NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - MOREHEAD STATE VS WEST VIRGINIA

March 19, 2021

Bob Huggins

West Virginia Mountaineers

Lucas Oil Stadium - Unity Court (South)

Postgame Media Conference

West Virginia - 84, Morehead State - 67

Q. Just overall, your thoughts. That one go as you thought? Defensively you seemed to cause a lot of problems for them in terms of turnovers, but overall did it go about as you thought it would?

BOB HUGGINS: I guess. I thought we could throw it close early and they did a good job and we didn't do a very good job and I was a little concerned about just trying to score all the points from the perimeter. But I think other than that, yeah, I think it did. And then we got, Derek got going and when Derek gets going, he's pretty good.

Q. You just mentioned Derek got going in the second half. What did you say to him in the locker room, he struggled in the first half, to get him going in the second half.

BOB HUGGINS: Well, it really was a matter of mechanics and he was going too fast. He was excited. He was excited to play in the NCAA tournament. I think all those guys were. I think I heard them say it got taken away from them a year ago and they all looked forward to it so much and I just think he got going way faster than he was capable of handling. Then once he got slowed down he scored the ball pretty well for us in there.

Q. You mentioned Culver struggling a little bit early, Taz probably didn't score what he probably does, but Jalen Bridges was hitting the shots and all over the glass. Just how big was he for you tonight?

BOB HUGGINS: Well Jalen's been big for us since we made the switch and started playing four perimeter guys. He shot it well. He stretches the defense and when he's active he rebounds it really well. I thought he rebounded it defensively and then he kept some balls alive at the offensive end for us.

Q. I know it was your plan to try to get up the line, pressure them, make them more uneasy handling the ball. How do you think that worked overall and was this as much as you have done it in a game this year?

BOB HUGGINS: I don't know. I would have to think long and hard. We have played a lot of games. I thought we did a pretty good job. We sometimes -- you know, you get backcut once and then you want to get under the guy and make sure you don't get backcut again, but we have got to absorb that with our help.

But, yeah, I thought it's probably as well as we have played for, in pressure defense. I think we have played as well or better sometimes when we were playing a matchup, but I thought from a man-to-man standpoint, yeah, I thought that's probably as well as we have played.

Q. The moment after the game when all the players came over and kind of mobbed you, for as long as you've been coaching, what do moments like that mean to you?

BOB HUGGINS: Well, you know, I love those guys and I'm -- it's gratifying that they can be a part of it. They enjoy it a lot more than I do. But that's, you know, I think that's pretty neat. I think it's, when they have something to look back on and share with whomever, hopefully it's one of the positive things that happen in their athletic career. It took them long enough, though, you know. We, it took us three games to finally get there. But that was their topic of conversation. It wasn't mine. It was theirs, which kind of tells you what kind of guys we have. We got good guys, we got really good guys.

Q. You get the good lead in the first half and it comes back even, difference in the second half from building that lead and then being able to expand it and finish the way I'm sure you wanted to.

BOB HUGGINS: Well, we didn't create a lot of loose balls during that period and we gave them step-in shots. We, it was Eric Martin's scout, and Eric and I talked to them all week about if you give them step-in shots they're going to make it. I mean, don't think that they're not going to make open shots. And I thought they made some long shots and I think they made some hard shots and if you let them take a those little step-in shots, they're going to make probably all of them or they probably did make all of them. But, I mean, that's scouting and that's -- and Eric did a really good job with it.

Q. You kind of talked about it earlier with the switch to the four perimeter guys. I'm kind of wondering, though, when they're making shots from the outside, it really truly works the best, doesn't it, when Derek's also contributing on the inside and I'm kind of thinking about Sunday, going up against that 2-3 zone, it's going to take more than just bombing away from the outside. Derek plays a role in that as well, doesn't he?

BOB HUGGINS: A big role. He plays a huge role in there. They're going to press out on all those perimeter guys, if there's no fear of people scoring it close. And, really, when we kind of got it going, Derek got it going. Derek scored it close, where Derek, at times and should be very effective, and when he started slowing down, you know, I think it was, everybody wanted to play so well because it was the NCAA tournament, you know, and they didn't get to do it a year ago, so, and I think Derek probably as much as anybody.

Q. Could you talk about the sequence? I think you guys were up four and Deuce got the run out. Obviously they went to the monitor, ruled a flagrant foul. He ends up scoring, I believe, six points in a span of two seconds and you went up 10 from there and kind of kept the separation on them the rest of the way.

BOB HUGGINS: Yeah, that was a big play. That was a big play. But I think, you know, whether it would have ended up being six or three, I think the way we played from there on was pretty good.

Q. So that was part of Deuce's performance tonight. You've seen him do a lot of good things, but just go into his night tonight, 30 points, six assists, no turnovers, six rebounds. What did you think of Deuce's play?

BOB HUGGINS: Deuce played great. Deuce played great. I thought he was good defensively. I thought he did a really good job defensively, kicked a couple balls loose that got runouts for us and we haven't had a lot of those. We haven't really pressured people to the point that we scored off our defense, and I think Deuce was a big key to that, and then obviously he made shots and what ended up being a six-point play was huge for us.