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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: ATLANTAMarch 22, 2018Marques TownesPorter MoserAundre JacksonClayton CusterAtlanta, Georgia Loyola Chicago - 69, Nevada - 68 PORTER MOSER: Wow, just got to give -- first of all, the glory goes to God for the resilience this group has and for how much he's blessed our University and how much he's blessed these guys and blessed me to coach high-character guys. For sure that's the first thing to say. The second is hats off to Nevada. I mean, they are a resilient bunch. They wouldn't quit. That last three, they just keep coming. And then the third thing is how proud I am of these guys. They don't quit. They're resilient. It's different guys, different nights. You saw Donte making shots and Clay making shots and then Aundre and Marques down the stretch with the free throws, with the big three; Marques with the big three. It's been this way all year long, the unselfishness. You heard them say the first two games, it could have been any one of us, and they believe it, and I'm so proud of these guys. Q. The team started off 13 for 13 in the second half, but yet still the game was tied. Talk about the resiliency and the confidence in your team. PORTER MOSER: We started out 13 for 13? You know we were hitting a lot in transition. We really tried to start small. We started Aundre the second half, and defensively Krut was -- it was a tough match-up for him. So I thought we'd go small, and really push the tempo. It was a great suggestion by my assistant Bryan Mullins. He was there. We haven't done that all year. We started Krut the second half, and Bryan said what about starting Aundre because they're going to go right at -- Krut had two fouls, and they were going to go right at him to start the half because they had the ball. So we went with it, and it really paid off in terms of the tempo that we created getting stops. Our defense created the offense for sure. Q. Coach, I know Marques was a little quiet in those first two games. Can you give us your thoughts on his big performance tonight? PORTER MOSER: You know, I didn't look at it as Marques being quiet. He was a warrior. He made warrior plays that we see a lot on the tape, and it just happened to be different guys, different nights. So I don't think any one of our coaches looked at it and said they were quiet tonight. Like Ben didn't score much tonight, but Ben wasn't quiet. Ben was unbelievably -- did a lot for us, and we believed that. We believe just because you don't have a lot of points in your point count, you were quiet or had an off-night. These guys believe it, they defend, they do different things that we call them intangible plays, and Marques has been making them all tournament. And because of that mindset, he was ready to step in and do well today, and he was really -- the guys knew it and they were feeding off him because he was really going downhill against them. Q. You guys went down early in the first half. What did you say in the time-out? PORTER MOSER: Yeah, it was pretty much verbatim the first five minutes of the Tennessee time-out. We just didn't come out defensively like we have. It's almost the same script. They scored 12 or 15 in the first five minutes and ended up, what, 24 for the half? And it just had to settle them down again, and then we got talking. When we're noisy on defense, we're really good, and we were just kind of -- they had three or four back cuts that we were just kind of stuck in the mud. And I think after the first media time-out, we kind of regrouped and then they were playing -- from then on, they were loud, they were aware, they were in the moment. Q. Marques, what will you remember about hitting that big shot? MARQUES TOWNES: I'll probably remember it for the rest of my life. I mean, it doesn't really get any better than that. Clay made a great play, got downhill, kicked me to the corner. The guy came flying at me, I just gave him a little shot fake, and I shot it, and it went in. It was just -- that's something you dream about. You're in the Sweet 16 and you hit a big shot like that. It's just amazing. I'm just blessed to be in that position. Q. Clayton, you and Ben experienced a lot of success in high school together. Have you all gotten a chance to take some time and reflect on another postseason journey and sort of what this is like on top of that? CLAYTON CUSTER: Yeah. I mean, me and Ben have -- we spend so much time together just like when we're just sitting in our apartment or in the hotel room, and we're with each other all the time. Obviously, during this stretch right now, whenever we're just sitting in our apartment hanging out together, I mean, we'll look at each other, and we'll just be like, wow, we're really doing this together right now. We couldn't be happier to be doing this with each other. It's been a dream come true for us. I don't want it to end with him, so we're going to do whatever we possibly can do to keep playing together. Q. Is Coach Fritz here with you to share it? CLAYTON CUSTER: Yeah, I'm pretty sure Coach Fritz was there. I didn't see him, but I know that we got him a ticket for the game, so pretty sure he was at the game tonight, yeah. Q. You said that being loud on defense was key, so for each three of you guys, if you had to name the loudest guy on your team on defense, especially during that -- you held Nevada scoreless for the last eight minutes of the first half in case you didn't know. Who was really making the key calls and the most vocal? CLAYTON CUSTER: I mean, all year, it's amazing, but our freshman, Cameron Krutwig, has been the loudest guy for us all year. He talks so much. But I don't know, I think we