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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2019

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

Drake - 78, Illinois State - 62

THE MODERATOR: Illinois State Redbirds are with us. Head coach Dan Muller, Keyshawn Evans, Phil Fayne. We'll have questions for all three Redbirds.

DAN MULLER: Congratulations to Drake. They were just so good. They handle adversity. You can tell the character of their players and their coaches and just a credit to their entire team. We picked a bad day to have a bad day. They were great.

I love these guys up here, these seniors. It's tough. Tough to end like this. Tough season. Not obviously what we were expecting, but Drake was great today.

Q. For Phil and Keyshawn: Offensively, you guys struggled in the first half. What was the main problem offensively, and what adjustments did they make from the previous two times they played you?
PHIL FAYNE: Yeah, we struggled in the first half. I had a couple of shots that I was missing. I wasn't able to finish, and we were missing a lot on the offensive end. I'm not sure what adjustments they made. It just seemed like they came out -- they played harder than we played today and just came out more aggressive. They were the aggressors this time.

KEYSHAWN EVANS: Yeah, we just didn't match their competitiveness. That was probably the main difference from the first two times we played. They came out with their heads on fire, and we kind of came out a little bit passive and not aggressive and smart how we should have. So it kind of came back and bit us in the butt.

Q. For both of the players, it's over now, your college careers, but just specifically this season, is it disappointing? Are you going to look back on it as a disappointment that you guys had high goals and you weren't able really to accomplish it?
KEYSHAWN EVANS: I mean, it's hard to really think about it right now, like still kind of just numb from the game. But regardless of what happened this year, I'm still proud of our guys and happy with how we handled a lot of the adversity we had as a team and individually. I mean, one year doesn't define our careers, in my opinion, and doesn't define the relationship I have with my brothers. It isn't affected by this year.

PHIL FAYNE: He took the words right out of my mouth literally. Just what Keyshawn said. We're still brothers at the end of the day, and like he said, just one season doesn't really define our careers and everything. We have a lot of returners who are going to do great things next year, and they'll be able to learn from this season's experience and be able to carry on next year. We've got a lot of standout guys that are going to be great contributions to the team. Definitely take it for the younger guys, take it as a learning experience what to do and what not to do throughout the season for sure.

Q. Dan, you changed, obviously, the lineup at the start of the second half. Could you kind of talk about the reasoning behind that? Obviously, it seemed to work for a while.
DAN MULLER: It worked for a while. Just trying to go with the guys who are competing the hardest this time of year. I never really care who plays, but I thought Rey had a great first half. I thought Josh was pretty good. That's really all it came down to. Nothing more than that. Those guys did a great job to start. Got a little tired, and we subbed throughout. It was that simple.

Q. Again, a lot of highs and a lot of lows this season. Ultimately, for all three of you, how would you kind of describe the season as a whole?
PHIL FAYNE: The season as a whole, just like I said in my last statement, a lot of highs and a lot of lows throughout the season, but I felt like it was a learning experience, like for the seniors, since we've been through this before, it shouldn't have been a learning experience for us, but for the other guys, it's definitely a learning experience, seeing how they should lead. The new captains and new leaders, how they should lead the team and everything. We went through a streak where we lost five games in a row, how to face adversity. Adversity is going to pop up in anyone's season. It's a great learning experience for everybody.

Even though we didn't accomplish what we wanted to accomplish, I still felt we did have strong points throughout the season sometimes, and we showed our lows and how we could fight through adversity as well too.

KEYSHAWN EVANS: I would say the same thing, just a learning experience. At the end of the day, we're sad that we lost, but at the same time, we're still Redbirds always. I think it's important just to keep the culture and just to keep the program going, obviously. So like for next year, even though we won't be playing, I still think we'll be better next year because we would have learned from everything that we have to go through this year. I would just say a learning experience.

DAN MULLER: Yeah, I'm disappointed I didn't do a better job with this group. These two guys in particular right here deserve to experience things they didn't experience this year with wins and continue to play. This program is all about the players, and these two guys and our other two seniors, but these two guys don't have another chance. So I'm pretty damn disappointed in myself.

Q. Dan, you got down by 11 fairly quickly in the second half. Was it just the inability to string a couple of defensive stops together that kind of halted the momentum at times?
DAN MULLER: A little fatigue. We had some turnovers during that stretch after we cut it to 11, and defensively the Murphy Twins were so good with their penetration. We were either fouling or they were getting shots around the rim and making tough shots. So we didn't really have any answer for those two guys throughout the entire game, but they got baskets when they needed them.

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