|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: JACKSONVILLEMarch 21, 2019Mark TurgeonBruno FernandoDarryl MorsellEric AyalaJacksonville, Florida Maryland - 79, Belmont - 77 THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you could, just opening comments about what turned out to be a fantastic basketball game today. MARK TURGEON: Yeah, it was a terrific game. I'm just really proud of my team. We were unbelievably resilient. We didn't shoot the ball well in the first half. They made some shots. They're a heck of a team. We beat a really good team today. And then we were really good to finish the half and really good to start the half, and then Windler went crazy making some really tough shots. I think obviously they're extremely well coached. But we got down four, Darryl hit a big three in the corner, cut it to one, and I felt pretty good about things. You know, we've really been working on turnovers; we had five turnovers for the game. We had two against the press in the first half, and so we only had two in the second half, so we really did a terrific job there. There's a reason they're the second-highest scoring team in the country. They're almost impossible to guard. Fortunately for us, we got the big man, I won't even try to say his last name, in foul trouble, and I think that helped us guard them a little better during certain stretches. But I thought Bruno was great against the double-team, I thought Darryl was terrific all night, Eric hit some good shots, and Stix (Smith) just wouldn't be denied, he just kept getting offensive rebounds. We had a size advantage there and we took advantage of it, and just a great win. I told the guys, just an honor and a privilege to be a part of a game like that this time of a year, and to come out on top makes it real special. Q. Darryl, you had several huge plays down the stretch, put Maryland on top. How were you able to come through this, especially after Belmont had rallied back? How were you able to keep things going the last couple minutes? DARRYL MORSELL: Just mental toughness. It's something we harp on all the time as a team. We've got to be mentally tough to win these type games. Q. What did you see on the last steal with two seconds to go? DARRYL MORSELL: Coaches were screaming, "Back door!" I kind of knew it was coming, but Eric was right here, he got his hand on the ball, which helped me a lot, and I got the steal. Q. Darryl, did you miss that on purpose to set up the long shot, or did you not hit the free throw? DARRYL MORSELL: No, I just missed that. I didn't miss it on purpose. They iced me. Q. It's the first game you all played in the tournament; what was the environment like? How was it getting adjusted to it, and when did you guys really feel like this was your time? BRUNO FERNANDO: It felt great to be out there, just to be able to play, like we say all the time, we've got to be happy and excited. This time of year not a lot of teams get to play and be here today. We just got a win and we passed to the next round. So it felt great to be out there and just play as a team. I think we did a lot of great things on the court like Coach already mentioned and just had fun. I think we had a lot of fun out there tonight on the floor and just helped each other win. Q. Bruno, you seemed to have great awareness of the double-teams coming; how much preparation did you do, and how did you hear them coming so quickly? BRUNO FERNANDO: The past two days when we practiced, every time all year we've been doing a lot of double-teams in our practice, so I got used to it. Their double-team was a lot different today. They came like, the pass wasn't here and right there was the double-team. So I have to make sure I'm patient and I see the double-team coming and find the open guy every time. Q. Darryl, how difficult was it to stay in front of Windler? Some of the shots he hit were step-back threes from 30 feet. What is it like when you play against a guy like that? And also did that make you aggressive on offense? You seemed to really want to go back at him. DARRYL MORSELL: Dylan Windler is a phenomenal player. He can score at all three levels. Today he found his rhythm early. He was hitting some big shots, some step-backs, some fadeaways. But I just stuck with it. My teammates, Bruno, Eric, Anthony, all them kept picking me up going, telling me, "Keep guarding, keep guarding, we're going to find a way to win this game." And offensively I just tried to find ways to impact the game. I seen them double-teaming Bruno. That gave me opportunities to cut in the lane. Was getting stops defensively, which allowed me to get out in transition and stuff. It's just a credit to my teammates for all the success I had. Q. Darryl, what do you think of the match-up with LSU? Have you seen them play or know any of their players? DARRYL MORSELL: We watched a little bit of them before we came over here. I know they did real well in the SEC. Right now we're just going to enjoy this win. We'll talk with Coach Turgeon and the coaches later tonight about LSU, but right now, us guys, this is our first postseason win, so we're going to enjoy this. Q. Eric, early in the game when Maryland was trailing, you got a lot of the offensive load. Is that something that you're used to taking? There