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

March 19, 2021

Preston Spradlin

Morehead State Eagles

Lucas Oil Stadium - Unity Court (South)

Postgame Media Conference

West Virginia - 84, Morehead State - 67

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement by coach.

PRESTON SPRADLIN: Just really proud of our team. Everything that these guys have been through all year to get to the NCAA tournament, represent the state of Kentucky. I know we fell short here today, but a very good West Virginia team. We knew that coming in and knew that we needed to take care of the ball in order to stay in the game with them and we just kind of failed to do that with their pressure as the game went on. But I thought our guys really fought to the end. We stayed together and stayed in the game as long as we could there. But just really proud of our team for the season that we have had.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions.

Q. Congrats on a great season again. You kind of touched on it a little bit but for those unfamiliar with your program, what did you think you showed the nation Morehead State basketball's made of and how well do you think you represented your university?

PRESTON SPRADLIN: I thought we represented our university really well. It may not be as evident when you get on the court in a two-hour segment there, but we have got a great group of guys. We got a great group of young men. I think that's evident through the fact that doing what we have done this year throughout COVID, that has a lot to do with the young men that we have and the character that they carry themselves with and the backgrounds that they come from.

But I hope the nation takes away that we have got a tough, gritty group, and our program is built on toughness and togetherness and despite the score I thought we were still able to put that on display here tonight.

Q. I didn't know if the games earlier in the day, the upsets, I know they happen every year, but how much you're aware of that, is it something you maybe talked about with the team, did you discuss that with your team at all or you don't have time for that at that time of year?

PRESTON SPRADLIN: No, obviously the guys are seeing that. They're seeing that on TV throughout the day. You play a 11:15 tip you're going to watch every basketball game that goes on throughout the day to pass the time. So they saw all that. They saw it and obviously we were right next door here to North Texas and the Purdue game. And so we didn't really bring it up, I don't like to talk about anybody other than our program. But obviously those guys see that and I think it adds an element of belief that, hey, we are here and just like those guys, we can win this game. So I think it helps. It helps without question.

Q. Y'all had to rally twice and then that one 9-0 run that I think took about 31 seconds in the second half. How much did that just kind of take the gas out and what exactly do you think happened there?

PRESTON SPRADLIN: I think it was turnovers again. Once we would take care of the ball, we would execute and make them take the ball out of the net and come down and go against our set half court defense, I thought we did a really good job in the half court. It's when we couldn't take care of the ball and we allowed them to get out in transition. Then I thought in the second half too we gave them six offensive rebounds, which was really a big part of it. When you're giving up offensive rebounds or 50/50 balls and they're scoring on those, those are deflating plays and we know what that's like being on the other side of it, leading our league in rebounding and second-chance points. So that kind of took the wind out of our sails right there. We got fatigued in the game here today. I thought in the first half, towards the end of the first half we were making a lot of fatigue mistakes. But that's just our guys, they were playing really hard, and to win a game like this you got to play at a high level, your effort and energy has got to be at a high level.

Q. Just going forward, everything that this team's learned this year, and you're so young, and even, I guess, James could come back if he wants to. Just thinking about moving forward, this team's gained a lot of valuable experience this year to maybe make another run next year.

PRESTON SPRADLIN: Without question. You know, it's in the back of everybody's mind and I kept the locker room talk very short. It's late and we want to get back to the hotel and we'll dive more into that. But that's certainly on everybody's mind and that we do have a lot of really good pieces and guys coming back, and so I think any time that you've got this type of experience, winning a championship, going into the NCAA tournament, not performing quite like you wanted to, it should leave a bad taste in your mouth at the end of it to just drive your motivation going into the off-season. Certainly having a lot of guys back, a lot of experience, a lot of depth is a big encouragement for what we're doing moving forward. And then you add in the confidence that you draw from being a NCAA tournament, then that's certainly something to be excited about.

Q. You guys struggled getting the ball to Johni late in that second half. It was just hard to get him the ball, but then De'Von stepped up and did some great things, and just talk about what you saw positively tonight, despite the end result.

PRESTON SPRADLIN: Again, I thought our half court defense was pretty good. I thought that we lived up to our reputation of what we have done all year, it's just the fact that we couldn't keep them out of transition, and you got to give them credit, their pressure in the half court is really good. I mean, it's, I know they're not quite the press Virginia that they have been touted as in the past, the full court pressure, but that half court pressure is really hard to simulate, it's hard to go against, it wears on you as the game goes on, and when you play inside out, as we do, and they're pushing out all your wing catches, they're trying to blow up all your sets, it makes it difficult to get a guy like Johni the ball in his spots where he needs it. But I thought a couple of guys really responded. Skyelar comes up with 18 big points. De'Von has 21. Those guys made shots and made plays to keep us in the game, although we couldn't get the ball inside consistently like we wanted to do.

Q. I thought Johni was terrific defensively early. When he got his third foul it seemed like maybe that took him out of the game a little bit as well.

PRESTON SPRADLIN: Yeah, it made it tough. It's a physical game. Derek Culver is a really good player. He's a little older, a little stronger at the moment. But Johni, he played well, we were able to get him the ball in a few spots there in the second half and some baskets that he normally finishes they just didn't fall tonight. So if you're going to go out, though, you want to go out playing the way that you've done, you don't want to change your identity. And we want to play inside out and make sure he gets his touches and he goes 5-12 and he could very easily have gone 9-12. He's done that a lot of times and then we're having a different press conference right now.

Q. Kind of a quick follow-up. Now that your season is officially in the books, how would you reflect back with all the protocols and COVID and everything, and really when you're looking back on that 10, 20 years from now, how would you describe it?

PRESTON SPRADLIN: It was a very different year. I just think our administration and everyone on staff did a great job of putting plans in place to keep our guys safe and keep them healthy. But, again, all the credit goes to the student-athletes. You can put all the protocols you want in place, but if those guys don't take it seriously and they don't sacrifice their social life and they don't demonstrate discipline on a consistent basis then it's not going to work. And I just think anytime that we can talk about what these guys have done in that category, that standpoint, from COVID, they deserve so much credit for that. But it's been a difficult year. I think that ultimately it's a year that everybody that played college basketball this year's going to walk away stronger from it because you had to learn to deal with a lot of life lessons that threw you off of what you're normally used to. So 20 years from now, we're going to look back and hopefully we're not ever worrying about this type of thing again with the pandemic, but we're certainly going to have to draw a lot of life experience from it.