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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 6, 2020

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

Missouri State - 78, Indiana State - 51

THE MODERATOR: Sycamores are with us now. Jordan Barnes, Christian Williams are the student-athletes. Greg Lansing is the head coach. We're going to ask Greg to start off with a statement on the game. Then we'll go to questions for all three gentlemen of Indiana State.

GREG LANSING: Just really disappointed with how we played. I didn't see that coming. Our preparation, the way we've been playing has been really good, and it didn't look like it tonight, I know that. But give Missouri State a lot of credit with that. They're obviously very talented. They're picked to win it. They're deep. They're athletic. They've got great size. They're physical, and they were too much for us tonight.

So I really commend Dana for getting those guys going again, even though they struggled a little bit early. They're really good and played better than we did tonight.

Q. Greg, Missouri State's physical defense just seemed to dominate the game. How did you see it?
GREG LANSING: Well, yeah, I thought they were more aggressive at both ends of the floor right after the start. I think they really dictated the pace and were very physical, and it got us standing around a lot. I think our poor offense, we've been guilty of this when we haven't won games, of it negatively affecting our defense. They've got a lot of different weapons, and they're extremely athletic and great in transition and great at the end of the clock with offensive rebounds.

So they're big, physical, athletic. They can switch one through five, a lot of it. So it does take stuff away from you. I know we didn't shoot very well. I thought the first half we were standing around a little too much because of how aggressive they were, again, at both ends of the floor.

They dictated the pace of both ends for the majority of the time, and I'm not saying we didn't play hard, but those guys dictated how the game was played.

Q. Christian and Jordan, as Greg mentioned, the shots just never fell. Do you give Missouri State the credit for that, or was it just an off night for you guys shooting? There were some open looks, but how do you guys see that?
JORDAN BARNES: I think like you said, I think we got good looks. Yeah, those are the type of shots we normally take and normally go in. Like you said, we had a lot of open looks. It just wasn't one of those nights. The defense was pretty physical, and that probably played a little part in it. But I felt like we always could have played better.

CHRISTIAN WILLIAMS: Our shots just weren't falling. Credit to them, they played pretty good defense. They're pretty long, so they contested a couple shots, and it kind of threw us off a little bit. We just weren't making shots, and I felt like a couple of shots were a little rushed by us. So it just wasn't a good night for us.

Q. Again, for both of you guys, what's your level of disappointment that they were able to dictate the way they did?
CHRISTIAN WILLIAMS: It was pretty disappointing because our mindset going into this game was that we were going to be the more physical team, the more aggressive team, and we weren't really that aggressive and physical tonight. They were a little bit more aggressive and physical than us.

JORDAN BARNES: Yeah, I think they brought the fight to us. I think all year we've done a pretty good job of being a smart, physical team, playing through a lot of pressure and things like that. But I feel like we lacked that a little bit tonight.

Q. Coach Lansing, how much of a role do you feel rebounding played in today's loss?
GREG LANSING: They've been averaging 14 offensive rebounds over their last six games, and we knew that coming in. It's not like in practice. Last week we've been doing a lot of rebounding drills. We've done some, and you've got to talk about it a lot. A guy like Prim, that's a task to try to block him out. They do a great job of rooting themself down in there right before the shot goes up.

They're big at other positions, and they're athletic. So that certainly showed, and they dominate in the paint. It's 40-22 in the paint, and 21-6 off turnovers. You've got no chance of competing with anybody doing that.

Q. Coach, just regarding Missouri State, did that kind of look like -- does it seem like they're clicking right now, just being the high level, just being the team that was picked to win it all?
GREG LANSING: I would say they look like an SEC team. With the transfers and the team -- and it took a while because of the new guys, for Dana to get them believing. I think throwing Owens in there really generated a lot of the harder playing that Dana has been talking about a lot, unselfish, playing for each other a little more, stuff that I think our team was good at all year. But, yeah, they are good, and when they're right, they're going to be tough to beat.

Q. Greg, it was a question mark whether Jake was going to play or not. Can you expound on his effort tonight? I know he was hurting, and that was probably one significant bright spot.
GREG LANSING: Anybody that's had a bad back -- his is bad. That's a tough dude right there to give us 22 minutes. At the end there, he just couldn't do it anymore, and you could see how disappointed he was, but there were times he looked like the best player on the floor as a freshman. He just hasn't been able to do anything, as you know, for about three weeks with practicing or anything. I know these guys will appreciate how hard he competed and tried to give us everything he could tonight.

Q. Christian and Jordan, can you guys tell me how you guys feel the start of the game affected today's outcome?
CHRISTIAN WILLIAMS: I thought our pace was pretty good at the start of the game a little bit. Just, again, they were a little bit more aggressive right from the get go, and I think those first couple minutes, we kind of turned the ball over, and I think that's where we kind of started off really bad.

JORDAN BARNES: Like he said, I think our coaches did a good job of preparing us for the beginning of the game. They gave us a great scouting report, and I feel like the physicality, it just played a part, also missed shots. So I feel like we could have played better offensively and defensively, but at the end of the day, they're just a more physical team.

Q. Greg, would you consider playing on in another tournament? And if so, what have you considered on that? If you don't play in another tournament, kind of talk about the way this season played out.
GREG LANSING: I haven't talked to these guys about it yet, but I would definitely like to keep playing, and any chance you've got to keep playing, especially being around these guys -- we've got a lot of young guys. There's tournaments out there. We wouldn't be able to host because of the construction, but we've started -- we're successful there, on the road the last couple of league games, and I think I'd be all for it, whether it be the CBI or CIT or whatever tournament it would be, but it would have to be on the road.

Q. Coach, can you just talk about the start of that second half? It seemed like the Bears had kind of kicked it into another gear to start that half.
GREG LANSING: Yeah, I mean, basketball is a game of runs too, and they can put one on you really quick. If you make a mistake at one end, they'll turn it into something at the other end, and you do that a couple times in a row -- then with all the turnovers we had just to -- and not making shots. You've got to be able to get your defense set. We just couldn't do that enough tonight.

Again, they're very good. Give them a lot of credit for us not playing as well as we played -- could have played.

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