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MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 7, 2010

Johnny Moran

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

Northern Iowa Â– 67
Wichita State - 52

THE MODERATOR: The regular season and Tournament Champion Panthers are with us. We'll have Coach Ben Jacobson open up with a statement on the title game. Then we'll go to questions for the starting five student-athletes of UNI.
COACH JACOBSON: Thank you. That was a very good basketball game. I think two very good teams. I think we saw those of us in our league know and the country saw today why Wichita State is in that picture for an at large bid. They've crept back in there the last couple of weeks and they should because of the quality of team that they have. They've got the ability to play at a high level and they've done so a lot this year.
I think you saw two tournament teams out there today really battling hard. I'm proud of our guys for sticking with it and making plays. Our defense was good in the second half, and it had to be. I'll leave it there.

Q. Adam, going in at halftime down by throw, what did you guys feel besides scoring that you had to come out and do in the second half to try to get this game away?
ADAM KOCH: I think one of the biggest things we needed to do was try to continue to get some stops and get some defensive and offensive rebounds to attack the glass and get an advantage there.

Q. You guys went on a 23-3 run for about a 12 minute period. Is there anything that you did differently during that time that helped you establish that big lead and eventually get a convincing win?
ALI FAROKHMANESH: The 23-3 run, it was probably more had to do with our bench. Our bench stepped up huge for us tonight just like they did the night before. So I think our bench was the biggest difference in that stretch and then probably in the entire game overall. They made huge plays for us and they wore down the starters for Wichita and the guys that were playing all the minutes for them.
JOHNNY MORAN: I have to agree. The bench did a great job. Sparking the defense and offense for our team. Yet we just kept battling and they started knocking down shots and everything just kept going our way.

Q. Adam, you're held to four points tonight. I don't know what they were doing on you. Talk about the way your little brother stepped up today?
ADAM KOCH: Jake played great today. We've got confidence in him to make shots and make plays. He's doing it all the time in practice. It was great to see him today play with confidence and aggressiveness to start making those plays. When he's coming in and being that productive for our team, it just gives us a huge lift.

Q. Ali and Johnny have referenced it in reference to today's game, but the bench averaged 21.3 points through the course of the tournament. We've got the starting five up here, but talk about their contributions throughout the entirety of the Tournament here in St. Louis?
ADAM KOCH: Definitely, when they come into the game, there's not a drop off on. The energy and the level that they play at, it's tough for other teams to match up against when they come in and they're able to do the things that they do. For 40 minutes to have that kind of level of play from us, it's pretty tough.

Q. Talk about the Missouri Valley Conference Championship games. What's with that? Is there a certain extra thing you bring to it or what's going on there?
JOHNNY MORAN: I do love St. Louis. It's a great place to be. No, sometimes it's the right time or my teammates have given me opportunities to score the ball or pass the ball whatever. I think it's just how the game goes sometimes.

Q. It was 46-42, they called the timeout, and you guys were smiling. Almost like you knew you had them at that point. What was going through your heads?
ALI FAROKHMANESH: Kwadzo always smiles that's why he's got me smiling. That's just how our team is no matter what happens in the game, you can be down by 10, 12 points and we know we can make a shot and spark our run.
KWADZO AHELEGBE: Ali was telling me that I had to close out the hatch or something like that. And I laughed and it was like all right, I won't mess up.
I've got two great shooters, so it's easy. Sometimes if the shots aren't falling I'm sure it will next time.

Q. Talk about how important it was to be aggressive? It looked like after the Opening minutes you got that lay-up, but it was attack, attacking attack. How important was it to take it to Wichita State?
KWADZO AHELEGBE: I was focusing on the two games I had before. And I came out aggressive and they had a little success with that. So I tried to come with the main focus with that. But like I said, I have an easy job.
When you can get to the basket and nobody's there because you have two great shooters, it's easy, easy money.

Q. Three straight days we've seen teams go on long scoring droughts. Do you see them getting frustrated? It's got to be a helpless feeling for them when the shots aren't falling and there is somebody in their face all the time?
KWADZO AHELEGBE: I don't really focus on that. I just focus on playing defense. Because if I don't my coach might whoop my butt, so (laughing).

Q. Can you just kind of compare this year's MVC Championship to last years?
JORDAN EGLSEDER: This year was huge for us. We worked really hard this off-season to get ready. And I mean as well as everyone did. But this is our last shot. So this is huge for us. I mean, just for comparing to last year, man, we did it this year. We had Travis and Carlton with us last year. But this year we just played great basketball. Our defense has been great all season.
Just to be able to do that with everyone, with all the targets we had on our back this year, we got everyone's best game all year. Just to know that, we're really proud of that.
ADAM KOCH: I think the biggest difference like Jordan said was the expectation going into this year. Last year I don't know if we were expected to win the conference championships, but this year we definitely were. That makes it different this year. It's special though.

