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MAUI JIM MAUI INVITATIONALNovember 25, 2019Anthony GrantJalen CrutcherObi ToppinLahaina, Maui, Hawaii Dayton - 80, Georgia - 61 THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement by coach. ANTHONY GRANT: Well, we're obviously excited to be able to open the tournament up first game of the tournament. I know our guys are excited to be able to compete today. Fortunate to be able to come out. I thought we did a really good job setting the tone from the beginning, we were able to build a little bit of a lead. Guys did a really good job in terms of understanding scouting reports. Defensively, I thought we were really in tune to what we needed to do, shared the ball today. So overall it's a good win. It's a great way to start the tournament. And looking forward to continuing to try to compete for a championship. THE MODERATOR: Take questions for the student-athletes. Q. Obi, what got into you in those first four minutes? How important was that stretch? OBI TOPPIN: Oh, it was important. Very important. The team was just finding me in the post. Before the game we talked about throwing the ball in the post and working out of there because our offense is based off that. And when we got the ball in the post a lot of things got opened up and I was able to get buckets off of there. Q. For either player. It seems like very early on you both were very aware of the crowd and how there was a very pro-Dayton feel to it. You're both kind of pumping early as you had the early run. How much of that atmosphere helped you guys get going? JALEN CRUTCHER: Yeah, before the game we knew, like, our crowd would come out and support us. So, like, before the game we kind of tried to get the crowd into the game just to help us with the momentum in the beginning and towards the end. Q. For both of you: How important or what was the key to the defensive effort against Georgia, especially early on you guys had a lot of success? JALEN CRUTCHER: The most important thing was to just try to stop No. 5. He is one of their best players so we were trying to stop him. And just play our overall defense and help each other out on the defensive end. OBI TOPPIN: And getting defensive rebounds off of that too. Q. For both of you guys: First game on Maui for you guys. What would you guys say about the setting, the gym, the soft rims, friendly bounces, just the overall atmosphere today for the first game? OBI TOPPIN: It's a great gym to play in. A lot of our fans came out and supported us, filled the whole gym up, like, I'm sure you all heard them throughout the whole game. So, like, it wasn't a big gym like what we're used to playing in every single day, but it's a great gym and we just did what we had to do today. JALEN CRUTCHER: For me, like, playing in this gym, it's a dream come true. It's a blessing for me because I've been growing up watching this tournament and I'm sure same for Obi, so it's just a dream come true. Q. Can you guys just speak a little bit on those same lines. In a gym like this, what is the new three-point line? Is it, how is that for you just in the game and is it any different with, in a gym like this, is there any depth perception difference or anything like that? JALEN CRUTCHER: I want to say it's a difference. I, for me, I just speak for myself, I've been struggling from the three-point line, so my coaches and my teammates just encouraged me to just keep shooting and I've been keep shooting, so that's it. OBI TOPPIN: For me, it's different a little bit playing in this gym, shooting from the three-point line, because in our gym it's, like, the backboard, the backboard is, like, you could see the whole stands, and it feels like the basket is further. But in here it's like going back to high school. It's like a good feeling. Q. You win pretty big today. What are you going to try to say to your teammates to stay focused? JALEN CRUTCHER: We just got to lock in. Coach Grant, he always tells us we got to be mature. So we can't go out in this game and just try to go out and just do our own thing. We just got to keep doing what we were doing this game. THE MODERATOR: All right. We'll take questions for coach. Q. What did you see out of Obi in those first four minutes just how aggressive he was and getting the team off to a good start? ANTHONY GRANT: Like Obi said, I thought the flow of the game, we knew it was going to be an up-and-down game going back and forth, and so we wanted to try to establish a post presence early. Obi did a good job of making himself available, his teammates did a good job of finding him, and he was able to get come conversions going and we kind of got in a rhythm there. And so it was great to see our guys understanding where we had an advantage early, we were able to take advantage of that. Q. You turned them over early in the first half. What are some of the things you were trying to do defensively to create those kind of turnovers? ANTHONY GRANT: Yeah, just try to be solid. They're a very explosive offensive team. They can score quickly in transition on you. They really pushed the pace of the game. So we wanted to make sure that we did a good job of converting on the defensive end and trying to limit some of those opportunities. And when you're in the right position sometimes good things happen for you and I think that was the case today. Q. The other thing, there's a lot of conversation around Blue Bloods, but the A-10 is a tough place. It builds teams in a different way that I think people don't -- what is it about the conference that prepares teams to prepare to perform well in a space like this? ANTHONY GRANT: I think right now we're four games in, so I think right now we're, everybody in the country's trying to figure out who they are and what they have, and we're no different. I think we'll be able to take some things away from today that we did well and hopefully we'll learn from it. We have got a quick turnaround for whoever we play tomorrow. So it's just trying to focus on the task at hand right now for us and getting ready for whoever is in front of us. And as we go through it, by the time we get to conference play, I think we'll have a pretty good idea of who we are and what works for us and what we need to do. But in the meantime, it's about trying to get prepared one game at a time. Q. How good was it to see Jordy get some action today and what did he do to get back on the court in the last couple weeks? ANTHONY GRANT: Jordy's been out for probably a good eight weeks where he hasn't had a chance to really practice in any shape or fashion. I think he went to, he got his first practice where he was able to kind of go for a full practice on Saturday. So it was just a matter of seeing how he reacted to that, that he was able to come back yesterday and had a decent day yesterday as well. We didn't do a whole lot yesterday, but he was able to get out there and he felt good. So it was just a matter of before the game seeing where he was at and if he felt good enough to get out there, we felt like we could put him out there today. So it was great. It's been a long journey for him, so I was just happy for him, that he's worked extremely hard, our medical staff's done a great job, just to be able to get him some minutes today and try to get his rhythm back and get a flow into it. And I know he was really excited to be out there. Q. Only six turnovers today. What kind of balance and calmness does Jalen Crutcher bring at the point guard position and everybody else in the ability to take care of the ball on a team that seems like they were really getting after it defensively? ANTHONY GRANT: 15 turnovers. Q. I'm looking at the wrong stat. Apologies. ANTHONY GRANT: No, no, you're good. No, but it's always good when you have Jalen as an experienced point guard, having him out there with Rodney Chatman gives us two guys I think that can initiate offense for us, two guys that can help make the game easier for their teammates and then just being able to, our guys understanding in terms of the spacing that we need to play with and how we can be connected. I didn't think today was one of our better offensive performances overall, but I thought we enough to be able to sustain a lead or build the lead and be able to sustain it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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