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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: SAN ANTONIOMarch 20, 2014Bob MarlinBryant MbamaluElridge MooreElfrid PaytonSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Louisiana‑Lafayette student‑athletes. Q. Elridge, you guys played earlier this season in Louisville, you played at Michigan State last season, I believe it was. How ready do you think you guys are for a stage like this? ELRIDGE MOORE: I just think we grew as a basketball team defensively and rebounding the ball. So we're where we want to be right now. Q. Elridge, I think got hurt earlier in the season, is that better now? ELRIDGE MOORE: I'm about 95%, so I'm ready to go. But that was a few months ago, so I'm not even thinking about that right now. Q. You guys talk a lot about your team and how you've come together and progressed over the last few weeks. What was really the turning point you felt with this team where it really stuck overall coming together? ELFRID PAYTON: We lost three games in a row. It was time to just buckle down, and we were able to turn it around. We had a talk, and it was on from there. Q. Elfrid, for you personally big stages are nothing that you're not used to with FIBA this summer. How has that prepared you for this moment? ELFRID PAYTON: It's helped me a lot. Just leadership quality and things like that so I can help my team in any kind of way, things like that. Q. Bryant, obviously a lot of talk about McDermott. But beyond him, what are the concerns for you guys that Creighton presents? BRYANT MBAMALU: Can you say that again? Q. Obviously, all the talk is about him, but beyond him, what are the concerns that Creighton presents for you guys? BRYANT MBAMALU: They're a good, three‑point shooting team. They do a lot of good things offensively, so we can try to limit what they like to do and limit some of the places that they want to catch the ball and try to be a little disruptive, then we should be in good shape. Q. For all three of you guys, if you don't mind. You guys like to push the ball. That's what Creighton's bread and butter is. How do you propose to get them out of their game? ELFRID PAYTON: I guess good offense leads to good defense. So if we're making shots, we'll be able to get back and have our defense set and be able to stop them like that. BRYANT MBAMALU: Yeah, like Elfrid said, we just have to limit their offensive pushes. We have to take good shots and get great shots every possession, just get back on defense. ELRIDGE MOORE: Just like they said, just get back in and we make all our shots, and that will be a good defense for us. Q. I don't know how much you knew about Elridge before? Did you all play against each other in high school? He seems like a very good teammate in that he's not worried about statistics or anything like that. He's a good defender and good passer. How is he off the court and on the court? ELFRID PAYTON: No, we didn't play against each other in high school. But I'd seen a couple games he played. He's a good teammate. Everybody on this team are good teammates. We all have a great bond. We're always chilling together and things like that. He's a good guy. Q. Elfrid for you guys I know a lot of attention is going to be drawn to guys like you and Shawn, but how important are players like Bryant, those role players I would imagine will play a huge part in tomorrow's game? ELFRID PAYTON: It's going to be huge. That just kind of happened in this championship game, a lot of focus on me and Shawn. And Xavian was able to make a lot of shots. So if they want to pay as much attention to me and Shawn, that would be all right because I know B's going to knock down shots, JJ's going to do what he's going to do. I think we have a lot of offensive weapons and I think that's what helped us get this far. Q. Just what was the mood for you guys coming over here, flying over here and the hotel and on the bus over here? Kind of set the scene. What was it like for you guys kind of getting at least to this far? ELFRID PAYTON: It's been great, but we don't really want it to end. We want to do whatever it takes to try to keep it going. BRYANT MBAMALU: Like Elfrid said, it's been really great and really humbling to be a part of this and to enjoy this with my teammates. So, like he said, we don't want it to end. We want it to keep going. Q. On the plane, on the bus, what were you guys talking about? What was the mood like? Were you guys sleeping or what were you doing? ELFRID PAYTON: I was sleeping. BRYANT MBAMALU: Yeah, I mean, we were excited when we first got on the plane. But it's a plane ride, so we were going to naturally fall asleep. But I mean, getting on the plane it was very exciting. Everybody was smiling. It's just a real fun experience for the team and the fans and for the whole KDN area. Q. You just said you don't want this to end, obviously. Not many people expected you to be here. Does that enable you guys to play loose and play free and just kind of leave it all out there tomorrow? ELFRID PAYTON: Yeah to a certain degree. I feel like we play with a chip on our shoulder though, so that always gives us an edge. Q. With the three‑point shooting the way it's been last week in New Orleans, how important is a day like today to get depth perception and site angles from the three‑point line? BRYANT MBAMALU: Yeah, it's always good to be able to shoot and practice where you're going to play at. So this is a big arena, probably the biggest arena we've played in or I've played in. We just have to go out there and have a good shooting practice so we can see how it's going to be in the game tomorrow. Q. I want to get your take on being the underdog. Because you mentioned, Elfrid, a chip on your shoulder. I know you're trying to focus on this game, but you have to be aware of what people are saying about the match‑up, and you're a 14 seed and this and that. How much does that play in your motivation for this game tomorrow? ELFRID PAYTON: Me personally, I try not to even listen to stuff on the outside like on TV and reading articles and things like that. But just going against a team that plays in the Big East, that is motivation enough coming from a