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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 15, 2014Isaiah ArmwoodMike LonerganNemanja MikicBROOKLYN, NEW YORK VCU – 74 COACH LONERGAN: Yeah, disappointed with the loss. I thought that was a pretty good game for about two‑thirds of the game and I think Nemanja hit a shot to cut the lead to 53‑50 with 7:43 left, and then after that, we just struggled to score. I think a lot had to do with three free shooting. We missed one, one, two in a row; so we left four points in a row there, and they made plays; but sometimes have to give the other team credit and I definitely give them all the credit in the world. We struggled to score because their bench did a good job and we were tired late and the two shots that beat the shot clock, a three and a two, those five points were really killers and big momentum swing, so that really hurt us. Q. Isaiah, what changed the second part of the second half? Seemed like they were able to dictate after that? ISAIAH ARMWOOD: Early in the game we made all the right plays but there was a turning point in the game where it wasn't necessarily them making us turn the ball over. We just made some uncharacteristic turnovers and they took the lead going into the halftime and that continued in the second half. Q. What was it like seeing Keethan back on the floor for you guys and when he had to step out a few minutes later, what was that like? What did you talk about? ISAIAH ARMWOOD: It's been awesome. He kind of carried us through for the first half of the season. He's really improved this whole year and we are really sad to see him go down and then for the last eights weeks, we all waited for this moment to see him come back. Q. Nemanja, another great day from the three‑point shooting range, talk about the confidence you have going into the NCAA Tournament, assuming you're getting in, it's a good time for you to be hot? NEMANJA MIKIC: I think the style of the play for VCU, a lot of times, they will trap and I think our guys did a good really job of‑‑ our guys did a really good job of finding the extra pass. We had a lot of good shots, but it's not like I created them; I think my teammates found me open. Q. Do you want to talk about the inside defense of VCU? ISAIAH ARMWOOD: I think early in the game, defense scored a couple times. Their defense on the inside, really didn't affect that much, but late in the game we couldn't get the ball inside because of the pressure, it was full‑court pressure, and we kept turning the ball over, it was hard to get it in the half court the second half. They have good bigs and they are strong but other than that, we struggled getting the ball over the halfcourt. Q. For both of you, what do you take away from this tournament moving forward to the NCAA? NEMANJA MIKIC:  I think especially like last two games, we face teams that play a lot of press, VCU, that's what they are known for so hopefully helped us get better with us. Played 1‑3‑1 today and that exposed some things and hopefully we can learn from that and gain confidence from each of our losses and wins and just carry forward. Q. They out‑rebounded you today by nine; what was the difference that they were able to get to the boards? ISAIAH ARMWOOD: I mean, we played zone, so when we play zone, we can't find a man but that's no excuse for not rebounding. I think it was tied at halftime, the rebounding margin, but the second half we didn't do the job on the boards. They are known for rebounding and we knew that coming into the game, we just didn't put a body on them‑‑ so there for it was on the shoulders of me and Kevin. Q. Yesterday I asked Coach Kellogg with UMASS how does he even worry about game planning for a player like Nemanja who has flourished recently. Do you think teams should really start game planning for him or do you hope they don't? COACH LONERGAN: I don't know. I mean, he's always been a good shooter. He's definitely struggled the second half of the year to make open shots. And today, all those open shots he made, the bad shots he took, they were contested, and the bounce plays, he didn't make them. But my hope is that in the postseason here, if we are able to get to the NCAA Tournament, hopefully he'll make shots because it definitely makes us a better team. We should have had the lead at halftime, gave up a three late but by him coming off the bench‑‑ bench scoring and bench rebounding is our biggest weakness. But by him coming in and scoring two days in a row that allows us to compete with some of the top teams in our league and nationally. Earlier in the year he was making shots and we were beating some of the best teams in the country. I'm happy for him that he's making shots again but we've got to get him and Mo Creek and everybody making shots on the same night. Q. Bringing Keethan back in, was it to give him game experience and give him the female of the tournament? COACH LONERGAN: Yeah, I think we are going to be allowed to play him maybe four minutes‑‑ he felt some soreness, I think he told our trainer, so he told me to take him right out. It's tough, I feel bad, I'm hoping he's all right and maybe if a few more days‑‑ supposed to be six to eight weeks and it's been seven weeks. So it's something we have been kind of like, one more game, keep him back and now here we are and he's not really back yet. So I'm hoping that if we make the tournament, we don't play until next Friday but we really need him, and it's changed our team a lot and we were able it beat VCU at our place being at home but also because it gave us another ball handler and they took advantage of our lack of ball handling. Q. Anything you've heard about Joe's injury in the second half, how he's doing? COACH LONERGAN: I don't know. Somebody said it might have been his ankle, which I felt good about, wasn't his hip. But I knew it would be tough for him to come back, whatever, played till 11:30, come back at 4:00. I knew it would be tough but he's a warrior, he plays so hard. I mean, I don't have a lot of choice as you see, so I'm glad he played, even if he wasn't full speed. But you know, I give VCU credit. They wore him out and wore all our team out but hopefully he'll be back by NCAAs. Q. VCU had a sizable fan base in Brooklyn at the game. Did that play any factor in terms of your offensive sets or defensively, the crowd? COACH LONERGAN: No, I don't think so. I thought we had a great crowd. Obviously the last seven minutes and 43 seconds, the crowd had already left; ten minutes before that the crowd were louder because they were on a big run. But I don't think our guys were affected by the crowd at all. We are excited to play in this beautiful arena and I thought we had tremendous support again just like we did last year. I thought it was more the players on the court for VCU that affected us in their defense than the crowd. But it was good to see. This is what they get and it's great for our conference. Q. Even though it's not the results you wanted, do you take any consolation that there's more basketball ahead of you in all probability and you have another chance in the NCAA Tournament? COACH LONERGAN: Yeah, I told the guys before the game no matter, hey, if we win, we have to prepare for tomorrow and if we lose, we'll be miserable for a few hours, so I told them, I'll try to make it an hour. Sulk for a while and probably take me until I go to bed tonight or if I go to bed, but I'll Wake up tomorrow and it will be a great day in my life. Talking about‑‑ getting in the tournament‑‑ but we're getting in the tournament unless everybody's wrong. So I'll be happy, I'll be happy for our team, I really‑‑ and I'll be happy for our fans, a guy like Diego Sherikov (ph) wrote to me talking to me about 1998, and he was like, hey, we lost to Xavier in the tournament and we lost to Oklahoma State. I told our guys, all these people are into it and that's how it should be. There's a lot of people that are really happy about our success and we don't want to just make the tournament, though. If there's ever a year you can advance, hopefully this will be the year. So I think we'll be refocused and hopefully play a lot better next Thursday, but, you know, like I say, one of the reasons we played very poorly the last ten or minutes was because of VCU. Q. Can you just talk more about the early play of Isaiah inside and the struggles to get him the ball late? COACH LONERGAN: He was 4‑for‑4 and Kevin was 4‑for‑7 at halftime. I told our guys, they are really scoring, we have to get them the ball. But we struggled to get them the ball and we got to the halfcourt where we are trying to get it, and they are not really respecting some of our guys as shooters so they are backing off and it's a smart thing to do and it's really difficult to get the ball inside. So, you know, that's because of their defense and we wanted to go inside more, and I think we got tired, too. I think Kevin was really tired out there. He played a lot of minutes and it was one of my fears going into this game, not just because of the turnaround time, really, but just because of the way VCU plays‑‑ we did a did job‑‑ I don't want to say controlling tempo but playing more to our pace. But the second half, some turnovers and bad shots got going and that's when it really started to slow down. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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