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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 15, 2019Mike RhoadesMarcos Santos-SilvaDe'Riante JenkinsWashington, D.C. Rhode Island 75, VCU 70 COACH MIKE RHOADES: Tough loss. Proud of our guys's effort. We battled but we just didn't get enough momentum there in the second half to get some things go our way, and we were fighting uphill. Credit to Rhode Island. They made some plays when they needed to and they scrapped some plays out, and you know, that's how it goes. I thought our guys down the stretch got enough stops. We just didn't convert enough. We had some opportunities, some free throws, and that's how it goes this time of the year. We have had a really good non-conference schedule. We won the regular season with a 16-2 record. Really, really proud of our guys. Came up here to play for three days; we didn't. That's how it goes. We've got to take it, no excuses, and we'll be ready to play when we're called on this week. Q. Marcus, when Marcus went down, what did you guys say? What did you do to rally everybody? MARCUS SANTOS-SILVA: We just talked to each other and told everyone, let's pick it up, let's do it for him, keep on going. Stuff like that does affect and hurt the team because he's one of the leaders and our guy, but we kept telling our guys, let's go, let's go, let's pick it up. Q. Obviously they were going to you kind of heavily. Can you talk about your day, 26 points, 22 rebounds, having that kind of day today, what was working well for you today? MARCUS SANTOS-SILVA: Just did my role: Defend, rebound, just let everything else come to me and just owe it to my guys. Q. To be on such a wing streak and have this setback, where does it put you guys emotionally heading into the Tournament? DE'RIANTE JENKINS: Same thing. Just get back to the gym. Work hard and come back and try to start another one. It don't affect us. We learn from it and we just move on from there. Q. What would be your mentality moving forward, especially as a leader, telling the guys to bounce back, how you guys have been able to bounce back well from these kind of things well in the past, so what are you going to be telling the guys in the week leading up to the tournament? DE'RIANTE JENKINS: The feeling of winning a championship and just having that feeling versus this feeling of losing and knowing that it's one and done. I don't think no one want the season to end and I think everyone going to remember this feeling and just work harder when we get back to the gym. Q. Where is Marcus at right now? What's his status at this point? COACH MIKE RHOADES: Doctor told me it was a bone bruise. Felt the knee was stable. Thought it was a pretty deep bone bruise, and when we get him back in the hotel, we'll reevaluate it and go from there. Q. The 75 points given up were the worst since December. Other than Marcus being out, what do you think sort of -- how did that get away from you guys? COACH MIKE RHOADES: We had some really good defensive possessions, and then the ball got knocked around and they had too many offensive second-chance points. I think in the first half, we gave them ten points on the foul line, and ten points on second-chance points, and you know, we've been cleaning that up. Now, they have something to do with that for sure. Credit to Rhode Island. I just thought we didn't redirect the ball enough. I thought we got beat off the dribble too much today and we knew that coming in. Down the stretch, we had some really good possessions where we guarded the ball, took a tough two, found a way to come up with it and we didn't capitalize down at the end. I think it was three times we had the shot clock under five, get a stop, they put one in and Jeff hits that router from 22-feet. I mean, that's part of the game. I think the more -- yeah, they did have 75 points. We put them on the line too much early in the game and that gave them some confidence. You get some freebies like that and they made them. You get enough consecutive stops; we didn't get enough hands on balls today and deflections. Q. You guys have been involved in a lot of games like this this season, where it comes right down to the wire, it's very physical and I know in the immediate aftermath, obviously it's a loss and it stings, but what kind of positives can you take way from a game like this moving forward as you get ready for the Tournament? COACH MIKE RHOADES: You might have to ask me that one tomorrow. You know, any time you're in a battle it reveals character. You know, I want to win every time we come out, our guys do, we all do. But really, the battle itself and the competition -- and when you have tough ones like this, it reveals character. It reveals what you're good at. It reveals what you've got to get better at. You see guys that step up. You know, our leader goes down and we didn't sulk, and he we just kept fighting. I was really proud of our effort. Really proud of our togetherness. They were upset for deuce but we had a game to play and we played it. We just didn't make enough plays down the stretch, which we've been doing, especially in this winning streak. Q. Marcus had a career-high 26 points and 22 rebounds. What do you see from him today? COACH MIKE RHOADES: He's pretty saw some today. He just played so darned hard, and when he plays really hard and plays with a clear mind -- I mean, he's only a sophomore, too, so he keeps getting better and better. I was impressed by the way he went after the rebounds today. He kept fighting. I just thought he played really hard. He ran the court really well. I just -- he just gave us great energy and when you play harder than the people you're playing against, it usually puts you in a good position to get results, and he did that today. I was really proud of him. He had a great voice today. He's playing really hard. I'm really proud of him. Q. During most of the season, you guys have three to four off-days, but in this case, it was more of a week -- COACH MIKE RHOADES: Yeah. Q. -- until you played your last game. Do you think that made your guys feel a little bit uncomfortable, or did you guys have to approach this game a little bit differently? COACH MIKE RHOADES: No, not at all. Honestly, I thought we needed it. We played so many games, quick turnarounds, and we were playing the Friday games, I thought we had some quick turnarounds. I thought we needed it, I really did. So I don't think that was -- the guy were really chomping at the bit yesterday and this morning to play today, which is what you want to see, even when you have a period of time off like we did. Now at the end of the year, guys don't want to practice, they want to play, but I thought we did a good job as a staff of keeping practices short, intense, gunning on what we needed to do. The one thing about this group, even though we had a week there in the gym, man, these guys are in the gym all the time. They are always getting extra shots up, getting to the free throw line. I can't fault that time off at all. The other team, they played a little better than us. We lost our leader. That happens to a lot of teams, and we didn't make enough plays down the stretch. That's how the game ended. I really believe that was the difference. And credit to Rhode Island. They made plays. Jeff made plays down the stretch. We didn't make enough of them. Q. You said games like this reveal character and obviously it's not our first loss, and it's fresh, but wondering, were there some things you saw immediately after the game or during the game that were specifics on character revealed? COACH MIKE RHOADES: Yeah, you know, I thought our fight -- like the positive part of it is like our guys were fighting to win the game. They weren't down. There was no complaining. We haven't been at that a ton in the last month. That was great to see. That's the character, just keep battling, keep fighting. We talk about that all the time. Another one, down the stretch, I think you've got to finish plays, and we had a couple drives to the basket where we've got a finish through contact. We had two two-on-ones; you've got to finish two-on-ones and get to the free throw; and that stuff, as upset we all are that they didn't go our way, those are things we can still keep getting better. Some young guys made some plays we wish we had back. Hopefully we'll have those opportunities sooner than later. We have to cash in on it and take advantage of it. The character of this team all year long probably surprised a lot of people but one thing that didn't surprise is they are not afraid to work and they took ownership of the team. They will take ownership like the coaching staff will in this loss and see where we can go from it. As upset as I am and feel for our guys, this is why you play the games and we're not going to make one excuse, and let's see if the character that we need all the time continues to get better and better. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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