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

March 19, 2011

Mick Cronin

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Connecticut Â– 69
Cincinnati - 58

MODERATOR: We're joined by Cincinnati Head Coach Mick Cronin along with senior Rashad Bishop.
COACH MICK CRONIN: Congratulations to UConn. Hopefully they can carry the Big East banner and go out west and win a couple games and get to the Final Four. Obviously tough loss for us or anybody that lost today for that matter. But personally tough loss for the Bearcats, or for me. We got six seniors that have helped me rebuild our program. And it's tough for everybody right now. So our locker room is pretty despondent, as you can imagine.
Free throws were the difference in the game. We're minus 15 in that department, and you're not going to beat anybody with a free-throw disparate of that magnitude. We had our chances. We missed the front end of the bonus to take the lead and two foot layup and wide open three. And I thought we got a little feeding in our zone. They exploited it, got a five-point lead with about three minutes to play and that was really the difference in the game. We just weren't able to answer and get the ball in the basket where we needed to to keep the game tied and where it needed to be. But gotta give them all the credit.
MODERATOR: We're going to take questions for Rashad first.

Q. Rashad, did you guys get away from feeding Yancy down the stretch it looked like the perimeter guys got a little happy with the ball and he didn't touch it for about a three-minute period?
RASHAD BISHOP: I think we did get away from him a little bit, but I think we was just making plays and trying to get fouled and make plays and unfortunately we didn't make enough of them.

Q. What's it like playing your final game for Cincinnati?
RASHAD BISHOP: It's tough. I had a great career. I had a lot of fun with the guys I played with, and it was real fun. These guys we all worked hard all four years we just gave everything we had and I'm proud of everybody. We're disappointed we didn't win but we're all proud of the year for what we accomplished this year.

Q. Rashad, it's tough to do right now I'm sure, but looking back on the four years and everything that you and your fellow seniors did for this program, how can you sum up that journey right now?
RASHAD BISHOP: I would just say it was a great journey. We had our ups and downs but we stayed together, we stuck together, kept working hard every year trying to get better and better, and I think now that we put our name -- we got Cincinnati back building back up to where it used to be. So we're proud of that.

Q. Rashad, was there anything that kind of turned the momentum in the second half? Did they just kind of wear you guys down a little bit or what do you think changed in the second half after you made the comeback?
RASHAD BISHOP: I just think we got a little fatigued. I think we was just a little tired. We didn't make rotations, we weren't talking like we were earlier in the second half and they made us pay.
MODERATOR: Any other questions for Rashad?

Q. Rashad, how challenging is it switching defenses with maybe showing man and switching zone and whatnot? How challenging is that mentally?
RASHAD BISHOP: It's not really too difficult because we work on it in practice a lot, so it's just normal to us. We know where we have to be, I just think we was a little fatigued and we just weren't communicating.
MODERATOR: Okay, Rashad, you're all set. Thank you.
Open it up for we're going to open the floor for questions for Coach Cronin at this time.

Q. Coach, you guys have already played Connecticut once this year, what was your plan coming into the game? And obviously Kemba did a lot. What was your plan coming into the game?
COACH MICK CRONIN: We didn't want to foul him. He's 14-for-14 from the foul line, so that was the difference in the game. Gotta make people make shots. I think Coach Calhoun could have got 30 if we'd have given him 14 free throws.

Q. You played a lot of 2-3 zone in the first half, did you come into the game expecting to play that much zone early on?
COACH MICK CRONIN: No, we changed it up. They got to the bonus with seven minutes left in the first half. That's when we went -- we tried to go more exclusively to the zone. And imagine if we would have played man the whole game how many free throws they would have shot. That's kind of how I look at that.
MODERATOR: Other questions for Coach Cronin? All right, Coach, thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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