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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: JACKSONVILLEMarch 21, 2019James JonesAlex CopelandBlake ReynoldsJacksonville, Florida LSU - 79, Yale - 74 JAMES JONES: I thought that our kids did a great job at fighting the entire 40 minutes. We obviously didn't shoot the ball as well as we'd like to or as well as we have in the past, but the energy and effort was there, and you've got to tip your hat to LSU for holding onto a lead and knocking down their free throws. But I was very proud of our young men. I told them such in the locker room, and it's been a great season for Yale basketball, and as I said, I couldn't be prouder of my group. Q. Alex, what's the feeling with the team down 18 early in the second half? You guys obviously made the comeback. What's the feeling there, and what did you do to get back in the game? ALEX COPELAND: I'm so proud of this group and just the fight that we showed. We were in the locker room at halftime, and I think we were a little down for a moment, but we all kind of came together and told each other, look, we can do this. We can fight back. We've been down before, and to come out and battle back like that and put on a show for our fans that were here and that were watching us across the country feels amazing. I think it's just a testament to the guys we have in this locker room. Q. Obviously Miye had a tough day out there defensively. Do you think that had more to do with their defense, and how were you able to keep it so close with him having only five points? BLAKE REYNOLDS: Well, I mean, I said this yesterday in our press conference, but I think we have a lot of weapons on our team that can contribute on any given night. So on a night when one guy, like tonight maybe Miye maybe struggled a little bit from the floor, his teammates were there to pick him up and help our team score points. Any given night anyone on our team can hurt you, and I think that's what made our team so special this year. Q. Blake, I'm sure you knew what to expect from LSU, but was there anything about their size and athleticism that maybe took you aback at the start of the game or was it more or less what you expected in terms of their overall talent? BLAKE REYNOLDS: Yeah, you know, coming from playing in our league to playing an SEC team definitely very athletic and very strong inside. We knew they were going to be relentless on the glass tonight, and they were. And I think we did a fairly good job of battling them on the boards. But yeah, definitely real big and strong down there, but I thought we fought hard. Q. Blake, you made a basket with just over eight minutes left to cut LSU's lead to seven and over the next five and a half minutes you guys only cut their lead to two. They didn't score much. Do you think looking back that's a part that's going to frustrate you, that y'all had a chance in that period, that part of the game and couldn't really make it a one or two-point game? BLAKE REYNOLDS: Right, yeah. Through that stretch we were really doing a good job on defense. We were switching the ball screens and I think that kind of frustrated them. Yeah, that's a portion of the game that I'm going to think about a lot, looking back on it, that we couldn't quite take the lead or quite get over the hump there. But you know, hats off to LSU; they played solid defense, and they held us limited on offense there during that stretch. Q. Bigby-Williams, he's not always the one people focus on, but LSU is undefeated when he has a double-double, and he had four blocks, and changes shots. What were the problems he created for you, No. 11? JAMES JONES: Well, he's a big long center and obviously he's going to clog up the paint a little bit, made it hard for us to get at the rim, and he was able to score and we fouled him a little bit, as well. Any time you get a guy that goes for a double-double that's going to put a bite in the works in terms of what you're able to do to be successful, and he had a nice game for them, and so you've got to tip your hat. Q. James, with Miye, what do you think it was with him today? Obviously LSU did a good job on him, but he just never seemed to get on track, and how hard is it to win a game without him having a big game? JAMES JONES: Yeah, my son is 13, and he's a big James Harden fan, and every time James Harden plays, it would be the first quarter, and James Harden will be 1 for 9, and he'll be like, "James Harden sucks. He stinks. He can't play." So you're going to have games where you knock the ball in and you don't. You guys all watch the game, like Miye had open shots that just didn't go down. And he's hit tougher shots than he had tonight that he missed. Did they do a good job on him defensively? Certainly they worked hard to try to limit him. But he's good enough to get good shots, and I thought we thought we got good shots for him, and they just didn't fall down tonight, so sometimes that's going to happen to you, and you've just got to live with it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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