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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2012Fran DunphyJuan FernandezRamone MooreATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY UMASS: 77 THE MODERATOR: Coach? COACH DUNPHY: I would like to congratulate UMASS, I thought they played well, I would like to congratulate Atlantic City and the Atlantic 10 for what would have been a good weekend for us in terms of sticking around for a few days but we didn't do a good enough job today. I thought our play was solid. A lot of stretches, except obviously for the first, I believe, six minutes of the second half, if I look closely at the box score and the line, I think they scored 20 points in six minutes and obviously we didn't answer very well. All that being said we got ourselves back to up four, two times we were up four and we had poor decisions with the ball and it led to baskets down the other end and can't do that. Got out of character again and that's what happens‑‑ when it happens we get out of character we're going to pay the price can and we did today. Again, I congratulate UMASS, they deserved to win the game and they worked a little harder than we did. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach and the players. Q. Ramone, can you tell me going into this tournament as a top seed and taking a loss and heading to the next step of the postseason, how difficult is that going to be to wait out this weekend and lose any momentum that you build in? RAMONE MOORE: I think it's very difficult, my five years being here we've always done a great job down here, I think this is our first time going home the first day. It hurts a lot, you know, and this is our last go‑round, I wanted it as bad as anybody. It hurts that we couldn't come up for a team but like Coach says we got to give UMASS credit, those guys did a great job. Q. How do you guys get yourselves centered here and make sure this doesn't carry over into the NCAA Tournament? RAMONE MOORE: It's going to be a tough couple of days, I don't know if we will make it to the NCAA, but if we do that will be great. I'm not sure how many days we will have to prepare if we get there but we have to have great preparation and, you know, put this behind us and try to move forward. Q. Coach, can you talk about Chaz Williams and what he does for them and being so much bigger than his height and how impressed you are with him? COACH DUNPHY: I am impressed with him, he plays hard, 10 assists, 1 with turnover pretty impressive for all that time with the basketball. One of his best plays today was coming off the screen and they rolled, I think it was Carter who rolled to the rim and we didn't help from the weak side even a little bit, but those are the kinds of pressures he puts on you, shoots two 3's, makes both of them, he had a great 3 at the top of the key and we got caught going behind, he's just really a great competitor. That's the piece that impresses me the most. Obviously he's talented, fast, and hard to guard but a competitive indeterminate is what separates him. Q. Ramone, you guys were down 10, got up 4 at 68‑64, did you feel like you had taken their best shot and you guys had done enough and did the last stretch surprise you? Where do you feel like it got away from you? RAMONE MOORE: I think it was a lot of mistakes down the stretch, a lot of turnovers, and those guys converted on the other end. I mean, in these tight games you've got to be perfect down the stretch and not make too many mistakes and that was our down fall tonight, we weren't able to convert on the offensive end and I think those guys came out and did a great job, whether it was an offensive rebound, making the free‑throws or hitin' big 3's, something like that. Q. Juan, what happened in the early going in the second half when you guys couldn't get a basket and they went on a 15‑0 run and how much did the 22 turnovers kill you today? JUAN FERNANDEZ: They played better than us in that stretch and I think it was a big part of the game. A lot of it is on myself and on the senior guards, we see that coming we should try to manage the game and get a good shot to try to stop that run and we didn't do it today. Things that you got to look at after the game and try to work on, so you have the chance to keep playing. COACH DUNPHY: I think my halftime speech was stirring! So I'll take the blame for that. The first part of the second half, Ramone made a good play, and we didn't catch and finish. Just the momentum of the game right away gets turned. I think "Mone" made a nice play, I'll take a look, if we get our defense set, Morgan comes down and makes a 3 off of our turnover. We suck the air out of us and give it right to UMASS and then it compounded itself, we turned it needlessly a couple of times and bottom line is when they were open they made shots, they didn't miss too many looks and we got to give them credits and we didn't do a very good job down the stretch. I was proud of our guys for not getting too far down, we had the ball twice up 4, we take a bad shot and turned it over and those two plays are what separates you again, you can do a good job for us. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions. Q. Fran, can you talk about why Khalif didn't start and why you felt he had a little trouble getting into the game? COACH DUNPHY: I didn't think he did. Again, address this to the last time the situation occurred, he's a really good guy and he's not a malicious bone in his body, on occasion he thinks his time is more important than everybody else's, so it puts the control in my hands and I have to do some‑‑ disappointing, was hoping we wouldn't get that this point but that's what happened. I thought him getting hurt in the second half hurt us. He doesn't finish the play on the break‑away left and then he's got to come out of game right away, too, I thought he was back into the flow and the rhythm, but then it got interrupted a little bit. We had already gone down 6, and he gets a steal and we got up to 4 and would have interrupted their momentum and as a result probably what we shouldn't do. None of us is perfect and hopefully we will be given a reprieve and we can continue to play basketball this year. Q. Coach, assuming you get invited to the NCAAs, how easy will it be to get this group up? COACH DUNPHY: I don't think it will be a challenge at all, to be honest with you, I would have said to you‑‑ I was impressed and surprised in some ways that we had done such a good job today after getting our doors blown off in the first 6 minutes and finding a way to get that lead. I think it would be similar, use that as a example of we get down and don't stay down, use that as an opportunity to play better basketball. Q. Did Khalif get hurt on that play? COACH DUNPHY: Doesn't appear to be a career‑threatening injury, I was ready to put him in in the second half, but he was in the locker room. I will have to talk to the doctor about what the extent of that injury is. Q. How difficult is Chaz Williams to prepare for given his speed? COACH DUNPHY: He's very difficult, we are not the only team that has had difficulty guarding him, and we won't be the last. I thought for the most part he did a great job, but he makes good plays, and has good assists, 10 assists, he had, and he's difficult to stop from scoring and he has 10 assists and he's gone a great job that way and he stole the ball four times, creating 4 of 22 turnovers, as a direct result of Chaz Williams and there are probably other direct results that you don't see on the box score so we will look at it on the film. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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