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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 10, 2018Mark SchmidtMatt MobleyJaylen AdamssWashington, D.C. Davidson 82, St. Bonaventure 70 MARK SCHMIDT: All the credit goes to Davidson. I thought every time we broke down, they hit a three, it seemed like. They missed 13 of them but seemed like they only missed about three of them. But they shot the ball really well. They are really hard to guard, with Aldridge inside and you try to double him, and they surround with four shooters. When the big guys start shooting the ball the way they shot it tonight, they are really difficult to guard. You know, I thought the effort was there for us. The execution wasn't great. I thought they got us twice on out-of-bounds plays. I think the game was a two-point game when they got us back-to-back, and five points in two out-of-bounds, which were two big plays of the game. But I thought we fought. We struggled at times but I thought Amadi did a really good job in the second half of getting them some stuff inside. You know, these two guys beside me, we wouldn't have been in the game without them. Like I said, you know, it was a great effort. Davidson just out played us. Shot the ball really well, and they deserved the win. Q. Obviously not the outcome you would have wanted, but can either of you just describe maybe the range of emotions you're feeling right now, knowing that you didn't win today, and won't be playing for the Championship, but there might be something tomorrow that's pretty special. MATT MOBLEY: I mean, obviously the loss hurts. We would love to play for the Championship tomorrow, but we're going to get back to campus tonight or tomorrow, watch Selection Sunday and just hope our name is called. JAYLEN ADAMS: More of the same. Obviously we want to be playing in the championship tomorrow. Didn't go in our favor. So we're just going to hope for the best tomorrow. Q. Yesterday in this spot, you cited the 2016 tournament snub. Looking at the body of work you've accumulated this season, how do you feel about your chances tomorrow? Are you more confident? MATT MOBLEY: Yeah, I think we have a little better chance than we did a couple years ago, but like you said, nothing's guaranteed. I think we put ourselves in a good spot, though. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Q. A couple years ago, you talked to Mark about trying to beef up the non-conference schedule, and obviously you guys did that this year. How important do you think that was when you look back on it now, today, at the body of work you've been able to build here? JAYLEN ADAMS: I think we have a special non-conference, one of the best non-conference I've had since I've been here. We beat some good teams. Hopefully it helps us tomorrow. It's not something we really know for sure. Like I say, we got some quality wins and hopefully it's enough tomorrow. Q. Their first 14 shots were threes and they hit seven of them. When I asked Bob about it, he said basically your defense forced them to do that because you had the middle clock and you're playing your defense inside. MARK SCHMIDT: Yeah, like I said, they are a tough team to guard, and not only can they shot threes, but they can talk you off the bounce and then they throw the ball to Aldridge, and you can't play him one-on-one. Usually teams have two or three shooters, so when they wing the ball, there's always one or two guys that can't shoot. But with Davidson, they have got -- you know when they throw the ball into the post, they have four guys surrounding him who can shoot, so your rotations are that much harder. And when they shoot the ball, like the way they shot it tonight, they are hard to beat. I'm not sure how many teams in the country can beat them when they shoot it like that. Q. So kind of similar, but you guys lost Stockard yesterday, and you lost Ayeni at halftime, and it looked like you went small for a few possessions in the second half. Can you just walk us through the thought process of trying to defend a team like Davidson that has so many shooters on the floor? MARK SCHMIDT: I don't know if we went small. We had Tshiefu in there because that's the last guy we had. When Courtney went done down, we were shorthanded and when Josh got hurt at halftime, just brings another guy into the mix. You know that, guy is 6-6, he's not 6-8. But you just try to do the best job you can with Davidson. You try to keep them out of transition and try to get to the shooters. At times, we did, and they hit some big shots, and sometimes we didn't and they hit those shots. When they are shooting the ball like they did from threes, as I said earlier, they are a difficult team to guard and difficult team to beat. Q. Could you talk about your resumé going into this thing? MARK SCHMIDT: We can't have a better -- I don't know if we could have done any better. You know, going in, I think we had a 21 RPI. We won 13 straight games. We've had some huge non-conference wins. We've had some big wins in our league. I don't think there was a hotter team going into the postseason than us. You know, so the resumé, everybody talks about two years ago. Our resumé is better than it was two years ago, and in my opinion, we should have been in two years ago. So I think we're going to have a good day tomorrow. Those guys deserve it. You know, so let's pray that we do. Q. Looking back, I believe you made the NCAA as a tournament and a coach in the past. What memories do you have of Selection Sunday from the past? MARK SCHMIDT: I tell the kids all the time, as a kid growing up, your dream is to play Division I basketball and ultimately to be a pro. Your dream, when you're a Division I player, is to play in the Big Dance. I tell the players, if your name is selected, it's one of the best days of your life, and probably your best day of your life in terms of a basketball player, as a college basketball player. Those guys, I think what they have done this year, I think they deserve to have those goosebumps and to have that moment. I've been lucky and believe me, I wasn't a great player but I was on really good teams, and we went to three of them. Every one of them was special, and hopefully our guys get that chance tomorrow. Q. When they are just hitting threes at the clip that they did tonight, how much more pressure does that maybe put on you guys from just an execution standpoint? MARK SCHMIDT: Execution from what? From offensively? Q. Yeah. MARK SCHMIDT: Doesn't matter if they are hitting threes. When a team scores, and continues to score, you know, you've got to do a better -- you've got to execute down at your end. If not, the lead grows. So any time a team is playing well offensively, you better match it. If not, then you'd better get some stops. We couldn't get stops, and you know, we had our chances. It was, I think till the last probably four minutes of the game, we were right there. We just couldn't get that one or two stop -- one or two stops, and we didn't execute the out-of-bounds plays; that's a big part of what we do is executing on out-of-bounds plays, and we got some offensively. But they got us a couple times and that was disappointing. Q. We've talked about what the Tournament, getting there with a resumé, but what would it mean to you, and maybe the guys on the podium, more so, what it would mean to them? MARK SCHMIDT: It would mean everything to them. Matt was on that team but he was a red-shirt, and if you sat in that room that day two years ago, it was heartbreaking because those guys put everything into it and they thought they were in. So it would mean the world to them. You know, as a coach, I've been there. This is not about me and me experiencing it. It's about our players experiencing it, and putting all that hard work that they have done, for Jay and Idris, it's been four years of hard work, and it's been difficult at times. You know, for them to be able to realize a dream, that's what we do as coaches, to help them realize it and hopefully they will have that chance tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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