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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: SAN ANTONIOMarch 21, 2014J.J. DavenportShawn LongBob MarlinElfrid PaytonSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS Creighton – 76 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by University of Louisiana‑Lafayette head coach Bob Marlin, student‑athletes Elfrid Payton, Shawn Long, and J.J. Davenport. We'll ask Coach Marlin to make an opening statement, then we'll take questions only for the student‑athletes for the first part of the press conference. Once we're done with those questions, we'll let those young men go and take questions for Coach Marlin. Coach, an opening statement? COACH MARLIN: It was a good basketball game. Felt like our game plan was the way we wanted it, except we didn't want Wragge to get loose, and he did. He scored 12 points. That's the difference in the game. Chatman stepped up. We wanted him to make shots, he did. I thought he played well too. Besides that, I thought our guys fought and defended pretty good. We gave up 52%, which we've talked about being dangerous, especially to a good team like Creighton. We've battled back on the glass in the second half and didn't get a lot of breaks. So I'm proud of our guys. They played hard and gave ourselves an opportunity to win the basketball game. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Elfrid, how do you feel about things defensively on McDermott that you were able to do, and how much if at all, do you think it affected you on the other end? ELFRID PAYTON: I think I did a good job keeping him uncomfortable. To his credit, he made some plays down the stretch, a big three and a tough two he made. As far as on the other end, it kind of affected me having to run around so much on the other end, but no excuses. Q. Shawn, the quick fouls there at the beginning of the second half, how do you feel on that run there? Even though you guys did go back and take a lead after that, how do you think that changed the complexion of things down the stretch while you're playing with four? SHAWN LONG: It's just one of those things that you have to fight through during the course of a game. There are going to be some bad calls and some good calls. Like I say, you just have to fight through it, especially in this atmosphere. Q. J.J., for you to come in first year and be a part of this team and see what Elfrid and Shawn and the other guys, the point they were able to help get you guys to, how has this whole experience been for you in your first year? J.J. DAVENPORT: Man, it's been awesome to be a part of it. I mean, Shawn and Elfrid have been leaders for me the whole year. And I mean, I wish we just fought through. I feel like we had an awesome season. We played our hearts out the whole year. Even when times got hard, we still played hard. I mean, that's it. Q. Shawn or Elfrid, in the second half, did it feel like you guys were close? This upset was in reach? ELFRID PAYTON: Yeah, definitely. Coming into the game we felt like it was in reach though. From opening tip we got on a good run, and I think we took the lead. I think it was 51‑50, and they were able to respond with a little run of their own. But to answer your question, yeah, we felt like it was within reach. SHAWN LONG: I felt the same way. I felt like going into the game we were very capable of beating these guys. We fought hard throughout the game, and they just hit some nice shots down the stretch and came out with the victory. Q. Elfrid, y'all were up 50‑46 there, like you said. At what point during that run did you think, oh, oh, these guys are getting on a run here? But they're not doing it without McDermott? Were you concerned at all that he wasn't getting anything, yet they were starting to pull ahead? ELFRID PAYTON: No, we weren't concerned, because we wanted some other guys to try to beat us. You know that McDermott's going to get his. We were just trying to make some other guys make some plays. Like Coach said, Chatman had a good game. I think he scored like 16; and Wragge hit a couple threes and that kind of hurt us. Q. Elfrid, do you think down the stretch maybe you wish you would have attacked a little bit more late in the game? ELFRID PAYTON: Maybe so. Bryant tried to make a play coming down the stretch. Got called for a questionable charge. Maybe I could have gotten in the lane instead of pulling up for that three. It's easy to say looking back now, but I really don't know. Q. Shawn, they started hitting their three pointers obviously in the second half after struggling to make them in the first. How big of a difference do you think that made? SHAWN LONG: It made a big difference. It stretched the game out more. Like you said, missing in the first half, the second half is when it really counts. So some big shots for me and they came up with the victory. THE MODERATOR: We'll now take questions for Coach Marlin. Q. Bob, same question for Elfrid, he spent a whole lot of energy making things difficult for McDermott. How much, if at all, do you think that impacted things on the offensive end for you guys? COACH MARLIN: Well, it affected him. We asked him if he wanted a rest or if he wanted to stay. He's been an Ironman for us down the stretch. He played a lot of minutes. Didn't want to come out. He's such a competitor. We didn't execute the last couple of possessions. We broke a couple plays and didn't get a bounce on a couple of shots. They hit some big shots on the other end and got some good bounces in the second half. But Elfrid was a little bit tired. I mean, chasing No. 3 around out there will make you tired. I got tired watching him. Q. Can you talk about the job you did on McDermott in the second half, and kind of what you were trying to do to kind of take him out of the game a little bit? COACH MARLIN: I thought we did a pretty good job. At halftime he had 17‑10. Second half he gets 13‑2, hit the big three late. That stretched their lead probably to three possessions. I don't remember the score at the time. Of course made his free throws when we fouled him. So we did a little bit better job, but we lost Wragge, and that was a guy we were concerned about. He's 4 for 8, and he hit some big ones. Q. Coach, can you just talk about the season as a whole for your guys and the way you came on strong at the end? Just kind of sum up the way it all ended up? COACH MARLIN: We had a really good season. We fought through some injuries. We didn't have two of our senior starters and captains, Elridge Moore and Bryant throughout the year, those guys missed 16, 17 games between them. We had a good run in conference. We lost a couple games at home in the Cajundome where we won the most games we had won in 23 years in the Dome. Then we turn around and win 11 of our last 13 with two three‑point losses. Just like tonight, we competed. We felt like even at the end with a couple minutes to go, we were still right there at the three‑minute mark. This game, ironically, reminds me of the game that I coached in New Orleans against Baylor in 2010, except we had the lead the majority of that game and lost right at the end by nine points. But our guys had a fantastic year. I'm extremely proud of them. We did a lot of good things and we're fun to watch. They're a good group of young men. Q. Bob, the three‑point shooting, just the fact that they got hot, what do you think you were doing effectively in the first half? Anything change there? Or was it just a matter of they got the hot hand? Also the quick fouls on Shawn. Like I said, you guys did go up after that, but how did that change complexions with him having to play with the four? COACH MARLIN: The three‑point shooting in the first half, we did a pretty good job defending them. We lost McDermott in front of our bench. He had a wide open one that he made. But I think four guys had one three at the half. Second half, again, we lost Wragge. He's the main one. Chatman hit a big 101 time at the end of a possession; and of course McDermott hit the big one at the top of the key. I don't remember the last time we made four three‑point field goals. We were hoping that we'd make more. Xavian and Bryant shoot a combined 3 for 17. We need to make some shots on our end that we weren't able to make. But we wanted to hold those guys to eight threes. They've been in double figures probably 20, 22 of 33 games, something like that, and we held them to nine. Our goal was 8. As far as the third and fourth foul on Shawn in the second half, I couldn't see the third one. The fourth one I didn't see either, and I was looking right at it. But we're used to that. He's been in foul trouble, and we were able to hang on. I thought he came back in the game. Mentally he got taken out a little bit and got frustrated. We hit a big three in the corner when the game was still on. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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