were a lot of hard takes to the basket. And then playing the primary point guard, you had some very balanced scoring. Can you talk about your first-half takes to the basket and how you distributed the ball in the second half? ERIC AYALA: Just playing a well-rounded game, just letting the game come to me. My teammates and my coaches trust me to go out there, do what I'm capable of, and whatever I can do to help us win, winning is at the forefront for me, so whether that's rebounding, passing, defending, I'll do whatever to help us win. Q. Mark, I wonder personally how much pressure you might feel in such a game that comes down to essentially a possession? MARK TURGEON: Pressure because the game is close? Q. The tournament -- MARK TURGEON: Yeah, you get second-guessed pretty good this time of year, so you want to do all the right things. But no, I'll tell you what, I feel so lucky just to be a part of a game like that. You work your whole life to be a part of it. Any game you can win in this tournament is great, and just -- I'm just so proud of my group. We gutted it out. We just kept battling, we kept battling, we kept battling. We played with great poise offensively. Defensively down the stretch we were just good enough. Yeah, is my heart rate like I'm sleeping? No. But I just love it. I just love it. It's so much fun. Q. Talk about Jalen's second half playing with fouls and also sort of basically taking over inside, which we haven't seen a lot this year in some games, but on this kind of stage, how big was that for him and obviously how did it translate to the end of the game? MARK TURGEON: Yeah, so you're from Baltimore, you can write a heck of an article: Our B-more guys stepped up today. They were terrific. You know, we tried to get Stix going early, which he did. He got out on the break, we ran a couple plays for him. He had a huge size advantage, and then you add the length of his arms, and he probably had a foot advantage on that kid. He just wouldn't be denied. We were able to break them down with penetration. We got in the lane a lot tonight, whether it was through the post or through whatever. And they're a great box-out team, one of the best things they do is box out, limit second-chance points, and Stix just wouldn't be denied. He was terrific, and finished and played with strength. We've been beating on Stix for eight weeks trying to make him tougher. He got extra weight -- right before he left town he got an extra weight workout, and it showed up today. It takes time when your nickname is Stix, but he played with great toughness. Q. It took until about I think the under-eight time-out for you guys to get kick-started a little bit. What were some adjustments you really had to take from that point on in the first half? MARK TURGEON: You're talking about the first half? Yeah, we couldn't make a shot, and it's the way it's been for us. You know, we missed five lay-ups and probably six wide-open threes, okay, maybe eight wide-open threes. Early in the year that might have affected our defense. It didn't affect our defense. That team is too good for us to let down defensively. So we kept trying to guard. We knew it was going to come, and we made some plays right before half. I think that gave us confidence going into halftime, and then we started the second half terrific, which we've done a lot this year. It is what it is. You know, I watched their game against Temple; it was back and forth, one team would go on a run, another team would go on a run. It was a little bit like that today. It's college basketball. But my guys were resilient and really dialed in. We played well. We played well to win. Don't think that we didn't play well. No, we played really well to win this game. Q. Most of this team had never been in a tournament game. How do you get them prepared for that, and how do you get them ready to go through this type of battle? MARK TURGEON: Well, obviously we didn't play well in our last game, so we've been pretty motivated practice-wise, and then everybody was predicting that we would lose, and that motivates you a little bit. It's not fair to Belmont that people don't know a lot about basketball are picking them to beat us. So we were highly motivated, and this time of year, you lose, you go home, so you stick together. We stuck together. Our leadership, for such a young team, our communication and belief throughout the game was tremendous. Q. To win a game when Anthony shoots 3 of 18, what does that say about the team? And what other things did Anthony do that helped? MARK TURGEON: Yeah, so Anthony I think had five assists, one turnover, if I'm correct. Yeah, six assists, one turnover, so he helped there. He really defended McClain. I don't know what McClain ended up with, 19 points. But man, he had to earn it. He got seven at the line, okay. So Anthony was terrific, and we all believe in Anthony. We think he's going to make his next one. He made a three, he ran a play for him, got another wide open three and he missed it. That's how much I believe in him, even though at the time he was probably 3 for 16. So it does mean a lot when he plays like that and we still beat a really good team. It should give us confidence for the next one. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|