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MAUI JIM MAUI INVITATIONALNovember 19, 2018Travis SteeleRyan WelagePaul ScruggsLahaina, Maui, Hawaii Auburn - 88 Xavier - 79 MEGAN GODFREY: We'll have an opening statement by coach, please. TRAVIS STEELE: First off, this is why we come to Maui, we want to play against great competition. And obviously Auburn's a tremendous team. They got a great back court. They do, Harper and Brown really controlled the game I thought on both ends of the floor. I thought our guys really competed though. And I think we got to make better decisions. Obviously I think the tale of the game was turnovers. We got to make better decisions with the ball and not make rushed decisions, because that's what Auburn does great, they're really good on the glass, which I thought early on in the game that's where Auburn was scoring a lot of points on second chance points. And then I thought we really limited that as the game went on, which I was really proud of our guys for doing that because they're fifth in the country in offensive rebounding percentage. But it was turnovers and I thought we took a few rushed shots, but again, really proud of the way our guys competed. Obviously we have another, we're going to have another big time game tomorrow and we're going to have to get ready for that. MEGAN GODFREY: Thank you. Questions, please. Q. Paul, obviously not the ending that you would have wanted here but your team played better than it had in the first three games. What do you think you guys did well today or where did you grow today do you think? PAUL SCRUGGS: I feel like we grew on our defensive end because that's what we emphasize in practice. So I feel like we took that to heart and put it in play. Q. Paul, at the end of regulation you had two kind of big plays back-to-back there, the three and then down at the other end you make the save going out of bounds there for the steal. What was that like at the end of the game, the feeling the momentum there, I mean? PAUL SCRUGGS: Just trying to do whatever possible to help my team win. Q. Ryan, this team as a whole has trouble from the free-throw line in this young season but in the second half today you were like 19-20 from the line. Is there any reason why you think that there was such great consistency in the second half from the line? RYAN WELAGE: We just work on the basics like shooting free throws every day and I think we have been getting better in a lot of areas throughout the season and we improved in this game, that was one of the areas. MEGAN GODFREY: Questions for coach, please. Q. What are you going to impress upon to your guys after this game? TRAVIS STEELE: I think, number one, I think Auburn's a tremendous team, they're a Top-10 team in the country for a reason. We can compete with anybody. I really believe that. I told our guys that going into this game. I knew the last war -- because we break that game down into four minute wars -- I knew it was going to be close. I told those guys, like going into it, it's going to be a one or two possession game and we're going to have a shot. I wholly believed that. And we just got to be committed to the process. We're not where we want to be, but we're not where we were as well. I thought we grew a lot in the last week out here in the last three days of practice leading up to Auburn, I thought we cleaned up a lot of things, but we got to be able to turn the page pretty quickly because we're going to play against another tremendous team tomorrow whether it's Duke or San Diego State we got another great opportunity out here. Q. We talked about Quentin before now he's kind of struggled since coming back from injury and certainly Auburn's pressure had a lot to do with his performance today, but what can he do to turn the corner? I think he had like seven turnovers today and took a couple shots that maybe you wouldn't have wanted. TRAVIS STEELE: Again he hasn't practiced for a month and it's hard, it's hard, like and then all of a sudden you get thrust into play Wisconsin, and Auburn, two really, really good teams and I think it's hard to find his rhythm. He's going to figure it out. We're going to rely on Q heavily, obviously, he's a tremendous player, I believe in him. Auburn, that's what they do though, they turn teams over at a very, very high rate. They're going to put pressure on you the entire game. He's going to get there though, I believe in him, our teammates believe in him, he's going to figure it out, and we just got to keep showing him film because he's thrusted into a different role than he was last year. Last year we were able to rely on J.P. and Trevon Bluiett to make all these shots from 30 feet. We don't have that any more. And so now it's a different team, and guys are trying to figure out their role within the team and we're going through some growing pains with that. But that's okay. I believe in him as a player, he's a tremendous player, and we're going to keep on learning and growing kind of moving forward. Q. Last two games, two losses against quality opponents but in both of those games they could have very easily gotten away from you, but your guys kind of fought. Did you anticipate in preseason practice that you were going to have a team that fought this way, that kind of a never say die attitude or is it surprising to you? TRAVIS STEELE: I don't think it's surprising, it's who we recruit. I think we have tough kids, we have winners, Paul, Tyrique and Naji and Q and Elias were on team last year where we were a one seed in the NCAA tournament. So they're used to winning. And we had a lot of close games last year. But again we got to learn how to be able to execute in those close games, how to get a shot, who we're going to go to, different things like that. And then again we're I think our guys, like I said, are learning kind of who they are and kind of within our team concept and going through some growing pains with that. But we'll get there and I'm really proud of the way our guys competed today against a tremendous Auburn team. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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