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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 10, 2018Dan HurleyAndre BerryJeff DowtinFatts RussellWashington, D.C. University of Rhode Island 90, Saint Joseph's 87 DAN HURLEY: Obviously a pretty exciting -- pretty exciting semifinal Saturday game. You know, two teams that were desperate to win, No. 1. For me, again, thoughts and prayers to the great Campanella family of Rhode Island. Inspirational to us the whole year, the way he fought till the end. Credit to Saint Joe's. Coach Martelli, they are going to be a big problem next year with that group of young guys. They are losing two tremendous seniors and the job that Coach Martelli did with the injuries that he dealt with the whole year, he was my vote for Coach of the Year this year in the conference. I thought he did an amazing job. They were a little bit, their style I think was a little bit of our kryptonite. But we had a great season. We have championship culture, championship DNA, and we showed it today in a game that we had to fight our tail off to win. Q. Can you take us through the sequence with about 30 seconds left and you were isolated and hit the three pointer, just take us through what you saw, what you thought? JEFF DOWTIN: Yeah, Coach drawed up an amazing play. I came off the ball screen; Dre, Ro, I think both of them, went to Dre when he roll (ph) and I just stepped back behind the three point line and open and took the shot and I was able to make it. Q. Did you know going into this game that you were going to be a big part of the game plan against the zone? ANDRE BERRY: I just go into the game just like every game, find my spots. My guards do a great job of finding me in open places. Set screens to get me in and the guard open and they just find me around the rim. Q. There were a few possessions where it was pretty clear to everyone that you were going to be shooting a 3-pointer. When you get in the zone, is it just give me the ball and get out of the way, that kind of mentality? FATTS RUSSELL: Honestly when Jeff comes off a screen, he always finds me. So I always find an open spot when he comes off the screen because he causes so much attention, and my job is easy, just shoot. Q. You obviously shot the ball a lot better in the second half. Do you think it was a change in game plan or do you think you -- were they doing something different or was it just you guys made shots that you weren't making the first half? JEFF DOWTIN: I guess it just took us awhile for us to settle in, into the moment. I guess for the first half we were rushing our shots a little bit but we were taking good shots knowing that we could make them and down the stretch, Fatts hit big threes and Dre hit a crucial layups, Stan, J.T., everybody. Jarvis hit two back-to-back threes and that was helpful. We've been in the gym a lot lately, being able to hit open shots, and that's what we did. Q. Fatts, this is the most threes you guys have made in a game this season. Obviously the last time you played them, it was very difficult from behind the arc. When were you able to convince yourselves that this game would be different, if you saw them again in the A-10 Tournament? FATTS RUSSELL: Honestly, they kind of hurt us, beating us on senior night. Our seniors mean a lot to us, so I mean, we took that kind of personal and we were in the gym heavy ever since then. Q. Dan, can you take us through Jeff's evolution as a player over the course of the season? DAN HURLEY: I mean, we saw it last year. I'm not sure what his record is as a starter, but you know, since he's been in the lineup, it's been a game changer for us. He's just -- he's a winner, high IQ. Makes big shots. Keeps everyone around him calm. Great leader. You know, and he's got these physical attributes, too, his length. He's becoming a better shooter. Obviously that three he hit, that's how you win. That's how you get to championship games. That's how you advance in tournaments. You recruit and nurture talent like that, and you know, he was a shockingly under-recruited player, and we were fortunate to get him. Q. The same question that I asked Fatts: How were you guys able to discard the regular season result, whether it be the loss, the manner of the loss, and convince the guys that today was going to be different? DAN HURLEY: Well, you know what was strange was that we weren't as bad defensively in this one -- or in the first one. I think the first game at the 17:00 mark, they had 28 points. When we went back and watched the film, it was almost unwatchable, the amount of open shots we missed, the amount of layups we missed. The zone is something that Coach really just started playing recently. It's not a staple of Saint Joe's basketball. A big part of what we wanted to do, which we didn't do the first time, was to get that ball to the high post, put some shooters in the corners, and then really try to find Andre against their smaller wings, because when the ball goes to the high post, their center would take the free throw line. We were getting clean looks from three and we were getting Dre in the paint. We played great offense today. Overall, 43 percent. We didn't finish everything around the basket but 22 assists, five turnovers, made 14 threes, you know, we were much -- we almost doubled the amount of points we scored at the Orion Center. Q. They have got great downhill drivers and they have got a lot of paint touches in the first half. What was the message at halftime, and then your thoughts on how the guys responded. DAN HURLEY: Well, it's an issue to play those guys. Again, they are a little bit of our kryptonite with the play that they play offense, because they invert you with the forwards that can shoot the three. All three of those guys can put it on the floor and hit the three, and then all their guards can get downhill and get to the front of the rim. We're at our best when we're playing, you know, against more of a system-type of offensive team where we can kind of speed them up. Speeding Newkirk up and speeding Demery up is probably the opposite of the way you want to play those guys. So I think we were nervous about this game coming in because we just -- the style wasn't great for how we guard. We did a better job in the second half, even though it was a shootout of at least making things harder, at least from the three-point line, minus a couple of those bombs they hit late, crazy. Q. This is your second Atlantic 10 Championship Final. How does this run in terms of the team, in terms of feel and emotion around it, compare to last year's run? DAN HURLEY: Well, you know what, last year we were much more back-against-the-wall. We were fighting for our lives on the bubble coming in, but we were on a run. We were playing so well. And this year, we were kind of feeling safely in, and we lost our last two games, even though I thought we played, you know, pretty well at Davidson, minus that last 40 seconds. But what we talked about is what it felt like on Sunday last year, you know, landing in t f green and having hundreds of fans. We want to experience that again, and we want to try to force Commissioner McGlade to hand us a third straight trophy. I mean, that's an exciting feeling, so that's what we've talked about. Q. With Jared Terrell having a poor shooting night, what do you think it says about the team that guys like Jarvis and Fatts accepted up and filled that role for him? DAN HURLEY: We needed that. I know that there's some Tweets at times that we have the deepest backcourt in the country and it hasn't felt that way, maybe recently, but it sure felt that way today. I mean, that was not Jared's best performance, and he's carried us a lot this year. What Fatts Russell did in his 18 minutes, and I think Jarvis came into this game having a rough, rough stretch. And David Cox, had a great sitdown with him last night and this morning; I think he did a great job of getting his head right. We kind of got back today to who we have been the whole year, and you know, we've got eight starters, and if a couple of them don't show up, we can beat you with several other guys. Q. Andre probably gave you the best game of his career today. Really kept you guys in the first half when it seemed like he was the only one that could get anything to fall. Did you see that coming or was that something you know he had in him? DAN HURLEY: Well, we had 40 points at halftime. Our issue, I don't think in the first half, wasn't necessarily our offense. Although you're 100 percent correct; Andre was a huge presence. Just because of the way that they were playing that zone defense, you know, there were going to be high-low opportunities for him. You know, he's another guy that he played more minutes than he's played in his entire career, and he hit a little bit of a wall, late. So I think that that week off between Davidson and this game today was really good for him, and the players followed the game plan and looked for him and did their part. Just one thing, too. It's a great feeling to -- it's a great feeling to participate in the Championship Game this weekend with another great Rhode Island program, PC. Good luck to Providence tonight. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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