NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - DREXEL VS ILLINOIS

March 19, 2021

Zach Spiker

Drexel Dragons

Indiana Farmers Coliseum

Postgame Media Conference

Illinois 78, Drexel 49

ZACH SPIKER: First off, credit to Illinois. As we knew watching film going into it, I thought it was a very explosive team offensively, defensively they force you into taking some tough, tough shots. They don't give you many clean looks from three. They're able with their size to protect the rim so you get stuck in some midrange shots.

I thought the quality of our shots were not as good as they had been throughout the season. The credit goes to Illinois for doing that.

Locker room, a handful of guys there that are graduating. We also have a lot of guys that are returning. I hope for Drexel and for our players that are coming back, this is an understanding game where we can learn from this and do whatever we can to get back.

I don't think we played our best basketball today. I think that's most disappointing. It's a credit to Illinois, though. They forced us to do that.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Obviously it's a tall task to deal with a first team All-American. Then you deal with a first and second team. The second team guy looked like a man child out there. The first team guy filled up the stat sheet. What kind of challenge did it present for you and everybody else?

ZACH SPIKER: I think physicality certainly with Cockburn, it's obvious with his size. He's a very big basketball player who plays angles very well. It's not just his size, it's his ability to score in different ways. I think the coaching staff have put him in positions to be successful and he's taking advantage of those.

Certainly you talk about their level of transition efficiency, certainly starts with Ayo. You see him up close... You see him on film, you're very concerned on film. When you see him up close, you certainly understand why.

Listen, I haven't watched film on other teams. I can't tell you about other seeds or things. That's a very, very strong basketball team that I think could make a deep, deep run, and certainly play into the final weekend of this tournament, in my opinion.

Q. What did you tell your guys after the game today?

ZACH SPIKER: Well, I just talked about our guys that won't have the opportunity to play college basketball again. Zach Walton, Tadas Kararinis, Julian Adams, and our manager Jalen Hayes, has really been a solid, solid group for us. Anto Keshgegian, a grad transfer this year, hopped in with our team. Just appreciated them.

For everybody else, I hope this is motivation to find a way to get back and have a better experience in the tournament.

Q. Would you talk about what you saw from Andre Curbelo and compare that to what he was like in high school?

ZACH SPIKER: Yeah, actually I'm not sure there's much different. Obviously he's benefitting from a tremendous strength program that Illinois has as opposed to something that's going on in high school right now. Any high school, for that matter.

His craftiness and his ability to make plays with the basketball are the same thing that we saw in high school recruiting other guys on his team, seeing him play. He's got a tremendous feel for the game. He takes what the defense will give him. Despite not being a big perimeter threat, he still finds ways to impact the game with his creativity, with the angles he creates in passing. Had a couple incredible passes today.

He's a really talented player. A little bit of an X factor as their team has morphed into more of an guard-oriented four around one. He's a player that can really cause some issues in the tournament.

Q. Going forward, as you look at the season, you see the growth of the young guys, the freshmen, sophomores, how do you feel about this program heading into next season?

ZACH SPIKER: What are we, six minutes removed from the game? It's tough to totally turn the page right now. I think when we get to that point, I think we'll be excited for what this group has accomplished.

None of these guys were born the last time Drexel went to the NCAA tournament. When that happened in '96, they won a game. I know that was something that we were hopeful we could find a way to do that. Certainly it was a tall task, a big challenge. But it was an opportunity we were excited about.

Didn't work in our favor, but I hope that, as I've said before earlier here, I hope this experience motivates our group to continue to work, put the work in the weight room, put the work in in the individual workouts in the off-season, the summertime, and come back focused on accomplishing a mission next year.

Q. What is one thing in particular you can take away from this season that you can build on for next year?

ZACH SPIKER: I think the biggest thing is we went to the NCAA tournament at Drexel University for the first time in 25 years. It was a heck of a run by our players. The effort that they gave in the CAA tournament, the effort they gave in the final regular-season game against James Madison, to put us in position to be a 6 seed, that was an incredible time for our players, their preparations and their execution.

We'll look back on those days very fondly about what we were able to accomplish. Certainly hopeful. Had a great week. Great experience. Certainly didn't expect this type of result.

They're really good, but I think if you walk around and say they're good, you don't give yourself a chance. We just wanted to fight and put ourselves in position.

One of the misleading stats today, just to turn the page, 11 turnovers. I think the quality of our shot was not as good as it has been in other games. I thought we got some really clean looks from three. I thought we had some early in the first half, but I don't think our midrange -- our guys that can hit midrange shots didn't make them, and that just made things a little bit tougher for us.

I thought Xavier Bell did a good job getting to the rim. Cam Wynter was a focus of their efforts defensively. They made him work. He's had better games. He will continue to have better games for us. But credit goes to Illinois.

Q. It looked before the game some of the players kneeled before or during the national anthem. What went into that decision? Was it a team decision or something you were aware of before it happened?

ZACH SPIKER: I know we've got a locker room, we're pretty honest and open and up front about most things. I know you've covered us throughout the year. We did not do anything different today that we've done all season. Those are conversations and communication we had before the season started.

I'm proud of our guys, I support our guys, how they choose to express themselves. They're in college. They've been through a lot. If we could just, all of us as people, would take a minute and take a step back and think about what our players have experienced in the last year emotionally, the social injustice, the emotion of a very, very tense election, then you mix in a pandemic. That's a lot. That's a lot for anybody to take in, especially a young person in the situation that our guys are in.

I've supported them throughout the entire season. Today was no different. There was nothing different for our program.

Q. Looking at the numbers, Illinois seemed to get you pretty well down low in the paint, 58 points in the paint. Was that something you expected heading into this one?

ZACH SPIKER: We knew it was possible. We weren't hoping for it. We knew it was possible. I think when you look at the size of Cockburn, Giorgi also is not small. They have the ability to finish a lot of that, too.

I thought their middle ball screen execution was very good. They got us on a couple UCLA actions in the second half. They do a nice job of disguising everything to look the same. I thought we had some transition buckets that really hurt us, as well.

I knew that number was possible. Certainly was hoping it wasn't. But credit goes to them.

Q. With this year the NCAA giving that extra year of eligibility to the senior players, have you given any thought of which of your seniors could come back? And what is your message to the fan base?

ZACH SPIKER: Certainly when that announcement was made, we've had ongoing communication. There's no need for the end of the season to be some magical conversation. Guys know how they're feeling, what's going on. I think we've got a relationship with our players, coaching staff to player, Hey, just want to know what you're thinking, what's going on.

We're aware of where our seniors are and what's going on. We'll continue to help them and support them as much as we absolutely again can.

The second part to that question, Drexel basketball has a tremendous fan base. Our student body, the Backpack, has been incredible for us. We cannot wait to get back into an arena with fans in it and celebrate our victories with them in person.

People driving out to Indianapolis, I think all of our spouses' families drove out the 10 hours from Philadelphia to get here for the game. You could just see a lot of people from all over.

Drexel is a special place, got a great fan base. I hope everybody was able to enjoy this experience. As tough as the outcome was today, I hope they enjoy the fact that we earned the right to be in the NCAA tournament and represent the CAA.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach.