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MAUI JIM MAUI INVITATIONAL

November 20, 2018

Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii

Gonzaga - 91, Arizona - 74

MEGAN GODFREY: We'll start with an opening statement from coach.

MARK FEW: Another wild night in Lahaina. I've had a lot of those, but this one was definitely memorable. So unbelievable job by our guys. We made some halftime adjustments and they really, really bought in and flipped the switch. We guarded much much better in the second half, played without fouling, and took much much better care of the ball and pushed it. When these guys do that they can be pretty special on the offensive end and I think that showed.

MEGAN GODFREY: Questions for the players, please.

Q. You were down 13 with seven minutes ago, what's going through your mind there? And then what sparked that comeback?
ZACH NORVELL JR: Just staying positive. Every huddle we had we never really talked about the score or nothing like that. We always knew we had it in us. Coach did a good job of keeping our spirits up and not dwelling on the last play or anything like that and we were able to respond pretty well.

JOSH PERKINS: Like he said, a lot of credit goes to our coaching staff keeping our head in it, but in the huddle we stayed positive and we stuck together. Adversity hit, but at times like that, we stuck together and that's what came out the win tonight.

Q. Probably along the same lines. You look at it, you're shooting 2-11 from three-point land, you're confident shooters. What adjustments did you feel like you made in the second half to kind of get a little bit more of the flow offensively?
JOSH PERKINS: Those are shots we usually make. Shooters shoot, is what we say. And a guy like Snacks, he never let's his confidence waver. We tell him to keep shooting it because more times it's going to go in than not. So we stayed positive and stuck together as a team and we fought the adversity to fouls and shots not going in, but we stuck with it, stayed together, and we stayed confident. And a lot credit goes to our coaching staff and for us digging it deep to get that win.

ZACH NORVELL JR: Exactly what he said. We shoot thousands of shots day-in and day-out, so just trying to put this one behind us. We had a good team effort, we were able to pull it out, just ready for the game tomorrow.

Q. Josh, how much does experience factor into that attitude that you don't get rattled at all because it's loud in there and people are going crazy and you guys kind of weathered it?
JOSH PERKINS: I think it was a lot. It's not experience just for me, it's experience from Coach Few and the coaching staff. They have been there before and they stay positive and never -- and it didn't waver within us. So I mentioned to the guys to stay positive, stick together. And we all did that. You didn't see anybody's head going down, you didn't see us bickering at each other. It was all positivity in the huddles. We knew things would go our way eventually and it did and we came out with the win, so I'm glad we did that.

Q. A lot of fouls in the first half, at the line a lot. What did you guys do to ratchet up the defense without continuing to foul?
JOSH PERKINS: They shot 22 free throws in the first half and made 19 of them. We knew coming in they were a great free throw shooting team and that was something they did and they took pride to get to the line. So second half we switched a lot of things, kept our hands back and made things tough on them. A lot of credit goes to them for getting to the line the first half, but I think a lot of credit goes to us in the second half for getting our hands back and adjusting to how the referees were calling the game in the first half.

Q. For both guys, how much are you guys looking forward to Duke tomorrow?
ZACH NORVELL JR: Really excited. Any time you can play a top opponent like that as a competitor, you are really excited. Also just knowing that our coaches have a good game plan for us tonight to be able to wash this game down the drain and be ready to go tomorrow.

JOSH PERKINS: I think Zach tackled it. In this tournament we played Arizona and Duke, so those are both programs that growing up you watch. So to play them is a blessing that basketball gives us. So can't even speak for what we're going through right now, but to play Duke tomorrow, Coach K obviously a Hall of Fame coach and a guy that we know about. But like coach -- like Snacks said, our coach got a great game plan for us, so if we follow that we should be in good hands and looking forward to a big time matchup tomorrow.

Q. Josh, how much more confidence does the team have getting these wins without a guy like Tillie because of injury?
JOSH PERKINS: Yeah, I mean we're playing well without one of our soldiers. And I think guys are going confidently, guys like Filip, guys like Corey, guys like Jeremy Jones, MVP yesterday, doesn't get a lot of credit, but Jeremy got us that win yesterday. So guys like that confidence grows and when Tillie comes back it's going to be a team added with Tillie. So looking forward to him getting back, but we're playing for him right now. We definitely are.

Q. It's always a pretty incredible atmosphere at the Kennel, but my ears are still ringing from what happened in there. I can't even imagine what it's going to be like in the championship game. What do you guys anticipate as far as the environment tomorrow?
ZACH NORVELL JR: Just Zag fans being Zag fans. Ever since I've been playing here our fans travel well. Really looking forward to them being there tomorrow, feed off their energy and can't wait.

