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NCAA MEN'S REGIONALS SEMIFINALS & FINALS: LOS ANGELESMarch 28, 2013Malcolm ArmsteadRon BakerCarl HallGregg MarshallLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA Wichita State – 72 THE MODERATOR: We have Coach Gregg Marshall, Ron Baker, Carl Hall, and Malcolm Armstead. Coach, if you could make an opening statement, and then we'll have questions for the student‑athletes. COACH MARSHALL: Okay. First of all, I'd like to congratulate La Salle on a marvelous season, and the travel that they had to do the last three games in five days. I think we were a little fresher, and I think we were beating them down the floor early. Carl Hall set the tone with just outrunning their bigs, and then we got some good stops. We had a commanding lead early, and just were able to play with that cushion throughout. So congratulations to them, and we're really excited to be moving on to the Elite Eight. Q. Carl, obviously you had a lot of energy out there. How difficult is it to play like that with the heart condition? CARL HALL: It's not difficult. I'm over the heart condition, so I was just trying to run the floor and get early sit‑ins. Q. Carl and Malcolm, those first four or five minutes when you got up 14‑2, did that unfold pretty much like you wanted it to, getting the ball inside, those kind of things? MALCOLM ARMSTEAD: Yeah, that was the game plan early on, try to wear them down, pound it inside, and get inside‑out shots, and that's what we came up with. That's what happened. Q. Carl, what has your journey been like? To go from being a junior college guy, overcoming the medical issue to where you're sitting now headed to the Elite Eight? CARL HALL: Oh, man, it's been a long journey for me, and I'm blessed to be in this situation with Coach Marshall and the players that are around me. So I'm just trying to take advantage. It's like I'm in a dream still with this whole Elite Eight situation. So we're just trying to take advantage and take it one game at a time. Q. Malcolm, their coach said those nine points you scored there in the second half kind of sealed the deal. What kind of things were you seeing? You made a couple lay‑ups and then made a three‑pointer to put them away for good. Take us through that sequence? MALCOLM ARMSTEAD: We were in a five‑on‑five, but in transition we were running a good transition play, and I just took advantage of the opportunity to get to the rim. I missed a couple of lay‑ups early on, and Coach kept calling my number. So I just had to stay with it and stay positive, because he was being positive with me and just continue to make the baskets. Q. Everybody dreams about going to the Final Four if you're a college basketball player. What is it like to be one win away? MALCOLM ARMSTEAD: It's a grind. It's a grind. You know, we've just got to stay focused, 40 minutes away, just looking forward to it. It's a dream come true. It's a blessing. That's pretty much it. RON BAKER: To me it's another opportunity. This next game we need to take the best chances and just kind of grab the opportunity the best we can. Forty minutes is a long game. You can be one possession away or you might let it slip away from you. So we're just going to grab this opportunity the best we can. CARL HALL: They pretty much summed it up. Q. Ron, call for celebration in Salt Lake, is that a reflection that there's still much more to do this weekend? RON BAKER: Definitely. We need one more win to seal this deal and go back home and get ready for the Final Four. I'm really excited for Saturday. We'll work tomorrow and Saturday morning to prepare for Ohio State. It's going to be a grind, and we'll take it day by day. Q. When Carl plays that way, especially early on, does that kind of rub off on the rest of the team in terms of the energy level that you all compete with? RON BAKER: Carl being the leader like he is, it definitely polishes off to us and gives us confidence in our own game, really. When he gets his sit‑ins early and gets those points, it makes you relax as a player and just play your game. Q. At what point during this season did you kind of look around and say this is a team that could go to the Final Four? Or have you yet? MALCOLM ARMSTEAD: We've said that all year in the summertime. That's just what our motto has been trying to get there. Just grinding, man. To see we're one game away from it, it's like a dream come true. But you still have to stay focused on this next game. You can't bypass it and look forward to the Final Four yet. Q. You guys hit those threes to start the second half. Was there a point where you thought, hey, we've got this, or were you expecting them to make one last big run at you guys? MALCOLM ARMSTEAD: You know, every good team is going to make a run. It's just a matter of being able to sustain the run, so we knew we had to stay focused. The game wasn't going to be over until the clock said 0:0. It was just a matter of us staying focused and finishing the game. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach. Q. Coach, you were in there watching a little of that earlier game. Your early thoughts on the magic of Ohio State? COACH MARSHALL: Ever since Coach Matta's been there, they're one of the top programs in the country. They've made Final Fours before. I'm very familiar with their staff. They do a wonderful job. Just watching them play, they're big. They're strong. They're athletic. They're fast. So it will be a great challenge for us. I have no idea how we'll match up with them right now. I've not been trying to put the two teams together in my head yet. This game is still sinking in. But by first thing tomorrow morning, we'll have some type of idea of what it's going to take to beat Ohio State. Q. You said this game is still sinking in. How much is this tournament still sinking in? COACH MARSHALL: When you're involved in it, just like a season, this tournament, it's hard to reflect back because you're right in the middle of it. Once it's over, if we happen to lose or if we win and getting to Atlanta, then the two polar opposite feelings. Number one, losing. I'll be able to tell you what it's like then. But right now, I'm just grinding like the guys say. Trying not to be satisfied. Trying to continue to give these guys the best chance that we can do as leaders to win. They're playing pretty well. Q. Are you kind of starting out now with Tekele figuring out if he's going to zero out the team's best scorer and build from there? COACH MARSHALL: That's a great thought, isn't it? It's comforting for a guy that likes defense and rebounding as much as I do. Tekele Cotton wasn't up here. He wasn't one of the top scorers. But I thought his defensive night on Ramon Galloway was a big key in the game. Chris Jans had some great thoughts on how to defend those ball screens, and I thought we did a wonderful job across the board. Our guards guarded the ball, they were in the gaps and trying to help on dribble penetration when they were off the ball. Then our big guys were doing a great job of stunting at the ball handler, and eventually trying to build a wall or block the shot. So it was a good game plan, and our guys executed it very well. They shot 27% in the first half, and we had a 16‑point lead. I think it starts with Tekele. Q. What happened after Evansville and Creighton? And I guess the loss in the Nevada tournament to give you the signal that you guys are going to make this run? COACH MARSHALL: I don't know that I had a signal that we were going to be able to make the run. We talked all year about having the ability, when we play well, to play with anyone. But when we don't play well, we struggled. So we didn't talk about Final Four. I probably did mention it a couple times. You know, this team can go as far as they want to go when you're playing well. Our good is really, really good. But like a lot of teams, our not so good can get you knocked out of the Valley tournament, or you could lose at home, you could lose on the road, or you could certainly lose in this tournament. There are no bad teams. We've put together a run of very good basketball, and that leads us here to the Elite Eight. Now we have an opportunity to play Ohio State for the right to go to Atlanta. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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