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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: LOUISVILLEMarch 17, 2012Ivan AskaJewuan LongDonte PooleSteve ProhmLOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY Marquette – 62 THE MODERATOR: We'll begin with an opening statement from head Coach Prohm, and we'll follow that with questions for the student‑athletes and then let those guys go, and then we will take questions for the head coach. COACH PROHM: First off, I would like to congratulate Coach Williams, Marquette University, and wish them the best of luck as they head to Phoenix and to the Sweet 16. They've got a first class program and really respect how hard their kids play, their style of play, and how successful they've been able to be. Second, we'd really just like to send our thanks to the Yum Center and city of Louisville for being gracious hosts. This a great city.  We really appreciate the support from all the fans, Murray State, the State of Kentucky that really came out and supported us this weekend. It's been a tremendous experience. Finally, I just want to say how proud I am of our 14 players and of our program and of our university, and especially of these three seniors who leave Murray State as the winningest class in the history of the school. I told them in the locker room the programs that I want to be a part of, the programs that I want to lead, I want them to have the intangibles, I want them to have the characteristics, I want them to have the integrity of these three men right here, Donte, Jewuan, and Ivan. I think also we proved today that we belong, and we belonged on a national stage. We just weren't good enough the last seven minutes. I'll look at the tape and figure out why. But, again, congratulations to Marquette. First class program, and I really respect their program and Coach Williams. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. We'll open the floor to the media for questions. Q. Coach, they closed out with a 20‑7 run. Did your players run out of gas or maybe physicality took a toll? COACH PROHM: I told them in the locker room that I just‑‑ I wish I could have figured out a way to get them through the last seven minutes. I don't‑‑ I'll look at the tape, and I don't know. We were up five at the seven‑minute media, felt really good. Players felt really good. They cut it to three off the initial side out‑of‑bounds play and made two free throws. I think Mayo got fouled. I don't know if it was just‑‑ I don't think we wore down. We've got a tough, resilient group. We've been resilient for 33 games all season long. They're a tough group. They're a resilient group. They've been like that all season long as well. We just didn't finish some plays on the offensive end that we had to do in order to withstand some of their run‑outs and some of their offensive execution, and we didn't. I think that was the big key. Q. Jewuan, were you hurt in the game? It looked like you were uncomfortable. JEWUAN LONG: I did start catching cramps after one of the steals. Didn't bother me too much afterwards after I got back in. But that's about it. Q. Donte, you're a team that's relied on the three all season long. When it's not going down, how tough is it? DONTE POOLE: I mean, it's real tough. That's where a lot of our points come from. That's what we relied on most of the year, or pretty much all of the year. So every night, you're not going to go 60 percent or 70 percent from the three‑point line. Me and Isaiah took the bulk of them. I think between the both of us we maybe went 3 for 20 or something, somewhere like that. I mean, that's what we made our living in, so we've just got to live with it or die with it, and today we just died with it. Q. Guys, congrats, first, on a phenomenal season. Second of all, as seniors, what advice would you leave to the guys who will be returning next year and the new players that will be joining the Racers? IVAN ASKA: Well, I had a talk with my teammates in the locker room, and I just told them, just keep on working hard. Don't let nobody tell you you can't do nothing else or nothing like that. They're going to have a great season next year. They're a great group of guys, especially Isaiah, Zay, especially Ed. They're going to be good. I told them just keep on working hard and listen to the coaching staff and just never give up. Q. Ivan, you and Ed won the rebounding battle. You guys did really well down low. Was this the most physical battle you've had all year? IVAN ASKA: We had a lot of physical battles throughout the season, but today was a good game, and we both did it. Some of my shots didn't fall. I did my best. I didn't give up. I tried my best to get every rebound and tried my best to play "D" every second. We didn't come out with a win. Marquette is a great team. Give credit to them. But we did our best and we tried to fight through it. Q. Just after your first experience in 2010 and not getting back, just how special these opportunities are, how hard is it that it ends like this? DONTE POOLE: It's extremely hard. You fight all year to get to this point. We just fought through so much adversity, injuries, critics, media. I think we went through everything, and we battled through it. And together as a team, we conquered it. So going into the game, we really‑‑ we were confident about it. We thought we would come out with a win. So for it to end like this, you're upset, but you just got to look at all the great things that we've done this season as well. The MODERATOR: Any more questions for the Murray State student‑athletes? Guys, thank you. Now we'll go ahead and open the floor to questions for Head Coach Steve Prohm. Q. Coach, a slow pace by design? Was that what you wanted in the game, obviously? I mean, this wasn't the track meet some people expected. COACH PROHM: I don't think‑‑ we weren't trying to have a slow pace. Both teams are extremely well‑coached defensively, and we weren't going to‑‑ our main thing was not trying to let them get any transition defensive baskets. One of the things, I think, when they scored early especially and when we chart their baskets, when they scored, I think a lot of their paints came from transition baskets, and we wanted to try to limit those. I don't know what the final score was, 60 or 62 points we gave up. We just weren't able to‑‑ I was hoping we'd be able to score 65, 70. We tried to push it. We tried to run. They're well‑coached defensively to get back. They're tough. They're very, very tough. Tough‑minded kids. Q. Coach, can you just put into words what you're feeling right now and how this run has ended? COACH PROHM: I'm just so sick right now just because‑‑ just reliving the last seven minutes. We were so good right there for a minute. We were up 46‑41. We were really guarding. And then I'm just trying to figure out‑‑ and they raised it up a level, I'm sure. I'm just trying to relive the last seven minutes and figure out some shots that rimmed out maybe or just some layups and Jewuan's charge and just different things, maybe some execution there offensively and some gambles defensively that just led to some layups. I just thought we gave up too many‑‑ the shots they made were layups. Out of their 60 points, it was free throws and layups. It was not a lot of contested jump shots. I mean, we guarded. We played extremely hard. I'm so proud of our effort. It was a physical, physical game. Those two teams were competing at a high, high level. But I just told them in the locker room I'm just sick because it's over and because I really thought we had a really, really great opportunity to make a really, really long run in this tournament, and I thought we belonged. I think we proved that. We didn't win today, but I think everybody saw that we belonged. Q. Coach, with the craziness, with the media, the ESPN reels, the streak of 23 straight wins and all that, do you feel like now that it's all over, it's going to feel a little bit of relief for some of the players to look back and see what they've accomplished now. COACH PROHM: I started talking about some of it in the locker room, and then I just stopped and said, we'll talk about that in a couple of weeks at the banquet and different things because I just really want to just congratulate them and just tell them how much they meant to me and this program and how they impacted the community and this university. I've never seen anything like it at any of the programs that I've ever been, how they represented our program, the university, the community, how they interacted with everybody, how they gave back. These three seniors are first class. We just want to continue to recruit more kids like them. And if we can do that, we'll get to the Sweet 16 and further. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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