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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: SALT LAKE CITYMarch 23, 2019Mark FewCorey KispertBrandon ClarkeSalt Lake City, Utah Gonzaga - 83, Baylor - 71 THE MODERATOR: We welcome Gonzaga representatives to the stage. We have Brandon Clarke and Corey Kispert along with Coach Few. We will take an opening statement from Coach followed by questions for the student-athletes. MARK FEW: I am really proud of our guys, our effort tonight was exceptional. We faced a really, really tough hard-nosed Baylor squad that's got a ton of fight in them. We had massive amounts of respect for them, especially the type of year they had, dealing with all the injuries. But, you know, we ended up beating on the glass and we ended up holding them to four threes. And they were the two areas we wanted our guys to focus on and in a short prep to try and take away. And as is always the case with this group, they went out and did it. So, really, really proud. It's awesome to make our fifth straight Sweet 16. We do not take that for granted at all. That is an amazing accomplishment that the players in this program have been able to execute and come through in the most pressure moments. And so very happy to be moving on and couldn't be happier for this guy, both these guys. As I said afterwards, BC was spectacular tonight, but he's been spectacular a lot of times this year. But Corey Kispert was our player of the game, which is -- the things we asked him to do, rebounding-wise in defense and then to step up to make those big shots was huge. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Brandon Clarke and Corey Kispert. Q. Brandon, did you feel like you had to take it upon yourself every time they made a run? It seemed like you had an answer for that. Was it the flow of the game or were you being aggressive? BRANDON CLARKE: I would say both, really. Really locked in and focused tonight. So, I mean, if it wasn't me, it was somebody else on the team making big shots, too. So hats off to my teammates, really. And I feel like I was focused tonight so the shots fell easy tonight. Q. Also for Brandon. A couple of people on Twitter wondering what you had for breakfast this morning. BRANDON CLARKE: Pretty much the same thing I have on every road trap: I had cheese, eggs, bacon, pancakes, and some fruit. (Laughter.) Q. Brandon, another embarrassing questions for you. Do you ever work on dunks when you're messing around in the gym? Because you had a few nice opportunities tonight. BRANDON CLARKE: Maybe kind of, no... MARK FEW: They are really easy for him, unlike the rest of us. BRANDON CLARKE: I feel like the dunks come easy to me. You know, I have had times when I practice the more tougher dunks, but I'm not out there practicing them. COREY KISPERT: He's a two-time dunk champion. MARK FEW: Over you? COREY KISPERT: Yes, over me. Q. Could you describe what this year's been like for you? You didn't win much at San Jose State and now in the Sweet 16. BRANDON CLARKE: It's been something that's been really fun for me. This is easily the most fun I've had playing ball ever. So, I'm really blessed to have the chance to come here and to play for the Zags. Obviously, it was tough last year not playing. But it was something that was huge for me. It is something I wouldn't change. Q. Corey, looking ahead to the Sweet 16, are you looking forward to that rematch with Florida State? COREY KISPERT: Absolutely. 100 percent. They are a really good team. They're going to demand our best and that's what we want. We wouldn't want it any other way. It just so happened we got Florida State again in the Sweet 16 and we have a special itch to take care of against them. Q. Brandon, were you at the game? Were you able to travel for the game last year against Florida State? BRANDON CLARKE: I didn't. I watched it on my TV in my room at home. Q. Do you remember what it was like watching that game? You probably felt you could have helped, right? BRANDON CLARKE: Last year, they had lots of really big guys that were able to block shots. They had three or four really long guys, they were able to alter shots in the paint. But I feel like -- and also we didn't have Killian last year during the game so that was big for the team. I feel it's a great challenge for us coming up next week that we're going to take on. Q. Brandon, I believe it was you that was down there when Geno threw that alley-oop pass that ended going in. At what point did you decide not to go up there? BRANDON CLARKE: It was probably going to land in the cylinder so I was probably best off not to touch it. I was really shocked to see it go in perfectly. I guess I can say it was a great passing shot. THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student-athletes and when they've left the dais, we'll return to questions for Coach. Q. Coach, there were a couple sequences where your guys worked through the zone, like, I have never really seen it. Have you worked on that all year? Is that stuff you put in the other day for Baylor? MARK FEW: That's players having great feel for the game and just playing. I mean, we have been very good against zone all year, and it's primarily because our bigs, our interior guys can play together and they can really pass. Obviously, if given the opportunity, they can make plays at the rim. So that's something, especially when you put Killian Tillie in there, he's probably the best high-post player I've ever coached. That's hard to say because I had Kelly Olynyk who was unbelievable in the high post. Killian has a real gift in there. Because of that, Rui and even Brandon have been playing with him by osmosis, watching him make those plays and passes, they've kind of absorbed that, they have a very good chemistry together. Obviously we can space the floor with those guards, all those guards can really shoot, and shoot it deep. Q. Coach, how much of last year's game against Florida State can you take into next week's match-up with them? MARK FEW: First of all, we're going to enjoy the heck out of this. Everybody seems really willing to talk about Florida State. But we're going to enjoy the heck out of this tonight, we're going to enjoy it again tomorrow, and watch all these great games in the tournament. It's just an unbelievable time of year to be involved in college basketball and we feel blessed to still be in the tournament. But look, they returned their entire team from last year, so we will watch the tape from that. We're a much different team this year. Again, because like during the warm-ups we were notified that Killian wasn't going to be able to play so that was kind of a crushing blow to us, emotionally. Florida State was really good that night, I don't know if we could have beaten them with Killian, but I know he would have really, really helped. So we will prepare like crazy. I thought they were really, really underseeded. I have watched them a bunch this year and they've had a great year. They had Duke beat at their place and played great all year. I mean, I thought they'd end up on the 2 line and to see them at 4, that's kind of tough. You have to beat really good teams to advance in this thing. So, we knew we were going to have to play somebody really good, and Florida State is no doubt that. Q. Coach, from where you were sitting, was Baylor doing something that made it especially tough for Rui or did he have an off night? MARK FEW: Baylor, they're a physical, like tough, hard-nosed team, they're like a football team almost, the way they rebound and how physical they are around the basket. And I think they bodied up on him some and he didn't finish the first couple. And so I think it just kind of, kind of snowballed on him a little bit. He hasn't really had a bad game for us all year. So just really wasn't his night and, you know, that happens unfortunately. But we have Brandon Clarke, we have Killian Tillie, and Corey Kispert, and some other guys that stepped up. That's why this team is so special. Q. Baylor came out with a 12-0 run in the second half, you took that timeout. What did you tell the guys to bring them back? MARK FEW: We have to get back to bring the fight to them. They jumped us and we were back on our heels. That was not how we had played the first 20 minutes. We were the ones making plays, we were the ones hustling and getting those 50/50 balls. And we kind of lost our way in guarding the three line, they had two threes bang out of the jump, just on a little casualness and one missed assignment. So it's mostly just telling them to get back to who we are and what we'd been in the first half. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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