|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
MAUI JIM MAUI INVITATIONALNovember 19, 2018Mark FewJeremy JonesRui HachimuraLahaina, Maui, Hawaii Gonzaga - 84, Illinois - 78 MEGAN GODFREY: Let's start with questions for our players first and then we'll take questions and a statement from coach. Questions for our players. Q. Jeremy, you really seized the opportunity tonight, you played with a lot of confidence through the first four games of the season. What has been your development path your time at Gonzaga so far after you transferred from Rice? JEREMY JONES: As a lot of people know Gonzaga has done a good job with red shirts as far as player development and that's the main reason why I decided to come here. And just doing my job, I know what my job is, just offensive rebound, we knew Illinois was going to muck a lot of things up and play high so just cutting to the basket and stuff like that. Q. You guys pulled it out, but 22 turnovers, definitely got a challenge tonight. How do you guys characterize, for both you guys, how do you characterize how that game went and what that win means for you guys? JEREMY JONES: I mean 22 turnovers is definitely the most we have had all year. But right now we're going to focus our sights on Arizona. And when this is done we'll go back and look at it and address those things. But, yeah, it's something we definitely have to clean up and it's definitely not our goal. We have a goal and we didn't reach it as far as turnovers today. RUI HACHIMURA: Oh, yeah, I think we had like many turnovers today, but I think I got to take care of the ball more and just have to be like a strong and finish. And we have to play the next game tomorrow, so we have to focus on that. Q. How worried were you guys getting as they were getting within two there down the stretch. A couple times Frazier goes off for 27 in the second half. Was there any concern when it got down to two there late? JEREMY JONES: Obviously we had miscues as players when a guy gets going, can't let him shoot threes, you got to make him do something other than shoot threes. But these coaches put us in situations in practice all the time, four-minute game, two-minute game, one possession games at the end of practice, so situations that we have been in so we just have to go out there and execute. RUI HACHIMURA: We practice those like a stretch but he made like two or three threes so we had to guard more well and then we just had to, yeah, but I made a bad decision in the last minute too, so I have to improve that part. Q. Jeremy, the last two free throws I don't know if either one hit the sides. What were you feeling at the line to try to put it away? JEREMY JONES: I mean well, two free throws I guess ice the game is definitely thoughts going through your mind, but I shoot free throws all the time, work out all the time, so I mean it's just a matter of going up there and doing what you've done so many times. So that's the only thing I was thinking about. Q. Was there any particular guy on the scouting report that concerned you or surprised you that you were worried about? JEREMY JONES: Yeah, we were worried about all of them. They run that high spread action so everybody's on. Obviously you saw Frazier got it going tonight and I mean we knew that he was capable of that and didn't do a good job, so I mean, yeah. MEGAN GODFREY: We'll take questions for coach. Q. These are the kind of games that you learn something about your team when you're like in a dog fight. What did you learn tonight? MARK FEW: I learned we got to clean up some things at the end of the games, as they said. We spend a lot of time in practice, but when you're under the bright lights and playing against a team that is built to bring a lot of adversity, I mean that's what Illinois does a phenomenal job with. I think somebody was asking us about 22 turnovers. All you got to do is watch all their games, I mean they force a high number of turnovers. But when you're strong with it and then when you do get through that wave then you shoot a high percentage at the other end. So looking at the stats and we shoot 53 percent from the floor, you know, so that's kind of what ends up giving it. It's a high risk defense and they put it on you sometimes, put you in some very uncomfortable positions. And they had played two possessions of 1-3-1 this year and they jumped in that 1-3-1 and we made some really poor decisions at the start of it and I think they gained confidence as it kind of went along in the second half. Q. The progression of Rui from last year to this year, his level of aggressiveness and how much you push him to be assertive in that way. MARK FEW: Yeah, hey, we're pushing him to be the man and that's why I didn't use a timeout there in that second to last possession. We had Rui with the ball on the wing and I'm feeling pretty good usually when that is the case. But this is a great learning opportunity for him here to be in those situations like that and we were able to find a way to win, which is kind of all that matters in a tournament like