NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - WINTHROP VS VILLANOVA

March 19, 2021

Pat Kelsey

Indiana Farmers Coliseum

Winthrop Eagles

Postgame Media Conference

Villanova - 73, Winthrop - 63

PAT KELSEY: First of all, I want to give a lot of credit to Villanova. We knew caliber program we were going up against, obviously a national title caliber program with a Hall of Fame coach. And you give them a lot of credit. They were better than us tonight. Their physicality really wore us down, and that's their brand of basketball. They hang their hat on their toughness. So do we. I thought in the trenches, close to the basket, really started wearing us down.

So proud of our guys. Just a magical season and a magical group of guys. One of the most special groups I've been around. Just a selfless group. You look at the amount of minutes that so many guys played, the depth that we had and the selflessness that it took to play that style, it can only happen with the caliber of character of young men in that locker room.

And phenomenal senior class that I think really raised the bar, and we have a very, very high bar in our program. And this senior class is going out lifting that bar to new heights. And their legacy is sealed, and it is an example that's going to continue to be used by the younger players coming up in our program.

But I couldn't be prouder of our seniors especially.

Q. What do you think the difference was in the game?

PAT KELSEY: Like I said, I just -- they're so darn big and strong, not from a height and length standpoint, but they just look like linebackers out there. And I just -- we got a big, strong team as well, but I felt that was a big part of it.

We struggled to score. Again, that's a credit to Villanova's defense. You know, they switch so many actions, they keep the floor really sticky. And then when we were attacking and getting at the rim, we were struggling to finish.

Robinson-Earl was a menace around the rim, was blocking shots. We had trouble finishing.

Had some really good looks I think in the second half that could have closed the gap a little bit and made them a little nervous. Unfortunately those didn't fall. And that was it.

Q. Was there a moment that you felt like you had a chance to win this game?

PAT KELSEY: Yeah, I mean, I think we were hanging around. You know, in the first half, they punched us in the mouth the first four-minute war, maybe the first two four-minute wars. And then we really responded. Our guys, we started to rebound on the defensive end much better, they had three or four offensive rebounds early.

And then it's like we were hoping we'd throw the first punch, but they threw the first one, but we counter-punched. We came right back and were getting stops, making shots and got on a little bit of a roll. We felt really good going into half.

And then we just couldn't get a run. We needed a run in the second half, needed a couple shots to go down and cut it to 3 or 4. And never seemed to happen.

They put a lot of foul pressure on us. I haven't looked at the stat sheet, I've just been in there talking to our team the entire team, but seemed like they were attacking us, scoring at the rim, and when they weren't scoring at the rim, they were getting fouled and going to the free-throw line. So that's not a good way to mount a comeback, letting them shoot a bunch of free throws.

We felt we were right there, even with eight minutes left, whatever it was, eight points. We needed a couple stops, a couple buckets to go down, it just didn't happen.

Q. What has this week been like for you staying in the bubble and being in Indy?

PAT KELSEY: Yeah, I should have said that earlier, I really want to think, first of all, the city of Indianapolis. I said this in the introductory press conference a couple days go, very few cities in America put on big events like Indianapolis. I'm from Cincinnati, 90 miles from here, and Cincinnati is my home, and it's really, really special to me, but I have a lot of admiration for the town 90 minutes northwest. They have Super Bowls, so many Final Fours.

And then here they're conducting this crazy 68-team tournament in the same city. And you can only imagine the logistics and all that stuff that goes involved. And it's buttoned up and first class all the way. And then also just the NCAA and what they've been able to do to pull this thing off, we just really appreciate being a part of it. Everything was first class.

Obviously it's different. You're holed up in a hotel and you got certain times where you can go outside and go to a park and things like that, but that's a necessary evil in a global pandemic. And we couldn't have been happier to be here, and wish we could have got a win tonight.