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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 16, 2019Travis FordJavon BessD.J. ForemanWashington, D.C. Saint Louis 67, Davidson 44 COACH TRAVIS FORD: Well, we got off to a really good start, very good start and I thought our energy was right. And you know, when you get -- and you get a start like that, you know the other team as good as Davidson is, you know they are going to make a run back at you. They are a really, really good basketball team. The second half we come out and really were just locked in. Really locked in. Just made a lot of defensive plays that led to good offense. I thought it was -- we're usually not the, you know, complementing ourselves a lot of times on offense tonight and tonight, our offense was helping our defense a lot. But you know, I just thought we competed at a very high level, very high level. The guys stayed locked in. I don't think they ever, you know, looked at the scoreboard and ever rested, and that's out of respect for Davidson and how powerful they are. We knew we couldn't relax at any point in time, but just a really good second half. Really about second half. Especially defensively. Q. 24 points, talk about it just seemed like you got out to a little bit of a rookie start and then just started hitting shots. Do you feel like you were in rhythm? JAVON BESS: Yeah, I definitely feel I was in rhythm but Tramaine and Jordan, they was making us go. They had the ball a lot and they was finding me. Q. Are you guys feeling now like that 1-3-1 or the 13 defense, whatever you want to call it, is really a key to what you're doing in terms of just totally disrupting opposing offenses? D.J. FOREMAN: It's just one of our many defensive sets, and we just change concepts to just keep the other team like on edge and just keeping them confused for the most part. You know, going from man to five-hedge to 13 to two, just mixing it up. So it's not just like our strength -- like 13 is not our strength; we have different sets. Q. You have put together a couple of really huge games on the boards lately, especially with the offensive rebounding. Can you just talk about what's been going into it, with sort of the rustle and everything? D.J. FOREMAN: Yes, playing with players such as Javon Bess, Jordan Goodwin, Tramaine Isabelle, Hasahn French, those are guy our guys on offense. So my role is play defense, stop their best post player and then do anything that's physical. We are a very physical team. So the more physical I can be it makes it easier for players like Tramaine, Javon and Jordan to play their game. I just go out there and try to play my hardest so I can make it easier for offensive threats. Q. What does it mean, actually, to have someone like Tramaine and Hasahn? I'm on the third row and I can even see far away the intensity and presence of someone like Tramaine and someone like Hasahn. What did that mean to you? JAVON BESS: They mean a lot. They mean a lot to our team just like everybody does on our team. We say that since the beginning. We need everybody out here to go out and try to win a championship, we need all 15 guys, and those are two important pieces that we need. Q. How are you guys feeling now with three games in a row, all the minutes. Are you just running on adrenaline or are you that well-conditioned at this point? COACH TRAVIS FORD: Very well-conditioned (laughter). JAVON BESS: Definitely. D.J. FOREMAN: Yeah. Q. Can you comment? JAVON BESS: Very well-conditioned. (Laughter). Q. How the legs are? JAVON BESS: We feel good. We feel good. Like I said, we're here playing for something. We're playing for a championship. All that other stuff goes out the window. It's them against us. D.J. FOREMAN: Yeah, one game at a time. Q. Congratulations. COACH TRAVIS FORD: Thank you. Q. On what has been a week with almost no rest playing these nightcap games at about 8:30, if I'm correct, the two games, and now this one at 3:00. COACH TRAVIS FORD: Probably about 8:45, 8:50 when we started. Q. How focused are you now being one win away from going to the NCAA Tournament? COACH TRAVIS FORD: Well, you have to change gears. You put so much into every single game. Like you said we've been getting back to the hotel the past two nights, 11:45-ish, getting to the hotel and then the guys got to eat. And it's been -- and we don't even really talk about basketball until the next day, except for the coaches stay up till 3:00, 4:00 in the morning the last two nights, trying to figure out a game plan to present to the guys the next morning. So right now, we've put a lot of time into Davidson, a lot of time in a very short amount of time. That was a concern for me going from our guys getting in bed at probably 1:00, 1:30, and turning around and playing a 3:30 game. But I thought our guys handled it really well. They were focused this morning at our walk-through and really focused and attentive to the game plan. So now you've just got to switch gears. You know, you do have to exhale for a second. You've got to exhale for a second and gather yourself, and you know, prepare for a really, really good St. Bonaventure team that's playing very good basketball, very well-coached, and you know, we'll get back to the hotel and get started. Q. You said after a couple games this season, you would comment on the defense being, you know, maybe best effort of the year. Where does that one rank, especially the second half? COACH TRAVIS FORD: Second half, I don't know if it gets -- you know, just look at the percentages, was as good as it gets. It really helped us scoring to be able to get into certain defenses for us. But yeah, the defensive effort, and then rebounding. It's one thing to play defense, then you've got to rebound the ball. If you get a team missing a bunch of shots, you know, and I kept telling our guys: You're getting them to miss; now let's reward ourselves. Let's reward yourself for doing something good by rebounding the ball. And I wasn't happy at halftime with our rebounding. They had more offensive rebounds than we did, and that's usually not the case, and that's not how we play. And I thought we did a great job second half of defending and rebounding, defending and rebounding, holding them to one shot, making them take tough shots. And then we got them to take 20 -- 20 seconds off the shot clock off almost every possession, which is a big key. Q. Continuing off the defense, Gudmundsson and Grady, you hold them to 7 and 27. What were you doing particularly to those two to take them out of their rhythm a little bit? COACH TRAVIS FORD: Well, I challenged our guys this morning, in our scouting report, in our game -- walk-through game plan. I gave Davidson -- I was pumping Davidson up as they deserve to be, and really giving them respect, and I said you've got to give respect where respect is due. They are a very, very good offensive team, very, very good. Very, very good defensive team, look at their numbers. They have very good offensive weapons. I told our guys, if we could just hold Grady and Gudmundsson below their average, they are averaging 17; if they are just one point below their average, I think that would be good enough, just one point. I'm not asking you to hold them to seven or six, I'm not asking that. I'm asking just hold them below their average, and then do the job on everybody else and I think that will give us a good chance for success. I think we accomplished that. And that's out of respect for those two. I mean, they don't get much better in our league. They are two as good of players as there is. Q. Tomorrow, facing Welch and Lofton, Lofton is one of the top freshmen in this league. What's the game plan going into, and also, I was going to say with 00 himself, what's going to be the game plan, a guy that had 11 rebounds today. COACH TRAVIS FORD: They have a lot of good players, really well-coached. They had some really good senior leaders. I think Stockard and Griffin are really good senior leaders for them, and they have really got good talent. Fresh has had a heck of a year. Lofton has had a heck of a year, Welch, I can go down the line. Center is really good and they have guys coming off the bench, very well-coached. So you're looking at, you know, St. Bonaventure, Stockard played in the NCAA Tournament last year. Griffin played in the NCAA Tournament last year, a few other players, so they have had a little bit of experience and know what this is about. So we've got a lot of respect for St. Bonaventure and how they are playing. Q. Now that you're three for three with one to go, do you allow yourself -- do you start thinking about what you're playing for, or is it a focus on just a regular game preparation? COACH TRAVIS FORD: Yeah, I don't think we need to talk a lot about that. I think they know. You've just got to prepare and get focused in. You've got to be laser focused, laser focused for the next game. Get some rest, but get laser focused for the next game and the opponent, and prepare. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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