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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 14, 2013Isaiah ArmwoodMike LonerganJoe McDonaldBROOKLYN, NEW YORK MASSACHUSETTS – 77 COACH LONERGAN: Proud of our effort. Feel bad for our guys. Thought they did a really good job. The effort was there tonight and we had a four‑point lead the last few minutes. Thought we were doing a good job on Williams, first‑team all conference guy and he sort of took over with his speed. I think we had some tired legs and just didn't get back on defense. Then made some mistakes and left Trey Davis for some wide open shots. So those were key plays for us, but want to give UMASS a lot of credit, first kid is all‑team conference guard for a reason, and he made terrific plays to beat us. Q. Isaiah, ninth double‑double tonight, were you playing with a chip on your shoulder? ISAIAH ARMWOOD: Just played like that because we wanted to win and advance to the next round. I didn't want to come up here to say we came to Brooklyn for fun. We came here to win. Q. Joe, the team's best shooting night to night but you were able to have the lead late in the game because you're rebounding and your defense; can you talk about those men‑‑ 18 turnovers, some at critical times. JOE McDONALD: Yeah, I think with the rebounding, we got the lead late. But towards the end, made some big plays, starting bringing the pressure and we made some costly turnovers. Got to give them a lot of credit. Q. Joe, I know last time you faced UMASS, a big part of the game was drawing fouls and tonight two players fouled out in the last five minutes; how happy were you with that? JOE McDONALD: We played really hard and that's what I loved this team, we always fight, we just came up a little short this time. Q. Did you feel like you were in pretty good shape after Cady and TV both fouled out in those last few minutes? COACH LONERGAN: Yeah, but I thought Chaz was getting by us a lot, and you know, I knew he had mixed our defenses up and playing 1‑3‑1, we made some mistakes and we sunk in with a time‑out, too, staying out on shooters. And like I said, the 3 was big by Trey Davis. So even with a four‑ or five‑point lead, we have to score more, and the first half we shot 26 percent, and the second half we shot better. You know, our free throw shooting is much better, and so we have to keep that lead and we can't get down because it's hard for us to really score. So like I said, I give him credit, we didn't get stops when we needed to. We had crucial travel‑‑ our best ball handler pressed, we pass it back to them and he has not traveled all year. We planned to use the time‑out if we get in trouble and we had the ball‑‑ that was a big walk there. Yeah, maybe that's some youth and inexperience but a lot of that is Chaz and them turned the heat up. Q. In the big picture, do you look at this‑‑ I know it's hard after a loss, but what you had to go through this year to get to this point; you have to be a positive looking back on the season? COACH LONERGAN: Yeah, we were so happy to get here. But I thought our guys had a good mentality coming in, and I think we were just not going to come in to show up. They need a couple wins to get to the big dance, and those guys really wanted to win tonight. We needed a lot out of a lot of guys and some guys really brought it. Some guys didn't have their best games but all year we have had these kind of losses and a lot of it has been‑‑ (Inaudible). We have some weaknesses we have to really work in the off‑season and get our guys to shoot better. I'm thankful our free throw shooting was much better tonight and hopefully we can recruit some shooters, too, because Kevin and Isaiah have been terrific, but it's hard to get them the ball because they are backing off our guards. And then our shooters did not really have good shooting years, the couple shooters we have. We are going to really work this off‑season and build on it and take the next step. But it was good seeing a lot of GW people here and hopefully we can keep the program moving forward. Q. You did a good job of keeping Vincent from doing much, Riley wasn't shooting well; does it kill you when a guy like Trey Davis, just makes a couple big shots, because you probably nailed your game plan to that point. COACH LONERGAN: Yeah, killing‑‑ you give him credit, he makes shot, he was wide open but he wasn't supposed to be wide open. We really just‑‑ when a guy goes to the foul line with a ball, we want to stay out on their shooters and we had pretty good size in there with Isaiah. So a guy has the foul line and drives it or something, that's fine with us. But man when they threw it out there, especially off the time‑out, we talked about it once, it happened again, and it was disappointing. He made the shots and like I said, hey, he was wide open, but that's what you're supposed to do. So I give him credit. Disappointing when looking at the stat sheet he has 14 points from the three. Q. Talk about how important it is to come play in the biggest media market in the country for exposure purposes. COACH LONERGAN: I think it's good. We had a big recruit here at the game tonight, I saw in the stands, and hopefully him and some other people know that we are just a couple players away from being a pretty good team. And if we can address the scoring and the shooting, we still kind of need it a go‑to player, like Isaiah is terrific, but you need a guard who can just do it. Like I said, Chaz the first game5‑for‑17 and here he wasn't struggling‑‑ I won't say struggling but he wasn't shooting well. Man, that game was on the line the last few minutes though, and I really thought he took over. We didn't get our defense set. When it was set we did a pretty good job on him but he's so fast and I looked up and hear the crowd yelling, but some guys had no idea he was racing up the court. But I want to give him credit because he's a terrific guard and we just have to find a guy like that. Q. Bouncing off the last question, considering the free throw shooting tonight, the team's performance, you have to feel good about the future. COACH LONERGAN: I do. I do. I'm not a good loser. It's hard. I finish the season 13‑17, 10‑21 last year and our schedule is going to be really tough next year and hopefully we can make that next step. And you're not going to do that just because you have most of the guys returning. It's going to be what we do in the off‑season. I think we have a good nucleus now, and hopefully we'll bring in some more recruits and hopefully we have to work really hard to keep improving and it's a great league and it's terrific. This year was unbelievable how good it was, and we played some of the best teams really, really tough. But like I said, we are taking it one game at a time but we were really hoping to advance tonight. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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