NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - ST. BONAVENTURE VS LSU

March 20, 2021

Will Wade

LSU Tigers

Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall

Postgame Media Conference

LSU 76, St. Bonaventure 61

WILL WADE: Yeah, really proud of our guys. I thought we really guarded in the first half. Our offense was a little bit raggedy, but we guarded and that kept us in the game and we went on a spurt there at the end of the half to get the nine-point lead and then the 9-0 run to start the second half was huge.

Three guys with double-doubles, Aundre Hyatt was phenomenal, four blocks, 13 and 10, seven offensive rebounds. I thought he was just tremendous. Trendon and Days did what they do and obviously Cam was phenomenal getting to the free-throw line and attacking and making plays. So it was a total team effort. I thought our guys were locked in and were really, really prepared, and we're going to need to turn it around quick for Monday.

Q. Will, it really seemed like when you guys were struggling there in that first half, your defense really kind of kept you in that game. Just what defensively was working so well for you guys throughout the entire game?

WILL WADE: Well, I think if you haven't seen the switching, the switching is difficult to play against, especially when they're using their screening angles to create -- they're using their screens, off-ball screens and on-ball screens to create the angles to get their guys downhill. When you can switch and stay in front of everybody, makes it very, very difficult on the other team, and so I thought the switching really bothered them. We forced them into some contested jump shots and were able to sit there with the high hand and contest those and contest those looks. But I thought our guys were locked in and knew where the shooters were, and our switching was on point.

Q. The offense of course really struggled in the first half. What specifically was St. Bonaventure doing to limit y'all so much through the first 20?

WILL WADE: Well, we didn't have very good spacing. They had us muddled up in the middle. We had three guys above the free-throw line too much. We just had poor, poor spacing and then they did a great job. They moved 21 around. Our whole plan was to pull 21 away from the basket so we could drive it in there and make some plays. They started him off on Hyatt, and then they put him Days in transition, and we couldn't pick at the matchup like we wanted to for part of the first half. And then we were able to settle in and get into a rhythm against what they were doing, and you've got elite scorers like Cam Thomas and you've got Aundre Hyatt and Darius days on the offensive glass like that, that helps quite a bit.

Q. We often talk about your bad habits, but all your good habits were on display today, sharing the ball, spreading, movement, defending, rebounding. How impressed were you with your team's poise, especially when you consider this was the first tournament experience for some of these guys?

WILL WADE: Yeah, great guard play wins in tournaments. You know, I thought our guys were prepared. I told our guys last night, I said you're prepared and you're ready. Nobody in this room should be nervous. We're prepared and we're ready. You get nervous when you ain't ready, and our guys were ready to go. We had two walk-throughs. We prepared to the nth degree for this game, both offensively and defensively, and our guys were ready.

You want guys that perform on the big stage that can make plays in big moments, and we did that today.

Q. The early call shooting, was that a case of nerves, and what did you say in those timeouts, just keep playing defense, we're going to keep playing through this, just play on?

WILL WADE: Yeah, we were getting stops. That's what I was more excited about. The offense always comes around, we scored 76 points on a great team. I think we had four points in the first eight minutes of the game. The offense always comes around for us, it's about getting stops and rebounding, which is what we did a great job of, and I knew as long as we were getting stops and getting rebounds, we were going to be in pretty good shape, and so I was focusing on the positive with that and just get our guys to calm down and let's get some easy ones on offense. The one more three to Javonte where he hit that, that really, really helped us out.

Q. Will, what made Aundre a starter for you? You have all these stars, and not to say he's not a good player, but what about his game has allowed him to hang in there and be a starter and obviously today he had maybe his best game?

WILL WADE: Yeah, what you saw today, that's what we see every day in practice, and he actually shoots it really, really well. But I trust him. He's steady. You know where he's going to be, and this is why as a coach you stick with guys. We went away from him a little bit there in the middle of the year, but he earned that starting spot. It's not like we just hand out starting spots like Halloween candy or something on Halloween, you show up and you get it. He had earned it. He had earned it in his preseason and how hard he worked, and as a head coach I trust that and we trust that. He came up. He came up huge for us. He came up huge for us against Alabama, he came up huge for us in this game here. That's why you stick with guys.

Q. I asked Cam about this, but Javonte not having a turnover today, how important was that and just he seemed to get you guys in the right spots to produce offensively and just allowed all the guys to be able to contribute.

WILL WADE: It was huge. We talked about we were -- you just don't have as many possessions against Bonaventure because of how they run their offense, how they move, how they cut. They're going to take a lot of time off. Us not turning the ball over and not giving up a bunch of offensive rebounds were two huge keys coming into the game, and I thought Javonte did a great job playing -- just playing a solid, solid floor game.

Q. I asked Cam about this, but Trendon Watford obviously his older brother Christian has a history in this building. Trendon came in and had that double-double. How happy were you for him to be able to put the performance up he did today?

WILL WADE: Happy for him. The Watfords love Assembly Hall. He texted me as soon as he knew this was where we were playing. Christian texted me and he was excited. Christian and the family was obviously in the arena today, and so they were really, really fired up. And I was just so proud of him to hit the three and to be able to play well in a place that's so special to their family.

This is the 10-year anniversary of The Wat Shot, I think; is that correct?

Q. That'll be in December.

WILL WADE: There you go.

Q. Coach, do you think Josh Gray will get any minutes going forward in the tournament?

WILL WADE: We'll see. We're going to need him against -- assuming Michigan beats Texas Southern. I haven't seen a score yet, but we're going to need some big bodies. We've played Josh when we played Mississippi State, who had big bodies with Ado and Tolu Smith. I know Hunter Dickinson is a different -- he's a different animal, and he's a tremendous, tremendous player, one of the best freshman and one of the best post players in the country.

Any time we've played against bigger bodies and bigger guys, we've thrown Gray in there, so I think there's a good chance that you'll see him in that Michigan game.

Q. Is there any chance Shareef O'Neal comes back this season?

WILL WADE: No, he's out. He's got a foot injury and we've shut him down probably six weeks ago for the rest of the season.

Q. You all's ability to play through the fouls and to manage those fouls, especially in the first half, again, I guess maybe kind of speaking to the poise and understanding of the moment from your team?

WILL WADE: Yeah, I mean, we've always played guys with two fouls. I think we're like top 25 in the country in terms of minutes played with two fouls. Everybody always what-ifs worst-case scenarios. Okay, what if you hold them out for five minutes and the lead goes away, and he only ends up with three fouls for the entire game? I don't even think we had a guy get to four fouls today. Smart may have, but I don't think we had a guy get to four fouls.

We're always going to play our guys with two fouls. We're going to be smart on defense, sub guys in and out and that sort of thing, but we're always going to play guys with fouls in these type of situations, in win-or-go-home situations.

Q. It feels like to me you've checked off all the boxes this week that you were talking about that you needed to to be successful - rebounding, good defense. Do you think this was the perfect game and the perfect time, and now do you think you can sustain this level of play going forward?

WILL WADE: Well, we can certainly play better. Our second half defense left a lot to be desired. We got driven too much. But I think we've played -- we've played a lot more physical lately, ever since that Vanderbilt home game, so those two Vanderbilt, Missouri, the three tournament games today we were really physical, we did a great job on the glass. So we're going to have to play our best game of the season on Monday. There's no doubt about that, and so hopefully we're building towards that and can reach a crescendo on Monday.