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MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 1, 2012Ben JacobsonJohnny MoranST. LOUIS, MISSOURI THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon. Welcome to the 2012 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball tournament. Today's press conference is 1 through 6. Begin the tournament proceedings here at Scottrade Center. COACH JACOBSON: We're playing good basketball. I'm proud of the way the guys have really stuck together. We had a bit of a roller coaster mid‑January to mid‑February, but the guys have done a great job of staying together. Our leadership has been good. I don't need to go into a long history of what Johnny has meant to our program in terms of his leadership and his play. But he's been terrific. He's brought those younger guys along with him. We've gotten good play out of our two freshmen. They've done a nice job and helped us along here the last three weeks. So we're looking forward to getting started tomorrow. We know that Illinois State has had a very good year. I think Tim has done a great job. Their upperclassmen have been terrific for them, and their new guys have really played good. Tim's got them going. Q. Johnny, could you talk about do you have one favorite memory from your time here more so than any games? JOHNNY MORAN: Not really. I guess my two favorite memories would be the two times we won it, and that's pretty much it. It's always fun to come down here and play. It's like a brand‑new season. We're looking forward to the opportunity. Q. Ben, when Anthony came back, you brought him off the bench and he's kind of just stayed coming off the bench. Why did you kind of stick with that? COACH JACOBSON: Part of the‑‑ maybe a large part of the decision was made for our coaching staff and for me by the way that Deon played in the Southern Illinois game that A.J. ended up not playing in when he was really banged up with four or five different injuries. Gave him four days off practice, and sat him in that game against Southern Illinois, and Deon played great. So we were going to stay with it for another game, then that turned into another game. Now a stretch of games. What I've liked is Deon has continued to play very well. He and Seth have done a nice job of creating offense for us, and A.J. has played his best basketball over the course of the last three weeks. Now when I say best basketball, he was terrific for two months until he got banged up pretty good. He struggled there for a stretch, and now he's playing as well as he played early and some of his best basketball of the year he's doing it coming off the bench. He hasn't once brought it up. He accepted that role, and he's playing great. Q. I had a question related to Creighton. Everybody talks about Doug McDermott and how good he is. What other weapons do the teams in the conference have to look out for with Creighton. COACH JACOBSON: They've got quite a few of them. I think that's a big reason why they've had such a good season is that Doug is terrific. He's had a great year. But the rest of their team is really good. Echenique a is a true center. He's big, physical, and not a lot of guys like him in our country at that size, and he's mobile. Antoine Young is where you would go next after McDermott as a senior, a guy with a lot of experience. He's created a lot of offense for their team, using the ball screen. He's come through for his team in a lot of situations and a lot of late‑game situations. Then Gibbs is a versatile player that's helped their team in terms of their offense running smoothly. He's had a real impact on their team. Beyond the individual guys, those four, the rest of the guys all shoot the ball well. They've got a group of guy that really shoots the three‑point shot well. They've got a team that's built well. Young has really been a key. His leadership and his play has been a key for their team. Q. What advice would you give to Deon and Seth playing here for the first time and relaxing? How do you relax when you haven't been in an environment like this? JOHNNY MORAN: Knowing those two, I'm sure they'll be ready to play. But if I had to say anything to them, just come out and play. They've both had great years so far this year and have done a lot for this team. We have the confidence in them, and they know the whole team and the coaching staff has confidence in them. So I don't think they'll need much advice from me, but if they do, I'll tell them to come out and play like they have been all season. Q. Johnny, how do you explain how a team sometimes improves and comes together in a situation like the one that Ben was explaining where Anthony goes out and comes back. He's been a starter, but now he's coming off the bench, and things clicked as well or better than they did before? JOHNNY MORAN: It's hard to say. Just for this situation, Deon came in, and he played such a great role for the team and created so much offense. Then you have a guy like A.J. who everybody knows is a great player for our team, and he's playing great basketball right now. He doesn't complain about having to come off the bench. I think that speaks a lot about A.J.'s character and that's kind of how the whole team is. Q. Ben, you've been through a lot of teams and seen sometimes where a changeup like that doesn't work and other times when it does. Obviously since you've been head coach you've had a couple of situations where guys were good enough to start for most other teams in the league, if not every other team in the league accepting a role coming off the bench. How do you explain the magic that makes those things work? COACH JACOBSON: I think the most important ingredient is the players or players that are in the role ‑‑ or in the spot that we're talking about; and I think what's helped our program the most recently is Lucas O'Rear was that guy. As you said, good enough to start on our basketball team, but accepted coming off the bench and playing the role of being the sixth man. A.J. and Johnny, the guys in the junior and senior class have been here long enough to see how Luke handled that. I think that's the most important ingredient is having players that are willing to accept whatever role it is that's asked of them and then go out and do it well and not have okay I'm going to do it coach because you say so. But I don't like it kind of attitude. But really accept it. Embrace it. This is what coach thinks is best for our group right now, and we're going to go out and do the best we can. Luke was an example over those two years, and Kirk was terrific. Now we've got another one. Now the younger guys are able to witness and see how A.J. has handled himself over the stretch of the last three weeks, so that can carry us for a couple more years because these guys have seen it from another one of our upperclassmen. I think that is the best way to explain it from our standpoint. Q. Ben, both teams are starting freshmen point guards tomorrow. How difficult will it be for either of these teams to win with a freshman point guard? COACH JACOBSON: Having seen what Nic Moore has done with Illinois State and having been around Deon over the course of the day and always playing for us, that won't be the factor that limits either one of our teams from winning it this weekend. I think those two guys give each of our teams a chance to stay here Sunday because of the way they played. I don't know Nic, but having played against him twice his demeanor seems similar to Deon. Fairly laid back. They go about their business. At the same time, they have a lot of confidence in what they're doing and a lot of confidence in their teammates, and I think that's what makes up a great point guard or part of what makes up a great point guard is a guy that has a lot of confidence. Some guys show it with a lot of flash and emotion. Deon doesn't for us, but that's okay. We want Deon to be Deon, and, again, I don't know Nic personally, but he seems a little more laid back. Doesn't show a lot of emotion. But you can tell he's got a lot of confidence. I think those are the attributes you need in a point guard. So I expect both those guys will play good this weekend. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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