NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL SEMIFINAL - PRINCETON VS CREIGHTON

March 24, 2023

Greg McDermott

Ryan Kalkbrenner

Baylor Scheierman

KFC Yum! Center

Creighton Bluejays

Sweet 16 Postgame Media Conference

Creighton - 86, Princeton - 75

GREG McDERMOTT: We defeated a really good basketball team. If you didn't care who won, you had to appreciate the brand of basketball that both teams are playing.

We're trying to do what they do. They're trying to do what we do. Take care of the basketball. Take good shots. Make things tough at the rim.

And, you know, at halftime we shot 62%. We were only up four. I'm not sure how much it had to do with us. It had a lot to do with Princeton and their ability to space us and make us make mistakes. It felt like we were just a little more tuned in late in the first half and into the second half.

You have to be ready at all times when you are guarding them, but the ball move. We had some assists. Found a way to get it to Kalk down low and get some easy ones.

But really proud of the team. We've taken a step that nobody that's ever worn a Creighton uniform has ever taken. That's really special stuff. Kyle Korver talked to us before the game about an opportunity to make history, and this is a really fun group to do it with.

But not much time for celebration. As I told Arthur, I want him to go to the Final Four, but I want him to go on our team plane. Not to fly there on his own to watch his brother. So we've got some work to do the next 40 hours.

THE MODERATOR: Start with questions.

Q. Ryan, just what does this mean? You know, second Sweet 16 berth, now making Creighton history. What does this all mean to you?

RYAN KALKBRENNER: I mean, it's just at the end of the day there are eight teams left. To be one of those eight teams is just crazy. It means what we worked for all year. It's what you work for since you get here on campus in the summer, and it's just all the hard work paying off now.

Q. For Greg and Ryan, Greg it looked like you pulled Ryan out of one of those time-outs in the first half and said something to him, and then Ryan was really aggressive right after that. Could you guys talk about just what the message was and what happened after that?

GREG McDERMOTT: His version may be different than mine. We'll see.

I didn't like the look on his face, and I knew he was frustrated. We missed a couple of opportunities to get him the ball, and he missed a couple of opportunities to finish when we did. And I just explained to him that I don't care what happened on the last play. In this huddle our team needs your face to look like a leader's face. To his credit, he maybe didn't like it, but he did it and started playing pretty well after that.

RYAN KALKBRENNER: I mean, yeah, that's basically what he told me. Just sometimes I get frustrated and stop playing with joy, and he just basically told me to get that frustrated look off my face and play with a little joy and have fun and fixed it after that.

Q. Greg, whoever wins here on Sunday is going to go to the Final Four for the first time. There's no No. 1 seeds in the Elite Eight for the first time. What do you think that says about the game and where we are right now?

GREG McDERMOTT: I mean, it probably speaks to the transfer portal and NIL and how it's going to be tough to predict on any given season who is good and who is not because of who is coming and who is going.

We were fortunate to have the core of our team back and then added a very important part in Baylor. That's allowed us to move forward, but college basketball is -- there's as much parity as there's ever been, and it makes it fun. It's going to make it exciting.

It's pretty ironic, you know, San Diego State and ourselves shared a charter to Maui. Brian and I sat across the aisle from each other from San Diego to Maui and Maui and back, and we talked on the way out about wanting to meet in the championship of Maui and then we would be okay with one of us winning and one of us losing.

So it's pretty ironic that we're going to meet with an opportunity to go to the Final Four. I've got tremendous respect for him. Steve Fisher has been a dear friend for a long time. A lot of respect for that program.

So it's going to be a fun Sunday.

Q. Ryan, it feels like I'm always saying it takes a lot to get you fired up, but it felt like early on there Princeton was trying to get under your skin. It looked like you were, like, pumping iron. What was that? Can you explain that to me? What was going through your head during that?

RYAN KALKBRENNER: I don't know. I just got in the moment, man, and sometimes I just let a little more emotion than I usually have out. I don't know. Sometimes I don't think before I do stuff like that. I couldn't really explain it very well.

Q. Baylor, it felt like you couldn't miss there for a while. Even the kind of shrug you let off after you banked that three. What was going through your head when you hit that one?

BAYLOR SCHEIERMAN: I was just thankful it went in. When it came out of my hand, I knew it was way off. I'm just glad it went in.

Yeah, you know, it's fun. Obviously tonight it was my night. Like I've been talking about the whole time, you know, each different player steps up in any given night, and that's what makes us so difficult to guard. Just playing with a lot of joy, like Kalk said.

Q. Coach, the performance that Baylor had, especially on the shooting end, is that kind of the player you expected to recruit in the offseason?

GREG McDERMOTT: His shooting has very little to do with the player I recruit and what I was expecting. He is a basketball player that happens to be a good shooter, and he hasn't shot it to the level that he would like to this year on a consistent basis, but he and I have been talking all year that it only takes one game. At some point in the season when we need you, all your hard work is going to pay off. Very similar message that I've told Francisco all season, and he had his game last weekend.

So I was excited about him being part of our team because of who he is and that he is a really good complete basketball player. He just happens to be a good shooter.

Q. For the players. It felt like for a while there that Princeton's zone had threw you off. I guess what was the point you guys felt like you maybe broke through?

RYAN KALKBRENNER: I don't remember exactly when we broke through and kind of got in rhythm with that. I think, you know, obviously that's why teams go to zone to try to throw you off, and they maybe got us a few possessions where we didn't necessarily handle it as well as we could.

Once we got acclimated to it, I thought we attacked it well and got a few good looks. Almost a highlight dunk out of Art a time or two. But I think once we settled in, we did a solid job against them.

BAYLOR SCHEIERMAN: Like he said, I think we got some pretty good looks early on. We just didn't hit them, and I think they go to that kind of change the pace of the game a little bit. We got some open looks, and we didn't capitalize on them, and it kind of allowed them to get back in the game.

Like Kalk said, we kind of settled down, and we were looking inside more, and he was sealing down low to get some easy baskets.

Q. Tosan, their big man, obviously a tough cover. Can't really help the way you would want to, Kalk, when he is on the floor. How difficult was that matchup, and I guess how did you feel the second half went in that regard?

RYAN KALKBRENNER: I just think he is more unique than most of the fives we play just because -- I guess he is more of a forward, but as far as my matchup because he has such good ball skills and can drive it and shoot it a little bit. Really good passer. Kind of, like, Ighodaro on Marquette in that sense.

It's just one of those things we just have to watch a bunch of film on him and get used to what he does and prepare as good as you can because he is different than most players I match up against.