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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 5, 2020

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

Valparaiso - 58, Evansville - 55

THE MODERATOR: Evansville Aces are here. Evan Kuhlman and Noah Frederking represent the student body. Head Coach Todd Lickliter is in the middle. Todd, please.

TODD LICKLITER: Okay. Hard fought game. I think it's really an example of what these guys have shown since I've been with them. They just keep fighting. Somebody asked me about did this, what we've been through, build character? I said, no, it revealed character. These guys have shown character.

If you came to our practice, you'd never know what the record was or what had just happened. They're a pleasure to coach, and I'm extremely proud of them. It's hard to do what they've been doing. This was a very good basketball game. It's so hard fought. Neither team got good looks. Both teams defended it hard. It's our third one, and the other two, I think, were two-point games or three-point games.

So I think it just shows the teams are pretty even. They were able to come up with -- I think there was a series when they rebounded it on their end, a few possessions, got the extra plays, and that's hard. I mean, it wasn't anything necessarily we didn't do or whatever. They came up with them. So hat goes off to them. They played well enough to win. They played a nice -- you know, Valpo did a nice job, and I guess it was anybody's game all the way down. What more could you ask for other than I wish we'd have been the ones to come out on top.

These guys have got nothing to hang their heads about today. They competed hard the whole time.

Q. Todd, did you kind of give a play there on that last possession? What was kind of the thought with that?
TODD LICKLITER: If I'd have had a time-out -- we had used all ours -- we could see that they weren't going to pick up full. We thought they'd pick up full court, and we've got one that we put in where we could get Shamar streaking down the side and then spot Noah up in the corner. Evan knew, and so he stayed back, he saw it. I wanted him to throw it straight up to Evan and see if he could either shoot it or throw it -- make one more pass.

Four seconds, you can get four dribbles in. If I'd have known how they were going to align, we would have thrown to half-court or beyond, but we didn't know. So it was just one of those things. I wish I had it over. I feel bad. I wish I'd have helped them more.

Q. Noah, I know you're kind of from this area, but just how are you feeling tonight? You came out and scored five early points, then you were kind of key in that second half run too. What was your mindset tonight?
NOAH FREDERKING: Just try to get a win. For a lone senior, I want to get out there and play one more game, play the right way. Really just keep playing hard like we've been doing all season.

Q. Evan, like Coach said, your guys' character was revealed throughout this stretch. What are you going to remember about this? What are you going to take away from this season?
EVAN KUHLMAN: I'm just really appreciative for everything that came to us. Coach coming to us midseason, giving us his all. KJ giving us his all. As a team, we're really, really going to miss him. I don't think anybody quite grasps exactly what he gives our team on and off the floor. He's a perfect leader for us. I'm going to miss KJ. I'm going to miss the team. But I think we've got good things moving forward with Coach Lickliter, and just really appreciative for everything that came our way.

I thought we fought hard today. A couple of balls didn't bounce our way, but just hats off to KJ. He could have pouted all season. We didn't win a conference game. But that's not who he is. I just look up to KJ.

Q. Coach, similarly for you, how do you build on this? You've been here six weeks or so now. How do you take the next step and turn things around now?
TODD LICKLITER: I'd like to echo what Evan says. I probably can't say it quite as well, but KJ is special. He's a guy who leads by example. He's very dependable. I thanked him earlier. We're trying to lay a foundation. It's a new system. They're picking things up. We've got a very small percentage in, but what we did get in, they grasped. They had -- not just willing, but eager to do what you're supposed to. KJ is a big part of that. He allowed me to coach. It's his senior year, and we struggled, but he was always at practice, prepared, paid attention. I just can't say enough.

But he wasn't alone. He had really good teammates. He'd tell you these guys are really good teammates too. And I really believe this, that you look at the final scores, and you'll think that this was a -- it was a tough year, but there is a foundation laid, and they did it, and they did it during adverse times. If you saw -- if you look at our stats and the improvement they've made over the course of the last 13 or 14 games, whatever it is, it's really impressive. They probably picked up things faster than any team I've had.

So I can't wait to get back to work with these guys, but with that said, I wish we had KJ again.

Q. Coach, what do the next 48 to 72 hours or through the weekend look like for your team?
TODD LICKLITER: I imagine that we'll head back to campus, and they'll probably go home. They've got spring break coming up and relax. We'll give them some time off when they get back, and then we'll meet and go back to work. And I say go back to work, I mean, we get to go to work in a gym. Pretty nice. Pretty nice.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you very much. Best of luck in the future.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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