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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 7, 2019

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

THE MODERATOR: Moving right along, the Northern Iowa Panthers. They will play the No. 3 seeded Salukis of Southern Illinois 8:30 tomorrow night. Ben Jacobson is here surrounded by AJ Green, Wyatt Lohaus, Isaiah Brown, and Miles Wentzien.

BEN JACOBSON: We've played really good here the last 2 1/2, 3 weeks. We've had a great stretch of five basketball games where we were able to get out ahead of four teams and good teams and on the road, a couple at home, the guys put together some great games. Then had a back-and-forth game with Loyola at our place that didn't go our way, but a fifth game in a row where we played really hard, played good basketball.

So, yeah, we've played well, and I know our guys are looking forward to getting going tomorrow night. We've had -- this team's come a long ways. Miles and Wyatt and what they've done from a leadership standpoint has just been awesome. Watching some of our younger guys with AJ and Trae and some of the older guys with Isaiah and Luke and Spencer, just the growth that these guys have had, the leadership we've gotten from the two guys up here as seniors, it's been awesome.

Fun to come down here when you're playing good basketball. We know we've got a big challenge tomorrow night. We get that. Southern's playing better than anybody right now here the last ten days. That's part of the deal. You come down here, you've got to have your best. So you've got to look forward to tomorrow.

Q. Coach, you've got Southern Illinois with three straight wins, and they swept the season series against you guys. What can you guys do differently in this game?
BEN JACOBSON: Both games were basically one or two-possession games with 2:30 left. Very different games. The first game was within a possession most of the 40 minutes, within a possession or two. The second game, we played great in the first half and staked ourselves out to a big lead, and they came out in the first seven, eight minutes and got back in the game. But at the end of it, both games were decided in the last 2:30.

So our guys understand the things that we've got to do well. We've got to defend the block. Fletcher and Lloyd are playing as well as they have played at any point this year, getting almost 40 points a game between them. We've got to work hard to defend those guys. I think the two starting guards are probably, well, maybe in some ways just overlooked or maybe as underrated as any pair of guards in our league. I think both guys are really good at both ends of the floor. And then they've got really good experience coming off the bench, good players and very experienced players.

It's not a team where, if you take away one or two guys, you've got a chance to do pretty well. You've got a lot of guys that you've got to deal with. Our guys understand that.

Q. For the seniors, Wyatt and Miles, you guys have been here before, but to make a run, you've got some young guys that are going to have to play well. How much do you talk to them about what they're in for in this conference tournament, some of the new guys, AJ and Trae Berhow, and some of those guys playing in the Valley tournament for the first time.
THE MODERATOR: Miles, you're first, please, and Wyatt.

MILES WENTZIEN: I think they're tired of hearing from me at this point. I think I take it a little far sometimes. It's really important to me, obviously. Every detail of every play is important. I try to talk to them, but at the same time, it's a normal game. They know how to play basketball. Try not to get too into it.

WYATT LOHAUS: Like Miles said, I think they know the importance of playing well this weekend and how big that is for us, but it's just like the regular season, and the past 31 games, that's been an important key for us all year is having those guys play well. Like Miles touched on, it is in some way just another game. We're not too worried about them. We know they're going to play well.

Q. AJ, you've got Aaron Cook and Eric McGill both playing pretty good basketball right now. How do you feel you match up against both of them?
AJ GREEN: It's going to be a great opportunity for myself and all the other guards on our team. They're great players. Really looking forward to that matchup tomorrow night, just going out there and playing our hardest and hopefully getting the win.

Q. Also for AJ, this isn't your first time at the Valley tournament. You came here as a young boy following Panther basketball. What is it like for you now knowing you're going to play out on that floor for the first time?
AJ GREEN: This is a very exciting opportunity for me, definitely something that I've been looking forward to ever since I officially became a Panther. Just like you said, growing up, seeing all the great memories and great plays that has been made here by Panthers in the past. So I'm just hoping that we can kind of make some of our own this year.

Q. Coach, you've got both Kavion Pippen and Sean Lloyd that made the All-Defensive Team. How hard is it to get past those guys as the defenders they are?
BEN JACOBSON: As I mentioned with the two starting guards, they very easily, I think, could have had another guy or two on that All-Defensive Team. They do a great job with their matchups. And I also think they've done a very good job with their team defense.

Pippen, he has the ability to great some real problems when you get in around the basket. So you've got to be able to make -- you've got to be able to make the right plays. After playing against him twice, watching him on film, our guys understand what those plays are.

