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MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 1, 2012Justin BocotChris LoweryMamadou SeckST. LOUIS, MISSOURI Indiana State – 66 COACH LOWERY: I thought we put ourselves in position to really make it tough on them. 3:49 to go in the game, and we've got the ball. We don't get it in and that's the game. I think they went on a 15‑4 run to end the half. It was very unfortunate. You want your seniors to finish on a much better note than that. You've got to give Indiana State credit. Their two guards really did a very good job, Odum and Lathan really hurt us to the rim. You've got to give them credit. I've got to give our guys credit for fighting hard, but we left a lot of plays out there on the floor. Q. Justin, do you feel like given the two times you've played them this season you've had so much success getting the ball inside. Do you feel like you guys got away from the game plan too much in the first half? JUSTIN BOCOT: Yeah, I think we missed two in the first half. We should have established them way earlier, and maybe down the road that would have made their defense change since we didn't get it in early. Then later on in the game they'll probably switch it up and help the guards get free. Then it's easier post touches. Q. Justin, you guys were within 5 a couple of times and they were able to stretch it out to 10. The whole season you've had struggles closing halves and closing games. Did you feel like you got in a little bit of a rush there when they got to the last two minutes again tonight? JUSTIN BOCOT: Yeah, I think we should have slowed it down and taken a possession at a time. Sometimes we tried to make home run plays or hit big shots or throw big passes when we should have taken it slow, play‑by‑play, and let it work out itself. Q. Mamadou, can you just talk about trying to get ‑‑ you got going today and double‑double again but you were never able to get back to the lead in the second half. What were you trying to do to get back in the game in the second half? MAMADOU SECK: I wish the game was more than ‑‑ like it is good where we were at. But the way they played defense they were all in, and we have problem to find our base up. And we didn't make a shot outside, so that really hurt us. Q. Mamadou, were you surprised how much your interior defense struggled today? MAMADOU SECK: Not really. I think the main problem was we didn't really cover the ball very good. So the big guys like to help. That's why. The rotation wasn't really there, and it was a struggle. So that's why. Most of their scoring came from there. Q. Justin, it was a little bit of a struggle shooting in particular in the first half. Did you guys get the shots you wanted to or were you settling for something that you could have gotten a better shot? JUSTIN BOCOT: Yeah, I think we settled and rushed. I think we should have gotten the ball inside way more to Mamadou. We were getting open looks and shooting and hoping it would go in. Can't do that. We should have just kept going inside because they were hurting them in the post. Q. Justin, I know your career's just over right now. But how would you summarize the last four years for you? Is it a little frustrating that you guys were never able to get over the hump? JUSTIN BOCOT: Yeah, it's frustrating. But, me, myself, I just always try to look at the positives. It's been four amazing years. I've been a lot of places. I got to go to China. That's a once‑in‑a‑lifetime experience. I met a lot of great teammates, lot of good coaches. Playing for Coach Lowery, no, no regrets. Q. Justin, the team struggled from the three‑point line most of the season. Just how hard was it to stay with teams with such a difference maker not working for you guys a lot this season? JUSTIN BOCOT: Yeah, it's real frustrating because it's something we worked at, you know. We shoot a lot every day. But in games it just seems like it won't fall, so it's very frustrating. I know from the guard spot, if we make shots, that will open up the game a lot more for the bigs as well. So it's very frustrating. Q. I know the season just ended, but can you talk about your two years here and four years at Southern Illinois and playing basketball here? MAMADOU SECK: When I came to SIU, I thought maybe I can bring them to the national tournament. That was my main focus. Q. Justin, what did you tell some of the younger guys after the game? JUSTIN BOCOT: Just keep their head up. They're young. They've got a lot of growing to do. They're great players. I love the freshman class. They work hard, do everything right, go to class and everything. I really had no problems with them all year. Just keep your head up and keep working hard. Q. Justin, what are your future plans? JUSTIN BOCOT: I'm still looking to play somewhere. I'm really not sure yet. I wasn't trying to focus too much on that. I was still focusing on the season. So I'll probably look into it a little more now that the season's over. Q. Chris, Justin talked about how frustrating this season has been. With all the success that you've had in your tenure at SIU, how frustrating was this year for you? COACH LOWERY: It's extremely frustrating, disappointing. Especially when these two kids that are up here, they're very important to me, and I think you can see by their reactions it was more than just playing for me. It was about the community. It was about SIU. I hope it's very clear how important SIU was to these two kids. We've had a lot of success here. I've had a lot of success here also. But there's a lot of disappointment, but there's also I'm looking forward to seeing those two graduate. