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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DALLASMarch 15, 2018Mike WhiteChris ChiozzaEgor KoulechovDallas, Texas Florida - 77, St. Bonaventure - 62 MIKE WHITE: Just very pleased with the overall performance, of course. Beat a really good St. Bonaventure team who's obviously been playing really, really well. Like to congratulate St. Bonaventure and Mark Schmidt and his players. They had a great run, an amazing year. They play as hard in my opinion as any team in college basketball, have a terrific backcourt, share it, really defend at a really high level. We've had some quality wins this year. We've had some big wins, and this was certainly one of them. Q. How much do you think the defense, particularly early in the second half, kind of set the tone for you guys? CHRIS CHIOZZA: That's what got us going. We got stops early in the second half, and we got out running and got some easy baskets in transition, and we just kind of built the momentum from there, and we was able to maintain it for most of the second half. Q. It seemed like the game plan was to shoot over their zone and eventually guys started hitting shots. You guys went through some droughts, but how much did sticking with it kind of help, or did you feel like you could have attacked it better at times? EGOR KOULECHOV: Maybe at times we could have attacked it better, but I felt like even in the first half when we went through that drought, we felt like we were getting really good shots, and we felt like if we keep getting those, we were going to be okay. We had a good game plan coming in. They changed the pace of the game with that zone, but eventually we figured it out. Shots started falling, and we defended at a high level. Like you said, the first four minutes especially, that was our main emphasis coming out of halftime. Q. Chris, you guys held Mobley and Adams to only 21 points. Did you feel like coming into the game if you were able to limit them effectively you'd be on the right step to victory? CHRIS CHIOZZA: Those are two great guards, and we had to focus in on them along with Stockard. Those are their three main guys that score. We just wanted to make it tough for them to score, not give them any open looks early, get it going. They hit a couple tough ones, but when you're playing good players, and we did a good job of not getting that let to our confidence, and we played hard the whole game and was able to keep them from doing what they normally do. Q. Chris, 11 more assists tonight, the ability to kind of find your teammates, particularly when you went through some stretches against the zone, how key was that, and how key was the ball movement at times? CHRIS CHIOZZA: I mean, guys were knocking down shots. We did a good job of moving the ball. We didn't really rush anything. We found open guys. Guys did a good job of moving around the zone. When I penetrated, they would relocate, and I was able to just find them, and they had confidence. I'd just tell them every time they're open, shoot it. If it's an open look, we're never going to get mad if they miss them. Q. Egor, I see a scratch on your shoulder. Was that kind of just the kind of game it was in terms of the physicality and the desperation -- EGOR KOULECHOV: No. That's actually courtesy of Kevarrius Hayes a couple days ago. He actually scratched my other shoulder, as well. I don't know how that happens, but yeah, it just kind of happened. It's not a big deal, honestly. Q. The play Jalen Hudson made with the put-back dunk, what went through your mind when that happened? CHRIS CHIOZZA: I don't know. I was just like -- I was kind of shocked. I couldn't believe he made it. He got up over his own teammates, the other team. I think his head was over the rim. EGOR KOULECHOV: Yeah. I had a good look at it from the corner, so I kind of saw the whole play develop, and the first thing I just kind of said, like wow, he looked like he literally like climbed a ladder to get that. And then I heard the foul, too. It was a great play. Jalen is a top athlete, scorer, whatever. He can make those plays. Q. Thoughts on going into next round and potentially playing against what's going to be a pretty hostile environment here? EGOR KOULECHOV: Yeah. Yeah. We've kind of got to settle, move on from this victory. Tomorrow obviously we're going to watch some film. We've got to be prepared for a hostile environment, obviously. We're in Texas. We saw they have a lot of crowd here. But we're going to do our best, treat it as every other game this year, lock in on our end, try to defend at a high level, get a good scouting report in. Yeah. CHRIS CHIOZZA: Yeah, we know it's going to be hostile, a lot like we've played in neutral site games, a lot of those have been like road games to us, especially early in the season when we played Gonzaga in Portland. We're just going to come out and focus on our game plan, focus on us, and whatever the coaches tell us, they're going to have us prepared as well as we can be. They take pride in that, and that's why they're such good coaches. We're going to come out and do whatever they say, play hard, and just be ready for a fight. Q. Egor, how much does this kind of much better NCAA memory for you than your freshman year? EGOR KOULECHOV: A lot better, a lot better. I was hoping not to have another bad one. This is like four years later. I mean, that's what I wanted when I came here. We're obviously not