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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: HARTFORDMarch 22, 2019Carsen EdwardsRyan ClineHartford, Connecticut Q. If you could just talk a little bit about this stretch of early on in the year through 11 games, you were 6-5, and now I believe you won 18 of your last 22. What's been the biggest difference from the first part of the season until these last couple months from both your perspectives? RYAN CLINE: I feel like when we were 6-5, we had a couple games that were really close. We couldn't quite close them out. But that 18 out of 22 stretch, we just kind of figured it out. CARSEN EDWARDS: Yeah, I'd saying the same thing. Just kind of buying in to what Coach Painter was telling us and just kind of, I'd like to say, focusing in on the defensive end. I feel it's the small things and the details we weren't really executing. We were able to put that together and able to string along some other wins. Q. If you guys could talk a little bit about last night, sort of a unique situation with Eastern and him, supposedly, I guess slipping in the warm-up line and sort of how you guys got word of that. And then one of your elite defenders is not playing the entire first half, just playing in the second half. Just sort of talk about how as a group you guys handled that news and how that played out if you can explain a little built about the dynamic of that story. RYAN CLINE: Yeah. I think some of us saw it happen. He kind of slipped and fell under the basket. I thought it was a wet spot, but he ended up hurting his ankle it kind of stinks when one of your key players gets hurt. Those non-contact injuries are also scary. He came in at halftime and was running and doing some cutting drills. We're just happy to have him back Saturday. CARSEN EDWARDS: Same thing. Just kind of seeing the incident happen, which I was standing right there, just kind of helped him stand up. I thought he would be okay. But when he went to the sideline, I realized it was a little more serious. Then Eric Hunter stepped up and just kind of played on the fly, just kind -- got to make changes and just kind of go with what you have. Q. Last night you guys took 30 of your 53 shots for three-pointers. Is that something that is a little bit of a concern or is that where you guys want to be in terms of the balance of threes and twos? RYAN CLINE: In a sense, you know, I thought most of those shots were pretty good shots. Some of them did fall; some of them didn't. That's actually a pretty good stat. I didn't know that. It's something that against Villanova, we need to get the ball in the paint and then they're pretty good with not allowing that. So when we get so those paint touches, good things happen. So hopefully we can change that next game. CARSEN EDWARDS: Yeah. I mean, I didn't even know that, but I just guess it goes with the flow of the game. You have guys around you that can shoot the ball well, Sasha Ryan, Aaron can shoot it some. Even Matt hit a three. Just being able to have guys around you that can shoot threes, it doesn't seem to alarm me to shoot a high amount of threes. At the same time you want to have a good balance, be able to get the ball in the paint, get the ball inside and things like that. Q. They have three guys who are 6'9" and obviously you guys have Haarms and tall guys of your own. How do you guys take advantage of that miss-match situation? RYAN CLINE: We kind of just got to play our game. I feel we've been moving the ball pretty well, especially last game. They're pretty good at guarding their first and second action. We got to make them guard the second, third, fourth action to get what we want. CARSEN EDWARDS: Yeah. Just kind of agreeing on what he said. I mean, just kind of, I guess, going with the mismatches, but then also they have strength of areas. So, we just kind of -- we just got to be ready for tomorrow. Q. Speaking of strengths, if each of you all can answer this question, what do you think at this point in the season is probably the two or three biggest strengths of your ball club overall? CARSEN EDWARDS: I'm going to go first this time. The biggest strengths, I don't know. I don't like to kind of just talk about what we -- I think our strengths are as a team. I feel like we still have so much more to work on as a team. We're continuing to improve even when it's late in the season like this. But I mean, I can tell you what our main focuses are every game. I can tell you that. And I think that's just honestly, just getting stops, regardless of how we are in the offensive end, just being able to get stops and limit them to the one chance to score the ball. Getting the rebound and not giving up second-chance opportunities. And after that just executing on the offensive end, whether that's a set or a play or even in transition getting the best shot possible. Those are the three things we focus on, being patiently aggressive. RYAN CLINE: I obviously agree with what he said. I think our strength varied. Every game it kind of changes. We need to be a little bit more consistent, especially against a good team like Villanova. Q. You guys are playing the defending champs tomorrow. Does that enter into your mind at all when you're taking the court, or is it just we're trying to get a win in the tournament? CARSEN EDWARDS: I wouldn't say it doesn't enter my mind. I guess it enters my mind just in the respect factor. You respect them as a team and you respect the history they have, the players they have on the team that are really good players. They play really well together and they're fundamentally sound, things like that. But at the same time you have to go out and try to take it as every game and just value every possession and just try to get a win. RYAN CLINE: I agree. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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