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

March 16, 2023

Bob Huggins

Erik Stevenson

Kedrian Johnson

Legacy Arena

West Virginia Mountaineers

Media Conference

Maryland - 67, West Virginia - 65

THE MODERATOR: We will go ahead and take questions for Kedrian and Erik Stevenson.

Q. Kedrian, start with you. You won the last shot. Scrambling maybe. There's probably not a play there. What did you want to do? Did you think it was on line and it had a chance?

KEDRIAN JOHNSON: For sure. Every shot I took today, I thought it had a chance to go in.

Q. Erik, what was Maryland doing today that gave you a lot of trouble shooting the ball?

ERIK STEVENSON: Nothing that any other team hasn't done. I just struggled from the floor today. They did emphasize, just, just stay to my side when they were in that little zone, and they just did a great job of sending guys at me and not letting me get the easy miscellaneous looks. Loose balls and offensive rebounds and broken plays that I usually thrive in. They did a good job of finding me in those situations.

Q. Kedrian, early in the second half you had a string of I believe 10 straight points to help get you guys back into this thing. What did you see during that stretch that lead to that success personally?

KEDRIAN JOHNSON: I saw opportunities. Most teams play my drives, so I just step back and shot the ball. When I had the opportunity to drive, I took it to the basket, got fouled, and finished it.

Q. For both guys. I know it's just minutes, but the finality of this, has it hit you yet? What's the emotion that it came to an end?

KEDRIAN JOHNSON: Definitely hit. Emotions are high right now. At the end of the day, somebody got to win and somebody got to lose. We were the team that lost today. It's in the past now. It's in the past for a reason.

ERIK STEVENSON: It's over. You know what I mean? Yeah, man, it's over. I don't know what else to say. It's a different feeling. I can't thank this program enough. I can't thank Coach Huggins enough. I don't know what's next, but I'm just happy I got to finish it out here in West Virginia.

Q. Erik, kind of going off of that, this is a tournament that you have been aiming to reach throughout your entire career. What was it like being out there on the floor, you know, finishing it off where you wanted to? Not necessarily right now but you know in the tournament.

ERIK STEVENSON: Personally, didn't finish it off how I wanted to. But as a team, we got to where I wanted to be. Just happy I got there in my career to the tournament, I guess.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, you are dismissed. Okay. We'll now take questions for Coach Huggins.

Q. You had a substantial early lead. Did you feel it could be even bigger, and how did they start to whittle away at that?

COACH HUGGINS: You know, we were a little careless with the ball and they made shots. They made shots. They started backing us in. We didn't match up very well with them when they started matching us in -- or backing us in, rather. It wasn't a good matchup for us.

Q. Not having Emmitt for most of that second half, how much did that change what you guys wanted to do?

COACH HUGGINS: It hurts us. He's a five-year guy that knows what we want done. He's our best perimeter defender. He gives us another guy on the glass who can keep balls alive and rebound it. And he makes open shots. I mean, that's a huge loss for us.

Q. Sixteen offensive rebounds leading to 18 second-chance points. How big of a factor was that in your guys' game plan and how big a difference did that make for you guys to be there until the end?

COACH HUGGINS: I know we spent a lot of time working on it. We're trying to score any way we can score.

Q. Bob, not only was Emmitt hurt in the second half but Jimmy fouls out, James was in foul trouble, you don't have Mo. How drastic was your depth up front? How big of a problem is that?

COACH HUGGINS: Well, our up-front depth took a hit when we lost Mo for the year. He was our best shot-blocker. So losing him hurt us. I got to be careful what I say, I guess. But I'll just leave it at that.

Q. Coach, I asked Kedrian about that. But he had that straight 10 straight points to get you back in there early in the second half. Finished with 27. You have spoken highly of him over the course of the season. I was wondering your thoughts of his performance today as a whole?

COACH HUGGINS: He was terrific. He was absolutely terrific. Without him we wouldn't been able to stay in the game. The last shot, it looked to me like it grazed the end of the rim. He's an inch away from winning the game for us. It was dead on line. It was dead on line. It just missed by a few inches.

Q. So with that last shot, sort of a scramble. Do you have any kind of thing drawn up? Would you have want anybody else to take it in that situation?

COACH HUGGINS: Four seconds to go. Four seconds to go I wanted him to get it on the run, which he did. I wanted him to him to get it on the run to where he could get as close as he can get. It's four seconds. You can't look at a clock. You can't look at a clock to see how much time's left. He shot it before the time expired, which was great effort on his part. I mean, missed by an inch. What are you going to do?

Q. Coach, probably too early for this question. But what do you think you're going to remember about this season and this group of guys?

COACH HUGGINS: Well, the reality is it took us a while to get them all together. We struggled early. We struggled early. We just didn't have the right chemistry. But I think, you know, we had a meeting to where fellas, you know, you can't keep going this way. I mean, the talk is you want to play in the NCAA Tournament. You are not going to be able to play in the NCAA Tournament unless you start winning games. And they did. They won games in the hardest league in America. You know, you can look back, there's a lot of you couldve's, shouldve's. They just didn't fall our way.

Q. Might be early for this question, Coach. But just with your length of time in this business. What have you thought about your future and how long do you want to keep doing this?

COACH HUGGINS: You know the only thing I've thought about in the last whatever month and a half was getting these guys to a point where they could come here. Erik for instance had never played in an NCAA Tournament. We want to get those guys to an NCAA Tournament and experience the NCAA Tournament. Unfortunately, ours isn't is going to be very long, but at least he got to play in one. I don't know. It's like anything else, you know. You probably got people who enjoy reading what you write, and there's people who say I wouldn't read a damn thing he writes. I got the same situation going on. I got people who think I should stay on for quite a while, and there's people probably thinking I ought to pack it in and let some young kid come in and screw it up.

Q. With that said, when you talk to the guys who can come back, especially guys that are going to be fifth-year seniors next year about the opportunity to come back?

COACH HUGGINS: In a way, we have already kind of talked about it. You know -- I think we let them kind of diffuse for a while and then we'll sit down with everybody, not just those guys, but the guys that are -- have exhausted their eligibility, and we'll sit down and talk about what we did right and what we did wrong and who is staying and who is going.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.