mid‑major. Q. Bryant, you've actually played against McDermott once before several years ago. Do you recall anything about that meeting? I know it's a game several years ago and probably couldn't project that he would become the scorer he is now. But what do you remember about that game and if you saw anything in him at the time? BRYANT MBAMALU: Well, when we played them my freshman year, we played them at Creighton. They had a good team, a good crowd. It was a tough environment. I remember my point guard, Rendell David, he had a very good game. Travis Bureau, he was actually sick, so we didn't play our best, but we were still able to keep fighting. If I recall, it was a pretty close game. I was just a young freshman. I wasn't the player I was either as well as McDermott. So they have a good team. I'm familiar with them because I've played them before. I mean, honestly, it's years later and we're both different teams now, but I feel like that's going to be helpful that I have kind of played them before. THE MODERATOR: We're joined by University of Louisiana‑Lafayette head coach Bob Marlin. Coach, we'd like you to make an opening statement, then we'll take questions. COACH MARLIN: We're excited to be in San Antonio for the opening round or second round of the NCAA tournament. Playing a very good Creighton team who we have a lot of respect for, and hopefully we'll come out and show the country what kind of basketball team we have. We've played well recently, won 11 of our last 13. We're playing a lot of close games and we've been successful in a lot of close games, and we're looking for a close game tomorrow. Q. Bob, you said on Monday that you hadn't gotten much sleep just thinking about McDermott. How much sleep have you gotten in the last couple days and have you figured out anything more than on Monday? COACH MARLIN: I still haven't gotten a lot. It's gotten to a point where my sleeping medicine's not helping, so that's scary, but not so much about McDermott. It's just the time that we're spending trying to get prepared for this game, and it's the rest of the our team also. But he can keep you awake at night, that's for sure. Q. You mentioned in your opening statement that you want to make this a close game. What will you need to do to make this a close game? COACH MARLIN: We'll have to try to limit Doug to a reasonable number. Someone asked me what that was, and I said I'm not sure. But the rest of their guys can shoot the ball too. They've got an extremely efficient offensive team. They have great spacing. Greg does a great job with his team on the offense at the end. We're going to have to make shots and limit some of theirs. We'll have to stay close in a three‑point game. Q. You have been here twice. What did you say to them to prepare them for the stage, not only tomorrow, but even just today, practicing in front of the public and all that? How much do you think the game at Louisville, and even when you guys went to Michigan State helped prep some of these guys for playing on a little bit bigger stage? COACH MARLIN: Well, hopefully the experiences that I've had before with threes as a head coach, is something that I can relay to the guys for the experience of going through this and to try to calm them down a little bit and tell them what's ahead. The game this year at Arkansas we had was a very intense basketball game at bud Walton arena. Of course, we played at Baylor and we played at Louisville, as you mentioned. Those experiences will help us also. We've got a young man, Elfrid Payton who won a gold medal as you know, with the U‑19 team, and he's been on this stage before, and I think he's helped our team realize what's at stake as we've come down the stretch in these games. So he's been a big leader for us and a big help in that area also. Q. Coach, I'm sure in your preparations you've seen different types of defenses on Doug. What do you think will give your team a successful defensive performance against him? COACH MARLIN: You almost have to throw the kitchen sink at him and try a little bit of everything. We've got a couple of ideas that we're going to look at. We'll see how they work and just try to stay the course throughout. Certainly Providence played zone in their game. You don't think you want to zone a team that's the best three‑point shooting team in the country, but sometimes that can be a positive defensive scheme for you. But we'll look at different avenues and just try to hang in there the best we can. Q. You mentioned Elfrid on the big stage with the FIBA U‑19. How ready is he to this stage to kind of send his star? And what makes that FIBA experience so invaluable now for tomorrow? COACH MARLIN: Well, the whole experience he had last summer going to China, going to Prague and playing for Coach Donovan and the USA under 19 team and winning the gold medal and then going back overseas to Spain with our team was a super experience for him. He's confident in what he can do. Shawn Long's confident in what he can do. If we can get the support from the rest of our team, which we have in recent games, then we feel like we'll be in good shape. Q. I asked Elfrid a little earlier about at what point in the season did the team really come together as a team? He was talking about that three‑game stretch that he lost. Would you agree that's a turning point a little bit for the team? COACH MARLIN: Yes, right after that. We came home and played Monroe. We've really done a good job since that stage rebounding the basketball in the last 13 games. We're plus 7 in rebounding margin, and we wound up leading the league after the tournament in rebound margin. So we've done an outstanding job there. The game at Texas state where Xavian hits a big three and we get a defensive stop. They don't even get the shot off, that was big. Also the game at Arkansas State the last night of the season. It was our 20th win. Elfrid hits a big basket. We stop on the other end with the defensive stand. Then we had a week to prepare for the first game of the Sunbelt tournament. So that was a big momentum game for us also. Q. How big is Bryant's play during this 13‑game stretch been? What's he specifically been able to do, and off of that, how important, because I'd imagine Creighton will key in on Elfrid and Shawn, will Bryant and the other role players contributions tomorrow will be? COACH MARLIN: Bryant's been through a lot in his four years here. He's a self‑made player. He came in not as a shooter. Made one three his first year. He started 18 games as a freshman because of his defensive awareness. 