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MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2014Milton DoylePorter MoserChristian ThomasJeff WhiteST. LOUIS, MISSOURI Loyola – 74 THE MODERATOR: The Ramblers are with us. We're going to ask Head Coach Porter Moser to start off talking about the game. Then we'll have questions for just the three student‑athletes. COACH MOSER: It was one of those games where I thought both teams just battled. They left it on the floor. Got to give credit to Bradley. I thought they played extremely hard. I was really proud of our guys. Bradley has forced us on a lot of turnovers. We only had 11 turnovers, so that was a definite key to the game. I thought we really shared the ball. We played the right way. We believed. Just the mentality of these guys, even in that last time‑out, they believed, and obviously Milt hit a great shot. That was a great shot. But I thought Milt's first half, he really got the ball moving. It was the best we've moved the ball against Bradley in the three games. I was just really proud of the effort and the culture of believing the whole time for these guys. Q. Milt, can you take us through that last possession and how you were able to hit that shot. MILTON DOYLE: It was just a great play drawn up by coach. Just had to get open. Then I saw the time on the clock, and I just took it. Q. This is for any or all the guys. Can you talk in particular the way you played offensively in the first half. Built up the cushion that ultimately you were able to hold on to. Seems like there wasn't a whole lot you weren't able to do in the first half in particular. CHRISTIAN THOMAS: Coming into the game was a big emphasis, really moving the ball. One thing that Bradley does really well is load up and try to pressure you on defense. It's hard to do that when you're sharing the ball and moving it. We had guys stepping in and knocking down shots. It was great. Everyone was on point. Just doing their job. JEFF WHITE: We were working on sharing the ball and creating shots for others. I thought we did a great job as a team. Everybody setting up each other and made knockdown shots. Q. Just the last few minutes, what's going through your mind after having the lead for as long as you did and they take the lead? What was going through your mind at that point? MILTON DOYLE: Just staying together as a team. We knew we could get anything we wanted on offense. We just have to guard them on defense and get some stops, then just stay together. Keep our head in the game. CHRISTIAN THOMAS: A lot of what Milton said, just staying together as a team. We knew they were going to make a run. That's just what happens in basketball. It's important to stay together and believe that we were still going to pull out the win. Q. Jeff, you struggled against Bradley your first two games and obviously played very well tonight. How sweet was that for you against your hometown team? JEFF WHITE: It was a great win for me. The first two games, I played bad, didn't play like myself. So I had the mindset of going into this game, knowing I had to come and be ready to be prepared and be strong and be ready to battle. Q. Talking about hometowns, Christian, what was it like to be playing back home in front of this place? CHRISTIAN THOMAS: It was amazing. Something I haven't been able to do since high school. I had a lot of family and friends come out and support us, and they definitely got a treat. So it was awesome. Q. When you released that ball, did you know it was going in at that point? MILTON DOYLE: Yeah, right off my fingertips. It just felt like a great shot. And I saw it going into the rim, just looked even better. Q. Jeff and Christian, could you just talk about Indiana State tomorrow. I know you're still happy about this one, but quick turnaround. What do you guys expect tomorrow? What do you have to do? JEFF WHITE: We have to come out‑‑ first, we have to box out. They're a great offensive team. We have to come out strong. Everybody boxing out on the rebound. We've got to play smart every possession. They're a good team that turn you over and make you pay for it. We've got to take care of the ball every possession. We've got to be strong and be ready and come to play. CHRISTIAN THOMAS: Definitely valuing the ball. That's always big when you're going into a game. And also getting ready to defend. Very balanced scoring. So we just have to know the personnel, know everyone's capable, and just be ready to go. Q. Yeah, Milton, I was just wondering, on that last play, was that exactly kind of how you guys had drawn up what you wanted to do? MILTON DOYLE: It was exactly how we'd drawn it up. It was just sending up our man and getting open. Just doing the little things to get the shot off. Q. Christian Thomas, I was wondering, you had a pretty good crowd that came down here. Kind of good to see them up there? CHRISTIAN THOMAS: Definitely. I did my best to block them out and take care of business, but back of my mind, I knew my family and friends would be here. It was just great to come out here and get a win. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you very much for your time. Q. They turned you over so much the first two games, obviously, you made some adjustments this time around. Can you kind of share some of those with us? COACH MOSER: We watched a lot of film on them and just showed the guys. They really hedge hard on the ball screens, and they're physical when they do it. We overdribbled on the ball screens, every time we took three or more dribbles coming off the ball screen. So we wanted to take less. We wanted to take one, two, and we were trying to get it out. We always talk about toughness. Toughness is getting out of a ball trap. And we felt, if we could get it out of trap, we were playing four‑on‑three. That's why we wanted to move it, move it, and share the ball. The plan was to get it out of the ball screen and then move it. We had some things lined up that we did, but we were stronger with the ball. We were stronger with the ball. Kiki had zero turnovers. That's huge. And Milt had three. I think they had 11 between those two in the first game. It was just overdribbling, putting their head down, and then Bradley does‑‑ I mean, Pickett really‑‑ Pickett does a really good job of trapping that ball screen. He's strong. He's athletic. He can slide his feet. We just