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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: CHARLOTTEMarch 16, 2018Casey AlexanderGarrison MathewsKenny CooperRob MarberryCharlotte, North Carolina North Carolina - 84 Lipscomb - 66 CASEY ALEXANDER: Congratulations to Carolina. Everybody knows it takes a magical performance from somebody like us to beat somebody like them and we didn't get that, and so we were fighting uphill all afternoon it felt like. So, I thought our guys really competed and continued to play all 40 minutes. Just couldn't get enough balls to drop. Couldn't create enough of our own momentum to really give us a chance. Tip our hat and we'll go home and start over. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Rob, Kenny, and Garrison. Q. Kenny can answer this question. To have such a historical moment for the school, what is it like for you to be part of this history? KENNY COOPER: It's an honor just to be a part of this Lipscomb basketball team and where the program has come. So, to make our first tournament appearance, being a part of that is -- just exceeds expectations that we have and so we plan on being back, that's for sure. We're going to work our tails off this upcoming off-season to get back, and hopefully this is just a start and we can build on to it. THE MODERATOR: Rob, you want the answer that as well. ROB MARBERRY: It's a great accolade to have for this team, for Lipscomb, and the community around us. We played our butts off all season, and we've made history throughout the whole season. Beating Belmont twice was a big accolade for us, having the 21 season again, back to back, that's a record for us. Making it to the tournament, winning the conference. We had so many great things happening. This one loss doesn't determine, doesn't make our season. We had so many wins, so many great accolades throughout the whole season. We're going to hold our heads high and just -- Q. Casey, you got the bulk of this team coming back so you don't have to worry about recruiting yet, but when you get around to worrying about recruiting -- THE MODERATOR: Just for the student-athletes. Q. Garrison, can you talk about the players coming back, what kind of team you have guys coming back? GARRISON MATHEWS: We're going to have a great team next year. Obviously we're going to miss the guys that are leaving. They've been a huge part of this program and getting us here. First senior class to get us here, so we're going to miss them a ton. But I love these guys right here and the guys we have coming back. It's going to be huge for us next year. We've got a lot of experience. So it's going to be good. THE MODERATOR: Other questions for Rob, Kenny or Garrison? Q. Rob, how do you enjoy the moment of going with this team for the first time without losing focus on getting ready for this game or -- ROB MARBERRY: We enjoyed it just as a team throughout the whole season, too. We knew we had one objective and that's make the dance. So I mean everybody loved each other, everybody did it for each other. So, that's how you enjoy it. I mean knowing all the hard work is paying off, you know, going 3-0 in our tournament, having ten good practices before this game. We did it or each other and the coaching staff, all the administration behind us. We had fun with it throughout the whole process. We also knew we had to come out here and play our butts off. Q. Garrison, North Carolina talked about how you were a focal point coming into this game, kind of slowing you down. They mentioned your 39-point game against Florida Gulf Coast. Can you talk about how they disrupted your game offensively today? GARRISON MATHEWS: It was for sure tough to get shots off there, hard close-outs and had some good guys down low, they were interfering with my layups and stuff. It was tough. They played great. Defensively Pinson and Williams, they played great. It was tough to get shots off for sure. It was unacceptable the way I played. I take full responsibility and will work hard this off-season for next year. Q. Kenny, talk about that stretch late in the first half, you guys were leading 33-31. How did it feel during that stretch and then what do you think happened during their 10-1 run? KENNY COOPER: I think things were flowing for us. We were making shots. Not quite get as many shots as I would have liked, but they were scoring. But we were kind of trading baskets for awhile, and then shots stopped falling for us for a little bit and they went on a little run because they continued to score. So, again, they're a great team. So, it's hard to slow them down when you're not scoring and they're so good in transition. That's one of the things that kind of let them extend the lead a little bit. Q. Rob, what did you make of the big Lipscomb contingency that made the trip to Charlotte and all the other thousands that tuned in on CBS? ROB MARBERRY: We loved it. Pretty much the City of Nashville behind us right there showing out. To see those guys and the fans, see them in the hotel cheering for us, it's an incredible feeling. Next season we're going to build off that, and if we have one more fan in the stand next season, it's a win for us. So, we were super excited about that when we saw everybody. Means a lot that we worked so hard throughout the season, and to have those guys show up and cheer for us, it means a lot to us and to the coaching staff, the families that are involved with all this, because it looks like we're paying off finally. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for the student-athletes? Okay. Rob, Kenny, Garrison, you guys can head back to the locker room. Congratulations on a great year. Questions for Coach Alexander. Q. What I was going to ask, how will recruiting be different now? How will this program be different now that it's an NCAA Tournament team? CASEY ALEXANDER: That's the job of our staff. We have great short-term benefits for winning, coming -- you get to come play, you get to experience it, you create a lot of excitement for yourself. But the residual effect, the long-term effect, is where our staff has to get to work and capitalize on it and continue to grow incrementally. We're not going to just all of a sudden be somebody we haven't been, but we can continue to take the next step and knock on some doors we haven't knocked on in the past and let that continue to help our program get better. Q. I'd like your take on the stretch at the end of the half. Obviously you had the lead with three minutes left in the half and it didn't seem like the stage was too big for you, but they just had -- ran away from you during that stretch. CASEY ALEXANDER: We lost a little bit of momentum when Garrison got his second foul. He didn't play the last probably 6, 7 minutes of the half because he had been playing pretty well up until that point. And then we had one very specific possession, I remember, where we had subbed at a free throw. We made a free throw, and the next possession they come down, we weren't matched up. Pinson got and 1. That was a real tough break because it was a mistake that we made that shouldn't have happened. Then it was really just -- they scored five out of the last seven possessions, I think, and we scored zero out of the last seven possessions to end the half. I felt like we lost our poise a little bit offensively, kind of gave into the momentum offensively and therefore we had the margin that we did. I was disappointed for sure because I felt like we really competed and had a lot of really good moments in that first half. To go into the break down 9 was tough. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Q. Coach, what adjustments did you make to try and hang around as it started to gradually slip away? CASEY ALEXANDER: Nothing significant, honestly. I felt like big picture we were doing okay. There were some subtle things that, you know, that we work on all the time, ball screen coverage, you know, the communication problem we had at that free throw time. Things like that were the things I felt like we needed to eliminate. I didn't feel like there was just anything that we had to change significantly. We did make one adjustment in the second half offensively. We went to a different style of offense where we had a lot more player movement. Felt that might open some good things for us. Got a couple of good looks out of it. Q. Casey, go through and talk about the team you've got coming back. Who do you lose and talk about who comes back for this team. CASEY ALEXANDER: Well, as Garrison mentioned we lose three seniors that gave a lot to this program. But for people that are just looking at stats, they weren't significant contributors. We return all five starters. We return Matt Rose who was a really good scorer for us off the bench, and we'll earn return Nathan Moran, a three-year starter for us and thousand point scorer almost that didn't play a single game this season. And so we do have a really good group coming back. We're not going to be so talented at all where we could just show up and win, but between the experience that we have and the quality of depth that we have, then we should walk into the off-season with some expectations. Q. Coach, talk about the historical significance for you. We talked about with the players. What about this moment for you being on the stage and what it means for this program going forward. CASEY ALEXANDER: Yeah, I hope it means we'll be back on this stage going forward. That's the goal. For me personally, you know, I get the most joy just out of sharing it with my family and all of the Lipscomb community that supports us. You know, when somebody gives you a chance to be their coach and they give you the resources you need and the support that you need, the love that you need to go do your job, it's awesome to be able to hand something back over to them and see them experience this moment. THE MODERATOR: Other questions. All right. Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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