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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: CHARLOTTEMarch 16, 2018Greg McDermottToby HegnerMarcus FosterMitch BallockCharlotte, North Carolina Kansas State - 69 Creighton - 59 GREG MCDERMOTT: Congratulations to Kansas State. I thought they played a heck of a game and defensively were very disruptive early in the game and I thought forced us into some uncharacteristic decisions. Rather than maybe using the pressure against them, we probably fell into the trap of trying to beat it too early in the possession and probably didn't get as good a shots as we'd like, especially early in the game. Defensively they had 32 points at the half, they hit two 3s as the shot clock was running down and their center who has made 2 all year hits one. I really felt like defensively we did what we needed to do to be in a good position. We just weren't very good offensively and K-State certainly had a lot to do with that. THE MODERATOR: The questions are now for the student-athletes. Q. Marcus, why was it important for you to give Coach Weber a quick hug before you left the floor after a tough night? MARCUS FOSTER: He called me over there. I was going to give him a hug after the game anyway. He called me over there and told me he loved me and proud of everything I accomplished. Q. Any of the players, on the defensive end, as the game wore on, how deflating was Kansas State's ability to make tough plays even when -- even in situations where you were in the right position to defend it? THE MODERATOR: Toby. TOBY HEGNER: I mean, you got to give Kansas State a lot of credit. They made tough spots when they needed. We were in the right spot a lot of times. Sometimes tough shots go in and you got to give credit to them and wish the best for them. THE MODERATOR: Marcus. MARCUS FOSTER: Xavier Sneed, he hasn't been shooting the ball that well. He hit a couple 3s that got them going. And McGuirl, he got going, too, and we never seen him play. And they just did a lot of things to get us out of rhythm and really couldn't get our rhythm back on. We got it down to 2 points and we couldn't get over that hump. Q. This is for Marcus. Great scorer such as yourself to have this kind of night, what are you trying to do during the game to maybe get yourself going and why weren't you able to get any sort of rhythm? MARCUS FOSTER: I was really just trying to get my teammates involved more. I seen they were collapsing the paint hard when I drove and they were attaching to me as soon as I crossed half court so I couldn't get the ball. You know, it was just giving me hard looks all night and I really just couldn't find my rhythm. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for Toby, Tyler, or Marcus? Q. I guess Marcus, given how much pressure you were under all week and given how it ended, what are you going to think about the most, your Creighton career this season despite having kind of a sour ending to the story? MARCUS FOSTER: Just a family bond that I built with these guys and how they taught me how to be unselfish by their attitudes day in and out. I'm just going to remember all the trips that we took, and I'm just going to miss going to practice every day with my guys, you know. I'm sad we lost the game. I'm even more hurt that I won't be able to spend as much time with my guys like I usually do. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for the student-athletes? Okay guys, thanks. You guys head back to the locker room. Congratulations on a great year. Questions for Coach McDermott. Q. Specifically what did K-State do to take Marcus out of his game so much? GREG MCDERMOTT: They met him early and made his catches very difficult and then obviously anytime he put it on the floor they were really rotating with help. They're very physical and Marcus at times can overwhelm you with his physicality and they were able to match that. We were trying to maybe try too hard to try to get Marcus something easy to get him going, and unfortunately we could never get him started. Q. How tough is it as a coach to see a player end his career with a game like that when obviously he's capable of playing much better? GREG MCDERMOTT: I mean, you play a lot of games and games like this are going to happen. Just a reality. As I told Marcus in the locker room, a lot has been made this week about what Marcus -- what Creighton has done for Marcus Foster. What hasn't been talked about is what Marcus Foster has done for Creighton. The changes he made in his life to become the person and the player that he is today certainly have benefited him. We've been the recipient of a great person and a great player and back to back NCAA Tournament appearances because he's made those decisions in his life. So, I wanted to make sure he understood how much we appreciate what he's done for us. Q. I missed your opening statement. Sorry if you addressed it. You knew K-State would be pretty physical and aggressive defensively. Why do you think the guys weren't able to adjust in the moment? GREG MCDERMOTT: In some ways defensively without Wade, you know, they can switch everything four ways and because of that, we weren't able to get in the teeth of the defense. And they're extremely athletic across that guard court, very physical, and when we had good shots early, we didn't make them and