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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: SAN JOSE

March 22, 2019

San Jose, California

Liberty - 80, Mississippi State - 76

MODERATOR: We're ready for Mississippi State. We have Lamar Peters, Quinndary Weatherspoon, Robert Woodard II along with coach Ben Howland. We'll do an opening statement from Coach and open it up to questions from the student-athletes, dismiss them and turn questions over to Coach.

BEN HOWLAND: Well, obviously a very tough loss for us, especially having a 10-point lead with -- what was it? -- about seven minutes left? 7:11. And I thought we had it again, though, on the foul on the three. I don't know how much time -- I think we had 10 even later than that, but I could be wrong. And that was a tough play for us because we played a great possession, and they ended up calling a foul on Lamar late in the shot clock. I mean, it was late from deep three.

But give them credit. Homesley played great. He gets 30 points on us. You look at his shooting percentage, he's 10 for 16, really shot it well from three, 5 for 11. I think the rest of their team, when you look at it, was like 14 for 38 or 36, something like that. So we did a good job for the most part.

Too many threes, though. The first half when we had the lead, they came back with threes off of penetration, which is something we expected. Half their shots today almost were threes, just under half.

But credit them, you know, they were down 10, and they did a good job to fight to come back. And we had some opportunities around the rim, around the goal in the first half and in the second half that we didn't finish.

But it's just a tough, tough pill, tough one to swallow, especially the way we had that lead late in the game.

MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Q, it seemed like you really had your game tonight. You was aggressive and making your free throws. When you have your game working like that, how frustrating and, like Coach said, how tough of a pill is it to swallow when you play that well and ultimately your career ends on a game like that?
QUINNDARY WEATHERSPOON: I mean, I just give the credit to my teammates. I mean, we all came out and played hard. Lamar had it going, and the team I think we played a great game. So I'm good with the career that I had at Mississippi State.

Q. Q, up 10 with about five minutes to go, just what happened in that sequence to let the game get away from y'all?
QUINNDARY WEATHERSPOON: I mean, we had a lot of mistakes on defense, and I think we took some questionable shots, but, I mean, I love these guys, and I'd do the same thing over again with them.

Q. Lamar, kind of the same question. You're up 10, and what happened down the stretch in your opinion?
LAMAR PETERS: Felt like when me and Q picked up our four fouls, it kind of made us play timid offense. It made us settle for threes because we didn't want to go out of control and draw a charge. So it made us play timid. And I felt like we should have just got better ball movement, but I take all responsibility for that because I'm the point guard and I'm supposed to run the team and make sure we get the ball flowing instead of us just settling, because I feel like we had the game in control until we picked up those fouls, and it made us play a little timid.

Q. Lamar, I saw you towards the end of the game, they went in for that foul, Braxton went down for the foul and got fouled on the lay-up. Kind of crouched down. What was going through your head in that moment? And to that point also, what was working for you tonight?
LAMAR PETERS: At that moment I was just thinking about the season ending, like be my last time playing with Q and Aric and T.J. Gray. So it was like a lot going through my mind, processing a lot at that time. And also I missed the shot. I felt like it was going to go in. So it all hurt, it's a hard pill to swallow because we put in so much work coming into this moment.

And I felt like we played hard. Just a few mental breakdowns that we couldn't control. But I had a fun time with these guys, and I love them, too.

Q. Robert, as a freshman playing on this stage and Q and Lamar have worked so long to get to this stage. How encouraging is it to build off of this from this point on?
ROBERT WOODARD II: First I would like to think God for this opportunity. Just building off of it, Q, Lamar, Aric, they have been great leaders to this team. They've motivated us well, as well as teaching the young guys, the freshmen on how to control ourselves and how to stay consistent throughout the season.

So just going through the season with them, we've learned a lot, and we're just going to use these games as teaching lessons to move forward.

MODERATOR: Anything else? I think we're good with the players. We'll have questions for Coach.

Q. Ben, how pleased -- what was your thought on the shot selection over the last stretch? You only made one of the last ten shots that you put up from the field. What were your thoughts on the shot selection?
BEN HOWLAND: Yeah, we took a couple of outside shots that were probably ill advised. In listening to Lamar, I'm sure that was going through their minds a little bit, having foul trouble there late and not wanting to pick up there -- Q had one at the rim that was actually a missed shot, but it was a great shot, you know, and he just missed it, playing through contact.

You know, we had -- it worked -- I mean, it was about the worst both ways. I mean, we were getting some bad defensive possessions down there, and I think fatigue hurt us today. There's no question, because we had to play small. They're a matchup where Homesley is a 4 that's really a 3. So you're trying to match up with him, so I'm playing Robert most of his minutes today where as a 4 man, and there was no one to spell the other three, and in a game like this, that was tough.

You know, the fouls really bothered us down the stretch because you stop the clock, and they're scoring from the line. I'll watch the film over in terms of our shot selection. And I thought we got a little anxious probably because we had that ten-point lead and you're seeing it just -- and I'd used our timeouts. I'd used one of them just to get us there to where we could finish the game and still have enough left in the tank to be able to do it.

Q. What did you think of the defense you guys had on Homesley?
BEN HOWLAND: Like he made one in the first half on Q in the first half at the end of the shot clock that couldn't be defended any better, and he just knocked it down. And it really got him some confidence and got him going, I thought, from that shot forward. And late he had us in the backdoor. They ran a nice little play where they're feeding the post and screening out of it and then bringing him high and a little pindown, which we'll see we missed a couple times.

I'll tell you what, their point guard hit a huge shot from three on a little handoff and came behind and knocked that down. That was the only one he took like that all day. But I've seen it a few times on film. He made big shots. He's a really good player, Cabbil, made all his foul shots. So those two guys right there, he was the other guy, and he made his foul shots down the stretch, which he wasn't missing. They're a great foul shooting team.

Q. Obviously we already talked about the fouls and how much that affected the way you guys played the last six or seven minutes, but how much of it could have been your guys are looking at the scoreboard, you do have a ten-point lead. Do you feel like you guys were sort of sensing -- it felt like in the crowd, too, that you guys were sort of maybe sensing that a win was within reach and then everything just sort of fell apart?
BEN HOWLAND: Are you trying to say we got overconfident? I don't think that. I mean I think about everything that could go wrong for us went wrong. And that's tough because these guys are hurting pretty bad in that locker room right now, after feeling good up ten, but, you know, the thing's never over till it's over. And our guys have had enough experience to know that and seen enough during their careers to know that.

Q. What did you get from Lamar Peters and his contribution to the game tonight?
BEN HOWLAND: I thought Lamar really shot the ball well and was really effective offensively and got some nice passes from Q, and did a good job knocking down three. And I also was excited to see him finish at the rim. And think about there's another lay-up where he missed it in the first half on the right hand. If you go back and look at some of our layups, like Reggie had one in the second half that was like I couldn't believe it came back out. But I thought Lamar had a really good game, and I mean I want to say that, you know, in terms of Q, Q had a phenomenal career. To finish with over 2,000 points in his career at Mississippi State, you know, he improved every year. I'm just so proud of Q and Aric for everything they provided for our team over the last four years and what they did to help this program get back in the NCAA Tournament. Will always be very thankful and really, really appreciative of their efforts and what they've done for Mississippi State basketball.

MODERATOR: Great. We'll close it out right there. Thanks, Coach.

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