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with the rest of their lives. Just like every other senior, even on our winning teams, they're seniors too. I don't dislike them just because they did not take us to the NCAA Tournament. And you could see how disappointed Mamadou was by that's what he said he wanted to do, and to come up short it hurt him. It hurt us. It hurts all of us. It hurts everybody in that locker room, and that is the biggest disappointment. For me, that I didn't have the chance‑‑ that neither one of them had the chance to play in postseason. That hurts me more than anything because that is the most special thing you can do as a college basketball player is to play in the NCAA Tournament and NIT. Q. It seems that you cut down on the bench minutes tonight. When they were in there, they really weren't effective, only 4 points off the bench. How much did that play in the outcome? COACH LOWERY: I think the biggest thing was Dantiel getting two fouls right away. It's like Mamadou said. Our big guys got open because of our break downs. They got lay‑ups. We didn't make them get plays. We allowed them to get plays made for them, and that's where it is at. We didn't feel comfortable playing other people, especially when it's one and done. I wanted the seniors to have a hand in most of that. Obviously, Dantiel is a big important factor for us, and we got 5 and 8 in the second half. We missed him way too many times to start the game. We had him. When you shoot it quick like we did to start the game, that really feeds into what Indiana State does, and they ball control, then they ball spin at the end of the shot clock. Jake Odum's as good as anybody late in the game with the ball, with the ball screen. Q. It seems like you and Justin Bocot sometimes butt heads. Could you assess his career here at SIU? COACH LOWERY: I don't think we butt heads. We've never had an episode in public or ever. He's like my son. So if that's what you're calling it, yeah, I treat him that way. You know, you make mistakes, and you're supposed to come out, whether you're a senior or not. It's him or Mamadou, it's the same. It's your consistency. That's where our issues have been. Consistency in leadership, consistency in making plays. There is a reason why the other senior makes a lot of plays because he's extremely consistent. And we don't bump heads. You don't bump heads with your players if they're consistent, and I never bumped heads with the players. It's about them being a better person. Q. Coach, what did you say to Justin and Mamadou afterwards, and what did you say to the rest of the team? COACH LOWERY: We've been talking about them being seniors and leading up to today. That's why it's been emotional because it finally hit them today. It didn't hit them because they've always had a chance and another shot. Just telling the other guys you've got to have stronger shoulders and heavy shoulders and be ready to move forward. That's where it's at. I think both of those guys, obviously, Mamadou's career has been special. In two years almost 800 points and a bunch of rebounds. One of the better JUCO players we've ever had here statwise. It's unbelievable what he's done. Obviously Justin hasn't had the career that he thought. But he's going to graduate, and that is the one thing I promised his mother he would do. That's more important. Q.  Certainly some great inside players this year, but the struggles with the three‑point shot, how hard was it to compete with that not being a big part of the offense this year? COACH LOWERY: We worked. I'm a defensive minded guy. We've worked more on shooting than I've ever done ever. To not reap benefits from it is what was disappointing. Justin said it. We worked on shooting countless, and countless hours. Whether it would be free‑throw line, preparation of the shot and everything for our guard play. To not see that carry over, that was the biggest disappointment in this season. Q. Being forced to play some of the young guys this year in a tournament like this, how much does youth hurt you as opposed to Indiana State who has four seniors? COACH LOWERY: I think that them winning it last year helped probably more than anything. I think that the game was bigger for some of our guys. Treg was really he should have shot probably three or four times and he passed up things. It was just one of those deals where we understand that it's down the road with those guys. You can already tell Dantiel's going to be a really good player in this league, and so is Treg, and we feel the same about Josh. So Harry, and all those guys will have their opportunities. They got the tournament MVP on their team from last year, and he played like that today. Q. Have you been given any indication what your future might be or what do you expect to find out time line or anything regarding that? COACH LOWERY: The one thing is appreciating their ability to work. There's been nothing. It's been us trying to keep the focus on our team. It would be really easy to talk about speculating, but speculation leads to anxiety with the players. We didn't play like we had anxiety this whole month because I really didn't allow them to be affected by anything that was said, anything that was portrayed, or even any quotes, because their parents were calling me. It was more so calming them down more so than anything. They've let us work, and that's what my job is to try to get this team better. And Mario and myself are going to meet like we always do at the end of the year and that's when it will be discussed. Q. Do you see yourself here next year? COACH LOWERY: I see myself as the head coach, yeah. I have two years on my contract. That's what I expect. Whether that will be upheld is not up to me at this point. I've been here a long time in different capacities. I'd like to see this thing turn around because I am competitive and I'm not a quitter. So I expect to be here, if that's what you're asking me. Q. Coach, like you said, you don't know how everything's going to play out. But if this is the last game you coached for Southern, what would you want people to know? COACH LOWERY: It's kind of a loaded question. I can answer it a lot of different ways. But one thing is that I'm always going to be loyal to SIU no matter what. Business is business, and understanding that in anything, I'm going to handle myself with integrity. I'm not going to blow up. I'm not going to belittle anything that has anything to do with SIU, because that's not me, and I haven't done that. That causes controversy. But it is what it is for me. I know that I've worked very hard for this place and that's all I want people to think about. Sometimes that gets lost in the shuffle when you don't have the type of season that our fan base is used to having. If you look at our runs there are 7 or 8 years in our school's history. So this isn't the only time we've struggled. We lost a lot of game this is year, certain circumstances, guys ineligible, guys suspended, those circumstances we didn't expect. When you have unexpected things come up late right before the season, those things hurt you, especially when we brought in a new group that we were willing to have them be taught by the guys that were already here. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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