ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 13, 2025

Matt Cross

Andy Enfield

Boopie Miller

Spectrum Center

SMU Mustangs

Postgame Press Conference

Clemson 57, SMU 54

Q. For Boopie and Matt, when did you guys feel the momentum start to shift in their direction? And late in the game, it was pretty loud in there. How were you trying to combat the energy you were feeling down the stretch there?

BOOPIE MILLER: I felt like it was the second half they went on their run, and we just tried to stop the crowd from getting into the game. I felt like we started back playing at our pace, but they came out with a win, and kudos to them.

MATT CROSS: Yeah, I don't think I felt like it was momentum swing at any point. It's a game of runs, and there was no point where I thought we didn't have it or weren't where we wanted to be.

Q. It wasn't you guys' best three-point shooting night. Kind of uncharacteristic. What was going on there? Did you feel like there was a certain point where they were going to start falling?

MATT CROSS: I think that it's just how it goes. You find whatever the defense gives you. They're a good defensive team. It's always been a thing that it's tough to shoot in tournaments sometimes, but we like to shoot the ones that we get that are open, and we felt like we had an advantage with Samet. He's a load down there. So we felt like we kept trying to get it to him, and it was working. Lakhin had four fouls early, and he was out a lot of the second half, so part of the game plan.

BOOPIE MILLER: I feel like the same thing Matt said, trowing it in to Samet. We played out of that. And I feel like we went on runs with that, but we just didn't come out with the win. We came out short.

Q. What can you guys say about the season as a whole, new coach, a lot of new players coming in, just to be where you are, competing with a team like Clemson and how far this program has come? What can you say about the state of SMU basketball?

BOOPIE MILLER: I feel like a lot of people didn't believe in us and think we were going to do what we did this season, but I just want to thank Matt and all the seniors for just playing hard, and I thank all of my teammates and the coaching staff, as well.

MATT CROSS: Yeah, I think it's in a great direction. You can tell the fan base and the people behind the scenes and the athletic department really cares about the sports and making it a big thing in the ACC the first year and this is what we did. It's pretty impressive, and I want to say thank you to the fans and everybody who was involved, and Andy and the coaching staff for giving me a chance and teaching me a lot along the way that, hopefully, I can carry out however long I play.

Q. For the players, y'all outscored Clemson 40-24 in the paint. How did you like your ability to be aggressive inside?

BOOPIE MILLER: I feel like we drove early in the first half. We made a lot of jump stops and a lot of lay-ups. We didn't get to the free-throw line a lot, but with the first half and the second half, I feel like we did that well, but we just couldn't knock down threes, but overall, I feel like we played hard.

MATT CROSS: Yeah, I think it was one of those games where they were kind of a physical team. They're an inside team. They've got a 2 presence down low, as well, and it was a battle of the paint. Most games, unless you come out hitting 20 threes, usually whoever controls the paint can come out with a win.

Q. Coach, I know it didn't end up the way you wanted, but just the way you guys were able to respond after a little bit of a sloppier start, I know they had one, too, but what was the message to the team after the halfway point of the first half, and how did you feel about their ability to take control of the game?

ANDY ENFIELD: Our players competed at a high level today, played very hard. You said we outscored them in the paint. Significantly, we were very tough. 16 turnovers. We had nine steals. We did enough defensively to win the game today. Very proud of their effort.

Q. I know you haven't had a whole lot of time to reflect on this season, but your first year, you haven't even been in Dallas for a whole year yet. What can you take away from what you guys have been able to do, the expectations you've exceeded, and how do you feel moving forward with this group?

ANDY ENFIELD: Well, we really like our team. They've been just impressive young men, with 10 new players, came together. They've had a terrific season with winning on the road, winning on neutral courts and winning 23 games so far. So it's been a lot of fun to coach these young men. They grew as a team. They grew as individuals. We're a pretty good basketball team right now.

Q. If the NCAA Tournament may not be in the cards this year, if you do have the opportunity to play in some other postseason tournament, is that something y'all are hoping to do?

ANDY ENFIELD: Well, I'm not really thinking about that right now, honestly. We're just -- we had our chances in the last couple minutes. Even the last play of the game where a guy got hit on the hand in a three-point shot, down two in the corner left, Chuck got hit on the hand on his shot, couldn't follow through, and the out-of-bounds call where the Clemson guy kicked it. We missed free throws down the stretch. We missed a couple of -- missed a lay-up, and then we missed a four-foot floater with no one on us. A lot of things didn't go our way in the last three minutes of the game, unfortunately.

In a game like this you have to try to convert, so that's the stuff we're more thinking about instead of what's going to happen here in the next few days.

Q. The players were discussing earlier about y'all's first year in the ACC. What have you learned about your experience here in the ACC?

ANDY ENFIELD: What have we learned? You're from Virginia Tech, right? You need another hotel because we had to stay in Radford because there was only one hotel on campus, which is a very nice hotel. We just had to stay in -- but no, Virginia Tech is a great place to go. They have a lot of great coaches, including Coach young.

But this league is very spread out now with the West Coast additions of Cal and Stanford, SMU in the south. I think it's an amazing league.

This year probably won't have the number of NCAA Tournament teams as a normal year. We'll see. That will be determined here coming up. But it's an incredible basketball league, and we're thrilled to be in it at SMU. My coaching staff and our players, they did a great job this year of competing and putting us in position to win seven road games, went 7-3 on the road in the league, and to go 13-7 in the first year.

So that's a credit to our players, and I have a great coaching staff. So when you go compete against some of these storied programs around the country, in the conference, it was impressive what our guys did. So we're very, very proud of them.

You always hate to lose a game like this, but if you look at -- take a step back and take a deep breath, what our guys did this year has been really, really impressive.