CAMPING WORLD MAUI INVITATIONAL

November 30, 2020

Ed Cooley

Providence Friars

Postgame Press Conference

Indiana - 79, Providence - 58

THE MODERATOR: Some opening thoughts, please?

ED COOLEY: Hello. Hope everybody's well.

Yeah, obviously coming right off that game there's some frustration on my behalf, so first of all, you want to give Indiana credit. I thought they played well. I thought they out-toughed us to 50/50 balls. I thought they manhandled us on the glass. I thought I had to do a better job coaching the team. I didn't think, I think coming out gate we were slow. We were slow to the ball. Our ball screen coverage wasn't very good. Our offensive execution wasn't very good. We played very sloppy. And you give them a lot of credit. They were the reason why we did. Thompson played well, Durham played well. I thought they had a good team win. We got a long way to go. I thought we took 18 steps backwards today, but we got another game tomorrow. There's no excuses. We played terrible, and hopefully we play better tomorrow.

Q. Were you surprised to see them get so many offensive rebounds especially early on in the game?

ED COOLEY: The word would be flabbergasted. I was, I was, I was beside myself. The one thing we pride ourselves is on defense and rebounding. To give up 79 points, to give up that many offensive rebounds, 15 offensive rebounds, it's a lack of concentration, a lack of mental toughness, emotional toughness, and physical toughness. There will be a big, big change tomorrow. You'll see a totally different team tomorrow.

Q. What did you think of the impact that Thompson had for Indiana?

ED COOLEY: I thought he was the player of the game by far. He was the best player on the floor. Manhandled us. Absolutely manhandled us, so give him a lot of credit. I thought he probably had the career, his career game against us. I'll be cheering for them and good luck.

Q. We saw some early turnovers. How much did those prevent you from getting into any sort of flow today?

ED COOLEY: The turnovers really bothered us, especially in the first half. I think we had seven, and some of them were bad turnovers. I just didn't think we paid attention to detail on both sides of the ball. Credit Indiana. They were a piece of that, but I thought we had a lot of mental breakdowns on ball screen coverage, just guarding the ball head up. I've been a head coach for 15 years. That was probably the worst 2-3 zone I've ever seen in my life and that's on me. I got to do a better job coaching that. But the good thing is that's what these tournaments are about. They're going to be days where we don't play well. It's an opportunity for us to get better and develop. Unfortunately, we're going to have to improve with a loss. I would like to have had a win, but that's what the doctor ordered today for the Friars. We weren't very good.

Q. How can we ensure David Duke gets back in a rhythm tomorrow?

ED COOLEY: I believe in David. David will be fine. He had a tough game. He probably was on the top of their scouting report, like he's going to be on every scouting report. Put my arm around him, let him know I love him, let him know I love the team. I may be disappointed, but those are our guys. This is what we have. We're going to have a very good basketball team when it's all said and done. We just didn't play well today. It wasn't our day today and it was Indiana's.

Q. You had a bit of a hard time turning over the ball. Did you want more ball pressure? Were you calling for that on the sidelines?

ED COOLEY: I wanted a lot more of everything. Whether it be ball pressure, blocking out. Seven assist in 40 minutes? Seven assists. That may be lowest since I've been at Providence. I may be off by one or two, but you got seven assists in the game, it's going to be really, really hard to win if you can't share the ball. Missing all these free throws and give up all them offensive rebounds, shooting percentage, just a bad game. Flush it down the toilet. Move on to the next.

Q. What was the message you gave to the group after the game?

ED COOLEY: The message I gave to the group was being down 9-2, not coming out ready to play, it's hard to bounce back like that, especially if you're turning the ball over and told them, Hey, we're going to face a very tough Davidson team tomorrow, very well coached, very skilled team. We got to find a way to just get us a win and get in the winning column. It's not the end of the world. There are going to be days where everyone plays bad, which it happened to be today, whether it be November 30th, that the Friars didn't show up. That's unfortunate.

Q. How tough is it to play on such a tight turnaround and how will you prepare for tomorrow?

ED COOLEY: That's what we do. There's no excuses. Everybody's playing on a tight turnaround. You got to follow your principles. And I'm just glad we're able to play. We're honored to be in this tournament, unfortunately we didn't play well today but everybody has a quick turnaround, and we got to make the best of it. Follow our principles, defensively, offensively, share the ball, play team defense, team offense. These kids are young, everybody talks about, this one's tired, that one's tired, you look at all these old faces on here, we would love to be in this situation that these kids are in. We would die to play back-to-back games in a Maui Invitational tournament. So that's what it is.