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MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2014Christian KirkPaul LuskAustin RuderST. LOUIS, MISSOURI Wichita State – 67 THE MODERATOR: Austin Ruder and Christian Kirk are here for the Bears and Head Coach Paul Lusk. COACH LUSK: They handled us. I thought we did some really good things in the first half defensively. Thought played as well as we could from a defensive standpoint, took away the interior, but they were 8 for 10 from three, just hit some unbelievable shots. When they're rolling like that, they're going to be tough to deal with. It was 14 at half. We came out and got the first basket of the second half, cut it to 12, but they just‑‑ they wore us down. They're terrific defensively. We couldn't score it. Obviously, we had some guys go down. Give them credit. It wasn't a whole lot to sit through, but I think it will be a good learning experience for our guys, and we've got to move forward. Q. Austin, can you just talk about Wichita State's defense and what stands out the most about it. AUSTIN RUDER: They're just real physical. It causes problems getting open, running stuff, making cuts. I think that's probably the biggest force they have on defense. Q. Austin, you guys were behind 13‑12 with 8:49 left in the half. They hit five three‑pointers in a row. Talk about how devastating that was and then how tough they are offensively when they get into that groove. AUSTIN RUDER: Yeah, it definitely was a big blow to us. Me and Dorrian had a miscommunication, and that kind of started it all off. I think Cleanthony hit a couple in a row. It was a very devastating blow to us, and it's tough to stop. They keep just hitting three after three. I think that open one just kind of started it all off. Q. Christian, when you lose Keith and Jarmar both in the same game, what's that do to your team? CHRISTIAN KIRK: They're two of our best guys. When you see them go down, they're two of our toughest guys, but we just try to stay together. Sometimes in the second half, we played pretty good. At the beginning of the second half, we tried to cut it down a little bit, but then they just opened it right back open. That's pretty tough. We never want to see any guys go down, much less Keith or Jarmar. Q. Christian, I'm curious, from your guys' perspective, how do you view this run that Wichita State is on, the attention that they've garnered, the national brand that they've now achieved? Can you just give us a sense from inside the family of the Valley of how that looks. CHRISTIAN KIRK: It's just a whole other level. We've been trying to get there with our program the past two or three years, and I think it just sets a standard for the whole Valley‑‑ for someone to look up to. They've played great. They've gotten better every year. The run they've been on this year is great. It's just kind of something we hope to get to one day and just kind of improve our program and kind of compare it to. Q. Just your thoughts about possibly playing some more basketball in one of the tournaments in a couple of weeks. AUSTIN RUDER: It's always a great opportunity to play in the postseason. Really looking forward to the opportunity and getting a few more wins this season. That's how I think we're going to approach it and just go out and try to win every game. CHRISTIAN KIRK: I mean, we're looking forward to it. The past two years I've been here, we haven't played postseason. I know, when they won the CIT a couple of years ago, they ended up having a really good year next year. So I think it will help improve our program, and we're all looking forward to it. Q. Christian, you've played against Wichita State three times now. How would you kind of describe them to maybe people who haven't seen them a whole lot? What's kind of their essence or what makes them what they are? CHRISTIAN KIRK: They're just physical, and they stay together. They don't have many breakdowns. You know every game they're going to bring their best, play physical, get every rebound, get on the floor every time. It's hard to catch them off their guard because they're always on their guard. They're just really physical, and they really stay together and play well defensively. Q. Will this game be harder to bounce back from than other games, or do you just chalk it up to Wichita State being that good that you just move on to the next challenge? CHRISTIAN KIRK: I mean, it's tough because it's the Valley tournament semifinal game, and this is my first time being here in the semifinals, and it's tough, but I think we're going to be able to move past it when we start looking forward to what we're going to go into in the postseason. It's tough. It's tough sitting through, like Coach said, but as Nate said in the locker room, if we can remember that feeling and kind of feed off it for the rest of the year and into next year. AUSTIN RUDER: Yeah, we definitely have to bounce back. I don't think we just chalk it up to being Wichita State because we competed with them at our place, and we feel like we can compete with anybody in the nation. We just didn't play our best basketball today, but definitely going to use it as motivation for next year. THE MODERATOR: You two can leave. We'll stay here with Paul Lusk. Q. Coach, would you comment on their ability to hit you so quickly. It ended up being two sustained runs today, but you can hang with them, and then all of a sudden, they hit you quickly, and it's tough to recover. It's been kind of an MO of theirs all year long. What makes it so difficult to answer that punch? COACH LUSK: Well, they've got really good players. They're well coached, but that's what we told our guys. You're hanging with them, you're hanging with them, you're hanging with them, and then all of a sudden, it could be a two‑minute stretch, and they rattle off threes like that or they pound you inside, or they get some steals defensively. You have to have personnel that can really go at them. I thought for us, I thought we were really good early in the game, and we got some good looks. You have to make those shots. You just‑‑ you have to make them to stay in the game. We weren't making them, but we stayed in the game. Well, that's only going to last for so long. And then they just‑‑ they shot it so well from three. We wanted to try keeping the ball out of the paint. When Jarmar got hurt with his jaw, we were right there with the loose ball and couldn't come up with it. Cleanthony Early picked it up from his shoe laces, from his shoe lace in the dead corner and drilled the three. They're really good. They really guard you. They can hurt you a lot of different ways. You have to have the physicality to match up with them. We weren't able to score on the blocks against them. So then you've got to try scoring on the perimeter or getting some in transition, and we just weren't able to do that. Q. Just your thoughts about playing some more ball and the opportunity. COACH LUSK: It's good. We need it. Our season was over last year at this time. It's good moving forward. Our young guys, I thought that was really good. I left Devon and Tyler, not so much Austin, but they got exposed today by one of the best programs in the country. We got to get better, and I think those guys will get better. It's good for the young guys. It's good for the seniors. I think the seniors will want to play. It's important that they come with the right mindset. So we're excited about it. Q. Coach, Gavin came in there late in the first half and did some good things to at least temporarily get you back into the game. COACH LUSK: Yeah, when Jarmar went down, he opened it up. I think sometimes that can be deceiving. You say, well, Ron did some good things. He's 2 for 9, and Gavin's 2 for 8. But Gavin does open it up for you from an offensive standpoint and gives you some breathing room. If we're going to win or we're going to be more competitive with them, Ron can't be 2 for 9, Gavin can't be 2 for 8. You've got to make those shots. But I thought Gavin did do some good things. He's got to continue to work and improve, but I was pleased with his effort. He got three rebounds. He was 4 for 4 from the line. Cleanthony got away from him a couple times, but he was shooting the ball at a high level, Early was. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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