done, still hopefully a lot of basketball to be played, but this team, the coaching staff, they've been awesome. It's just the whole experience, just even not from the NCAA Tournament, just the whole year, it's been amazing. Q. Chris, this has been such a roller coaster season, and you have a national analyst that's picking against you again after leaving the SEC tournament early. What does it say about this group that it kind of took that to heart and bounced back tonight and showed the kind of effort that it showed? CHRIS CHIOZZA: It's always, you know, a chip on your shoulder when you're picked to lose in the first round as a higher seed for the second year in a row. You know, it just gives you a little bit more fuel just to go out there and prove people wrong, but again, you try not to make too much out of it, go out there and try to treat it like any other game. You don't want to get too excited for it because people are talking about you, but of course it gives you a little bit more -- a little more spunk to your game. Q. Last year you faced the Bonnies in Florida. Mobley and Adams dropped a combined 48 against you guys. How much did seeing them just a year ago and rewatching film from that game help you prepare for tonight's matchup? MIKE WHITE: I think it was definitely to our advantage to understand how good they are individually and obviously as a team, to have experienced it firsthand. I think that if this was the first time we had played them, we definitely wouldn't have been as prepared. I have the utmost respect for the job, again, that Coach Schmidt and St. Bonaventure have done and the program that they've rebuilt here as of late. Obviously for their backcourt, those guys, they went nuts on us last year in Lakeland late in the game. I want to say we were up 15-17 and it was tied with about a minute, minute and a half if I'm not mistaken. They're a handful to guard, and our guys know -- they were very familiar, especially our veteran guys lead by Chris Chiozza and KeVaughn Allen, I thought both did a terrific job tonight. They know that when Adams and Mobley cross half court, they're in range, and they can score off the bounce. They can score off the bounce. They score off down screens, off staggers, off hand-offs. We went under one early on Mobley where he made us pay, of course, from really deep. But they're just really good guards, and they run good stuff. So obviously I'm really pleased with our defensive effort. Q. What do you sort of tell your team at halftime, and what was the attitude even though you guys were only up by five and the offense wasn't great, the defense was still there? MIKE WHITE: Stay the course offensively. I liked our ball movement in the first half. We missed a couple more right at the rim. We'll continue to address. I thought we had decent looks from three against a really good zone because we're a really good passing team, especially certain lineups that we play, of course, and Keith Stone and Egor playing in the middle of zones and playing in the corners and short corners, they have an ability to find guys. And then we've got multiple guys that can make shots. So we try to spread zones out as much as possible. Try to do the same thing against man. And I thought we had some decent looks, so I was actually pleased. We just talked about staying the course, focusing on getting a great shot, not the result. Whether it goes in or not, next possession, let's get a great shot. And more than anything, first four minutes of the second half, getting back to that same edge defensively, making sure that we came out, because we've had struggled. A lot of teams have struggles first four minutes of the second half, regaining that defensive edge and energy that we played with in the first 20. Q. Mike Okauru went down with what looked like a head injury, looked like he took a shot to the head there at the end. How is he doing, and will he be able to go on Saturday? MIKE WHITE: Yeah, I anticipate he'll be fine. I asked him how he was feeling and he said great. He just bumped his head. I think we had a few guys bump their heads tonight by the Bonnies and by each other. Q. How big was it for Jalen and Egor to both kind of give you production, especially coming off the game against Arkansas? MIKE WHITE: It was great. I mean, it's crucial for us to get balanced scoring. It's who we are. It's allows us to spread the floor. It promotes that movement of the basketball. Jalen, it took him a little while and he finally got going. He had a huge play, of course. Egor was great offensively for the better part of the game, of course. We were led by Chris Chiozza, 11 assists, zero turnovers. My goodness, it's a luxury to have as a head coach. When the ball is in his hands, good things happen. He drew fouls, as well, got guys shots, and he probably could have had 15 assists if we shot it at a really high clip. In addition, he chased Mobley around for 40 minutes whenever he was in the game. However many minutes he played, he was chasing him around. Looks like 31. And I thought KeVaughn Allen in addition, he didn't get it going offensively for us. I thought he was terrific on Jaylen Adams. It was a good overall team defensive effort, again, led by Chris Chiozza and KeVaughn Allen. Those guys really dug in and stepped up knowing how important it was to slow those terrific guards down. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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