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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: CLEVELAND

March 18, 2011

Andrew Taylor

CLEVELAND, OHIO

Marquette Â– 66
Xavier - 55

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Xavier University head coach Chris Mack and student-athletes Andrew Taylor, Kenny Frease and Tu Holloway. Coach, an opening statement.
COACH MACK: As tough as it is, as I told our kids in the locker room, to look back on the entirety of the season, I'm proud of our group. Certainly we didn't come this far without thinking that we were going to advance. That's what our goals were, and you can't always get what you want.
But it doesn't take away the fact that these kids believed in themselves when a lot of people didn't. And for that I'm extremely proud to be their coach on a very tough night.
Marquette, in my opinion, was the better team tonight. Certainly hurt our offense with Mark Lyons being in foul trouble early on. He's one of our primary ball handlers and takes a lot of pressure off of Tu in terms of getting the ball to the spots we need to be effective on offense.
A 13-point deficit at halftime, it was hard to overcome in the second half against a very good, hard-playing Marquette team.
Give those guys a lot of credit. As tough as it is to swallow, I'm extremely proud of our group.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Tu, can you sort of explain what they were doing to you defensively and how it made it tough on you to play your normal game?
TU HOLLOWAY: I don't know. I really couldn't figure that out. I guess I was just missing shots today.

Q. Tu, can you explain what happens to the offense when Mark Lyons is out for 15 of the first 20 minutes?
TU HOLLOWAY: Exactly what Coach Mack said: They put a lot of pressure on me, so with Mark in the game it can take a little pressure off, but we couldn't do that.

Q. Andrew, you had a career night tonight, can you talk about what opportunities you had and do you feel like that was a product of them really clamping down on guys like Tu and Mark having his foul trouble?
ANDREW TAYLOR: Yeah. I think they really focused on pressuring our guards. And late in the game they really opened things up for Kenny and I.
But I give all the credit in the world to Marquette. They played hard. They deserve it.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. Questions for Coach.

Q. Can I ask you the same question? I understand Tu wasn't real talkative. Could you sort of explain what they were up to and how it made it tough for you guys, aside from not having Mark out there?
COACH MACK: Well, we faced a team that really likes to pressure out on the perimeter. And obviously their goal was to really force Terrel to give the ball up.
And, again, when you have -- we've faced pressure teams before, but usually when you have Mark on the floor, it becomes a little bit tougher to extend that far out with two guys that can get to the rim.
DantÃ© and Jeff and the rest of the perimeter players are good players, but they're not necessarily break-down-the-defense-type players with the basketball.
So it gave us a tough way to go in the first half. And I thought that was really the difference in the game. Our inability to handle their pressure in the first half. I thought we did a better job in the second half. But certainly not one that could overcome a 13-point deficit at halftime.

Q. Did you make a conscious effort to get someone other than Tu going early? DantÃ© took the first shot, the 3 from the corner with about 15 seconds into the game. And also did this game -- and I know Mark was out for 15 of the first 20 minutes, but did this game kind of point up the notion that this team never really developed a complementary guy to go along with Tu and it hurt you tonight?
COACH MACK: Well, I wouldn't necessarily say that we hadn't developed the complementary guy. We certainly had a couple of players make the All-Conference team. I think that's very complementary.
I would say that what hurt us early on was our inability to make shots around the basket, which is a little unusual. And our shooting percentage was 30 percent in the first half.
Again, I think we put ourselves behind the eight ball, and Mark not being on the floor hurt us. It did.
But we tried to make no excuses and try to adjust in the second half. It's tough to overcome a 13-point deficit against a very quality opponent in Marquette.

Q. It seemed like every time you guys cut it to 9 or to 8, they came right back and pushed it back up to 11, 12, 13. It seemed like you couldn't really narrow that gap. How come you couldn't push that together?
COACH MACK: Well, I think, number one, we're playing against a very good team. You know, a team that averages around 80 points a game in the Big East.
They have very skilled players. They have a system, an offense that scores a lot of points. And for us to hold them to 66, you know, our struggles were really in the first half.
But you're right. I thought there were a couple of moments where the momentum maybe started to swing in our favor. And we just couldn't get that stop or that basket to go from eight to six and put even more pressure on them in a game as big as an NCAA Tournament game.
And, you know, it's frustrating, it's disappointing. But, again, I go back to I'm really proud of our group. We just couldn't get the job done tonight.

Q. Building on the defense that they played on Tu, had Tu seen anybody defensively with the kind of length that Butler presented?
COACH MACK: Certainly not on a game in, game out. I can't particularly recall a time where somebody like a Jimmy Butler hounded him the entire game.
But the primary defender on Terrel a lot of times isn't as relevant as the ball screen defender. And I thought that's where Marquette did a better job than the majority of the teams we played this year of making him give it up, not allowing him to split the ball screen, reject the ball screen, all the things that we've worked on, he's worked on extremely hard this season. And that's why I give a lot of credit to those guys for the type of defense they were able to play against us in the half court.

Q. Tu had eight shots in the game, five of those came in the first half. Despite his struggles, would you have rather him be more aggressive in the second half, thinking that eventually somebody with his talent would knock some of those down?
COACH MACK: I don't want anybody going outside of the offense or outside of their element and trying to create things when they're not there. He just -- it was tough for him to find open spots. It was tough to find seams and creases to get to the rim.
He took what the defense gave him. But, again, when they put two guys on you and force you to give the basketball up, it's not wise to start taking ill-advised shots.
And give them a lot of credit. They made our other players sort of step up and maybe in roles, and that's why you see a guy like Andrew Taylor get 16, but in roles they weren't necessarily comfortable with the entire year.

Q. If you look back to October with Brad going down and Justin going down, you referenced a moment ago, but what would be your assessment looking back on that point to where you are now?
COACH MACK: Again, it's hard to see that in the present. We just finished a game 15, 20 minutes ago. And our season's over. But where we were October 15th, I love the journey our kids made. It's hard to see that at this particular moment in time.
But we have a few weeks to sort of put this loss behind us and reflect back. I'm really proud of our kids. Jamel McLean and DantÃ© Jackson and Andrew Taylor, three seniors I'd have them for sons if I could, to be that lucky. They're great kids. They continue to listen to the coaches, believing in each other, and it's just a shame that our season had to end tonight. We won't be the only one that bows out of this tournament.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

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