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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 15, 2013Chris BraswellAlan MajorBROOKLYN, NEW YORK Saint Louis – 72 THE MODERATOR: Charlotte, and Head Coach Alan Major, Chris Braswell. COACH MAJOR: First, I said it the other day, I think yesterday, I don't think people realize how difficult it is to do what he's done at St. Louis this year. Hopefully for his part, he'll be rewarded. It's a very difficult situation, and what he's done this year has been tremendous. So credit to those guys. I thought they came out and did a good job of just disrupting us. We're a team that, when we defend and score with our defense executing in the half‑court, and I thought the best thing St. Louis did was disrupt us a bit and got us out of character, especially with taking care of the basketball. Just want to give those guys a lot of credit and wish them the best moving forward. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Chris Braswell. Q. Can you just talk about the turnovers, what they were doing to disrupt you guys. Every time they made a run or something, they started to knock it out and making another run. CHRIS BRASWELL: We were just rushing, trying to get it. They beat us up. Q. Chris, can you talk about the play and the entry passes, what trouble they gave you? CHRIS BRASWELL: There was easy passes, but at times they disrupted us. With everything they had, we were able to get it. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Chris? Q. I think you cut it to 19‑16, you were right there, and then in a short span you were down. Did it just feel like a blur at that point? CHRIS BRASWELL: I was just trying to help my team and get my team ready to play the game. Keep everybody together as a team and keep pushing. We can't stay away from that. Like coach said, we have to play as a team, and we kind of fell away from that. THE MODERATOR: Any questions for Coach Major? Q. Coach, do you have an update on Pierria, how he's doing? Do you have an update? COACH MAJOR: I haven't learned anything yet. They're very concerned, to be quite honest with you. When a guy has a tough time breathing, I'm not quite sure what that means. So we're trying to organize the guys, the whole team is going to go to the hospital where he's at, as a team. They said in the locker room they want to be with him. So hopefully he's okay, but once this wraps up, we'll go find out. They just‑‑ when they went to the monitor, they said it wasn't anything flagrant. It was almost like an incidental thing. So hopefully it will be fine. I guess I'm a little bit more pleased that you have the type of team that wants to go be with a teammate together. Q. [Inaudible.] COACH MAJOR: They already went during the game. We're hoping the whole team's in the locker room, and we can get the bus to take us to visit him. THE MODERATOR: Coach, maybe you can't answer any questions on exactly his status or what his injury status is. Q. Coach, in North Carolina and also coming here to Brooklyn, how important is it from a recruiting standpoint and exposure for your team? COACH MAJOR: After yesterday, we got more exposure than we've had based on the way the team ended. With us changing leagues, we'll probably recruit more up here. It would make more sense to recruit up on the East Coast, New York, New Jersey, and so forth. We'll be a little farther south in Conference USA next year. But I'm sure there's some kids that like the warm weather. I wouldn't count us out as far as coming up here in the future and trying to recruit some kids. Q. Coach, can you talk about the decision early in the game about switching to the three‑two zone and what it did for you and what it didn't do for you. COACH MAJOR: They're a very, very heavy pick‑and‑roll team. When you're at halftime, it's 29‑28. The first half 12‑7. They finished 5 for 23 from the field, from the three rather, makes you feel like, if you could do that, you lower the team to 38 percent field goal percentage and get them on the boards. But Bras made a good point. Got it a little bit out of character about decision making. And that was the difference in the game. Q. Coach, just talk about your guys for the next three years that you have to build around. COACH MAJOR: We're excited. Bras is the guy that plays impactful minutes. Everybody else is a freshman and sophomore. So to have two guys like that, you got two guys there that will be future leaders or captains as well as the type of leaders they are. Actually, terrific players. Both of them were All Conference guys and deserve some honors. But if you're around Pierria every single day, you would love him all the more. Q. Coach, could you talk about Nickerson getting shots. Early in the game, he went 1 for 5. Do you think he had a mismatch? COACH MAJOR: I think St. Louis is very good, like they can create with their defense. Feels like he's got it, and then here comes two linebackers that get you in the gap. It looks to your eyes pretty good, and once they get there, they close you down pretty well. That's what the top teams in the country do defensively. So I'm not blaming Nick at all for anything. I thought he showed some aggression. So I think that's just part of the game. Q. Can you talk about turnovers, where they came from, some were forced, some weren't so forced. COACH MAJOR: Yeah, that's probably the best way to put it. I think the ones that aren't forced, there are ones where you think you may see something there that's not quite there. A lot of it just comes from maybe testing their defense for two or three more passes. So I thought early on, especially when the team gets off to the start they did, it makes you feel like you got to do something quicker than you need to. And they did a great job. They sit on a lot of things. They deny a lot. When you got seven guys back from a Sweet 16 team, they'reout‑tested. Q. Coach, can you talk a little bit about not just being able to put together consecutive offensive possessions. Through the first and second half, you guys had chances. Can you just talk about what it's like not being able to convert. Some of the ones that should have went in just didn't go in. Can you talk about that? COACH MAJOR: I don't know. I guess you are frustrated. You're never mad at kids about it. They don't mean to do this. It's just part of the game. I was happy we had the opportunities we did. I think it gets back to the questions about Nick's pull‑ups. You knock in two or three of those, knock in a couple of those putbacks early in the half, and it sets a different tone. So for the team in the position we're in when you're down, it could frustrate you a little because you could just as easily see that lead cut from 11 to 9 to 7 or 5. So when you get stuck at 11 after that first four minutes, you don't quite feel like you impacted that first four minutes like you want to. Q. Coach, you called a time‑out in the first half very early, similar to yesterday's game where you called one about two minutes in. Do you think it was more of a trend that was starting with the team, or was it because of the emotional way you guys won, maybe a little bit of a drain after the chaos that happened yesterday? COACH MAJOR: Yeah, we're always concerned with that. That was a seriously emotional deal yesterday. And you always get concerned about hangover. It was on ESPN nonstop for 24 hours. So as a coach sometimes, you compete against the opponent, but sometimes you compete against that, and that's not a bad thing. That's just kids being kids, just emotionally trying to turn the page. That time‑out was more just to try to break the flow. You feel guys slipping a little bit. They scored a few buckets off of turnovers in that stretch. So it was really just trying to stop the tide there and get them back up, get them refocused a little bit. Q. Would you talk about any postseason invitations that you might accept or not. And also talk about Evans and what he did today. COACH MAJOR: Evans is very good. He's their best post player, and you wouldn't say that for a 6'6" guy on most teams. He's the guy that, when they need a basket to throw the ball inside to, he's the best guy they have. He's kind of an unsung hero on that team. A lot of their other guys probably get a bit more attention. As far as the postseason stuff goes, I honestly‑‑ my focus has been Richmond first and then today St. Louis. I don't have any iPad on every few minutes checking the brackets or whatever it is, all that stuff. I'll let you guys handle all that. I really have no clue. Hopefully, we'll get a chance to keep playing. That's all I want. Q. [Inaudible.] COACH MAJOR: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Honestly, my boss can talk about that, but that would be a no‑brainer, I think, especially for the type of team we have. Any experience we get past this point is a positive build for us. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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