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MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2010Gregg MarshallToure' MurryGarrett StutzDemetric WilliamsST. LOUIS, MISSOURI Wichita State – 65 THE MODERATOR: The victorious Shockers are with us. As mentioned, they have a date in the championship game tomorrow afternoon, 1:00 o'clock. We're going to have Coach Marshall open up with a statement, and then questions for the three student-athletes for Wichita State. COACH MARSHALL: It wasn't a see-saw affair like yesterday, but in many ways it was a similar game. It was a very physical, tough game against a very good team, and that's what you're going to get. I just am very pleased to win and to play another championship on CBS. It it's been a long time coming for the shockers and for me personally the last couple of years. Now we have that stage. So we're looking forward to the opportunity. Q. For the three players, they got within one point of you four times late in the game. Two points a couple of times. But you never relinquished the lead. What kept you from giving up the lead? DEMETRIC WILLIAMS: Well, defense. We said defense a lot. So when it got that close we just kept our composure and grinded out and executed our plays. Luckily we kept the lead. TOURE' MURRY: Learning from games earlier in the year, we had games in the same situation that may not have worked out the same way as the game tonight. We just learned from it, and just growing with experience. We came out with a big time stop on defense, and on the offense we had big time players step up and make big time stops, and that's how we kept the lead up. Q. Can you comment on just the mono-a-mono element of this game? The give and the take. It wasn't for the feint of heart I guess is what I'm trying to say. TOURE' MURRY: Definitely two great teams going at each other really tough. We have great players on our team and refuse-to-lose attitude. And we wanted to go to the championship. That's been our goal all year and we finally made it. GARRETT STUTZ: We knew nothing was going to be handed to us. We had to reach out and take it. They felt the same thing. We have two good teams going after the same goal, it's bound to happen. Q. Can you talk about the home-run ball to hash the score? Garret, you had a particularly good view, probably not wanting to be there, but talk about that. GARRETT STUTZ: Yeah, when we were in the huddle we talked about that being option, and it's a readout of our press break. We made the right call. Graham made a great catch and great finish. TOURE' MURRY: That's been our go-to play all year. That play worked for us it seemed like every time we ran it. We feel like that play can build us to the next step and get us some points when we do that. COACH MARSHALL: I'm going to say we said first of all you have to have trust in players to make plays. I'm not the smartest coach in the world, but I've got a lot of faith in these guys. I told Toure' if it wasn't open, we had plenty of timeouts. I'm not sure how open it was, but he made the pass and Graham made the catch and the lay-up. Like he said, big time players make big time plays. Those were two guys hooking up. We were having a hard time with the pressure. It was probably not the most wise call to make, but we needed to get the ball down on this end for a while, and we eventually did that. Q. You started the game with eight of the first ten points for your team. Can you just take me through how you were able to carry that early load for your team, please? TOURE' MURRY: Well, my main thing is to just come out aggressive, you know. I know Osiris going to come at me, so my thing is to come at him and get him in foul trouble a little bit. That's their best player. When he's not offensively in the game it's tough for him to score. So my main thing was to go at him and get aggressive, get momentum. Q. I know you played the option, but what did you see that made you throw it? DEMETRIC WILLIAMS: Well, I kind of see like down the floor who was getting back. And both the big men came forward and the defender playing with him. And Graham Hatch, I know he can grab the ball because he's an athletic player. So I just threw it, and hopefully he'll make the catch because I just trust him. Q. You guys have Osiris Eldridge the conference's leading scorer to one point in the second half and eight points overall. Can you speak to your game plan going against him? DEMETRIC WILLIAMS: Main thing was to come out and make him shoot contested shots, because he's a very good shooter. When he shoots the open shots, usually he makes them. So my main thing was just contest. And I know my teammates are going to help me when I got picked off by someone. It was all team effort, and we did it. Q. Garret, you played Northern Iowa twice. They obviously have a very good inside game. What have you learned from those first two games that you can take forward tomorrow both offensively and defensively to have an impact on the championship game? GARRETT STUTZ: The last game, I watched that film a couple times obviously, and it was a low point in the season for me. I've just got to come out tomorrow and be the aggressor. I can't wait for them to send a punch at me first and I go back at them. I have to come out and really stick it to them. Q. Demetric, you hit a big three there kind of late where you looked at J.T. and hit the three. Just take us through that play and what was going through your mind? DEMETRIC WILLIAMS: Well, the intention was to get it to J.T. So I looked at him and seen that Osiris was backing up on me. But I still wanted to on get it to J.T. Then I felt he was too far so I had confidence to knock the shot down. Q. Late in the game with about 1:30 left you grabbed the offensive rebound and missed free throw that put you up by nine and that turned out to be the difference the way Illinois State came back. Can you take us through what happened on that play? GARRETT STUTZ: We have sets with the two guys on the free-throw line. And we communicated to cross and tried to get under the basket, and Graham did a great job getting his guy low he and he kept it alive. The ball was right above me I grabbed it and laid it in. Q. Wichita State hasn't been to a conference tournament final since 1987. Can you sum up what this means to you individually and what you think it means to the team and the school just to get to this stage to deliver this? TOURE' MURRY: I think it's a great thing for the whole Shockers Nation. They've been looking to go to a championship. Since we've been in St. Louis, we've never been. So we're just happy to make it, so we did it for the whole Shocker Nation. GARRETT STUTZ: It's obviously a tremendous opportunity for the team and the fans. We're really looking forward to it, and glad we made it this far, and we have one more game to complete before the true postseason. DEMETRIC WILLIAMS: It feels really good to be a part of this team and go back to a championship for the Shocker Nation. And bring the win back home. Q. The progression of Garrett, I would imagine nine other coaches in this league are noticing that. What do you think their attitude about that must