this. But he continues to grow because we do lean on him so much. The ball is in his hands, we really initiate offense with him a lot, if you watch, it's definitely the initial action that our offense we usually come off, pop it to him and then we gotta play through him a lot. So he continues to get better and better and better and that's a tough game because there's a lot of guys taking charges and trying to take charges. Because he's so effective everybody's kind of flying around and trying to pin fouls on him in one way or the other. So by and large I thought he held up pretty well. Q. I thought you guys were about to deliver a knockout blow and Illinois battles back and Frazier kind of puts them on his back. What did you learn about them, and what did you learn about Frazier specifically? MARK FEW: Them meaning Illinois? I don't know that I learned anything. I -- watching them on tape I was extremely impressed with just how hard they played and how purposeful they played. They, they're going to deny and make you uncomfortable. I mean I tried to tell everybody, it reminds me of West Virginia in the half court and you just you don't really run your normal offense, you just kind of got to put the ball in -- and that's why you saw a lot of those downhill drives by our guards that sometimes led to lanes and sometimes led to some pretty crazy turnovers. But very impressed with how hard they play and the tough thing for us was they played a non-D-I and then a pretty noncompetitive other Division-I with Frazier and then he was out in the Georgetown game and we watched that pretty heavy, but we obviously saw what he did last year shooting the ball. But he made some big shots tonight, some really, really big shots. And I was really impressed with the freshman post kid, he went to work on us also. So I think that there's a lot to build on with them. They're a hard prep. They run a really, really unique offense that nobody runs in college basketball. I haven't seen it in all the years I've been a head coach and then that defense. So you got two different things you're trying to prepare for so it makes for kind of a unique game. Q. How big was the bench, Jeremy and Filip especially in that first half coming in for the guys with foul trouble? MARK FEW: Hey, Jeremy was fantastic, just phenomenal. That's the story you literally root for and want when you're a coach. That senior -- I always preach to our guys, every dog has his day in our program, he literally does. I've just seen it time and time again. He might have had a frustrating career up to that point, but if he would just hang with it, that moment's going to present itself. And we have had so many guys over the years do that. So I couldn't be happier for Jeremy. He just stuck with it and he just did with Jeremy Jones does, he goes to the offensive boards, he cuts, timely cuts, off the ball, that's how he's getting all those lay-ins. He's an opportunistic defender and that's what he does and he basically won the game for us tonight. Q. Brandon Clarke struggled with fouls early, also some other things. Pretty important to your attack, especially on defense really kind of showed down at the end, didn't it? MARK FEW: Yeah, he is important and we just got to do a better job of keeping him out of foul trouble. I think what's lost and we all have such short memories is that without Killian, we're smaller and lighter and less, and less of a factor with our rim protection right now. So a lot of it ends up on Brandon and then we're trying to bring Filip as best we can up to speed to keep him aggressive. I thought he did a nice job in the first half, that little bit we had him in. The second half he just wasn't quite aggressive enough, we didn't really have time to wait for him. Q. Gonzaga and Arizona have had some battles over the years, tomorrow presents some intriguing individual matchups as well. What do you anticipate in that? MARK FEW: Well any time you play Sean's teams, I mean they're tough. They are tough, they're going to get right up in your grill and they're going to guard you and they're going to guard your first action really well and your second action really well and they're physical. And it looks to me like they seem to really be playing well together and have a lot of nice flow on the offensive end. I think I remember this summer when people were starting to write them off and I kept telling the staff, like I mean they have like six or seven five star guys, just because they played behind upperclassmen last year doesn't mean they lost all their ability. And Sean's done a great job putting it together, the transfer kid, the point guard played phenomenal tonight and hit some big shots, much like Frazier did. So he's obviously on a roll, we'll have to deal with him tomorrow. But I've been in this thing enough, it's kind of like the NCAA tournament, all these games take on a new life of their own and hopefully we'll be better down the stretch tomorrow and we're looking forward to playing Arizona. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|