left wrist yesterday at the end of the game, and it was just really bothering him. We thought we could keep it loose until today, and it was really bothering him. He couldn't even really flex it both ways. It stinks, but it's that time of the year when stuff like this happens. We could have definitely used him. We've got to keep him healthy. Q. I know you're a competitive guy and this is not obviously how early you wanted to go out, but I'm wondering what your realistic expectations were with this group coming into the season and how you would grade sort of how things ended? MIKE RHOADES: Well, you know me, I think you can win every game you play. It doesn't matter who you play against, and that will never change. I knew we were going to have ups and downs. I knew that from the start. The one thing that I thought hurt us all year long was our basketball awareness, our basketball feel, and at times you pull out your hair, why are they doing that, why are they doing this. There was times this year we had to keep it simple to get better and we couldn't be complex because that's the last thing you want to do with young players or a team is -- you give them more, it makes it tougher, and it takes away their aggressiveness. That was one thing with this group, and we had to keep it simple and try to really improve. We improved, but we were never as consistent as we wanted it to be, and that hurt us throughout the year, and that hurt us late in league play. That's something that we've got to get better in every aspect of the program. Basketball awareness is very high on there when it comes to competitive toughness, as well. You know, I'm not ducking your question. I just -- everywhere I've ever coached, everywhere I've ever been, I think we can win every game. I always tell the guys, you're not playing a best-of-seven series against the Warriors, you're playing one game for 40 minutes; let's find a way. I'm always disappointed when we don't win. And I'm mad, and my competitiveness comes out, like I want our guys' competitiveness to come out. This is the fact. This is where we're at right now, and I'm not shying away from it. We're 18-15 on the year. I wish we had some of those games back, but we don't, and it's got to fuel us, and it's got to light a fire on us, underneath us, to get us better every single day. If we improve in competitive toughness and we improve in our game and fundamentals, we won't be 18-15 next year. We'll be better and better, but you've got to work for it, man, and that's what we're going to do. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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