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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: BOSTONMarch 23, 2018Bob HugginsJevon CarterDaxter Miles Jr.Boston, Massachusetts Villanova - 90, West Virginia - 78 THE MODERATOR: For West Virginia we're joined by head coach Bob Huggins, senior Jevon Carter, senior Daxter Miles. We'll go right to questions for Coach and the student-athletes. Q. For Jevon and Dax, can you both describe what Bob Huggins has meant to you. JEVON CARTER: For me, it's been everything. He just gave me a chance, a small guy from Maywood, Illinois, didn't have a lot of looks. He just saw something in me that a lot of people didn't. THE MODERATOR: Daxter, can we get your thoughts as well. DAXTER MILES: First off, I want to say "thank you" to Coach Hugs for giving me the opportunity to play for West Virginia, and thank you to the state for showing us, just being great my four years. And "thank you" to my teammates for staying down and working hard. Coach Hugs, man, he gave me an opportunity, like I said. That's all I got to say. A great coach, man, a great person off the court, and it's been fun. I wish we would have kept going, but I enjoyed every moment. Q. Bob, they called time-out with 11:04 or something. You're up six. You're on a run. And then they go on the 11-0 run and basically turn the game around. Was there something specific that changed at that point in their play or in your play? BOB HUGGINS: Well, they miss a free throw, and we don't block out. They get the ball back and hit a three. So it goes from six to two in a hurry. We had shots. We didn't make them. They made open shots. We didn't make open shots. These guys can tell you. I start telling guys at the beginning of the year, man, at this time of year, if you want to win in March, you have to make open shots. They made open shots, we didn't. We got way more shots than they got. We just didn't make them. Say what you -- we came into the Tournament shooting almost 77 percent from the free-throw line. We didn't make free throws. Those things come back and bite you. You've got to continue to do fundamental things, and when you have open shots this time of year, and the further you go in the Tournament, there's less and less open shots. So when you get one, you have to make it. They did. We didn't. Q. I noticed you waved to the fans as you were going off the court. Can you talk about your relationship with them, what it's meant to you in your four years. And then, Coach, if you could talk a little bit about both these guys and what they meant to your program. JEVON CARTER: They came out and supported from day one, since I've been here. They've always believed in me. I don't know. They just -- Mountaineer nation, man. They do an unbelievable job. They travel thousands of miles to come see us play, and I do my best to go out there and play hard and give them a good show to watch. THE MODERATOR: Coach, your thoughts as well. BOB HUGGINS: These two guys have been -- as good of players as they are, and they're very good players -- they're going to go down as probably -- well, not probably -- the best four-year backcourt in the history of West Virginia basketball, and that's saying a lot. But what they do off the floor, they're both really good students. They're both going to graduate on time. And we get a lot of requests from people, whether someone was in an auto accident, somebody's got cancer, whatever, and you say, we need some volunteers to go to the hospital, these are the first two guys that put their hands up. They do everything right, they came in -- we were struggling. We were struggling. I think that I didn't -- I underestimated the switch from the Big East and how they played in the Big East to the Big 12, and we had the wrong kind of guys. And these guys came in, and we had guys that really didn't love to play, and we made a conscious effort to recruit guys who really love to play. These two guys are -- they're at the head of that class though. They work. They work every day in practice. They're coachable. I've never had one complaint about either one of them. I've never had one issue with either one of them. They're great people. Q. Jevon, can you talk about what it's been like playing on this stage of the NCAA Tournament. JEVON CARTER: It's everything. Everybody is in tune with March Madness. I feel like it's bigger than the NBA playoffs. Every game is on TV. Everybody's talking about March. Anything can happen in March. A lot of upsets, games going down to the wire. It's just a great atmosphere to play in. Unfortunately, we lost in the Sweet 16. I felt like we gave it everything we had. We just didn't make shots tonight, and Villanova did. Good luck to them in the future. Q. Coach, did the foul trouble that your team got into in the second half affect the way that you wanted to play or anything that you wanted to do? BOB HUGGINS: Sure, absolutely did. I'm trying to say the right things. Yeah, it does. When the whistle keeps blowing, it really takes away your aggression, you know. And then J.C. had three, Dax had four. They're the heart and soul of this team. They're the guys that everybody looks to. They're the guys that who make things happen. I've never had anybody, and I've had great players and been very blessed. I've never had anybody work the way this guy here works. Never have had anybody to put the time in that he's put in. He deserves a better ending, I think. THE MODERATOR: West Virginia, thank you. Congratulations on an excellent season. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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