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CHICAGO LEGENDS PRESENTED BY ROMANDecember 21, 2019John BrannenChris McNealChicago, Illinois Iowa - 77, Cincinnati - 70 MODERATOR: We'll start with questions for Chris McNeal. Q. A lot of fouls first half early, in the second half before you guys really started it to turn them into steals. Was the game called tight, do you feel like? Do you guys feel like you did something different where you just stopped fouling and turned to steals? CHRIS MCNEAL: I feel like the game has been called tight all season, so I think we just got to do a better job of defending without fouling, which I think we do, but they made some calls that could go either way, so we just got to live with it and keep trying to defend at the level that we're capable of defending at. Q. What changed when that run where you guys cut the 15-point lead and got a bunch of steals? Was there something you guys did different? CHRIS MCNEAL: No, we just tried to pressure their ball handlers. We know that they're without their starting point guard that they have had for quite some time, so we just wanted to pressure the ball handlers and make them uncomfortable and then that kind of led to steals, so that's all we did. Q. What were the conversations like maybe during timeouts whenever you guys were down by double digits? And how were you able to turn that around? CHRIS MCNEAL: Just conversations to just bring energy. At that time it's no more game planning. It's more so like the way the game was going we just needed energy and we needed to play harder. So we came out flat and due to talk that coach gave us in timeouts and at halftime, we just kind of picked it up in the second half. Q. Now that you're coming off the bench, do you feel like bringing energy is something that is being asked of you now? CHRIS MCNEAL: For sure. I feel like that was asked of me from the time I got here, so I just got to keep on listening to Coach and doing whatever he asks me to do. Q. Seven turnovers for you guys in the game. Was that -- what was the message there and what did you guys do to take care of the ball? CHRIS MCNEAL: That's just something that Coach has been harping on since a few games back, that we got to slow down on the turnovers and make better reads. So that started in practice. He had us in drills to play off two, just kind of give me a repetition in slowing down, making the right read and just playing basketball. Q. What did you think of their zone? And what did it do to maybe give you a problem? CHRIS MCNEAL: I just think it slowed us down in our offense just a little bit just because we play with a lot of pace and that's something that a lot of zone defenses do. They slow down teams that play with pace. So we did a good job of game-planning and practicing before the game, so during the game, it was just on us to execute. MODERATOR: All right. We'll excuse Chris and let him rejoin his team. We'll start to ask Coach to make an opening statement about the game. JOHN BRANNEN: Give Iowa credit. I think they're one of the better teams in the country. Obviously, they're unbelievable offensively. Great shot-making from the perimeter, tremendous length upfront. I thought they made us look small around the basket. Do a great job of not fouling. We're fourth in the country in drawing fouls, and we couldn't draw fouls at the rim. Didn't come out with -- didn't -- they played harder than we did in the first half. There were no adjustments at halftime. It was just an attitude adjustment that was made at halftime. And we came out and played a lot harder in the second half. And they don't have a point guard right now, so we needed to pressure them. Caused 24 turnovers, and then when we got a chance to get the lead late, one of the things that always hurts is being undisciplined. So you got to marry playing hard and playing undisciplined -- or marry playing hard and being disciplined. And we were undisciplined. And we had one of our guys jump out of the way in front of the basket. We had another go for a steal, and then another go for a shot fake. So we weren't disciplined at the end of the game to be able to finish it. MODERATOR: Questions for Coach, please. Q. Same question I asked Chris: What about their zone do you feel like gave you a problem with game planning? JOHN BRANNEN: Definitely gave us problems. In the first half I thought we handled it pretty good, we just missed a ton of shots at the rim. Second half we came in a little timid, didn't handle it as well. Q. Obviously there's some frustration on certain fouls, that happens every game. Do you feel like the game changed the way it was called at all when you went on that run and started getting a bunch of steals? JOHN BRANNEN: Yeah, I thought that we were allowed to be a little bit more aggressive. It was a little ticky-tack in the first half around the rim. Like I say, we, give Iowa credit they must know how to guard without fouling because we're fourth in the country in foul shots. Q. Full court press obviously is something you do, but in that second half when you cut that 15-point lead, is that -- I know you talked about it Wednesday against Tennessee, that's the way you wanted it to look. Is that the way you wanted it to look? JOHN BRANNEN: Yeah, that's the way we wanted to play when it calls for it, that's the way we got to play. We didn't do that in the first half, I don't understand why, but we did in the second half. Q. Garza had 12 points on 12 shots. Were you happy overall with how -- JOHN BRANNEN: I was happy overall with our coverage, I thought he kind of beat us on the glass quite a bit, but I was happy with our overall coverage. But again, we doubled him and the ball's kicked out and Fredrick killed us. He's a great player, I always have known that he's a tremendous kid and big-time shot maker and he plays like he's a senior and he's young and is an outstanding player. Q. Did you see C.J. a lot? JOHN BRANNEN: I saw C.J. a lot. I offered him his first scholarship. I love C.J. Fredrick. Q. How old was he when you first offered? JOHN BRANNEN: I don't know. Q. Seemed to double Garza was the game plan. Does that hurt with some of the guard rebounds and obviously the kick-outs on threes? JOHN BRANNEN: It hurts with the kick-out on threes. To get beat 48-31 on the glass, it's one of two things, your effort is not good enough or they're better than you are. It may have been a little bit of both, I don't know. I think our effort wasn't good enough in the first half, I know it wasn't good enough in the first half, I don't know what the rebounding totals were in the second half. Q. Mamoudou got a little bit of run. Was that a matchup thing, do you feel like he had earned it? JOHN BRANNEN: It was energy. Guys weren't playing hard enough. He gave us great energy. When he came off the bench he didn't worry about anything he just played hard, he had no agenda, he had nothing he was playing for, other than to play hard. Chris McNeal same thing. When you're humbled, all right, you come in, you do whatever it takes to play. And those guys played hard as can be. So they changed the game for us. Q. Seemed like when Chris came in I think he had four steals -- JOHN BRANNEN: Completely changed the game. Q. We talked about Jarron on Wednesday too, but he still seems like he's continuing to get back closer to what he was like, seems like he was attacking the basket more? JOHN BRANNEN: Yeah, getting to the foul line more and you know, yeah. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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