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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2014Jim FerryOvie SokoBROOKLYN, NEW YORK RICHMOND – 76 COACH FERRY: I thought we actually played a decent first half in regards to defensively. I thought we did a good job guarding Kendall Anthony and guarding their offense. I thought we had our opportunity the first half. I thought it was our shot selection that really hurt us in the first half. In the second half, we fouled way too much and really got hurt on the glass. You know, when you get down against a Richmond team like this, it's so difficult to get them sped up and to come back. I really thought we had our opportunity in the first half and then we got beat at doing things that we normally do. We only got eight free throws on the game, and they got 26 and we got out-rebounded, and that's stuff that we usually ‑‑ you know, when we win games, we usually dominate those two areas. Q. Can you just talk about your season here, what it's been like and just tonight's effort, 23 points, 13 rebounds in this last game? OVIE SOKO: It's just been a real learning experience. Coach brought me into a new role here at Duquesne. It's just been a good experience just growing, being a leader on the team and leading a bunch of younger guys. I've grown tremendously with the help of the coaches and the players. We bounced off each other and tonight we just came up short. Q. Talk to today, they opened up the second half on a 13‑2 run, but you guys were able to make it a closer game; talk about the change in strategy maybe. OVIE SOKO: We tried to chasetheir best three‑point shooters off the line and we had a little bit of success, and we were able to get some stops together in transition. That's how we were able to bring them back and they were able to break loose and get a couple easy ones in the break. I guess that's how it opened backup. Q. They started out on a 9‑0 run in the second half and it just seemed you never recovered from that. How tough is that, because you played such a competitive first half. OVIE SOKO: Their system, they run their offense, the way they run it, they run through it they use the shot clock if they have so. So when you get down on a team like that, you know, it's tough to sort of chop away because they do such a good job of using up the clock. You know, they run their offense, and we just weren't really able to get back into it. Q. What were they doing to Micah that didn't allow him through the course of the game, only took three shots‑‑ COACH FERRY: Well, you know, they switch at every position. They switch on every exchange, and they did what Micah does ‑‑ they really switched and they switched out deep on him, so they really didn't give him any comfort or any looks at the basket. We tried to get him to be aggressive and we tried to get him some driving kicks. We talk about guys screening their own; well, you really have to credit them defensively for locking in on him. They funneled us to the inside, which Micah passed the ball well today, but we needed him to score and he really didn't have any open looks. He's a good basketball player. He's not going to miss four shots, and Ovie and Dom both scored interior‑wise but we really lacked that third and fourth score tonight. Q. Talk about being in Brooklyn after being in L.A. for so long. COACH FERRY: It stinks right now to be honest. Barclays has been great to us. Coming back to Brooklyn is great. We practiced at LAU every day and I'll always be a part of that family and it was great seeing everybody. I just wish we could have stayed here a little bit longer. Q. Vast improvement this year. What can you take out of that and then what are you looking forward to take that next step? COACH FERRY: This is a resilient group and it takes time to rebuild a program. I've done it before. And when you're in a league that's such a monster of a league, it takes some time, because there's just great players and great coaches. You need multiple recruiting classes. For us to play well down the stretch, which is what we did, and I knew it was going to take us a little while because we had so many new guys, whether it was a transfer or a guy sat out, a bunch of new guys that never played together, never wore the jersey, it took us a little while to get going. And then at the end of the year, we are playing pretty good basketball. Prior to tonight, I thought we were playing some of the best basketball in this league. We played close to UMASS, we could have won that game. We beat St. Louis. We went on the road, beat George Mason which was a big game. And I think the experience of being able to grind at the end of the year, make a run, finishing tenth in great league, that's an accomplishment for a young group. We just have to be able to build on that with recruiting classes and maturity and growth. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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