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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: TULSAMarch 18, 2011Oscar BellfieldLon KrugerAnthony MarshallChace StanbackTULSA, OKLAHOMA Illinois – 73 THE MODERATOR: Coach, an opening statement and questions for the student-athletes. COACH KRUGER: Thank you. Obviously, the line and I were much the better team, controlled things from the very start. Jumped on us early, and didn't like the way we responded the first half. Thought we came back and fought a bit better in the second half. But, again, Illinois had control of the of game pretty much from the start, and Coach Weber had them good and ready, and I thought they played great and did a good job. Q. Did you sense that this team was not ready to play or what happened in the first half? ANTHONY MARSHALL: I felt the last couple of days going into this game we were prepared. In practice we went over the things we wanted to do, practiced hard, thought we were mentally ready and they just kind of jumped on us in the first half. We really didn't respond like we wanted to, and I felt the second half we came back and we played until the buzzer sounded. We never gave up and it was a team effort. We win together, we lose together, that's why they call it a family. CHACE STANBACK: I felt like our preparation was pretty solid. Everybody seemed really focused since we were in Vegas to when we got here. They just jumped out on us, like you said, early, and it's tough to come back in a game like that when you dig yourselves a hole like that. But I felt like we fought hard in the second half. And again, we dug ourselves too deep of a hole. Q. What was it in the first half that overwhelmed you guys? Was it their inside strength just not being able to defend their hot shooters? Can you explain what happened? What you felt was going on out there? ANTHONY MARSHALL: I felt our communication wasn't as good as it could have been. They got it out in transition and really ran. If we were talking, we would have cut some of that down by guys getting back in communication, played a big part in basketball. And I really didn't feel like we did that the best of our capabilities in the first half. And you know, the second half after we came into the locker room, we talked about it and the things that we needed to work on. I felt like we put forth the effort to doing that. We wanted to talk more, we wanted to compete harder. We tried to do that. And like I said, we just played until the buzzer sounded. CHACE STANBACK: Yeah, in the first half, I felt like our communication wasn't up to par. And we gave up so many transition buckets. Like I said, we dug ourselves a hole. We were taking too many jump shots when we should have been attacking. But, I mean, that just happens. We just weren't able to knock the shots down. We got a few open looks, but we just weren't knocking them down. In the second half, I felt like we again played harder than in the first. Q. We haven't seen this team get beaten like this in the first half in several seasons. You were having a hard time explaining what happened there. I mean, how disappointing was it, and just tell me some of what your feels were at halftime? OSCAR BELLFIELD: It was very disappointing. We beat ourselves from the beginning. We really came out flat and not enough energy. I mean, we kind of spread it apart, but then in the second half we came together and really fought through it. Q. Can you talk about next season and the team you've got coming back? ANTHONY MARSHALL: We lose two seniors, well, actually four, and Derrick, Tre', Mychal and Tyler, and we've got the majority of the guys coming back. Mike Moser and a couple of other guys. And I feel like it's going to be a good year. We'll get into practice and do the things we need to do to get ready for next year, excited. OSCAR BELLFIELD: I feel like next year we just have to set the bar standard high. We've got to go out and try to get better each and every day. And really take in this season and see what we did wrong and the ins and outs of things and just try to make it better. CHACE STANBACK: Yeah, we got a good group of guys coming back next season. Obviously we lose a big core of this team in Derrick and Tre', but we've just got to work every day, get better every day and we should be fine. Q. Can you talk about how stunning this loss was to you? Did you feel confident going into the game? CHACE STANBACK: Yeah, as a team we all feel confident. We were very focused on what we had to do offensively and defensively. We executed and went over our game plan. We felt like we knew everything we needed to know. Unfortunately we didn't come out with that intensity that we needed to come out with. Q. Tre'von Willis only played the first two minutes of the second half. Why did he sit on the bench the rest? COACH KRUGER: He said he felt something in that knee that wasn't right and didn't feel like he could help the group. So that's the end, the injury, yeah. Q. You had seen some film of Illinois, but was that the best you've seen them play? COACH KRUGER: I thought they played great. We'd seen stretches during the year where they'd played like that for sure, and I thought they got us on our heels early. They were very fast out of the back court in transition. We didn't do a really good job in our transition defensively, and they took advantage of that. They were sharp. They were sharp making shots early. I thought they played with that bounce to their step. When that happens and one team gets an upper hand like that, the other team's on its heels. It's not like our guys wanted to play with less energy, but Illinois won all of those energy battles. That kind of snowballed on us and I thought Illinois played great. Q. Can you just describe your feelings of what was going on there in the first half and how surprised you were that your team was getting whipped like that? What was your message at halftime? COACH KRUGER: It's disappointing for the guys because they played really well in the last month especially. They've done the thing that's they needed to do to earn the opportunity to be here. Then to play like that in the first half was -- everyone was disappointed for sure. Again, credit to Illinois. They caused a lot of that. But still you always feel like you can step up and prevent that from happening and we didn't in the first half. We were across the board disappointed in the first half. Talked about, as Anthony said is, going out in the second half and just have to compete harder, fight harder, and stick our nose in there and compete like crazy for 20 minutes. I thought our guys did that. But still Illinois won all the battles. Q. Can you talk about the team you have coming back next year? You lose Tre'von and Derrick Jasper, obviously, but you have most of these guys back? COACH KRUGER: The group back, most of them have been to two tournaments. They've done a good job, and they want to go farther. They'll work hard, there is no question about that. It will be a great group to work with. They have great attitudes about working hard, they have great attitudes about want to go get better, and about the only good thing that can come from this is to learn from it. When you get whipped like this, hopefully it will motivate you in the spring and summer and fall. I have no doubt it will motivate this group. Q. I asked Coach Pastner earlier, looking across and seeing the team that's on the front of the jersey how that affected him. How did that affect you, the result, being the team that it was? COACH KRUGER: It's been 11 or 12 years since we've been there, and we had great memories from our time there. Barb and I enjoyed champagne tremendously, and great people, and nothing but great memories. Yet when the game starts, that doesn't enter in actually at all. It's good to see. Ron Guenther is a terrific leader of that program, and several other guys that we knew while we were there. But once the game starts, it's certainly not going to have any effect on the game, certainly our players for sure. Q. When you're at a stage like this you obviously want to perform well. How much does this sting for you? COACH KRUGER: It's disappointing regardless of the stage. When the stage is big like this, it runs a little deeper, probably. But still the initial thought is the fact that they lined up and just did things much better than we did. Regardless of any people in the gym or not, that's going to sting. Obviously when it comes to a tournament game, you feel it a little bit deeper. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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