	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: COLUMBIA

March 22, 2019

Columbia, South Carolina

UCF - 73, VCU - 58

THE MODERATOR: Virginia Commonwealth University head coach Mike Rhoades is accompanied by student-athletes Issac Vann, Malik Crowfield, and De'Riante Jenkins. We'll have an opening statement from coach, allow questions to be directed to the student-athletes.

MIKE RHOADES: Credit to UCF and Coach Dawkins. They played a great game. It was an exciting game to start off with. It was back and forth a little bit. I thought we had some momentum. I thought our defense got us going a little bit, but then we just missed some shots. You're not going to score like other games around the basket, as we have most of the year. We knew that.

But we had opportunities. We had some open threes we didn't make that they made, and they got a run there. Then in the second half, we just -- very uncharacteristic of us, but we lost our composure there and they made a run there that really got them going. That had a lot to do with the result for sure.

Q. Guys, what do you feel like is maybe the biggest factor in some of the shooting struggles? It seemed like you guys were getting some looks but it wasn't falling. What do you think was the biggest factor there in some of that early on?
ISSAC VANN: Definitely in the paint. I mean, Tacko is 7'6". I mean, some of those shots that we usually get at the rim is kind of hard to get those with him down there. We got some good open looks from three. We just couldn't knock them down tonight.

MALIK CROWFIELD: Based on what he just said, like Tacko's 7'6". Like he's holding the paint down. So we had open shots, but in the first half we couldn't hit nothing. But in the second half, we got it rolling.

DE'RIANTE JENKINS: They pretty much said it all.

Q. De'Riante and Issac, when there's a 7'6" guy rebounding, does that even affect your shots from the perimeter knowing that most of the time there's only going to be one shot? Does that put any extra pressure on you?
DE'RIANTE JENKINS: Over the course of the game, we don't even really think about it. I didn't think about it until you just said it. You just gotta outwork him. That's what we tried to do tonight. Unfortunately, he did a good job.

Q. Malik, what started clicking down that stretch, about ten minutes to go in the second half. You guys started hitting some shots. What do you think kind of led to that? You had back-to-back threes there in a sequence and you went on that 11-0 run. What really sparked that run down the stretch?
MALIK CROWFIELD: They made a huge run, so I'm thinking on the bench I need to bring more energy so we can keep this game close. When I got in the game, I started hitting three threes in a row, and De'Riante started hitting threes, and that's what got it going.

Q. For all the players, could you guys go through what you felt like you accomplished this year, what you learned, what you gained, and what you carry into the off-season and next season?
DE'RIANTE JENKINS: I believe that the work that you put in, it tends to show. For a whole group to get out of their own way and just want to see each other succeed, you get the thing that happened to us, like winning regular season championships and having a great year, going on winning streaks, and having our fans show support, and everyone rooting for us. We've just got to build on it and come back even stronger next year.

MALIK CROWFIELD: Based on what D.J. just said, we had everything going into the summertime. We had to push ourselves in the summer to get back to being VCU, and it really showed in the regular season when we went on these winning streaks.

ISSAC VANN: Just the fact that from the end of last year, everybody bought in, and everybody locked in. All that hard work paid off. Just because it ended tonight doesn't take away the fact that we had a great season.

Q. Kind of piggy-backing off of that, what are you most proud about this year? Again, kind of the turnaround you guys were able to experience? Seeing that work pay off? And how does that propel you into next year and all the pieces you bring back next year?
DE'RIANTE JENKINS: Seeing everyone, how the work pays off at their given time, you never know. It was days when some dudes were down, and they just kept working, and eventually they had that game where all their hard work paid off and everyone was excited for them. We all just want to see each other succeed, no matter who it was. We didn't care who was the hot man tonight. We just wanted to win. Overall, it was just a great season.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach.

Q. Marcus Evans told me that he told you, I don't have it tonight, essentially. What did he have, and what did you think of what he gave you?
MIKE RHOADES: I thought he gave us some -- just him being out there was great psychologically for our guys, without a doubt. He did some good things. He got us going in the press with pressure on the ball, just that -- you saw him. There's certain movements going to his left and to his right laterally that's just tougher. You play with that bone bruise like that, there's certain things you can do, there's certain things you think you might be able to do, but it's not there.

He did some really good things, but you struggle too when you're not a hundred. He's been through a lot. He wanted to play. He wanted to play in the NCAA Tournament with his guys. When we knew he would be able to play yesterday, you could see the guys really excited for him, and that says something about what everybody feels about Marcus and each other.

