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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2014Tyreek DurenJohn GianniniJerrell WrightBROOKLYN, NEW YORK ST. BONAVENTURE – 82 TYREEK DUREN: It was just sad to see the season come to an end on a loss. Like I said the last game, I had a lot of confidence going into the tournament that our team could make a good run, so it was definitely a little emotional just knowing that the season might be over. Q. Could you talk about the fact that you guys never led in the game, you came close and all that. It just seemed like you used so much energy trying to get back in the game. Could you talk about that? TYREEK DUREN: I think we just came out sluggish. We always talk about how we don't want to come out in the game slow. We want to come out with the intensity that we are going to need to win the whole game, so like you said, we are pretty much fighting back the whole game. We exerted a lot of energy trying to do that. JERRELL WRIGHT: Same thing Tyreek said. Basically trying to go in and play as much defense as we could. We were chasing the whole 40 minutes. On offense, we were kind of tired, but they just played hard today. COACH GIANNINI: I thought it was a great game. I thought both teams played extremely hard. I thought St. Bonaventure was the better team because of the place they were able to make offensively. Certainly we scored against them and shot a good percentage and didn't turn it over much, but they were really terrific offensively. They made really hard shots from multiple positions, whether it's tough threes or their big guys inside. Of course, making 90 percent of their free throws, and then they got some lucky bounces and Kloof drove one time and had the ball bounce off someone's elbow and someone's head and roll in at a critical time. I thought the critical play, if there was a critical play in the game, it was when we were down 53‑52 with a lot of momentum, we had the ball, we had a play that went exactly the way we wanted it to: A fake handoff where Tyrone had the whole baseline to himself to drive and looked like we were going to score and take the lead. You know, things didn't go our way on that one. I thought that could have got us over the hump both on the scoreboard and just emotionally. Other than that, individual play, it was just a hard‑fought game, and they were just terrific. They have a lot of good players and they really make hard shots. This league is‑‑ I mean, this is my tenth year and I've never seen so many good teams. I mean, George Mason and St. Bonaventure, they could play against almost anyone in the country and have a chance to win. It's a battle. So we are very disappointed. What I told the guys after the game is that the basketball frustration speaks for itself, but when you spend a year of your life with someone the way you do in college basketball now, there all summer and with each other constantly, just on a personal level, I just am really pleased that I got to be with these guys and share a year of my life with them. I mean, we didn't win the way we wanted to; we didn't play the way we wanted to, but I really like them as people and I'm proud of them as people. I was proud of their effort today. Our problems are basketball‑related, not personal. I'm honored to coach them. Q. How about Tyrone? They were playing off him and letting him shoot; how tough was that because you obviously rely on him for offense. COACH GIANNINI: It was real hard. And I think, you know what we expected to happen this year obviously didn't, and there's no way that we achieve what we did last year without Tyrone. He was just an explosive player off the bench that other people just didn't have and he was a difference‑maker. We had a lot of good players and we needed every single one of them to make the tournament and we needed every single one of them to win close games and we needed every single one of them to advance in the NCAA Tournament and he's one of the ones that we couldn't have been successful without. This year his role was dramatically different and the results were dramatically different. If anything, that's my fault for not anticipating that. Certainly he's the same person and the same player. So, you know, the fact that I didn't anticipate that is a disappointment and a lot of people didn't see that coming, as evidenced by our preseason predictions and Tyrone being a preseason all‑conference player. Q. What do you think these seniors will be remembered for? COACH GIANNINI: Like I said, I think for the people who watch our team every day or every game, game‑in and game‑out, and for the people on our campus, they will be remembered for being really good people, first and foremost, and as frustrating as this year was, the previous two years were just terrific. And they still lead La Salle I think as the winningest‑‑ for the winningest four‑year period in the last 25 years. So they‑‑ I just in hindsight didn't put this team together properly at all. But some of the decisions that I made that helped us last year, hurt us this year. Again, that's in hindsight. And besides maybe recruiting another shooter and a‑‑ again, to have an impact at this level, the guy has to come in and be good from the get‑go. Those guys aren't just growing on trees. You just don't find a guy to come into the A10 and average double digits and shoot 40 percent from the field; but in hindsight, I wish I had found someone like that. We needed to replace Ramon and we didn't. We thought we did, but we didn't. Q. You talked about Tyrone, and with Tyreek, can you just talk a little bit more, you handed him the ball a long time ago and I know you have a point guard to replace him but what is it going to be like to replace him? COACH GIANNINI: You know, I just think it's our job to replace people, so we do that more confident‑‑ but rather than look ahead, I'd rather look back. Tyrone did absolutely every single thing that we expected him to do. I mean, he led the program, he made us better, he got us to a high level. Just the way when Rodney Green left, we looked to Tyrone; we'll look to Amar and some other people. When Rodney left, we looked to Tyreek. When Tyreek leaves, we'll look to some other people and I'm equally as confident in them as I was in Tyreek. Q. Talk more about looking back‑‑ what his impact was‑‑ COACH GIANNINI: I told you; I'll say it again. He did every single thing we expected him to do. He was a great player on a great team last year and on good teams in other years. I don't know what to say other than he did‑‑ it's hard to top; he did everything we expected him to do. It's hard to give him a higher compliment than that. You have a better command of the language than I do, but he did everything we ever wanted him to do. We love him; we counted on him; he came through; he always did his best. He passed, he scored, he gave us poise. It was hard to take him off the court. You know, he was‑‑ he was extremely special and indispensable to the teams he played on. Obviously I hope he's not indispensable to teams he won't play on because neither of those words make sense, so moving ahead we are very confident. But for the teams he played on, he was our most impactful player. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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