Q. What is the feeling like knowing that you're going to be one of the team's selected to go and play in the big dance now?
KWADZO AHELEGBE: I mean, it feels good. We get to practice for about a week now and wait for selection Sunday. But I mean it feels good knowing that we're going to be one of the teams. We don't know where we're going to be, but it feels good knowing that we can just worry about practicing and getting better now.
JORDAN EGLSEDER: Yeah, it's a great feeling to have. Having that experience last year, you know, I'm going to do some things different. I'm sure we'll do some things different to prepare ourselves for this first game.

Q. For Jordan and Adam, speak to how physical this game was. I mean, Kwadzo ended up with a cut over his right eye. Kind of looks like a boxer a little bit. Speak to how physical this game was?
JORDAN EGLSEDER: It was a really physical game. I mean, we like it that way. I mean, me and Koch were down there banging, you I mean, everyone, Jake and Luke. That's how it goes down here. Both teams want to win so we're going to give it our all. That's just how it is.
ADAM KOCH: Yeah, our two games during the year with them were the same way. So we knew going in it's going to be physical. When you've got so much on the line for this game and both teams want it, it just takes it up to another notch. You just couldn't back down. You had to keep fighting for anything you could get.

Q. You had a steal from Garrett to help you guys build the lead. He had been dribbling a lot. When you see a 7-footer doing that, do you say at some point I'm going to get that?
KWADZO AHELEGBE: No, I was actually denying him because I didn't want him to touch it. And you're right. I saw a 7-footer dribbling the ball, and for any guard your eyes are going to light up (laughing). Yeah, I got that one from him.

Q. You said you loved St. Louis. Well, the NCAA Midwest Regional Tournament is here this year. Are you hoping to get in the Midwest region and if you get back to the Sweet 16, you're back here in the loop?
KWADZO AHELEGBE: Let's take it one game at a time. And wherever we are, I don't think it really matters. But if we were close, it would be great for our fan support.

Q. In previous tournament experience you guys have been not favored in your NCAA games, and now you're going to go into a tournament and you're probably going to be favored over the team you're playing. How do you prepare differently and do you take a different mentality with that?
ALI FAROKHMANESH: I think just as a group we don't care about what anybody else thinks. We'll all have a chip on our shoulder no matter what going into that game. It's not going to factor in what everybody else thinks because we've got our chip on our shoulder trying to prove other things out there.

Q. Could you kind of analyze what you saw during that 23-3 run or 12 minutes that they went without scoring?
COACH JACOBSON: That would have been midway through the second half, if I'm not mistaken. Defensively we got better. Did a better job on some ball screen things and did a better job at defending the post. And I do feel that our bench played a factor in that, whether they were on the floor during that run. But leading up to that is where they really played a factor. Being productive in the first half offensively. Really going after guys defensively.
Our starters at that point in the game should have had some juice in them and our bench was the key to that run.

Q. Jon Wooden has said, It's one thing to get there and harder to stay there." Was this year harder than last year's run?
COACH JACOBSON: I don't know if harder is the right word. They're very different. And for me as a head coach the first time I've gone through as a head coach, I've been an assistant and player in this situation, but as a head coach it's different. Not just for me but for our team.
There are cases on the road where the crowd is bigger and they're more into it. They know we have a basketball team that's going to be in the hunt for the big title. There are certainly some differences.
Last year we just got things rolling. Everything was fine. We just kept winning games and we kept going, and it's still hard to win in this league and hard to do what we did last year. But this year it takes a very determined effort every day at practice and every day you step on the court because of what those expectations are.
I'm proud of our guys for that determination they showed every day to make sure they're ready to play as well as they can because they knew they had to.

Q. The five guys that were up on the podium are well known to league observers. They've been contributors now for two years. Your bench averaged 21.3 in the tournament. Even Lucas is a two-time sixth man of the year. Maybe these other guys, can you talk about the respect they earned in this tournament and give the perception that you guys are a deeper team than what the perception has been?
COACH JACOBSON: You know, I would throw Kerwin in there with Luke. Both those guys, they were very good year last year. Kerwin had a good year this year. So their experience has helped us. Those two guys, I know we can count on them in any and all situations. Late game, if there's a run going either way. I know those two guys because of their experience and quality of player they are, we can count on those two.
I think those three freshmen, maybe I should have been playing those guys a little bit more a month and a half ago. They've done a great job at practice, and obviously this weekend and in particular the last two days. What we saw out of those three freshmen, that was good basketball.
I liked how they defended. They come up with Sonnen with big hoops in the first half, and Anthony with hoops, and Jake extremely important today at the offensive end. They've got a great understanding of what we have to defend and rebound the ball. For the freshmen, they do a good job at the defensive end of the floor.

