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NIT POSTSEASON

March 29, 2011

Garrett Stutz

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

WICHITA STATE Â– 75
WASHINGTON STATE - 44

COACH GREGG MARSHALL: That's about as well as we've played in a long time, and I'm just so happy that these guys are continuing to play. They have really shown a lot of resilience, and they seem to be getting better, which is what you want your teams to do is play better at the end. But we were very respectful of Washington State, and I think our defense, Coach Gross, my coach that did the scouting, did a wonderful job of preparing the guys and we did a great job of executing a game plan beautifully and these guys were very tough. So very proud of them.

Q. Garrett, just talk about what was working to get you in such good position to score.
GARRETT STUTZ: Really good ball movement. Guards were moving it really well. As a team we were flowing together and the coaches have been working with me a lot on timing my sit-ins and it all just kind of came together tonight.

Q. Getting the good position you have been talking about a lot; were you able to do that tonight?
GARRETT STUTZ: Yeah, for the most part. They pushed off the block a couple of times, but for the most part, just kind of -- that's the way our offense works is it runs off deep post touches.

Q. How did it feel to have the best game of your career?
GARRETT STUTZ: Yeah, it's going to be a good memory I'll have for the rest of my life.

Q. You guys didn't start out that well shooting the ball but still had a nice game; did you feel Washington State backed off a little bit, because it sure appeared that way.
GABE BLAIR: No, we just felt like coming out with great intensity to play on defense especially; was probably just going to get us the lead and we started to make shots and just pushing the lead up. I think we came out with a defensive focus, stayed focused on defense and stopped two good players who are probably going to the League this year or next year. That was our focus really.

Q. Can you talk about shutting down Klay Thompson as much as you did, six points, whatever he had?
GABE BLAIR: Yeah, I think the past three or four days, we have been watching film and coaches told us, I mean, if we want to win a game we have to stop these two players, (Klay Thompson and DeAngelo Casto) especially Klay Thompson, and he told us, sometimes he'll be out of control, so he'll try to step in and take charge and just beat them to the spot and just play tough on them and make him make tough shots; make him beat us, and that's what we tried to do tonight, you know. It didn't work out for them tonight.
GARRETT STUTZ: To add to that, I think Toure' Murry got into the game and threw him off his rhythm early. There's a lot of praise for that.

Q. Have you ever looked at a box score before and see the other team not make a 3-pointer?
GABE BLAIR: I didn't even notice that until you said it. But definitely it gives a tribute to our defense and how tough we were playing on defense. But that's definitely a stat that will win you some games, a lot of them.

Q. You seem to be walking into these press conferences saying, "that's about as well as we've played in a long time," quite often. Why has this team done so well?
COACH GREGG MARSHALL: I don't know. It's just -- in our league, you know, it's just so physical. So it's grab; it's like rugby football. And here, there's a little more flow to the game, and you're playing out-of-conference schools. It's not as -- teams don't know you quite as well. And you know, our plays certainly helped get Garrett and some of the other guys in great post position. But these kids have just -- they were very disappointed. Obviously we have talked about this ad nauseum. They wanted to go to the NCAA Tournament. They felt like they could be a very good team in the NCAA tournament. Just didn't work out for us.
You bloom where you're planted, and we are planted in this tournament, and it's a great tournament, and here we are in New York with a chance to play for a championship.

Q. Have you ever imposed your will like that on a BCS school, Pac-10 school?
COACH GREGG MARSHALL: I think we beat Georgia by 20 one time. I'm not sure that -- I would have to go back and look. There was one or two just about every year -- well, Nebraska was close in the first round.

Q. Let me ask you this, were you surprised --
COACH GREGG MARSHALL: Very surprised. I have a lot of respect for Ken Bone. I've watched enough film; I was nervous as I could be today the last -- after pre-game meal. Tried to sleep and then I watched more video and then I went back and watched a Gonzaga game where they killed Gonzaga in early February and made me just want to have more anxiety and more tossing and turning.
So, you know, it just comes to -- you and I talked before the game. It's the worst time in the world, because you see Klay Thompson, he's a mid-round, first-round guy if he wants to be. But he can also come back and Ken is going to build that thing. They beat Washington twice and the last time at Washington late in February. I watched that game this morning, and just did it methodically. That's a very good basketball team. We were in Maui with Washington. I know what he's doing, and he's going to get it done. He mixes up defenses very well.
Thompson being in foul trouble certainly played a part. But, you know, our guys stepped in and took charges, which is what we wanted to do and it's part of the game. So I was very, very proud and pleased with the way we played.

Q. This team has now won more games than any other team in the program history; can you describe what that means to you and to your players?
COACH GREGG MARSHALL: Well, it means a great deal. When I walked into the Garden, before I came down and saw Mick Jagger and Red Buttons and all of the greats that played here, I took a wrong turn and I saw the 1977 championship team and that team was represented by two Wichita State Shockers, Nate Bowman and Dave "The Rave" Stallworth who still comes to our practices and to our games.
This program has got proud tradition, a lot of great players, a lot of wonderful coaches, unbelievable fan support and just it's one of those icons in college basketball, in my opinion. If you have not been out there and you're a basketball junky, then you're missing a good one.
For us to be able to win more games than any of those teams, Ralph Miller, Coach Thompson, Coach Fogler. Listing coaches, that's quite a statement. To be playing this late in March, it's pretty fun.

Q. There's not many teams left playing right now, and a couple of them are from your conference. What does that say about your conference?
COACH GREGG MARSHALL: I'll give you one more, a team, VCU, who had a very fortuitous whistle to beat us in middle of February; and a team, UCONN that we led for 37 minutes. Could of, should of, but we didn't, we didn't beat either one of them and we know those programs pretty well, also.
It's great. You know, Creighton, I watched their game last night. I watched the last 16 minutes after our nice banquet that we had at the Boathouse and they are playing great. Dana Altman took his Oregon team back in there which had to be difficult, and Creighton won so, now they have to play back in or he gone, at least one more game if they win.
It's a good league. It's a hard league. I talked to Fran (Fraschilla) before the game and we were talking about a lot of things. He's always been a good friend. I said to him, you know, the toughest league to win is the one you're in. There's a lot of good basketball. Because he came to our game and he said, "you guys have an unbelievable facility and support. That's a snake pit," was his words. There are a lot of snake pits in our league. It's a hard place to win.

Q. Can you talk more about Garrett's play tonight?
COACH GREGG MARSHALL: Garrett Stutz, first of all, what most of you don't know, a couple of you do, is he's as fine a human being as you can ever find, and that's the way I start every conversation about Garrett Stutz. The adage, if my son could grow up to be Garrett Stutz, take away the fact that he's relatively handsome, tall, and a very talented basketball player, just for what's in his heart, I would be ecstatic.
So I love Garrett Stutz. He's a great kid. And he was just a beast tonight. He's got great hands. He stroked a three. He's playing with a broken nose. It's fractured so he does not have to wear the mask. He may have to start wearing the mask now. He's a wonderful guy. I thought he played extraordinarily well in the biggest stage. And a lot of times, he does that. He played great in the conference tournament last year. He played great in Kansas City in the CBE last year.
He also was accompanied by Gabe Blair and Toure' Murry who is not getting any run, except that's the type of kid he is. Instead of talking about what he did, he's talking about the job Murry did on Thompson and he's always thinking of others.
I think Joe ran our team and Hatch was very tough on the glass. We had a lot of good performances and that's what it takes to win like that against a quality opponent.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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NIT POSTSEASON

March 29, 2011

Gabe Blair

Gregg Marshall

Garrett Stutz