NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - NC STATE VS CREIGHTON

March 17, 2023

Greg McDermott

Baylor Scheierman

Ryan Kalkbrenner

Trey Alexander

Ball Arena

Creighton Bluejays

Media Conference

Creighton 72, NC State 63

GREG McDERMOTT: It was a really good win. The more I watched NC State, the more they scared me. Our defense is built on kind of being able to protect the rim, and they don't go to the rim necessarily that much. Smith and Joiner are a handful to guard.

Fortunately, we made them take some tough shots. They made some tough shots. But I thought our offense, especially the last 10 minutes, when they got in foul trouble, to be able to get it into Kalk. I thought everybody did a great job of finding him in the right spots. We had made a three forever and Baylor stepped up a made a couple big ones. And Trey fought his tail off all day trying to chase Smith around and make everything as equal as possible.

Yes, he had 32 shots but at least -- 32 points, took 27 shots to get there.

Q. Obviously coming into the game it felt like Burns hadn't seen anybody quite like Kalkbrenner, a guy who can score without necessarily needing the ball. Does 31 points from Kalk surprise you at all?

GREG McDERMOTT: Nothing surprises me from Kalk. He's just continued to get better and better and better. We were joking going into the locker room, I said, I can't believe you missed a free throw. He shot 47, 48 percent as a freshman. Two years later he's on the line with the game on the line late in the game, and he's knocking down free throws.

He's just improved in every facet of the game, and he was able to score on Burns. But then when they had to go small, we did a good job of executing some offense to get him the ball around the rim, and then he did the rest.

Q. Baylor, two parts. It was a little frustrating, I think, or did you get a little bit frustrated today early, and also we saw you blow a kiss to the crowd at the end there after you made a big shot. Was that to anybody in particular or just showing the love?

BAYLOR SCHEIERMAN: Yeah, you know, obviously when shots aren't going, that can be frustrating, but you've got to find different ways to impact the game. And ultimately my teammates and my coaches have confidence that shots are going to fall eventually.

And then that kiss, I don't know, I just -- Jayson Tatum does it, it was just in the moment thing, it wasn't necessarily to anybody.

Q. Ryan, when two of their bigger guys picked up four fouls, how did that change the game for you in particular?

RYAN KALKBRENNER: I'd say I still probably attacked it the same way. Obviously DJ Burns is much different than their other big guys. But I don't know, just had the same mindset, trying to get deep catches, trying to just finish around the rim, don't try to make it too complicated on myself by changing things up when different players come in. But I think just staying solid and just doing what I do.

Q. When NC State went on its run to go up 37-30 briefly, you didn't call time-out. What does that say about the faith you have in your team?

GREG McDERMOTT: Well, they know I have faith in them. R2 was kind of on the attack, and not saying I was 100 percent call going to call a time-out, but he got his shoulders by him, so I let him. I trust these guys. We work on all that stuff in practice. And basketball is a game of runs. There's ebbs, there's flows, and I think good teams have to figure out a way to play through some of that.

We obviously took one when we went from up nine to up three there about 30 seconds later in the half. Yeah, I trust these guys. They know I trust them. We play basketball a certain way, and when we play that way, we're pretty good.

They know we'll be successful if we stick to our plan. Today especially defensively I thought a lot of what Smith got was difficult, but everybody else we did a terrific job on and took a very explosive offensive team and ran them off the three-point line.

Q. Baylor, not to obsess about the kiss, but how much were you feeding off the crowd down the stretch? I know this isn't Omaha, but talk about the atmosphere and how it helped you guys.

BAYLOR SCHEIERMAN: Yeah, it's March Madness. It's a great crowd, an atmosphere. And growing up that's what you dream of playing in. Like I said, it was an in-the-moment thing. I like to have a lot of fun and interact with the people, and I think that's what it's all about.

That's kind of the gist of it.

TREY ALEXANDER: I just feel like for us to come from Omaha and be able to play somewhere like Denver where it's not too far from home, for everybody to just come out the way that they did, I think it just shows how special the community is in Omaha. I feel like we're very -- gives a very type of home feeling, and I feel like everybody just supports us, whether it's going good or bad.

For them to come out to Denver and just see how much support we had from the Creighton community in Omaha and just kind of over in the area, it just means a lot.

RYAN KALKBRENNER: Yeah, I mean, when we did the starting lineups, every time they did one of our players, it felt like there was a roar from the crowd, and it was like, this feels like home. Creighton fans are amazing. They travel well, and everywhere you go, it feels like home because you've got a ton of support in the stands supporting you.

Q. Trey, obviously Terquavion is a talented player. You talked about him earlier in the week. In the second half it felt like a lot of those rear view contests, he was doing away with them. Talk about when you got a piece of that shot at the end there?

TREY ALEXANDER: I know the second half we tried to throw a couple different ball screens coverages at him, and the big boy, he set some big screens. It's hard to get over his screens. One time I kind of got over it and I was just like just to kind get on the side of him. And then I seen that Kalk was getting back to his man, so I was able to barely get my fingertips on it. Obviously it was a big play in the game and it changed the momentum of how we were able to play going down to the end.

Q. Obviously you don't want Terq to score 30 something, but at a certain point are you kind of living with him getting the mid range and locking up everybody else?