JOSH PERKINS: Yeah, I mean, my ears are ringing still, too. Before the game listening to Duke fans I couldn't even hear my music in the ear pods, it was so loud in the gym. So combining our fans with their fans, should be more ear ringing, but hopefully our fans are louder than theirs tomorrow and I know they will be.

Q. You talked about watching Duke and Arizona growing up, kind of like that's a name brand program. Aren't you guys one of those too now?
JOSH PERKINS: Oh, yeah, yeah. We came here for a reason, you know. I said Coach K was a Hall of Fame coach, we got a Hall of Fame coach on our side too. And rolling with the guys we have, and I know coach is too, so like we said we're looking forward to that matchup tomorrow and showing the world who we are.

ZACH NORVELL JR: Just to piggyback off what Perkins said, we're a top program too. Like our coaching staff did a good job building this program up to where it is now. Gonzaga is a household name now and I'm pretty sure everyone knows around the country with the runs we have been having and great job with this guy and Coach Few and the coaching staff has done.

MEGAN GODFREY: Take questions for coach.

Q. The guys talked about it, but tomorrow at noon Maui time, is that going to be a little bit different for the championship game?
MARK FEW: Yeah, yeah. I mean it really, really makes for a short prep tonight, so we'll do what we can. It's about these guys playing. They did a heck of a job making adjustments on the fly in the second half. I mean a heck of a job because we switched basically our whole game plan there at the half. And so -- and I think it's going to take something like that. We'll have to really cerebrally challenge them tonight and there's not going to be any physical things we can do, but just come out and play. But that's what makes this tournament awesome. This little band box that we play in and you don't get the locker room until 10 minutes before you go out on the floor and teams are filing in and filing out. It's back to the true essence of why we all got involved in basketball. So we'll get them ready and they will be ready and we'll give it a good run.

Q. I don't know how specific you can be to what -- how when you say you flipped the switch entirely, what you did. But also -- and also, can you do that with a team that's not as experienced as this one is?
MARK FEW: No, no, no, you can't. And it wasn't anything diabolical or inventing the atom or anything, but it was just getting back to who we are. We lost our way a little bit with some silly turnovers that kind of got them going. We fouled way way way too much and just obviously there was some legit ones, but then we had some real silly ones that weren't really smart. But we did change a couple things defensively that really helped, I think kind of keep us out of foul trouble. And then also just offensively got back. We played with massive foul trouble in that first half, so our lineups were really literally probably as crazy as we have had all year. So we really lost a lot of our offensive flow. That's why we rode those guys hard in the second half.

Q. Obviously this tournament is just an ultimate test here at this time of the year, but I wanted to get your thoughts on what it would mean if you guys can pull it out to win a Maui Invitational title under this season's circumstances?
MARK FEW: Well, we have won it before. It was an awesome, awesome feeling. It's an incredible accomplishment, especially with the field we're looking at here. Makes for a great Thanksgiving, which we get the day off. So I'll take full advantage of that playing and frolicking in Maui. But it will put me in a lot better mood, that's for sure. But, again, you got to realize when you're playing this stiff of competition there's a lot -- you get exposed and there's a lot to learn about your team, so I just like we learned tonight, we got tested and pushed from the brink there and didn't break so I think that's a great sign for us moving forward. Again, especially that we're doing this without Killian Tillie, Killian Tillie is one of our best players and a lot of nights he's our best player. And he solves, I say this all the time, he's my problem solver. He solves a lot of things out there. And both nights obviously just with depth alone but I really give these guys credit, they're scratching and clawing and figuring out ways -- Jeremy Jones came in and there and give us great minutes and Filip came in there and held his own. And on short prep, we just got to rest them up and it should be a fun, I'd say night but it's going to be morning, be a fun morning in about eight hours or whatever it is. I don't want to see any of you guys in the bars tonight now. You guys get ready to get down here and cover this properly, all right?

Q. What's the one or two things you need to do tomorrow to get in the W column?
MARK FEW: Take better, take good care of the ball. We have taken great care of the ball other than some zaniness against Illinois which they can bring and then this first half. You can't turn the ball over and let Duke get out and run. And we just got to defend aggressively, like we did in the second half there without fouling. I think those will be two big keys. And again I need to watch some more of them tonight, I've just kind of been glancing at them here and there, so.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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MAUI JIM MAUI INVITATIONAL

November 20, 2018

Mark Few

Josh Perkins

Zach Norvell Jr