NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - RICHMOND VS PROVIDENCE

March 19, 2022

Chris Mooney

Jacob Gilyard

Grant Golden

KeyBank Center

Richmond Spiders

Media Conference

Providence 79, Richmond 51

CHRIS MOONEY: Congratulations to Providence. They've had a great season, and that's a great accomplishment to add to go to the Sweet 16. I thought, obviously, they played tremendously well today. And in a game where we had a terrible shooting game, the other team had a great shooting game. I don't know if Providence had shot the ball from three-point range quite as well as they did today, but we certainly didn't help ourselves.

I couldn't be more proud of our guys. The finality of this tournament is hard, but what our guys and especially our seniors have done for us and what they've meant to the school and the program is beyond words. Congratulations to Providence. I wish them well as they move forward.

Q. Jacob, sometimes three-point shots go in because the defense isn't there, isn't close enough, and other days it's just one of those days. Could you classify this night for Providence as it relates to Richmond's defense?

JACOB GILYARD: Yeah, I don't think we were great defensively. Realistically I don't know if they would go 12 for 22 if we had played zone, if they could do that again. But hats off to them, they shot 12 for 22, and we shot 1 for 22. I would chalk it up to a little bit of both. It was one of those days, and I don't think our defense was quite good enough, but they made shots when they needed to.

Q. Jacob, Grant, I'm sure it hasn't sunk in yet, and you are still taking it all in, but just given what's gone on in the past two months and in this current run, Grant, your sixth year, Jacob, your fifth year, has it sunk in at all? What does it mean to be sitting up there by your roommate for one last time?

GRANT GOLDEN: Obviously, I don't know if it will be tomorrow in a week, two weeks. I don't know when the bad taste in my mouth of this one will wear off, but whenever that time comes, I know certainly we'll look back on these two weeks and this season and what we accomplished, and words wouldn't be able to describe it. This is what we came back for. This is what we wanted to do. So regardless, nobody can say we didn't do that. To be here with Jacob and those other seniors and for everybody to be committed and stick with it, truly a blessing and something that I'll forever be grateful for.

Q. For either of you guys. It can be a little cliche to say, hey, you've been playing a lot of tough games lately. Did you feel like you sort of ran out of gas, but I'll ask you. Did you feel like you had a little bit less energy because it's been such an intense week for you guys?

JACOB GILYARD: I wouldn't chalk it up to that. At the end of the day, they played better basketball than us. They made shots. Like I said, they are 12 for 22. We're 1 for 22, 8 from 21 at the free-throw line. We just weren't good enough. Whether or not that was because we were tired or what not, this is what you play basketball for. You got to find ways to get around being tired. We didn't do that today.

Q. During the five-game winning streak, the defense was so good. Did you have any sense that because of the match-ups tonight you were going to have issues in that area?

CHRIS MOONEY: Not necessarily other than the fact that I know they're a great team with really good players. If you had said at the end of the game, we would outscore them in the paint by eight and have the same number of offensive rebounds, I would have felt like that's probably a pretty good game. They shot the ball extremely well right from the beginning of the game. I think Durham had his first two threes, and he is a tremendous driver and guy who draws an incredible amount of fouls, and then they just continued to shoot very well.

Obviously, we weren't perfect defensively, and some were open, but a couple contested. I think the original question, John, was did I see this coming? I would say not necessarily. I think we knew that they were -- they had really good players who could do -- guys could do something really special, guys could score inside, guys could drive and draw fouls. I wouldn't have anticipated them shooting so well.

Q. I'll ask this, kind of a spin of what I asked the players, and that is when you get down like that and they're shooting the lights out, do you think that's where maybe some of the, boy, it's been a long road? Do you feel like that's maybe you need that energy to make a big comeback. Was that lacking at all?

CHRIS MOONEY: Not that I necessarily noticed. I'm sure that seems like human nature, and we've been down often this season, but they've really been very good at coming back. The way they were shooting and making shots, that kind of took that away from us. We talk about in our program not to use -- we never use the word deserve. You don't deserve to be making shots, missing shots, anything.

I feel like this is a tough way to end, but we certainly have earned a lot of -- we earned a lot these last ten days and these guys especially over the last three years. Nothing has been easy, but these guys have really been tremendous, and I couldn't be more proud to be associated with them.

Q. Just one quick follow-up about Coach Cooley. A guy who has been sort of grinding at it for awhile and finally breaks through. Just another coach who has been grinding at it for awhile and as I said a couple of times, breaking through. What does that say about him and how can you sort of relate to that moment?

CHRIS MOONEY: Sure. Well, he is a tremendous coach and charismatic person, but he is also -- he is really a brilliant guy. I feel like from what I know about him a big part of the program is his will, his intelligence, you know, his personality. Not many people can run a program where all their strengths impact the success of the program. I think he is a special person, and I think Providence obviously has been very good and will be very good for as long as he is there.