be? COACH MARSHALL: Well, he's an excellent young player. There's a lot of great players in this league. We happen to have three -- I'm sitting up here and if you caught me smiling, I'm happy that we won, but it dawned on me that we have two sophomores and a freshman on the podium here and they all played great basketball today. So they're probably thinking, you know, I've got to get my 6'10, 6'11, 7 footer. Because if he stays healthy and continues to work with Kerry Rosenboom, our strength and conditioning coach who does a great job, and he's starting to get that edge, and he's always wanted to win, but the gnarliness, and the toughness are starting to emerge. I guess he's been around me for a while. By mean he just is coming. I really don't care what they think right now. We've got to do the best job that we can do for Wichita State. We've got another 7-footer coming next year that's not nearly as offensive minded, but he's quite a man. He can block some shots and rebound. Q. You had your largest lead of the game of 10 points, and the Illinois State came back after that. Can you talk about what happened late in the game? COACH MARSHALL: They made the shot. I don't have a play-by-play here, and I don't have a photographic memory. But I do remember turning it over one time on the sideline. J.T. Durley said he passed the ball and it was deflected. And they got the ball, I don't know whether it was a missed call or not, but Durley said it was deflected. I think he missed one free throw one time. They missed one for two, and that happens. They hit some threes. You've got to foul and hope they miss so you can come down and launch threes. Three for two, three for one, three for zero. But we again made 75%. And I think that was the only turnover as I recall. We worked some clock, but they're a very talented team, and they've got a lot of guys that can score, and that's what they did. Q. You're playing awfully good basketball after grinding the last few weeks or so of the season. You seem to have caught a bit of a second wind. Can you talk about that generally right now? COACH MARSHALL: Well, it's a season. It's a long season. Seasons like in a year. You have seasons. You have fall, spring, summer, winter, they're not all the same. Every game's not the same. Every opponent's not the same. You have highs and lows, and some people want to jump off the bridge, and others try to keep it more even keel. You have good guys that have the talent, ability to shine in situations like this. And this is a different game. Everybody is giving their best. Everybody wants to win a championship in March. Some guys have a little more athleticism, maybe more skill. And I'm fortunate to have a group like that. Northern Iowa's got a group like that, and they've proven it before. This group has not proven they can win a championship yet, but their opportunity is tomorrow. Q. You mentioned on the home run ball you wanted to get the ball down the court. Given the previous play you didn't get the ball inbounds, was that more of a viable option at the time and maybe a surprise factor? COACH MARSHALL: I think like I said, it was a gamble. I understand that. But I think we did get the ball inbounds if I'm not mistaken the play before. That's where Durley threw the ball into their bench. So I don't know, but I know that we were struggling against their pressure. They were all in. Their chips were in, all hands on deck. They were nine guys and somehow you've got to relieve the pressure. You fill a water balloon to a certain point, and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, and sometimes you have to relieve the pressure. So you stick a little pin in it and the water's going to come out. So we were able to relieve the pressure in a big-time way. Toure's done that. I mean, you've seen the play. In three years we're probably 10 for 10 on it maybe, if not more. It hasn't failed us yet. One day it's going to fail and I'm going to look like a ding-dong. And Graham's going to trip over himself. He did go to the basket once he caught that ball. He took two or three dribbles and he's getting banged a little bit. He still puts it in the basket. Again, you've got to have faith in your players to make plays. Those guys they hooked up and made a big-time play. Q. How important has it been for Demetric to step up and give you what he's given you? COACH MARSHALL: Man, are you kidding me? Wow, you could write a story about that. This kid must live for the postseason. I haven't seen him play like this all year. Now he's strung a couple of games together and he was playing well at the end of the season, but you have to grasp your opportunities in life and this is an opportunity for him. He didn't verbalize this to me, but I could almost tell. I'm not at all insinuating that he was glad that David Kyles was hurt, but there became a little bit of a different bounce to his step once that happened, and he's emerged to fill the spot. And he's filled it quite admirably, if you will. He's a big part of why we won today. Q. Getting back to how the team was able to shut down Osiris Eldridge. What was your approach to him coming into the game? And overall how pleased were you with the team's performance. Toure'? COACH MARSHALL: Tonight Toure' Murry had 17 points and he was 6 of 9 from the field. When we needed a basket in the end, I said, everybody get out of the way. We're going to run the C play. Give the ball to Toure' Murry and see what he can get you. And he got us a big hoop with a pull-back jumper. He's a dynamite performer. But what people don't see and fans don't understand as much as coaches is the defensive player that he's become. He's the lock-down defender now, and he loves the opportunity to play against guys like Osiris Eldridge who has proven to be one of the best players if not thee best and most athletically gifted in this league. So Toure' Murry did a marvelous job. Our zone, we always knew where he was. And if he was getting shots, by and large, they were contested shots. Q. The players were asked what it means to them to finally get to that championship game. What's it mean to you? Is there a sense of accomplishment? I know you have one game left, a big one, but. COACH MARSHALL: I'm glad you asked that question because it is a sense of accomplishment. It is a 25th win on a year where we were picked fifth in the valley. It's a chance to win a championship. I didn't realize it was since 1987, but I trust Mr. Hurdle there. It's a chance for us to give back. You know, we have a great group of fans. I caught myself just hesitating to walk off the court today because of what they mean to us and me personally and just soaking up the excitement that they were experiencing along with our team. It was great. It was a great feeling. And the best is yet to come. It's kind of a double-edged sword because it's a sense of accomplishment, but still the biggest accomplishment is right there in front of us. So we've got another game tomorrow, and we've got a great opponent. But we keep battling. And if we keep battling, we've got the horses to give anyone a game: End of FastScripts |
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