really that 10-2, 12-2, whatever we were down early, that pretty much ended up being the difference in the game. Q. Just in the huddles reading the players' body language and things like that, how I guess constantly deflating was Kansas State's ability to always just keep you close enough to think you got a shot but then make enough tough shots to put some separation between you guys? GREG MCDERMOTT: I thought we weathered it pretty well the first half because a couple of those were back breakers. The one they hit at the end of the shot clock, Mawien hits the one in transition and hit two all year and then of course the one at the end of the half. We were able to bounce back from all those, and that's 9 points. And in a game like today, 9 points is like 20 points because it was such a low possession, grind-it-out game. I thought our guys were able to keep their senses about them and because -- because we had some really good defensive possessions that ended with them hitting some tough shots. And sometimes you have to tip your hat to them. You know, as you look at the stat sheet, we had more points in the paint, points off turnovers were the same, we had more second chance points, fast break points were the same. They just -- they made more shots than us and were able to get to the free throw line quite a bit more than we were. Q. Greg, it's easy from my vantage point to draw parallels between last year and this year NCAA Tournament games. I guess from where you sit, are there things that showed up a year ago that maybe showed up this year as well in terms of the preparation or getting ready for a game and the way it unfolded? GREG MCDERMOTT: Our preparation was really good this week. Obviously it's difficult to simulate what they do because they're so physical and they've got some length in the guard court and our prep was with Wade playing. They're quite a bit different without him. Some ways better defensively. Obviously you take him off the offensive end, it's a totally different team because a lot of what they did was to get him the basketball. So in some ways our plan was thrown out the window because he didn't play. Like I said, defensively we played well enough to win. We just -- we didn't make shots today and -- but Kansas State deserves a fair amount of credit. They made some tough shots at the end of some good defensive possessions and we missed some tough shots at the end of some defensive possessions, and sometimes that's the way it goes. Q. There are obviously some emotional embraces with the seniors. This is probably a loaded question. But what did you say to each of them as they walked off the floor? And then also Khyri is in an interesting situation because his future is kind of up in the air based on what he hears this summer. What did you tell him as you took him off the floor for the last time tonight? GREG MCDERMOTT: I told him no matter what he decides, I'll love him just the same. I'm here to support him and we said we'd wait until the end of the season. And that's now, so we have to start having some conversations. But Toby and Marcus, I told them how much I appreciated them. Toby has been through -- his first year was Doug's, Grant and Ethan, his senior year we were at the top of the mountain. The next year we went 4-14 in the Big East. They've seen the program at a high and then as low as it's been and now back to the point where we're in back to play NCAA tournaments. Tyler and Toby have been an important part of that because of their leadership, because of their unselfish attitude, and obviously Toby had a tough six weeks with his mom's diagnosis. He hasn't really let it impact his ability to do his job in practice and be the teammate and the leader we need him to be. I told Marcus how proud I am of him. It's a great story because not every young person that gets lost ends up finding their way. And it took the effort and patience of a lot of people. The most important person in that process was Marcus. Marcus is the one that had to decide, you know what, enough is enough, I'm going to make the changes in my life and get back to the person that I know I can be. And I'm proud of that, extremely proud of that. Proud to have a hand in that, proud to try to be a mentor for him and show him the right way and let him know when I'm disappointed and when he makes a poor decision but also celebrate the good times. Because he had had enough of people telling him what he was doing wrong. He was well aware of what he was doing wrong. So, it's one of the neatest stories that I've been a part of in my 30 years, to see someone really do a 360 in their life and to have a hand in that, it's way more important than winning or losing a basketball game. Q. Greg, your players at times this year talked a little bit about toughness and needing to, I don't know, just kind of match the physicality or toughness of the opponent. How big of a concern was it through the course of the season? And going into today, were you concerned about just being tough enough to compete? GREG MCDERMOTT: I think anytime you play a team like K-State you're concerned with toughness. We were plenty tough tonight. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Okay. Thank you. GREG MCDERMOTT: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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