GREG McDERMOTT: Yeah, I mean, what do you do? He was effective against our drop coverage. Now, you say effective, he shot less than 50 percent from the floor, so he got us on the drop coverage, and then we tried to stretch him out, and he got a couple fouls.

But he's really good. I thought Trey did a great job of really chasing him and making it difficult. He had one three-point shot I don't think Trey was on him a staggered out of a time-out. He makes a lot of threes, so we tried to make him do things that he doesn't normally do. And to his credit, he was able to make us pay, part of the time anyway.

Q. Baylor, you hit your first three 10 seconds into the game and then it seemed like there was a little bit of a cold stretch. What was going through your mind when shots weren't falling and when NC State got up six or seven there.

BAYLOR SCHEIERMAN: I kind of touched on it earlier. You've got to be able to impact the game in different ways. If shots not falling, try to do my best to rebound or try to create for other people or just as simple as just encouraging my other teammates. Because I know they have belief in me, so when things aren't going well for me, maybe aren't going well for Kalk, he had a great game, so just continuing to encourage them.

Q. Coach, how does the energy or the pace of this game set the foundation for the rest of the tournament?

GREG McDERMOTT: Well, we saw a little bit of everything today. We saw a lead, we lost the lead, we got the lead back, then they closed in and then we had to execute some things to finish.

It'll make a pretty good St. Pat's Day for our Irish fans that have followed us over here from Omaha, so I think they're going to have a little fun. Tomorrow may be a little slow for them.

But we've got a lot of work to do to get ready for Baylor. But you know, in this tournament you put the entirety of your focus into Game 1, and you just have to survive and advance. They talk about it all the time.

We beat a good team today, and we're going to play another good team on Sunday, so we'll get off our feet, get some rest, get a good meal, and we'll dig into Baylor.

Q. What does this mean to you, playing in the second round in the context of this last year and obviously what happened? You've probably talked about it with local guys, but it's got to be pretty special getting ready for this weekend.

RYAN KALKBRENNER: I mean, yeah. Got hurt at the end of the game last year, so it's just going to be a lot of fun to play in the second round. 32 teams left, so it's a big opportunity and a big honor to be in that game, and happy to be able to play in it this time.

Q. I've got to ask the backstory on your shoes. Did your coaching staff convince you to do that?

GREG McDERMOTT: My assistant ops guy, John McKew ordered them five months ago thinking that we had a 50/50 chance if we made the NCAA Tournament to play on St. Pat's Day. Out of respect for him and obviously McDermott is a pretty Irish name, we went with the green today.

Q. Given that you have all these guys who have experience in the NCAA Tournament, did you feel a looseness at all from them today, just sort of let it all go or what?

GREG McDERMOTT: They were incredibly loose in the locker room before the game, way looser than I was. But they've kind of been that way all year. They've prepared and they're serious in their preparation and they take that to heart.

But they have a way of getting themselves ready that's a little different to the way I got myself ready back in the day. But it's also part of their personality, and my job as a coach is you never want to take that away. That's part of the joy of playing the game is having fun with your teammates.

If I ever start to take that away, then I need to do something else.

Q. It felt like early on you kind of let Art create a little bit and rock out there and try to play make. And then obviously the shot making didn't work so much down the stretch for him, but he kind of came alive doing some intangible stuff we talked about. Late game you pulled him aside after that run and talked to him. What were you saying to him there?

GREG McDERMOTT: Well, on that particular play, I wanted to know why his guy was open in the corner before he stepped out of bounds. But Art impacted -- Baylor talked about impacting the game in other ways besides scoring. Art had his fingerprints all over this game, nine rebounds, he had four assists, and they were all for easy baskets. I thought defensively did a good job, made a couple great plays. And to your point, got into the paint off the dribble but under control, and then made really good plays out of it.

Only took six shots, only made two of them, made all of his free throws, almost had a double-double. Like I said, that's a heck of a tournament game.

Q. Ryan, obviously some good guards in this tournament. Baylor has a few. Obviously Terquavion is pretty talented. Between the wall ups and all the stops down the stretch, how confident does that make you about defending some of the better guards in this tournament?

RYAN KALKBRENNER: I think just as a team, we do a good job of defending anyone we game plan against. I think Trey, Baylor, Nembhard, all those guys did do a great job of doing their part in our defensive scheme to make it tough on the other guards.

Sometimes some guy will make you pay from time to time, but made it tough for Terquavion Smith tonight, and you live with that. But I believe in our guys can guard any other guards this tournament has, and we'll be ready for them.

Q. Baylor's three late in the game was set up by Ryan's pass late in the shot clock. Were you hoping to use Ryan as a decoy there and get it to Baylor, and also Ryan's improvement as a passer?

GREG McDERMOTT: Yeah, that's one of our out of bounds plays that we practice quite often but we haven't used it all year. It felt like an appropriate time. And like I said in the locker room to the guys, a play like that takes five guys. R2 set a good screen to free Ryan, Trey made a great pass to Ryan right where it needed to be. Art set a great screen for Baylor up top and then Baylor has got to finish it by making the shot.

As a coach you save a couple of those in case you need them, and you hope when you need them, we execute it, and to our guys' credit it was executed to perfection.

Q. Do you have an update on Mason and his injury?

GREG McDERMOTT: Yeah, I think the MRI, the X-ray, whatever they did was negative in terms of anything worse than a sprain. But the grade of the sprain I don't think we'll know until he gets up tomorrow and gets a little treatment tonight.