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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2019

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

THE MODERATOR: Crusaders are here. Head coach Matt Lottich, Daniel Sackey, Javon Freeman represent the university.

MATT LOTTICH: Obviously, I think the story of the game was just the first half. They really jumped on us. They looked like a team that was pretty motivated and a little rested. You know, the message at halftime was just get back to being Valpo basketball. I'm looking at this. They shot 64 percent in the first half, and that's just not who we've been and not who we are.

So we challenged our guys. Obviously defended well, won the second half by nine. It's just a tale of two halves. You just can't get down 22 to a veteran club like Loyola, but I was proud of our fight. I mean, the guys stuck together, and they continued to fight. We played well in the second half. There were stretches there. Again, we emphasized a lot, just turnovers. We've been turning the ball over a lot coming into this tournament to finish against ten. I think Loyola might lead the conference in forced turnovers, or they're near the top. I was proud of that.

The message to our guys is we've got one senior, and it's special that we're the first team to ever win a game in this tournament. So we're going to ride on that. Obviously, we had our share of injuries. I think we're probably more of a 20-win team, but that just wasn't the reality of it this year. But I do know that we're motivated.

We'll take some time. Our guys are on spring break right now, but we're going to hit the gym, and we're going to have a good off-season, and we're going to get a lot better.

Q. Javon, can you just touch on the opening three or four minutes of the game. I mean, everything seemed to go right last night, and everything seemed to not go right in the first couple of minutes.
JAVON FREEMAN: Like Coach said, that was a team that was well rested, and we just came from off a game not too long ago. So I feel like they were just more prepared than us.

Q. Daniel, Coach talked about the off-season. I know that you've got a lot of leadership qualities. Just how much is this off-season important for you to kind of step up and get these guys in the gym and everything?
DANIEL SACKEY: It's very important. The off-season is as important as when you're in season. For me, it's becoming a leader. I've got to make sure I'm doing 100 percent I can to get better individually and encouraging my teammates to do the same and then build from there as a team.

Q. Matt, you guys get the win tonight, it reminds me of Loyola's entering into this tournament as well, into this league a couple of years ago. They got one win that first time when they got it, and then we watched them build. What can you learn maybe comparing where you guys are at with where they were a couple years ago?
MATT LOTTICH: You know, it's funny. We've actually looked a lot at numbers and things like that, and we're very similar. In fact, we actually defend similarly and run a similar type of offense. So I'm sitting here next to two freshmen, two freshmen, and I have one senior in my locker room right now. So I do think the future's bright. That being said, I know how hard they worked to get better, and we're going to do the same. We're going to do the same. Again, there's a motivated bunch in here that really wants to be good, and we've got a motivated coaching staff that really wants to get them better.

Q. Javon, what do you take away from your freshman season of college basketball?
JAVON FREEMAN: I mean, coming in, like I said before, coming in I didn't think none of this could happen, but progressing through the season, I just felt like I got better defensively and offensively. Still working on my strength a little bit and just hope to come back and be a better player.

Q. Matt, Derrik came out with 11:21 left, and I think Deion came out with 12:54 left. They didn't go back in. Was that injuries? Was that anything else?
MATT LOTTICH: Deion, it was. I'm not sure if it was a hip pointer or what. But he's fine, nothing too serious, but was incapable of going. Derrik, it just was a rotational thing. We put Mileek in there at the five and tried to go small. I thought we got in a rhythm, we really did. He was able to put a lot of pressure on Loyola, just having him out on the perimeter. I thought he drove and he hit a three and things like that. It was just the way the game worked.

Obviously, Derrik in the first half got two quick fouls. It kind of took him a little bit out of a rhythm. It was just the way the game went.

Q. With the off-season, I know you said they're on spring break, but when do you have exit meetings? Do you got to talk to your juniors and make sure they're all coming back, your freshmen, and all of that?
MATT LOTTICH: Yeah, we'll do that. There's no doubt about it.

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