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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: As advertised, the victorious Crusaders are with us. Donovan Clay, Daniel Sackey, Javon Freeman-Liberty represent the student body. Head coach is Matt Lottich.

MATT LOTTICH: Listening to you talk, I guess we made history tonight. Winning a game where we don't -- actually, just don't hit a three in the tournament. I thought we were nervous. I think that's, in some ways, a little understandable. Playing in, obviously, a big-time arena, the lights are different here. I mean, it just is the way it is.

Javon hadn't been practicing much, so we had to kind of get the feel for playing with him. You know, it's hard. It's hard to play in games where in a lot of ways you're expected to win. They're playing really with nothing to lose. So I was proud. Our message was just as simple. Like, we didn't play great. We're going to have to play better to win tomorrow, but we played well enough and tough enough to get a win, and we'll take it. In a tournament-like setting like this, you've just got to survive and advance, and we were able to do that.

Very pleased with the effort. Very pleased with the ability of our young men to keep their chins up when really there was probably ample opportunity for them to put their heads down and fold, and they didn't do that. They made enough plays, enough shots, enough free-throws down the stretch to win a game, and we'll take it.

Q. Donovan, you've been in this position before at Illinois State. You blocked a shot late in the game. I know you don't want to fall in that situation, but what did you see?
DONOVAN CLAY: I see an opportunity because he kind of fell and stepped up, and I was like, I should block it just in case. You never know if it goes in or not. So I saw an opportunity, and I took it.

Q. Javon, some people said that on the TV broadcast they could hear an extended scream from you when you hit the ground. Kind of take us through what happened there.
JAVON FREEMAN-LIBERTY: I think I tripped, and I hit the floor pretty hard. I'm good, though.

Q. Did you hurt your leg?
JAVON FREEMAN-LIBERTY: Knee.

Q. Coach, what's the next 20 hours look like for you and your staff? Kind of what do you do to kind of regroup to get ready for tomorrow night?
MATT LOTTICH: You know, when you're preparing for a tournament like this, you do a lot of work on teams that you might play. So we've done a lot of scouting work on Loyola already. So for the guys, it's going to get food in them, get water in them, get them off their legs. For us, as coaches, it's we're going to meet and put together our scout, put together our game plan, and share it with the guys in the morning and tip it up and play.

Q. Daniel, you could have gone sideways a couple weeks ago, kind of taken out of the starting lineup, but you stuck with the process a little bit, and you played a great game today. Just take me through your mindset here in the last couple of weeks. Coach, if you could follow up on what you've seen from Daniel and how he's responded to that as well.
DANIEL SACKEY: My mindset has just been I've got to help the team any way. It would be very selfish of me to not perform and be like, man, forget this. We have a saying called 'we above me' always. That's always been my mentality. Whenever I'm starting, coming off the bench, whatever it is, I'm just going to play my hardest to help the team and try to get a win. I can't win by myself. I need my teammates. I need my coaches. I need everybody, and they need me to be my best all the time no matter what the situation is.

MATT LOTTICH: I'll follow up a little bit with that. It's not easy. Obviously, I'm sure Daniel would prefer to start, but it's what we're asking him to do for our team right now. When I was going to make that change and I brought him into my office and talked to him, he said, Coach, it's not a problem. In moments like that where there can be some adversity, if you put your head down and get in a woe is me attitude, it would be impossible for you to perform, and that's been the opposite of what Daniel's done.

We don't win this game tonight without Daniel Sackey. Absolutely, 100 percent do not win this game. His integrity, his fight, his heart, that's really the backbone of a lot of what we're trying to build and do. He is a key component, whether he's coming off the bench or starting for us. He's a big, big member of our team.

Q. Coach, just talk about Donovan's 16.7 rebounds tonight, and just talk about how he's grown throughout the season and what he's meant to this team as a freshman.
MATT LOTTICH: Donovan, we had him in, there's no denying his talent. You could see his talent. What Donovan's done a great job of is just learn to play, learn to pick his spots within what we're trying to do. Tonight is, again, he was fantastic. Hit big shots, big layups. Then he's a lockdown defensive player too.

Donovan's going to get -- he's gotten a lot better this year. He's going to get a lot better this off-season. There's big things to come from him, but, again, without Donovan tonight, we don't win this game. He was huge. He really was scoring at a high rate, especially during the first half. Had a couple in the second half roll out, but I'm sure he'll make those tomorrow.

Q. Javon, obviously, you missed the last two games. What was the energy like for you? How did you feel as you progressed through the game?
JAVON FREEMAN-LIBERTY: My mentality was just don't think about, like, how tired I am. Just keep fighting. That's what I just basically did the whole game, just kept fighting.

Q. Matt, with some of the patterns, lineup patterns you had Mileek and Ryan on the bench a lot. Did the game unfold kind of like you thought it would with those guys not being in down the stretch?
MATT LOTTICH: I just thought we were getting more stops, and I thought the group that was out there was playing the way that we wanted to. That's the best thing about having depth, right? Certain times, there's going to be guys that play more minutes than others, and you know, tonight I thought Ben did a great job. I thought he switched on the guards, kept guys in front of him, made shots hard, and was effective scoring. I just thought -- I think we had Daniel in there really for those minutes. They were small and quick, and I thought the matchup defensively was better.

Q. Donovan, your first Arch Madness game. Obviously, we talked earlier this week about playing in front of your friends and family here, but talk about the bright lights a little bit and what your mentality was going into a game like this where the stage was a little bit bigger.
DONOVAN CLAY: I've definitely been on the stage before at Arkansas, and I kind of froze up because it was different. It was a big crowd. But I mean, I came in here with the mindset to just play hard. Coach told me to go out there and play hard, and that's what I did. I'm from this area, so I have a lot of family here, so I felt comfortable.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you very much. Good luck tomorrow. Crusaders at Ramblers at 6:00.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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