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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: HARTFORDMarch 21, 2019Matt McMahonJa MorantShaq BuchananTevin BrownHartford, Connecticut Murray State - 83, Marquette - 64 MATT McMAHON: Well, I'm really proud of our players. I thought they played with great toughness. Really competed at the defensive end of the floor. Made it difficult on Howard and Hauser. Defended the three-point arc and then offensively, I thought our unselfishness and execution was terrific. These three guys sitting up here with me were fantastic. Q. Ja, you had this dunk over Joey Hauser. Walk us through that and how it was to rise above the rim that way. JA MORANT: I felt like the defender was playing up my line. I just made a back door cut, and my teammate Darnell delivered the pass and I seen the opening and I took it. Q. Ja, how much fun was that? JA MORANT: It was a lot of fun just being able to go out with this group of guys, and get a win in the tournament, just feels good. Q. Ja, talk about there's a lot of publicity and hype based on you, but talk about how your teammates help you elevate as a player and as a person, your teammates like Tevin and Shaq. JA MORANT: The stat, 16 assists. Obviously, I can't get an assist without them making the shots. I just feel like I have great players around me, and they made me look better. Q. Coach and you guys can jump in as well. For a lot of the offense that you guys created, defensively, Marquette was 4 for 23 to start the second half? What did you do in the locker room and what was their adjustment to take away their shot? SHAQ BUCHANAN: We had to make Markus Howard's shots tougher. He hit some tough ones in the first half. Run the rest of the guys off the three-point line and make them finish inside the paint. TEVIN BROWN: Basically make all their shots tough and not give them any easy wide-open looks. Once we did that we forced them to take tough shots. Q. With what you guys got from Marquette today, you guys played so well. Did this come a little bit even easier than you thought? Did you have a moment in the huddle in the second half when you were listening to Coach McMahon. Like it was almost dream-like in how well Ja was playing. But how easy it seemed to be coming for you guys? TEVIN BROWN: We didn't look at it as being easy. The way we scout, we try to take teams out of what they want to do and when we do that, we seem to stop a lot of teams. Q. Shaq, I don't know, maybe nine, ten minutes in the second half, you look like you went down, kind of tweaked something. You got up, kind of limping a little bit, but then just kind of worked it out. What happened? How are you feeling? Do you think that would play any role on Saturday? SHAQ BUCHANAN: I just stepped on a player's foot and kind of tweaked my ankle. Nothing major, I'm ready to go Saturday. Q. Ja, when you were in high school, you questioned whether you were good enough. When did you realize you were good enough? JA MORANT: I'd say once I became -- I can't say when I felt like it. I guess when the recognition started to come in, I guess that's when I had a little relief, like maybe I am. I just got a shot. Murray took a shot with me, and I'm really thankful for that. Q. Ja, a lot of the country saw you play maybe for the first time today on a national stage. The tournament's on national TV. Did that give you any extra juice knowing that -- there's been a lot of hype around your name, but today you got a chance to show what you can do to a lot of the country. JA MORANT: I really don't pay too much attention to the hype. I just try to go out and play the same game every night. Just try to do whatever I can to help my team come out with a win. Q. Obviously, Ja is known for his scoring. What impresses you the most about how he gets you guys involved? SHAQ BUCHANAN: He makes our job easier. Once their men take their eyes off us, we just have to find the open spot. He see us and we make the defense pay. TEVIN BROWN: It's definitely his eyesight. Sometimes he surprises me when he gets to the goal and gets everybody to jump and he still finds a way to get the ball to us. Q. Ja, did you come into the game expecting to spread the ball around to start the game or was that a response to how they were defending you, and were you surprised how they continued to help onto you as the game went along and you were giving up the ball a lot. JA MORANT: I was just reading the defense. Early on I seen that they was trying to pack it in on my drive and whenever I have the ball. And I just that just opened up opportunities for my teammates to be open. So I just attack and just drive and kick or and have an easy dump now. Q. Coach, after the game when you ran over to the radio guys to do your interview, I heard you say our one-man team did pretty well tonight. I know that's been a theme. The defense seemed to be things that stepped up. I guess what would you say to the country that gets to see that performance about how well your one-man team played? MATT McMAHON: I thought we did what we've done all season long today. We came out, played extremely hard at the defensive end of the floor. We defended the three-point arc. We knew Howard and Hauser are terrific players. We wanted to make them a one-on-one team. I think they had 6 assists, 12 turnovers. We were 23 assists to 12 turnovers. I thought our shot quality was very good offensively. I was saying it all year, Ja deserves every bit of credit he gets he and then some. But we have a very balanced team. Four guys in double figures. Tevin and Shaq were terrific today. Darnell around the basket and everyone who played contributed in different ways. It was a total team win for us. Q. Talk about how this is big for the Ohio Valley Conference? Belmont had a close game with Maryland. They did win the tournament game themselves, and you guys were impressive against nationally ranked Marquette team. Tell me how big this is for the OVC in this conference? MATT McMAHON: First and foremost, it's great for Murray State University and our great community, and the great tradition we have in Murray, Kentucky State. I've said it all year, the top four teams in the Ohio Valley Conference. 99 wins, our 101st now with Belmont's win Tuesday. Us today, so 101 wins between the top tour in our league. It's been very competitive at the top. I know there's great financial repercussions for the league. But the exposure and I think both teams we were more than deserving of being a two bid lead. Q. Matt, everyone talks about Ja and the shooters on this team. But how important is Darnell on the inside to making this engine go? MATT McMAHON: Well, it's critical for us because it opens up the floor when you have an inside scoring presence like that. I'm sure you saw he warranted a double-team when we got the ball to him in the post. I know he's disappointed in his poor three-point shooting today. He's highly skilled when he catches the ball. He saw three assists, only one turnover. I think it opens up the floor for Tevin and Shaq and our guards to shoot it and then if frees up a lot more space for Ja to create off the bounce. Q. This program has a history of great point guard play. When Ja arrived, did you have to be convinced, did you know that it was going to be a natural part of the maturation he would turn out to be what he is? MATT McMAHON: I knew the first day he came on campus. He's just got some special intangibles to him in addition to the athleticism, the explosiveness, and ridiculous court vision and feel for the game. He's got an unselfishness and competitiveness about him that's been contagious within our program, in our locker room. Same for Shaq Buchanan, and it's been the structure of the culture, the foundation of the culture of our team, that unselfishness and that relentless drive to compete out there on the court. Q. Does the way he's handled the attention and the way he's done so much to keep other guys involved, has that made it easier for guys not to worry about not to resent any of the added attention that he receives? MATT McMAHON: It's probably been number one top keys to our team this year. We talk all the time, you got to have a good offensive system and you have to be fundamentally sound at the defensive end of the floor. Most importantly, you have to have great chemistry. Our guys love playing together. This they have great buy-in. They're about the right things. I try to put myself in his shoes at 19 years of age, could I have handled this the way he has, and there's just no way. He's just so humble. He comes from an incredible family. He has a great support system. And he hasn't changed one bit through all of the media hype, all the NBA hype. He's just stayed focused getting better as a player. A Murray State leader and helping this team be the best team it can be. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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