were all kind of quiet to start the game, and once we started talking -- Ben is the Defensive Player of the Year in the conference, so I think he was really leading us out there tonight, especially since they had so many guards, and it was like tough for Krutwig. There were certain people -- it was tough for Krutwig to guard in the game. I think Ben really led us out there on the defensive end tonight. Q. Marques, looked like you banged your knee at the end there. How do you feel? MARQUES TOWNES: I'm okay. Like Coach said, I'm a warrior. (Laughter). No. It was a little shock, you know, just one of those plays where it just stuns you real quick, but I got back up. I'm fine now. Q. Even some of your most loyal followers had you guys bowing out at this point or thought, well, they've had a nice run -- PORTER MOSER: You can say Sister Jean. You can say it. Q. Not just her, but was there some motivation or just something inside you to think, we're not done yet or that you wanted to silence people who thought this was kind of good enough for you guys? MARQUES TOWNES: I mean, it was not really in terms of just silencing people. We knew what we wanted to do. We knew what our goal was, and I mean, we just -- like I said before, we've just been doing this all year, just taking one game at a time. We had much success all year doing the same things that we've been doing, and I'm sorry for Sister Jean, for busting her bracket, but yeah, we're just happy to be in this position and going to the Elite 8. Q. Porter, Nevada with its reputation for coming back the last two weeks, what did you say during the time-outs to tell your team, here they come again? PORTER MOSER: Well, we were talking about being strong with the ball and watching the run and jump. They have a lot of headway running and jumping. But we were ready to space the floor, circle, flash middle. We kept on talking about that and wanting good possessions, being strong with the ball. But it was about transition defense, too, and there were some that were bad and some we got. They can -- when you have a 6'7" point guard covering the ground, he can go rim to rim so fast. That was one of the reasons why I called time-out after Marques shot so fast, because he can go coast to coast in like two strides, and he refuses to lose. He hits that pull-up three. We just really wanted them to watch the press, to be strong with the ball, because they run and jump, and have good possessions, defend and rebound. Same stuff we've talked about at the end of games all the time. We have a thing -- the last four minutes, we kind of put our four fingers up the last four minutes, about playing that way, smart, defend, rebound, take care of the ball. Q. Aundre, in the first half you had a few shots blocked and ended up with 15 points. What happened at halftime? AUNDRE JACKSON: Just the whole team was telling me, use my shot fakes because they're jumping for everything. I should have got into it in the first half, but I didn't, and then in the second half, it started working, and then I just started making points. Q. 59-59, 3:18 left, they had a time-out. What was going through your mind at that time? How much were you kind of aware of really what was at stake at that point? MARQUES TOWNES: Which time-out? Q. The last TV time-out, 3:18. MARQUES TOWNES: I mean, like Coach said, we have this thing where we put our four fingers up, and that just means, it's just kind of lock in and try to get stops and make plays on offense. Like I've been saying all year, this team never quits. We're such a resilient team. And Nevada, they're a great team as well. We respect them, and they fought real hard, and they made that huge run at that media time-out. You know, we just -- we got some stops. We made some big shots. 'Dre and then I hit one, and we were fortunate enough to get the W at the end of the game. AUNDRE JACKSON: We practice situationals all the time. We practice being up late. We practice being down, tied scores. Just one of the four-minute games that we work on. So we knew how to work it out, and that's what we did. Q. Coach, I'm just wondering, you guys have won in this tournament by a combined four points. That's pretty unbelievable when you think about it. That saying, act like you've been here before, that's how you guys are acting. At what point in the season did you kind of realize, hey, we perform really well under pressure? PORTER MOSER: You know, it's been a season-long journey with that, of believing that we can win. These guys have found ways to win. We focus in on -- in the process of the game, and things we've got to do in the game. But I would say -- obviously when you beat a team like Florida back earlier in the year, and Clay went out and the way guys rallied in the locker room at halftime, and Clay to have that confidence, any time you get a win like that, then it just grows. You find ways to win games. They're completely an unselfish group. They're just about not caring who gets it, and that culture and that tightness is really something. And then you find ways to believe. I'm telling you, when you got -- it was by design, but we had seven of these guys win state championships. Aundre took his junior college to the National Championship in Hutchinson, Kansas. These other two won high school state championships. When you have that winning gene, and I love that, these guys, they just keep believing. They keep believing. They keep buying in. So it's just grown, and we haven't thought about the total victory margin. We've just talked about putting it in the bank, next one, we're hungry, we're greedy, we want more. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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