Lloyd's just been a really good player in our league. He's tough. He's hard-nosed. He's playing very well at the offensive end of the floor right now. But I know around our league people think of him as a defensive guy, and he is, but he's playing really good at both ends right now.

Q. Ben, you won this tournament a couple years. When you think about all those teams, what did they all have in common?
BEN JACOBSON: I think -- and this team's got some of it as well, in terms of growing over the course of the year. Some of those teams were much older teams, but that didn't mean that we didn't grow and get better as we went through the year. I would say most of those teams finished pretty well. The last three weeks or so, we had played pretty good basketball, and I think in both of these areas, the team we have right now has that in common with those teams.

This team has grown more than those teams simply because an inexperienced team when we got started, some injuries we were dealing with, some of these new guys in key spots, some of the older guys like Zay and Spence and Luke in different spots and more responsibility. So a lot of things we were sorting out. So those guys have probably grown more simply because we started in a different place, but these guys have good momentum. These guys know we are playing good basketball. And those teams, as I think about them, that be would the same.

And then leadership. Miles, it was -- that was a tough blow for our team at Illinois State when Miles went down, but he's continued in his leadership role. And Wyatt, he's been part of it for five years now. So we've got great leadership, and that's been a constant as well for those teams.

Q. For Isaiah Brown, as Coach mentioned, in the past three weeks, you guys are playing some of your best basketball of the year. A lot of that is because what you're doing at the defensive end. You made the All-Defensive Team. Where did that change, or what happened that all of a sudden this clicked at the defensive end with this group of guys?
ISAIAH BROWN: Like you said, I'm very happy to be selected for the All-Defensive Team. That's one of the things that me and Coach Jake talked about at the beginning of the season. Last year I came here and had a very good defensive performance against Ryan Taylor of Evansville. Me and Coach Jake had a meeting at the beginning of the season, and one of the things he told me was he wanted me to be on the All-Defensive Team. I'm grateful to have achieved that goal.

We've been playing good team defense lately, and I think that's what's pushing us to play great basketball right now.

Q. For Coach Jake, 18th year you've been here, 13th as the head coach. When you look at the tournament overall, how different or similar does it feel to you coming here this year with just how the field looks, the seedings, the way the regular season has gone. How different or the same does this tournament feel?
BEN JACOBSON: At least in -- you know, in recent years, maybe going back eight, nine, ten years, it feels like, you know, when you look at the records with Drake and Loyola being at 12-6, and you look through there, and you've got -- I think you've got seven teams within three games of first place. That part of it is a little bit different. Last year Loyola, I think, was 15-3. The year before that, I think Illinois State maybe was 17-1, if I have my years correct, maybe tied with Wichita.

So nobody got through the league this year with that kind of record. I think what that says most is the quality of the teams in the league. There really wasn't a bottom in the league this year. Most years, whether it's our league or a different year, you've got two or three teams that are a little bit better and separate themselves, and you've got two or three teams that, whether it's they're young or got some injuries or change coaches, that are at the bottom. And our league this year really wasn't that way. So that's maybe a little bit different than most years.

And I know, look, we came in here last year, and we had the seventh seed, and we felt like we could win it, and I'm certain there's teams playing tonight that feel like not only could they win their game tonight, but they could win it, and that's not necessarily the case every year.

Q. Coach, when you look at the tape, what has Southern done so well to be on this roll at the end of the tournament?
BEN JACOBSON: Watching the last three games, they're really doing it in all spots. Defensively, they're good. They've done a -- when we played them the first two times, it was pretty early in conference play. They seem to have put more emphasis on their transition offense. They really moved the ball against Illinois State in particular, and in the other two games as well here in the last three. But I thought they really moved the basketball up the floor in a hurry.

So that's an area where we're going to have to be great. We're going to have to get back, get walled up, set our defense. So I think they've been a little bit better in that area. Then like I mentioned, with Fletcher and with Lloyd getting almost 30 points a game, Fletcher doesn't play in our first game, and he had just gotten back, for the most part, had kind of just gotten back for the second game. They were sorting out some of their lineup things. At this point, when you watch them in the last three, everything is settled now. Fletcher has been back a long time, their lineup is settled, the guys on the bench understand what their roles are. They've got a different feel now that they've had a bunch of games with Fletcher back in the lineup.

THE MODERATOR: Panthers and Salukis, 8:30 Friday night.

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