	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: SAN DIEGO

March 16, 2018

San Diego, California

West Virginia - 85, Murray State - 68

THE MODERATOR: We have from West Virginia head coach, Bob Huggins and the student-athletes are Teddy Allen and Jevon Carter. We will begin with the student-athletes. Questions for student-athletes at this time?

Q. Jevon, you obviously had a good offensive game, but how important was the defensive effort you had against Jonathan Stark and being able to keep him from getting his shot going?
JEVON CARTER: It wasn't just me. We've got a lot of different guys that can guard. Our main focus was to stop him and make other guys beat us and we just did an unbelievable job of team defense.

Q. Teddy, post play, how much did you guys talk about working inside to the paint to attack Murray State's forwards and their front court?
TEDDY ALLEN: We knew that the way they guards screens one of the two would be open, so we had to exploit that.

Q. Jevon, you've been in West Virginia here for quite a few years. What do you think the atmosphere will be within the state for such a big game back home with Marshall next Sunday?
JEVON CARTER: They're going to be ready, ready to see a battle. Two very good teams going up against each other, in-state rivalry. We'll see what happens.

Q. I think you guys had six-plus 1s where you got 3 points on the play. You guys were instrumental in that. How big were those plays? To make the baskets when you need to and getting the plus-one, how big is that?
JEVON CARTER: Just being aggressive. Coach always tell us keep your head on the rim. When you get contact shoot it a little harder and when you get it in those and-ones they stop momentum. Other teams put their heads down. It's big for momentum change.

TEDDY ALLEN: Coach is always telling us to keep our head on the rim and when you get fouled those are buckets you have to convert because those make a difference.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. Now we will continue with Coach Huggins.

Q. How were you able to keep your team so focused, like, Jevon and Teddy were saying you never let murmur get within striking distance, you kept the pedal to the metal.
BOB HUGGINS: I think we were either playing too fast or we weren't real focused early because we missed how many shots around the rim? We couldn't get any to go in. Could have been we were playing faster than we're capable of playing, or we didn't have our head on the rim, but these guys, led by Carter and Miles, they like to play. We've made a conscious effort at finding guys that like to play. So much easier to coach. So much easier to have in practice. You don't have to fight with them all the time about playing hard.

So I guess it was about four years ago we made a conscious effort that we're not going to recruit guys that we have to beg to play. I think that's a big part of it.

Q. Carter had a pretty good stretch there early in the second half where he had a basket. He had a steal. Is that the kind of play you would expect from him at this stage in his career and in the tournament?
BOB HUGGINS: Yeah, walking in I got the questions of, how proud are you of him for the job that he did? I'm like, you know, I would be shocked if he didn't play that way. He plays that way all the time. He plays that way in open gym. But he's always done that. That's not something that he acquired here. He's always done it. He did it when he was in high school. So it's kind of expected. You know?

Q. Coach, the Racers, you've coached in this conference before in the Ohio Valley Conference, and I don't know if they're ready for you guys and physicality. How do you practice that, simulate it, build it? How do you create the pressure that you do?
BOB HUGGINS: We work hard on the pressure but the physicality part of it, I don't think we do. We used to, but we don't anymore. The rules won't let you be physical, so we've really tried to back it off.

Q. It's been a few years since you guys played Marshall. Why did that series stop? Do you anticipate it resuming at some point during the regular season in the future?
BOB HUGGINS: I don't want to get into the reasons. They can come to Morgantown anytime they want to play. We would love for them to.

Q. You would only be open to it if it was a home game for you guys?
BOB HUGGINS: I don't want to get into all that. You're trying to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to bite on what you're trying to do.

Q. Wondering the status of D'Angelo. Noticed he wasn't out there today.
BOB HUGGINS: He's not here.

Q. Is he going to be with the team in the future?
BOB HUGGINS: He's not here.

Q. Coach, Carter's play on Stark in particular, can you speak to that? You really held him. Then Miller obviously had a great game for him. What kind of athlete was he seeing him up close?
BOB HUGGINS: Well, Miller we kept telling our guys for whatever it's been, three or four days that he can shoot and that's what he does. He's a 40% three-point shooter and for some reason they didn't believe us. He had a great game. He had a great game. Shot the ball extremely well. Rebounded the ball extremely well, had 17 rebounds.

J.C.'s deal is we see it all the time. He does it in practice. I'll tell you real quick, the reason I recruited him it's 8:00 in the morning, I'm at Disney for the AAU stuff and I got a cup of coffee. It's early and I gotta walk all the way to the back gym and I sit down and drink my coffee and there is a guy out there pressing. Most of the kids don't want to be there. They just want to get it over with. He's out there pressing full court and did the whole game, and I called my assistants and said this is our guy right here. This is who we need and I really didn't care if he could shoot or dribble. He just played so hard and obviously he can do both of those. He works. He's a guy who on game day will put in an hour and a half shooting the ball getting ready for the game. Obviously, he can't do it here, but when we're at home he's there an hour and a half before and does it every game.

Q. Can you speak to his progress as an offensive player, what you've seen through the years?
BOB HUGGINS: He's become a much better shooter. He's become a much better ball handler. He's become a much better decision maker, but he wants to. He's a guy who will come in and study film, study film, see where he could have got other guys the ball for an easier shot and didn't do it. You know. He's a basketball junkie.

Q. Coach, 23 points from your bench today. How valuable was Teddy's play?
BOB HUGGINS: Well, I told him before the game we're 7-0 in the Big 12 when we have four guys in double figures. We had four guys in double figures today. So that's important for us. It's important that we spread it around.

Q. I know you didn't want to talk about the politics involved with West Virginia-Marshall, but what do you think for the people of the state for the fans of both fan bases this game will mean for the people?
BOB HUGGINS: It will be fun. They'll enjoy it. They should enjoy it.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

BOB HUGGINS: Can I say one other thing? I've got great respect for Danny and what he has done. He took over. They were down and I've got great respect for him since he was a coach. Mark, I've known since high school. I've known Scott forever and ever. This is not a Hatfields and McCoy thing. We have great relationships with both staffs. You have to understand that they are almost four hours from us.

So it's not like we're next door. I was at Cincinnati for four years. We were a mile and a half from Xavier's campus. We're four hours a way. I'm not sure what the mileage is, but you follow them and you see what they're doing and I think they've done a terrific job.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297