NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - ORAL ROBERTS VS DUKE

March 16, 2023

Paul Mills

Max Abmas

Issac McBride

Amway Center

Oral Roberts Golden Eagles

Media Conference

Duke 74, Oral Roberts 51

PAUL MILLS: Wrong night to have a bad night. A lot of credit goes to Duke. They're obviously really good. Walking over here, they offered us Duke Blue Devil colored Powerade, so it's kind of an indication of how much it wasn't our night. But give Duke a lot of credit for how they played, but we can't lose perspective on this year and how much these guys have just propelled the program.

Q. Coach, the slow start, how much of that do you think was that it's just so difficult to replicate what Duke is able to do with Lively and the size and athleticism defensively?

PAUL MILLS: Yeah, I mean, the opening shot, Carlos Jurgens miss, was able to retrieve his rebound and then it immediately gets blocked. That's a play that he normally makes against the opponent. Connor Vanover, we do get to see that every day with length around the rim.

But you know, again, I don't want to get caught up right now in shots that didn't go in or we just weren't able to convert. My heart right now is just really, really proud of all that these guys did through the course of this season to elevate a program.

Q. Max, what was Duke doing defensively on you that made it so hard for you to get open looks tonight?

MAX ABMAS: I mean, they tried to keep two on me at all times, and I was just out there making the right reads. We got some good looks, they didn't fall, and it wasn't our night. But give credit to them.

Q. Max, before I ask this, I just want to verify, this was your last game as an ORU player? Have you decided that officially?

MAX ABMAS: I'm just in the moment right now and enjoying every part of the season we just had, and we'll look at the future later.

Q. This being the last game of this season then for you, all of you guys accomplished, have you had a chance to appreciate that right now, or is it going to take some time after the sting of this loss goes away?

MAX ABMAS: It'll probably take some time. We're all disappointed. We didn't come into the game expecting to lose. We'll just take some time to reflect on the season and the good things that we did accomplish.

Q. Paul, you guys have seen some really good teams over the last few years. Where does this Duke team rank among them? I know you saw Houston earlier in the year, as well.

PAUL MILLS: Yeah, comparatively to Houston, they're a great rebounding team. To out-rebound us by 14 is a tribute to them. They have a great deal of length, and their freshmen have grown up. This was game 35 for those guys, and probably about 20 games in they obviously had a number of injuries. The freshmen, especially that ones that played, become sophomores.

They're talented. Houston is really good. I've never been on this side of a loss in the NCAA Tournament. I've been on the other side to where you win by 20. A lot of those times it was a part of those teams you were able to move forward.

Really good Duke team. I can't really speculate where they're headed.

Q. Coach, you mentioned this team elevating the program. Kind of Max specifically, even if this isn't his final game, can you speak to what he's done in his career to elevate the program?

PAUL MILLS: Yeah, I couldn't. It would just be hard to put into words all that Max has done. I could go down the list, but obviously Max being a three-time AP All-American, two-time Summit League Player of the Year, Top 3 in scoring. I could go on and on with his accolades, but who he is off the court is an absolutely incredible person. You're looking at a guy who was a biomedical chemistry major with a 3.92 GPA and he switched his major to mathematics so as not to interrupt our practice schedule because he had to take some courses later, and he said, I think I want to practice.

But he's just such an incredible young man, who he is. A lot of it is a credit to Troy and Erika, his mom and dad.

There's no way in the world -- I'll get around to it one day, but there's no way in the world I could express just all he's meant to everybody here.

Q. Issac, you guys obviously got off to the slow start and they jumped out to that 15-0 lead. How did you feel about you guys as a team, how you fought back to try to come back?

ISSAC McBRIDE: First, just give credit to a good Duke team. To be honest, I expected us to fight. That's been our story the whole year, whether we get hit, we always come back from adversity. We always play together. We love everyone, 1 through 15, even 1 through 30, including our staff. We love everyone.

Whenever we're propelled by love, as Coach says, we're going to keep fighting and keep fighting until we can climb back, and time ran out. I never really say we lost, time ran out and we were on the wrong end of it. I'm proud of this team, proud of what we accomplished. We fought every day in practice, fought in the preseason, and we fought tonight. Unfortunately, this is the last game for us this season, but looking back on the season, that's been our calling card. We've been fighters, and we've always been fighters.

Q. Coach, you guys score over 80 points per game, so what did Duke do defensively to really hold you guys significantly under your average? And what are some successes -- I know this season is unfortunately over, but what are some successes you guys have had during the course of the season and some positives that you and the players kind of look at?

PAUL MILLS: Yeah, I mean, first, their protection around the rim is tremendous, and if you look at it, they're the 24th best defense in the country, but their ability to defend the three-point line is amongst the top 30 in the country, and then their ability to have rim protection is elite, as well.

If you look at it, Dereck had six blocked shots tonight, but I bet he altered another six. They have a presence inside the rim, and they can really defend the arc. Those two things for us, kind of what we do, we're able to get to the rim and able to make threes, and they were able to prevent that.

You know, 30 wins, when you look back at the season, the most ORU has ever had at the Division I level is 27, so to have 30 wins in the 41-year history of the Summit League, there's only two of them that have ever gone undefeated, 21-0, it happened in back to back years. I think there's just a lot to be proud of from our players, from our staff, that we'll take away and that will fuel us moving forward.

Q. Coach, you've mentioned some of those programs that don't play football but have had some sustained success in basketball. You think ORU, it appears you're sort of on your way. What could be next for this program? Do you think it could be a sustained success in terms of getting back to this tournament?

PAUL MILLS: Yeah, 100 percent. I tell all these guys when you recruit them, when you bring them in, we're trying to get a team that's good enough to play in a Final Four. You've seen it in Wichita State, VCU, Loyola Chicago just a few years ago, everybody is aware of George Mason. But you are trying to build a program that's good enough to be in a Final Four.

Fortunately we've got the caliber of players, and we're getting a huge facility upgrade, and I think that'll not only help recruiting, but it'll help the development of our guys.

The good news for me right now is I can get them all back. They all have eligibility to return. I'm not telling you that they will, but what I am telling you is that we have a group that is very invested in getting better as players.

I do feel that we're building something here that hopefully can get to a Final Four.

Q. Issac, it's a tough time to ask this question tonight right after a loss, but looking back on this season, how do you feel about all the accomplishments you guys were able to have in the regular season?

ISSAC McBRIDE: I'm very proud of this team. Obviously the guy to my right, Coach Mills, he gave me a chance obviously when my back was against the wall and I felt like I had nowhere to go two years ago, and then the guy to my left has made me more into a confident player each day. So when I have guys like that to my right and to my left, we have guys like that all throughout the locker room who are there to encourage, who are there to uplift, who are great teammates and even better people. When I'm able to accomplish something with a group of guys as I've had like Max and Carlos, Reem, DJ, Patrick, the guys who are seniors and even the guys who are underclassmen, I look back and I'm very proud because it's the first time in my life that I've actually felt a part of a brotherhood. It's the first time in my life that I've actually felt proud to be part of a team, and I've played a lot of basketball, but these guys have been so amazing to not only me but so many people around the country and even on campus. They're leaders and they're mentors and they're going to go out and do amazing things. I'm proud of this team, and I've never been more proud of a team before just because of who we are. It's unfortunate, obviously, but I'll always call these guys my brothers, and I'm thankful for everyone on the team.