Q. Before the game, if somebody would have told you that Adam wouldn't score the point and you'd win by 15 points, what would you have said to them?
COACH JACOBSON: I certainly wouldn't have thought that we would have won the basketball game let alone by double figures. If Adam doesn't even get on the scoreboard. Although we've had other games where any of these five guys up here have had two points or four points and when they're averaging 11 or 12, and we've had other guys step up and make plays and come through for us offensively.
I just think the depth of our team and the trust they have in each other, they're not worried about themselves getting points. They just want to win basketball games and that showed up again today.

Q. Was the plan to use that second group to gap the other team's starters coming in or is it just kind of these guys are playing well? How you did that evolve?
COACH JACOBSON: I'll tell you where it evolved was yesterday. The way those guys played yesterday really helped me and our staff in terms of how we could approach this game, because those three freshmen played so well yesterday.
I felt great after that basketball game because I felt like we were going to be able to play ten guys today. And I felt we were going to do our best to go after them and try to put as much pressure on as we could and keep going to those guys on the bench. Hoping at some point during the course of the basketball game that we'd get a little bit of a run to get separation. Because I knew it was going to be a close game. Just hoping there would be a spot in there where we could get a little bit of a run.

Q. Could you just speak about what the next week is going to be like now that you have a spot in the tournament? Is anything going to change as far as practice goes?
COACH JACOBSON: No, I think our experience last year will help us. We'll do some of the things we did a year ago, and there are as Kwadzo mentioned there are things we can do different this week than we did a year ago. And we'll have a day or two off to start the week. Then we'll get back to practice and really work on our stuff, really work on some things at both ends of the floor.
That was important coming in here. We had four days of practice and really worked on some things at the offensive end and it helped us. So I really enjoy these practices. Thinking back to last year when we were just working on our team. We've got a chance to get better during the next five or six days before Selection Sunday.

Q. Being down by three points at halftime, what did you tell the guys starting the second half?
COACH JACOBSON: There were a couple plays I didn't like. Adam Koch reached in and fouled Hatch. He had no business reaching in there. Jordan had a rebound he didn't get. Jordan didn't show on the ball screen on Hannah. There were some plays I did not like in that first half.
So we talked about three or four specific plays, and then got back to this is what we've got to do. But there were three or four specific plays that I talked about. For us to be good and win games, we have to do things the right way. We had to be fundamentally sound. I didn't like a couple of plays in that first half. After we talked about those we got on to bigger picture stuff.

Q. You had so many guys contribute down here. Now you have a 12-day layoff, how do you keep that momentum rolling?
COACH JACOBSON: I think enough things have happened right now. We need to take two days off, two of the next three days off. Whether they're two in a row or not, you know. Then you're almost to mid week. You can have three good practices just working on your team. Then you're a day off, you've got Selection Sunday and you start working on the next opponent.
So ten days seems like a long time, but when you break it down as you did a year ago, and we may shift around a little, but it goes a little faster. What I like the most is the time with our team working on our stuff. We'll get three good days of that for sure.

Q. I remember after the Purdue game you said we're going to get one of these things, meaning a win in the tournament. How do you feel about the tournament going into it right now, where you guys are at? Is this something you've been pointing towards before the end of the season?
COACH JACOBSON: I really like how we played here. We had a very good win over Illinois State before we got here. We played very well in the second half of the Drake game. Then two terrific games. I thought we really played well. We knew we had to to win both of those games.
Again, I knew today was going to be a close game. So that momentum helps as we go into practices getting ready for this. That's an important part and we've got momentum and confidence in the things that we're doing.
Certainly this is on their list of goals. They get to decide as a team what their goals are, and there are a couple still on there that we have not gotten. So there is a lot of motivation still.

Q. Can you talk about Jake Koch and Adam? What similarities do they have? Different styles, one's a senior, one's a freshman, but what makes them similar and a guy like Jake to do what he can today?
COACH JACOBSON: You know, there's -- Adam drives it better. I think about the basketball stuff first. Adam is much more athletic. He drives it better, he gets to the free-throw line more. Jake, at the same age Jake is shooting the ball better from the three-point line. Adam is now shooting it better from the three-point line.
But in terms of their personalities, Jake's a little bit more outgoing, if you will. Adam has really grown into that. I can tell you this, they have been really good for each other. Adam has had a tremendous impact on Jake's work ethic in terms of getting in the weight room, in terms of getting extra shots up, in terms of doing all the things you have to do to do what an Adam Koch does. Being consistent over two years, and being in the running for player of the year as a junior, being player of the year as a senior, to do that you have to be consistent in your approach all year long.
And I think Adam's had an impact on what it takes for Jake to be really good. Jake's outgoing, he's fun to be around, his teammates love him, and that's been good for Adam.

End of FastScripts

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MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 7, 2010

Kwadzo Ahelegbe

Jordan Eglseder

Ali Farokhmanesh

Ben Jacobson

Adam Koch

Johnny Moran