49 threes the next year really turned into a good shooter from distance. Third year he's off to a great start. This year he breaks his foot with a Jones fracture in September, and he misses three months. So he's behind. He gets out, and he really starts playing well and he turned our team around. To be the most outstanding player of the conference tournament for him was a shot in the arm. But he's a leader. He's a senior captain along with Elridge Moore and Elfrid, and he's done a great job for our team. Q. Bob, Elfrid said he slept on the plane coming over here, set the mood for those other guys. How were they on the bus this morning? Any different emotions about them compared to a regular road trip or did they treat it like a business trip? What have they been acting like? COACH MARLIN: Well, the trip this morning on the bus over they were in the back of the bus, I was in the front. I don't know. It went pretty quick because of the police escort. We're not used to that, for sure. But this has been a business trip as usual. We talked about the games that we lost at Georgia State with .8 of a second left and in the game at Western Kentucky, and Elfrid said in the locker room that night, hey, we're going to move on. We're not going to lose again. That's kind of been our MO is to put that game behind us. We liken ourselves to a baseball team quite a bit. Let's turn around and play the next day. We've got to get our pitching and defense back in line. So we're doing that even after a win. Our guys have been focused all week. They're a little bit tired Monday and Tuesday, but we're back rested now and ready to go. Q. I'm sure you imagined, as you mentioned, kind of going tit‑for‑tat with Creighton the way they are offensively. That being said, how important was the three‑point shooting in New Orleans, and how crucial will it be tomorrow for guys like Xavian and Bryant to really get their shot going? COACH MARLIN: We thought we played some teams that could shoot the basketball and now we get Creighton who is the best in the country from distance. We have to match them. We have to make some shots and we can shoot it. That is the best thing we've done recently is make three‑point shots and rebound the basketball and play good defense when we needed to. Those are three of our biggest statements in this winning streak. Q. Elridge Moore seems kind of a glue‑type guy for your team. He doesn't have great stats, necessarily, but he looks like he plays good defense and passes well. Is a guy like that important to your team? Talk a little bit about Elridge and his makeup? COACH MARLIN: Elridge is a very good defensive player, and he is a glue player; he's a complementary guy. He's been forced to play out of position. We played him at the power forward, even though he's about 6'4", over the last year guarded Tony Mitchell from North Texas who was an NBA draft pick, and we were fortunate enough to beat those guys three times because of his defense. But he guards 1 through 4, and 1 through 5, I should say, on the defensive end. He's rebounding the ball really well.  I thought he played at a high level in the tournament. That is about as well as he can play. He got the key rebound against Georgia State that ended the game. So he's very important to what we do defensively? Q. What's his makeup like? What's he like off the court? He seems like a pretty nice kid, pretty intelligent. COACH MARLIN: He's a senior that's focused, graduating this spring. Wants to get into real estate after college. But he's quiet, soft‑spoken. Teammates like him. Very good energy guy. Very competitive in practice, tough, just like you'd expect a New Orleans guy to be. We've got a couple on our team, and they're tough young men. Q. Coach, I know it's one game several years ago, but is there anything you can recall from McDermott when he was a freshman in that one game you guys played against him? COACH MARLIN: Just gave that answer on the radio. It was Coach McDermott and Doug's third game at Creighton. It was my third game as a coach at UL, our first road game. We lost that Game 63‑58. Didn't play particularly well. Had a full house at the arena there in Omaha at a great facility. Afterwards, I remember looking at the stat sheet, Doug had 12‑6, I think in 26 minutes. Bryant Mbamalu played in the game for us, and did not score as a freshman. I told our staff that night that like a coach's son, he's going to be a nice player. But certainly like you guys and most of the rest of the country, had no idea he would be one of the most prolific scorers in our game. Someone asked me about the scouting report this week, had I read the scouting report, and I said no, but I've read "Sports Illustrated." That's enough. I'm scared to look at the scouting report. The numbers are starting to pile up in my head. But the things that he's accomplished and coming back to school for senior year, being the player that he's become, it's a good story for college basketball. Q. You just mentioned how the numbers are piling up in your head. How do you, for the team, how do you make the fact that they're playing a guy like Doug McDermott not a factor in the game? The factor of playing in the moment and playing a guy like Doug McDermott? COACH MARLIN: Well, we've got to stay in the moment and play. I mean, we have the life‑time of an opportunity to play in this game tomorrow, and we have to make the most of it. We're excited to play. We know that Doug's a great player, and an All‑American, and a Wooden Award winner probably and all the accolades that he's gotten are well deserved. But it's five‑on‑five, and we're going to go out and try to do the best we can to shut down their entire team or limit their entire team to give ourselves an opportunity to win. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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