|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DALLASMarch 15, 2018Kyle KellerIvan CaneteShannon BoguesDallas, Texas Texas Tech - 70, Stephen F. Austin - 60 KYLE KELLER: I wish we could have ended the game at halftime, obviously, but the game is 40 minutes. I give Texas Tech a tremendous amount of credit. Their Coach Chris Beard, his team embodies his spirit and toughness. And they imposed their will obviously the last 10 minutes or so of the game, and my guys tried. They always try, but we just didn't have enough tonight. We just -- it wasn't our night. Q. Shannon, obviously we saw you go out with an injury briefly in the second half. Can you just talk a little bit about that and how that affected you offensively for the rest of the game? SHANNON BOGUES: I just started cramping a little bit, and then after that, I couldn't really get back in the groove, but it was just a cramp really. Q. Ivan, in the first half, you really got them going offensively, making some big shots. Can you just kind of explain, you being a senior and being out there, taking that leadership role and leading them offensively, how you were able to get the momentum going in the first half? IVAN CANETE: I was trying to find open spots for my guys. Being a senior, I just wanted to go out there and give it all I got and play as hard as I could. If I see someone open, I am going to pass them the ball. A guy like Shannon over here can just score however he wants, so yeah. Q. Ivan, second half you guys came out and scored three quick threes. What was the feeling at that point as far as the momentum, and then talk a little bit about the last five minutes, kind of what was going on during those five minutes. IVAN CANETE: Yeah, when we were hitting those threes, I mean, we seen them before this year, I felt like we were about to start pulling away. They looked kind of defeated, but every time we made a run, they just responded and made a run back. That's credit to them. They're a tough team, and then in the last five minutes, we just were having a tough time scoring, and some things just didn't go our way. Q. The foul trouble the team seemed to be in, not trouble until late in the game, but just a lot of fouls seemed to be accumulating for you guys. Did that affect what you were trying to do offensively through the better part of the second half? SHANNON BOGUES: You said the foul? I'm sorry. Q. Just the foul trouble, the foul situation the team was in. Did that affect what you guys wanted to do? IVAN CANETE: Yeah, I mean, it definitely affected what we do on offense. When you're used to certain guys playing a lot of minutes and being in certain spots and then you don't have them on the court out there when it matters, it's kind of hard. You've got to figure it out on the fly. So it was different. But we just tried to get through it, and that was obviously tough not having those guys out there with us. Q. Coach Keller, I noticed the disparity in points in the paint, Tech versus SFA was not in your favor. Could you address that? KYLE KELLER: Well, that's been our strength all season, and obviously we wanted to score points in the paint. They make it really hard the way they play defense to get it in there. I thought we did a good job at times of getting it in there. We weren't very successful at scoring in it. They clog it up on the weak side. And to their credit, they make you throw it out and shoot perimeter shots, and they put bodies in front of you. You know, they blocked a bunch of -- I don't know how many shots they blocked tonight, but it seemed like every time we went and got to the rim, at least in the second half, they were really challenged. But that's how we've won games this year is scoring points in the paint. And our inability to score points in the paint to me, that and not scoring points off our steals and turnovers tonight is the reason why we didn't win the game. Q. You had said earlier you wish the game could have ended at halftime. You guys were pretty much dominant through the majority of the game until the last couple of minutes there. Can you talk about the difference in those last few minutes, what you guys did the first 30 some minutes of the game? KYLE KELLER: Well, Evans, obviously, senior point guard dominated the second half. He made it four points at half and gets 19 the second half. I've got Ty Charles as an assistant coach in his last game over there with me. We guarded him a lot of the night. We had to switch him off because of what you guys just said, some foul trouble. So I needed him on the court because he is our senior leader and dominates a lot of different things for us offensively, makes things run. Even though he didn't score many points tonight, he makes things smooth for us. He started the game guarding. And Evans is a reason why he's all Big 12. There's a reason why he's on a lot of draft picks. He's a heck of a player. I think it's a six-point game maybe, and he goes right through Aaron Augustin. And TJ Hoyfield just splits a ball screen and imposed his will and got through it when the game was on the line. That's what pros do. That's what seniors do. We didn't have that happen for us tonight. Q. Coach Beard said you guys were one of the best teams in the country, said you definitely weren't a 14 seed -- KYLE KELLER: He's being nice. Q. Do you guys feel like you really were able -- Texas Tech is a 3 seed. You were really able to play with them and maybe were under seeded? KYLE KELLER: I don't know. There's 68 teams in the tournament seeding that to me doesn't have anything to do with it. I coached the No. 1 seed in the tournament. We didn't make the Final Four. So to me seeds don't matter. When the game starts, the game starts. And that's what we try to convince our kids. Our kids didn't -- they got to play against some dudes they knew. Ty knew some guys on their team. And the millenials today, they don't even watch college basketball. A lot of our guys didn't even know who those cats were because they don't watch the game. They're on their phone and doing that kind of stuff. I hate to say it, but as much as you or I or anybody in here watches the games, they don't. Or the NBA. They might watch the slam-dunk contest in February on TNT or whatever, but that's about the extent of it. Q. Obviously it wasn't the outcome that you wanted, but just looking back on the season, what do you take away from this particular team, and as you do walk away and reflect on it, what stands out to you about this squad? KYLE KELLER: Well, you know, it's a hard time to really collect my thoughts. I thought we had three great seniors who came together. A lot of tears in the locker room after the game because of how much invested they had in our University. The thing I think that they did was we've been living off everybody else that had been before us, the players and coaches that had come before us. I think my staff and the current players on our team kind of created our own -- a little bit of our own legacy, and so I'm proud that we're -- I look at a lot of championship trophies and nets in my office that other people have won, and it's great for recruiting, and I love that. But to be honest with you, I'm glad we get to have one of our own in there finally, and I'm glad our guys get to -- were able to see this. This is about probably -- I never have counted, between 30 and 40 NCAA Tournament games I've been a part of, and I'm glad they got to experience that for a lot of these kids. Q. How do you know about millenial behavior, and how might that behavior impact college basketball? KYLE KELLER: Well, I think it does a lot. If you are going to be around kids today, you better read it. You better study it. I've got an eight year old and 11 year old, and I've got the greatest wife and kids I could ever imagine. I'm the most blessed dude you've ever met, trust me. I shouldn't be here today. But if I don't read it and study it and learn and try to figure these kids out, I have no chance to coach it because the way I was taught as a child was, hey, you are going to eat what is on your plate, if not, you're going to sit here. I had to sit at the kitchen table one Saturday afternoon because I didn't want to eat green beans or salmon patties. So we have a lot of green beans on our team meals, and I tell that story to our guys. But you have to adjust. You'd better learn to give and some take with these kids, I think. But you have to be stubborn enough to impose your will on them to get them to come together as a team and give them a lot of love, I think. Sometimes it's not very much fun. They don't like me very much sometimes. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|