But not one of his finer games when you look at the box score, but his presence out there is what we need, and it just -- we fell short, but that guy needs an off-season. He hasn't had an off-season in a while, and he'll be back stronger than ever.

Q. With them having sort of maybe not being quite at the level you wanted to be, how did that affect maybe the offense, shot selection with him at the point --
MIKE RHOADES: You try to maybe throw one up there and try to get some momentum and all that stuff. He forced a couple -- I thought he got off the ball at times. In the first half, he had the ball moving here and there. We just didn't make open shots. I want to go back and watch the tape probably tonight. They made a run there. They made two. We had two wide open ones, we missed it. They had two wide open. Marcus got the ball moving a little bit.

But it wasn't there for them like you've seen throughout most of the year. It's tough, but he wanted to make sure he was with his guys, and we wanted his presence out there and his experience out there, and that's how it goes.

Q. Mike, everything in the paint, everything around the rim is going to be really challenging for you tonight. Do you think that it does affect -- that it has any effect on perimeter players when they know it could be a one-and-done shot?
MIKE RHOADES: I'm not sure it's as much about one-and-done, but you can't mix up your game as much. You're a perimeter guy, and guys are running at you because you're known as a three-point shooter. You don't tend to maybe -- you'll get by that guy and get by his close out really quick because Fall is in there.

Early in the game, we attacked -- we had a couple of plays where we created contact. Some things didn't go our way. We had a couple of good finishes. But they don't help as much as other teams because they don't have to. So they run some three-pointers down and maybe take a couple of contested ones or you do take a tougher two. I didn't think we took awful twos in the first half. I just thought we missed some wide open threes. We knew going into this game we're not going to get some easy ones around the basket, or we're not going to power over him throughout the game. So we knew we had to make some shots. When we got downhill and moved the ball, we got some open shots. We just didn't make enough of them.

Q. One more on Marcus. Obviously, he went to Texas with you to Rice, came back here to VCU with you. What is your relationship with him on a kind of more personal level like?
MIKE RHOADES: We've been through a lot. When you become a head coach for the first time and you get your first recruits, it's a special thing because you don't have much of a track record to say -- you know, there's a lot of belief in a relationship before you even get on the court. It's almost like you talk about taking a chance, you take a chance on people. I recruited him hard to take a chance on him, and he took a chance on us. We had some special things go there.

His sister went to VCU and, of course, the same high school as Briante Weber, so he's familiar with VCU. We recruited him a little bit when I was an assistant. He was really excited to come to VCU. He's been through some stuff. He had a pretty awesome year this year for everything he's been through.

It's a cool relationship. We're tough on each other because we both want to win, we've got an edge, and I think it's awesome. Also, being through some experiences, it makes you not want to let each other down.

Q. What do you take from this season? What did you establish? What's the foundation you've built, and how does it carry forward now?
MIKE RHOADES: This stinks right now. This hurts. I didn't want to see these guys go out because I've had a blast with these guys. But culture, the culture, the culture, the culture. After last year, I just made it a point of it. There's certain things we're going to do in this program. We're going to demand a certain level of work, accountability, approach, and these guys rang the bell, man. I'm so proud of them. They made it about each other. They worked really hard together.

When the lights aren't on and it's in the summer and there's nobody around but the players and they're doing all the work, we built a culture based on work and making sure we're taking care of each other. I think that makes it hurt more when you lose, but you celebrate more when you win because you're doing it for your brothers and the family approach that we talk about.

So as much as this stinks right now, I'm very proud of -- a lot of people counted us out and never thought we'd be in this position. I told the guys this time last year that, if we really work and put the program and the team first, great things are going to happen, and throughout the year they really did. I'm proud of these guys for that.

Q. Going to last off-season, the priority was defense. With what you guys have been able to accomplish this year, what's your priority heading into this off-season and looking into next year?
MIKE RHOADES: Get better. Flat out get better. That's everything to me. If you stay the same, people pass you out. We've got to get better. A lot of things. We'll go back and reevaluate the program from how we tie our shoes to how we throw the ball in the post to how we shoot and how we play defense. That's one thing that I believe in. You've got to reevaluate everything in your program all different ways so you can evaluate it and make it better because that's the most important thing.

I want these guys to grow. I want them to get better. I want them to be better than they were tonight. I want them to be better as young men. That's very important to me. We'll go back and reevaluate every part of the program, from the head coach all the way down -- heck, to the managers -- to make it better because that's what these guys deserve. Let's help them get better.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297