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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2014Byron AllenPaul HewittJohnny WilliamsBROOKLYN, NEW YORK FORDHAM – 70 PAUL HEWITT: Just want to thank Byron, J2 and Sherrod, our seniors for all the effort they put into our program over the last three years. You know, we inherited them but they were really, really loyal to Mason, played extremely hard for us. Obviously this year was not the type of year we hope for them going out the door, but the last two years, 24 wins and 22 wins; and this year we competed, we battled. Just didn't get some breaks that we needed down the stretch, but again I appreciate everything they have done. Also want to congratulate Tom and his team and wish them luck tomorrow afternoon. Q. Byron, there was at least one late three, did you feel like that you finally got some of the momentum shifted when you hit that three late? It was sort of a slow climb for you guys to get back in the game. BYRON ALLEN: I just looked up at the clock and I realized how much time was left, and my senior year, I mean, it's all‑or‑nothing at that point. So I wasn't really worried about the shot. I was just trying to make sure I was staying confident in my game and went down with the momentum and just slowly kept chopping their lead down and comeback. Q. I noticed that you changed your shoes a few times during the game. Were you having trouble with your feet? BYRON ALLEN: My shoe ripped so that's why I had to take it off and I went to my shoes that I walk around in and they were too‑‑ they didn't feel right, and then I went to other shoes and they were the ‑‑ (indiscernible) size and I went back to the orange shoes, just said, I'm going to have to play through it, doesn't matter. Q. Can you talk about the performance of Canty on the glass and how much that affected your game planning and the way you guys played? JOHNNY WILLIAMS: Yeah, his rebounding was pretty great but it was our fault. That's one of our main focus, rebounding, and he took it out of the game by doing that and he's a great player. But that's one thing that we‑‑ I mean, that's one thing we focus on all year is rebounding, and today they beat us on that. BYRON ALLEN: Yeah, our focuswas keep them off the boards, because we knew they send four or five people to the glass, they don't really give back. But he did a great job on the glass today and held his team and he held them out a lot on the boards, so it was a good job by Fordham. Q. There were times you got really close. Why weren't you able to get it over the hump? What was the difference in getting the lead? PAUL HEWITT: Just shots didn't fall. Obviously the rebounding was a major issue. I thought we did a pretty good job on the initial shot. And one of the things we did talk about quite a bit was just we're going to make them miss the first shot where you have to get that second shot, you can't let them get a second shot and I think sometimes it deflated us quite honestly and especially the last four or five minutes, we had some really good shots and the ball just skimmed right off our fingers and we didn't grab it. Q. You talked about the rebounding, seemed to be the difference in the game. Was it a matter of, you said a couple of balls came off fingertips, was it a matter of Fordham was out‑efforting or putting a few too many men back at the boards or was it the kids just not blocking out? PAUL HEWITT: Offensive rebounding is an effort category, so I thought we were playing hard. We had 17 offensive rebounds and I'm sure Tom wasn't pleased with that number. You know, sometimes, that's your strategy and you send‑‑ it's like blitzing a quarterback, you send more guys than linemen. Were them that I thought we should have grabbed; there were a couple times we broke down in terms of box out assignments, sure, but that was more the guards than the bigs. I thought our bigs were battling pretty hard. But again we had 17 offensive rebounds and played pretty hard. That's a sign of a team really giving great effort, but their effort obviously was outstanding as well, so I don't take anything away from our guys but at the same time you have to credit Fordham with a great effort on the boards. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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