NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - ORAL ROBERTS VS FLORIDA

March 21, 2021

Tre Mann

Indiana Farmers Coliseum

Florida Gators

Postgame Media Conference

Oral Roberts 81, Florida Gators 78

Q. Things changed for you in the second half. You had a great first half and then early second half. What changed for you late in the game?

TRE MANN: I just missed shots. Ran the same plays. I got the same shots in the first half. I made some open looks. I just missed shots.

Q. Down the stretch, how did they defend you? How would you characterize what you did to take them off your game?

TRE MANN: They switched ball screen coverage in the first half, and their big man was on the left side to where they were trying to down to it, but I just rejected it.

So it was an open lane every time I rejected the down. I did that in the second half, and they were on it. So obviously they changed it up at halftime.

But yeah, that's what they did. They changed up their ball screen coverage. I didn't get the looks. I didn't get the wide-open looks that I was getting.

Q. How difficult of a team were they to defend? Seeing the end game, how difficult was that to defend?

TRE MANN: It was everything that we saw, everything Coach told us that was going to happen, it happened. You don't really realize until you're doing it. You could realize it, but you won't know how good they are until you actually play them.

They move the ball very well. They got two elite scorers on their team, and everybody is able to knock down shots. So when you're playing a team like that, it's hard. It's hard to defend, and they did a good job.

Q. Do you think with all the fouling that went on and with all the turnovers that this was kind of like a game the likes of which has kind of haunted you guys this season, and when you haven't played at your best?

TRE MANN: That's exactly what it was, turnovers and fouls late. I think we had 20 turnovers, and you're not going to beat a good team with 20 turnovers and a lot of fouls against the best free-throw shooting team in the country. They might have missed one, but you're not going to beat a team with those numbers. That's what happened.

Q. How big of an issue was fatigue in this game and playing the offense --

TRE MANN: You were going in and out. Could you repeat the question?

Q. When it comes to covering Oral Roberts, was it more physically demanding and was fatigue more of an issue down the stretch than it would be normally?

TRE MANN: Yeah, Coach tried his best to let us save some energy on the offensive end. Told us that we had to exert all of our energy on the defensive end. So we slowed down a little bit and let us catch our breath. We were supposed to give all of our energy on the defensive end, but we didn't give it all we had. That's why we lost the game.