didn't want to overdribble. If we take three dribbles coming off that ball screen, it was too many against Bradley. We were doing one to two, pulling out, and getting it up. Q. Coach, what does it mean to come in here your first tournament game in the league after finishing in last place and to come in here and get a win? What does it mean for the program? COACH MOSER: It means a lot because we had‑‑ we have a great group of Loyola people who were very enthusiastic. They came down here, our hotels, a lot of people there. I talked to the group in the atrium this afternoon, and I said, we're excited to be here. Everyone is excited to be here. We just don't want to be that team that's excited to be here. We wanted to win. To know that our focus, these guys' focus‑‑ they haven't been through something like this. To have the hotel the way it was, to come on over here in this atmosphere, they haven't been through this. These guys did a great job of staying on point. We really stuck to what we were trying to do, and it's a credit to them and to staying focused. We haven't always stayed focused this year. It's been up and down. These guys really stayed focused. To get a win, I think these‑‑ our fans were hungry. We moved into this league. We didn't have the year a lot of people expected us to have this year. We didn't. And to come here and play hard and the right way and to get a win‑‑ In the locker room, I'll just tell you what I did. They were so excited. I told my assistant, get 20 seconds on the clock. And they looked at me, looked at me, 20 seconds, go, go celebrate, and they just had a mosh pit. 20 seconds was over, and I made them sit down. I said, now it's over. You've got to get your focus back going again. We've got another game, and that's what we have to do. I was pleased to hear Kiki‑‑ we haven't said a word about Indiana State. He knows about it. They know about it. I was really proud of how they came out. Q. Coach, the three‑point shooting in particular in the first half, was that a by‑product of the adjustments you were talking about or just kind of a hot night or both? COACH MOSER: We got better shots because we moved the ball. We broke down every play against Bradley, and we were taking so many shots after one pass out of the ball screen, and they rotate. They do a great job of rotating. We were trying to get him to rotate three, four times. We said pass up a decent shot for a better shot. That was just our whole mantra the last couple days. And these guys did it. Every time it came out of a ball screen, it went two, three, four more passes until it got an open shot. It wasn't playing the right way. Spacing, I thought, was excellent. It wasn't an emphasis. We settled for shots a lot the first couple times. We've settled for shots a lot the last six games. And we really made a focus on passing up a decent shot to get a better shot. And they bought in. Q. Can you talk a little about Indiana State tomorrow as well? What do you expect? What do you guys have to do differently this time around? COACH MOSER: Mine personally is Jake Odum. He gets you going. He makes so many plays. The last time we played them, we had a three‑point lead, four‑point lead, and he made basically a five‑point play. Drove it, got an and‑one, missed the free throw, drove it, got an and‑one, made the free throw. It was like a five‑point play. They're very deep. Khristian Smith got the award. I think he comes off the bench. Gant ‑‑ they're a senior team. They come in, and they're very well coached. Odum is just a winner, terrific. We're going to have to really watch him, how he makes everyone else better. Q. Coach, how do you take the momentum from tonight's win and moving forward and possibly do something special here? COACH MOSER: When you lose close games and you don't have a winning season, I don't want to deter their confidence. Confidence is special, you know, is special. These guys, I love the confidence that they have, that they got from this win. My job in the next 24 hours is to control that confidence, control their focus to get back. I thought they were very focused for this game. And to get that focus going again, but I love that they feel good about themselves. We've had some struggles. I want these young guys to feel good and feel confident they played the right way and got results out of it. Q. It looked like Doyle was pretty intent to kind of take over the last five minutes. I think he had 11 of his points down the stretch. Is this the kind of guy who can come in and kind of be a program changer or help take you in a different direction? COACH MOSER: Well, what I loved about Milton is he had six points at halftime, and I thought it was his best half of basketball he's played all year. He played such the right way. He was so content on getting the ball out of the trap, moving the ball. His passes were tight. His knees were bent. Sometimes Milt plays straight up and down. He had his knees bent. He was snapping the ball. He played great. I said at halftime, I go, Milton's playing. And then he just let the game come to him. Didn't feel the weight of the world. Kid wants to win so bad. Feels like he's got to be everything. And then on that last play. We really‑‑ it was a boxed set, and we sent him all the way down, and we run Kiki off, and then we misdirected. Threw it to Christian and it popped Milt back and Christian fired up. We wanted to get Milt the ball around half‑court to make a play. With four seconds left, I didn't want him to set the ball and make a play three‑quarters court. We sprinted all the way down through the CT and brought him back so he could catch it at half‑court and make the play. The fact that he hit it, that's all him. With that kind of time on the clock, you just want to get down and get a good look. I loved how he let the game come to him. He had a phenomenal spin move. He had a nice pull‑up. He had a big‑time pull‑up shot, and he made two big free throws. And you got to give Lemon credit too. He made 10 out of 10 free throws. I was begging for him to miss. I love Milt, let the game come to him. He didn't look like he was putting pressure on every single play. And that's why I think this was a big growth game for him. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Good luck tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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