|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 2, 2012Ben JacobsonJake KochST. LOUIS, MISSOURI Illinois State – 54 THE MODERATOR: Northern Iowa Panthers are here. Coach Jacobson, an opening statement? COACH JACOBSON: Both teams had a hard time finding the basket there for a long time. It just felt like the first team to breakthrough a little bit was going to be the one to get a 4, 5, 6‑point lead, which the way that game was going, it was going to be enough. Illinois State played very well. Really defended well. Had a good plan for what they were doing. Carmichael had a terrific game. He made a lot of plays. We had some guys make really good plays for us as well. Jake had a great first half, so we were able to have that lead at halftime. Just couldn't find enough ways to get some offense generated. A lot of that to do with Illinois State and the way they defended. Q. Could you talk about Carmichael's game and on defense with the five blocks how much he was controlling the paint? JAKE KOCH: Yeah, he was a big athletic guy. Whenever you get in the lane, you have to be aware of where he is. He's very athletic. He knows he's got good timing. He know when's to jump up. He played a great game both on defense and on offense. He's a very good player. Q. Inside the arc today, what were they doing to make it difficult for you guys to get a look at the basket inside there? JAKE KOCH: Their bigs are long and athletic. Their guards are strong and quick, so they're a very good defensive team. They really pressure you and get out there and extend their defense. They made more plays than we did on both ends of the court today. Q. You missed a few easy ones. Seems like they're always rimming out. Obviously they're good enough. You made those before. Is there an explanation for why so many were falling off the rim tonight? JAKE KOCH: No, it just wasn't falling for me. I had a good first half. Second half just couldn't capitalize. Q. Jake, with a record of 19‑13, I'm sure you'd like a shot to get some postseason play, maybe NIT, CBI, talk to me about what it would mean to get a chance to get out with this team and play another game? COACH JACOBSON: With our one senior, Johnny Moran, this is a tough loss for him. We all felt pretty strongly that we were going to make some noise in this tournament. We didn't want to end up like this. So with the postseason play coming up, we've got to wait to see where we end up and be ready for it, make a run in that tournament. Q. Ben, you talked about how rebounding was going to be a big key for you guys and you wound up being minus 15. What were you doing that maybe wasn't enough there? COACH JACOBSON: Well, the number was‑‑ deceiving would be the wrong way to put it. We missed a lot of shots. They do such a good job of rebounding the basketball with their size and with their length at the defensive end that we weren't able to get to enough offensive rebounds. But where it really hurt us was at our defensive end. The offensive rebounds, had we been able to block out better and to rebound the ball better at that end of the floor, we still may have gotten outrebounded by 8 to 10 because we had missed enough shots. There were enough offensive rebounds for Illinois State again. But the offensive rebounds they got, especially in the second half, those were the ones that hurt us. Those were the ones that we needed to do a better job of coming up with. In some ways, it was certainly one of the differences in the game was the second half, them getting some offensive rebounds. Q. Coach, it was 31‑31, and Carmichael took it from there. Can you talk about that run and what happened? COACH JACOBSON: Yeah, again, in a game that is that close and that close because both teams are having such a hard time scoring, sometimes all takes is one good play, and Carmichael was able to provide that for their team. Even after that, they had the momentum. We still had some chances after that play and we needed to come up with some stops. When we did get a stop, there were two or three times where we did not get the rebound. Now you're really frightened again, because they defended us well, and we didn't score the ball very well. You've got to have all the defensive rebounds when you do get a stop, and we weren't able to do that. Q. Tuttle picked up his third foul early in the second half and had to go to the bench. Did you feel that impacted maybe the offensive production? COACH JACOBSON: Yeah, he wasn't as involved as he's been in a couple of weeks now. He's done a good job. Put together a great season. Didn't get quite as much going today. A little bit to do with foul trouble, and a little bit to do with just not getting some things done. But certainly that third one, he's making an effort to go rebound it, and ends up grabbing on to a guy's jersey, which is a foul. That probably impacted the way he played in the second half. Q. Could you talk about the overall defensive effort from Illinois State? Tim Jankovich called it one of the best performances his team has had all year. COACH JACOBSON: Yeah, it was really good. They did a nice job of defending our ball. Our ball screen actions. Being able to drag out those actions and still rotate and find the right help and take enough things away. We were, from a game plan standpoint going to see if we could get some more done in transition, and we didn't get a lot done in that area. So between the way they defended some of the ball screen actions and the way they defended in transition that slowed us down. Q. The 42 points, it's going to be tough to win with that. You went over what they did, but what did you guys not do, I guess, that could have kind of overcome that defensive effort a little bit more? COACH JACOBSON: Yeah, it felt like really both teams had some decent looks. I didn't feel like we were the only team on the floor today that missed some open shots. We had some decent looks from three. Some shots from inside the arc, and I think both teams can say that that happened. I think where our offense really got slowed down was when we did get to the rim, they blocked nine of our shots. That had a real impact on our ability to get some points going, get some momentum going. Most of those blocked shots were terrific plays by their team. Some of them were plays that we needed to make a different read. We needed to make a different play. At times it's difficult for guards when they've beaten their guy and they've got a straight line to the rim and all they see is the rim, they feel they're going to be able to lay it in. Carmichael does such a good job of covering ground. He comes out of nowhere a lot of times. But we also knew that coming into the game. He's done that before. So there are a couple of those where we needed to make a different play and a different read and know that he was going to be coming, and we didn't do that. Q. You touched on Carmichael in the opening statement, could you talk about how he handled both ends of the court? COACH JACOBSON: He's played great. He's had a terrific season. He really goes and gets the basketball. I think what did he have, 13 defensive rebounds, and some of those were probably closer to a teammate of his than they were to him, and he went and got them anyway. So he's playing at a high level at that area of the game. Then going, and some of those balls that he got to block those shots, there are just not that many guys that can make that kind of play. So he put together a great game. And obviously had a tremendous impact on the outcome. Q. Talk about Johnny Moran being here and his performance. COACH JACOBSON: The way he came out, I felt like he was going to have a big game. He knocked in two of his first couple of threes. Then the way we finished the first half, as slow and hard to watch as it was for everybody in the building, it felt great to be up by four. He was really after his teammate that's positive way, encouraging guys. He brings that kind of mentality, and that kind of enthusiasm and excitement to the group. Unfortunately, as I told the guys, we had a great non‑conference. We played very, very good in the last three weeks of conference play. So we've done enough to get into a postseason tournament. So we get to play some more. There is a pretty good list of why that is important and why that's good for our program. At the top of the list is always your seniors. Johnny's been good for us, and just glad we're going to get to play some more. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|