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MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2014D.J. BalentineMarty SimmonsAdam WingST. LOUIS, MISSOURI Wichita State – 80 THE MODERATOR: Evansville Aces are here, D.J. Balentine, Adam Wing, and Marty Simmons, the head coach. We're going to ask Coach Simmons for a statement on the game and then have questions for just the two student‑athletes. COACH SIMMONS: Proud of our guys. Thought we battled. It's like we talked about yesterday. I mean, they're a difficult team to play against. You've got to take care of the basketball. They did a good job of knocking it loose. They're so physically strong, and they play so, so hard. I mean, they're just a very difficult team to play against. We certainly wish them good luck. Q. D.J., cramps, groin, what did you‑‑ D.J. BALENTINE: A hip pointer is what they told me. Q. You didn't get to the free throw as much as you like, but did you‑‑ you pretty well got through those. Were they just fighting through those screens to stay with you, stay guarding? D.J. BALENTINE: They do a great job of packing the defense in, and also Tekele is a terrific defender, and he knows how to let me get easy shots getting going at the free‑throw line. I think they did a really good job of packing the paint so I couldn't get to the line to get fouled. Q. Adam, you spent a lot of time in the paint. So did a lot of their defenders. What were they doing specifically that was making it so difficult for you guys in the middle? ADAM WING: I didn't hear the last part of the question. Q. What were they doing defensively to make it so difficult for you guys in the paint? ADAM WING: They've got a bunch of big guys. I know their coaches are teaching them to crash every single time. Part of that is we're a little undersized in the post there. That's not an excuse. We just didn't get the job done. Q. D.J., was that an injury you had coming in or just something you hurt? D.J. BALENTINE: Just happened when I drove into the lane. Q. You got knocked down? D.J. BALENTINE: Yes. Q. D.J., obviously, 31 points is a big night for you, but you kind of went quiet there in the second half. What did they do defensively on you there? D.J. BALENTINE: I don't know. It wasn't much different in the first half. I just should have started aggressively like I'd been doing the first half. They kind of went to a full court press, which they tried to slow the game down, and other guys had other opportunities to score. So it was just nothing really much different. Q. Given that you play NCAA basketball and you know how hard it is to win, just could you comment a little bit on what it is that you've seen Wichita State accomplish and how difficult that must be, as you see from your perspective, what it is that they've done. ADAM WING: Wichita State, they're a great team. Everybody knows what they do well. We knew we had our hands full coming into it. I was just trying to play hard, win each four‑minute segment at a time. Unfortunately, we didn't get it done. D.J. BALENTINE: Fantastic, fantastic to see what they're doing right now. They're a team of history. They're 32‑0 right now. They're, if not the best team out there‑‑ if people say they don't deserve the Number 1 seed going into the NCAA Tournament, I think that's silly. They really deserve it. Very good team. Q. D.J., with the shot blockers that they've got back there, does that allow their perimeter defenders to be more aggressive, knowing they've got a lot of help behind them? D.J. BALENTINE: Definitely. With Coleby, Lufile down there, they're just extremely talented, great shot blockers. When they pressure up top, that allows them‑‑ if we do drive by them, they have a second defender down there just continuing‑‑ it's kind of like what Egidijus does for us, but they have two or three down there that can do it. So it makes it difficult. Q. Adam, what do you tell the guys in the locker room after a loss like this? ADAM WING: We know we had a goal set out before the season, of course, to win an MVC championship. We didn't get that done. There's several areas that each individual player can improve on, starting with myself. So really just trying to take as much positive out of the season as we can. We ended the season extremely well on a three‑game win streak. That's a positive to key on. But just overall, the level of the physicality play. We were kind of outmanned in a sense. We just got to continue to get stronger. I feel like over time it will happen, and then the next year will be‑‑ we'll see what happens. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you for your time. We're going to stay here with Coach Simmons a while longer. Q. Coach, can you expound a little bit on Wichita State's ability offensively, just how physical they are. Not just at the back end, but all five guys that are very good in front of the ball and just the challenges that that gives a team just trying to get into your stuff. COACH SIMMONS: Yeah, it's difficult. I mean, they're out there. You saw, it's hard. It's hard to make passes just from A to B. They contest every pass on the catch. They do a great job of pressuring. They'll play off certain guys to take things away. I mean, they're very well coached. You can get lost with how talented‑‑ I mean, they're very well coached, and then it forces you to get out of what you're normally doing a little bit and really being in the attack mode. We drove the ball, I thought, quite a bit, but then they're so big and athletic at the rim that they challenge shots and we didn't make the best decisions there as far as extra passes or shot fakes at the rim. I mean, they play as hard as anybody that we've competed against. I mean, they're as good as anybody we've played defensively. Q. Coach, I know you mentioned protecting the ball would be a huge key today. What's your assessment of how the team did today? COACH SIMMONS: Not good. I mean, it certainly could have been worse. I think we had 12 turnovers, and they got 17 points off our turnovers. We just weren't very sharp. Give them credit. They accelerate. We knew it. We scouted it. We watched tape. They did a lot of that in our home game. We just‑‑ we got to get better. We got to get stronger. We've got to pass and catch better. Our ball handling has got to get better. Both individually and as a team, we've got to be more aggressive against an attacking, aggressive defense like Wichita State plays. And I think we will. I think our guys learned a lot today. I mean, how could you not? We didn't get the result that we wanted, but we certainly can move to the off‑season knowing areas that we have to really focus on to get better. Q. Coach, is it their length? Is it their depth? Is it their experience? If you had to go, the essence of why they are 32‑0, what is it? COACH SIMMONS: They're very talented, number one, but honestly, they play hard. I mean, they challenge every catch, and they guard the ball‑‑ I mean, they are‑‑ they play‑‑ I mean, their intensity level is outstanding. And then you add the length that they have at the rim, I think it was a question to one of the players, does it make them pressure you? I think they pressure that much anyway. Those three guards are as good as any three guards, I think. I haven't seen every team play, but they're that good. They just get you out of your comfort zone. But I just think it's probably all of the above, if you want to know the truth. I mean, I'm probably not answering your question. They're very good, very good. Q. Coach, how good are their big men under the boards? COACH SIMMONS: How good are their big men? They're good. They're good. They're very active. They've got three guys they can interchange in there. They're all big, strong, long athletic guys. They go. They go every time. And the thing that makes it even more difficult is the way they run offense. A lot of times with the ball screens, you got your bigs helping on the penetration, so now it's a perimeter guy that's got to rotate and block out one of those big guys. We just didn't do a very good job with that. Q. Marty, I think the Valley coaches have been gracious all season talking about how good Wichita State is. But like you've been quick to say, making the point, it's not just talent, it's how they play. Why are coaches so quick to bring up that part, that it's not just a physical or a talent thing about how well they play? COACH SIMMONS: They're set up. They're very disciplined in everything they do. Their presses‑‑ I mean, you watch them. They're fundamentally sound. They're active with their hands, their rotations. They're well schooled. They're well taught. You look at how they run offense, they don't beat themselves. They don't turn the basketball over. They're very disciplined on the offense. They share the basketball. They're very talented, but they share it. They make the extras passes. They do all the little things that maybe you might see a lesser talented team do. I think they do all those things. I think that's what makes them even more special. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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