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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: JACKSONVILLEMarch 23, 2019Mark TurgeonDarryl MorsellAnthony Cowan Jr.Jacksonville, Florida LSU - 69, Maryland - 67 MARK TURGEON: First of all, give LSU credit. They made two big-time plays. The three they hit and then the layup. We weren't very good for 25 minutes. Shot selection, defensively. We just weren't very good. I think we got down 16. And we switched to zone, and we got some confidence, took their confidence, and then we were better offensively. Not great, but we were better. It's a crazy game. You know, I'm really proud of my group. We didn't quit, and we never quit all year. We've played hard. We played a really good basketball team. It was hard to score against them. But basketball is crazy. So we run great offense, score tied, we get a wide open three for Eric Ayala, just missed it. They come down, and the guy just shoots a three and makes it, early in the shot clock. It's basketball. So that's the way it worked. That said, Stix stepped up and Anthony made a great play, executed a great play after a time-out and made a three and ended up winning. But proud of my guys. We were gutting it out. We weren't really deep today. Couldn't really sub. Guys gave everything they had. I just feel bad for my team because people are so critical of me and my team, and we're the fourth youngest team in the country and we battled. We gave it everything we had. They deserve better. They deserved better today. That's why I'm disappointed. Q. Mark, did you come out of the halftime in the zone, or was it later than that? MARK TURGEON: After my technical, so you can look it up. Q. That's when -- do you think the turnaround was more due to the zone or did they kind of see that technical and respond to that situation and use it to their advantage to get a little bit more motivated after that? MARK TURGEON: I think both, because we scored and hit a three, and then we got a steal and a layup. So it was a little bit of both, to be honest with you. But I think our zone slowed them down, kept the little guy out of the paint a lot until the end, and then I thought Bruno and Stix did a phenomenal job protecting the rim. We just didn't rebound well enough a few times. We gave them too many shots. But we rebounded better, and they're a heck of a rebounding team, and I think we out-rebounded them by eight. But the zone definitely helped us. Q. In that last time-out, do you feel like Tremont was going to take it there? Jalen obviously took it very hard. How do you prop him up after that? MARK TURGEON: Oh, Jalen was terrific. What a great game he had. What a great year he's had. No, we showed them exactly what was going to happen. We showed them middle ball screen for him. Kid just made a heck of a play. I wish we would have -- wouldn't have got around Jalen, and I wish if he did get around Jalen, Bruno would have pinned it on the glass, but it didn't happen that way. And they scored. But the players knew exactly what was coming. We all knew what was coming, it was whether we were going to be able to stop it or not. Q. Anthony and Darryl, what do you think you can take away from this run? You're such a young team. What do you think you bring from this into next year? DARRYL MORSELL: This is my first year here as a sophomore, so it was just a great experience to see, a great experience to be a part of. As a kid, I always grew up watching these type of games, these big-time games, so just to be able to be in it, it's a great feeling, and just to have all these young guys coming back and stuff, it's just going to make us hungrier. Q. Coach, two, three times this year or maybe a little bit more, you went to the zone and it seemed to be really working. I know you're a man-to-man guy. Is your mind maybe changing a little bit? MARK TURGEON: No, it's all stat driven. They shoot 31 percent from three as a team. That's low. So everything told us to guard that way. We weren't going to guard Belmont that way, obviously. And so we told the guys yesterday morning when they woke up, we're going to zone, don't know when, but we're going to zone. I would have loved to have done it earlier. I just kind of felt like we weren't putting any pressure -- our offense just wasn't good enough. But no, they knew we were going to do it. Guys like it. It helped us, but it's got to be the right situation. Q. What was the message as you were falling behind and just could not get over the hump? MARK TURGEON: What was my message? Q. Yeah, was there -- MARK TURGEON: It was just like, come on, guys, we've got to play better. I was on them. Shot selection wasn't great at times. We were really searching in the first half. We went small right before half. Wiggins made some shots to keep it halfway decent. But I think once we cut it to five real quickly, we all thought we were going to win the game. We went up three. We all thought we were going to win the game. I never thought we were going to lose until the kid made the lay-up, to be honest with you. I can't fault anything that we tried to do. Offensively we tried to go through Bruno, tried to go through Anthony, tried to go through Stix. We threw a lot at them. One thing I would like to change is maybe our free-throw shooting. We missed seven free throws. Front end a one-and-one, I believe, too, so that would have helped us. They were 14 for 16. If we would have shot 21 for 23 we would have won the game, but we didn't; we were 16 for 23. Q. How to do in the moments after a loss, but if you can step back and think about where the program is in March of 2019 as opposed to the fall, how do you feel about it? MARK TURGEON: Yeah, I feel great. You know, the hardest part about today is I love coaching these guys. You know, we started at the summer, we went on a trip and we stuck together, and it was a grind. Our schedule was ridiculous, okay. We had eight of 11 on the road. It was a grind. And these guys, they kept trying for me, and we really pushed for this weekend. We really felt like -- I really pushed them for this weekend. I knew we were going to play good basketball this weekend because I pushed them in practice towards this weekend. I just feel bad for them because they go through a lot, and they deserve better. I don't know how many shots rolled all the way in and rolled -- I mean, come on. I never think my program is in bad shape. That's just my opinion. I always think we're in good shape. I always think we're going to win the next game, I'm going to get the next player. We've done some pretty good things. We'd like to do better, but I think we're in great shape. Seven of our top eight were freshmen and sophomores, and we've recruited pretty well, some things will happen in the spring I'm sure that will add some pieces. You know, and we'll get even better. So I'm looking forward to coaching this group again next year. Q. Mark, you said that LSU was the most athletic team in the country. Did you feel like your guys needed a little bit of time to adjust to that early in the game? MARK TURGEON: Yeah, it looked that way, especially around the rim. You know, and they had a good game plan against Bruno, and we only made them pay one time. Anthony hit the shot in the corner and I was begging our guys to do it for a long time. But I did think we got used to it. We got two pretty good athletes, too, in there. And we were able to get their guys in foul trouble throughout the game. We just didn't make enough jump shots. We had some open looks and some open free throws and Bruno had some lay-ups go out. Darryl had a three-point play I think that rolled out or somebody's lay-up went all the way in and went out. It was one of those days, and maybe we could have separated ourselves a little bit more, five or six, but yeah, they're big-time athletes, crazy athletes, and the point guard is terrific. Q. Did you kind of have a feeling in your mind going into the last play that waters was going to be the guy that was going to try to do something, more likely penetration because you also got the chance of drawing a foul? MARK TURGEON: Do I have to answer it again or can he look it up? I've answered it so somebody has got it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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