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EA SPORTS MAUI INVITATIONALNovember 25, 2014Marcus FosterThomas GipsonBruce WeberLAHAINA, HAWAII Arizona – 72 THE MODERATOR: We welcome Coach Bruce Weber, Thomas Gipson, and Marcus Foster to the interview room. Coach, an opening statement on tonight's game? COACH WEBER: Well, you come to these tournaments to play against good competition if on a neutral floor and learn about your team. I think we've made a lot of progress since last Friday. I've asked them to have an urgency, and I think we've done that. We've competed. We've played hard. Now we've do got to do some little things, some execution and get better on that part. But they're very good. They just have a sound system. They guard you. They, I think rebounding hurt us a little bit, and just some little plays here and there that we could have easily found a way to win it. Just a little more discipline and some little execution. Whether it's on offense or on defense with our system. These two guys were very, very good, they gave us a chance to win. I thought Wesley Iwundu in the second half also did a great job. But we need to keep Thomas in the game. It hurts when he doesn't play his many minutes, and I thought our young guys, it was a good experience for them, but the new guys kind of struggled. Now we've got to find a way to get some energy and some excitement, and wherever we play tomorrow, Pittsburgh or San Diego State will be very good teams. We're going to have another tough competition and we'll see what we can do. Q. Marcus, you guys went through a little function there after the 2 minute mark. I think four empty possessions. Kind of talk about that and raising up and hitting the three with 11 seconds left? Also trying to get into the act of shooting on that other foul call? MARCUS FOSTER: We just needed to execute a little bit down the stretch. I think we turned it up a little bit too late. I think we guarded a little bit better at the end, but it was able to bring us back in. But they're a tough opponent. I felt we played hard out there. Q. Do you think it was the foul call? MARCUS FOSTER: You could go back and forth. I felt like I fouled, the ref didn't see it, so it's something we've got to play through. Q. Marcus, you seemed awfully fired up throughout the whole second half, maybe more so than usual. I guess, it looked like this game meant a lot to you. Why do you think that was? MARCUS FOSTER: It's funny how a number at the beginning of a team name brings so much urgency and fires up a team. It's the No. 3 team in the country, and you know we're playing in the tournament we all wanted to play against on a big stage and on ESPN. So the guys are really fired up for this game. Q. Marcus, you kind of were quiet in the second half and you hit a lay‑up. Did that get you going and loosen you up a little bit? MARCUS FOSTER: Always when I see the ball go through the hole it loosens me up a little bit. I felt a little tight because I hadn't scored in the second half yet, but that definitely loosened me up a little bit. Q. Thomas, in the second half about midway through you went from down one to up 10 or 11. What do you think was the key for you to stay in it, keep fighting back and give yourself a shot late? THOMAS GIPSON:  We just have to rebound. We didn't do a good job of that. I felt like we were just going back and forth with scoring, and that's not going to help us win, especially if they're up. So we just had to get stops, and late down the stretch, we didn't do that. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach. Q. I guess the same thing. How tough was it, I think, four trips there inside the two minute mark you guys didn't get a point, and you still made it at the end. But how critical were those? COACH WEBER: A couple opportunities. Nino had a little jumper that went in and out. I think that would have been the one to tie it. We got down on the shot clock. I guess I should have maybe used the time out when our play didn't work the next possession. Nino, he took it to the hoop. What you want to do is try to draw a foul. Again, that one rolled off the basket. They just did a little better job of executing down the stretch. You asked about when they got up 11. We got stops in that stretch. That's how we got back into it. We had some opportunities. We've got to make the easy lay‑ups. We need Justin Edwards. This is all new to him. It's a big stage. We had one lob dunk in the first half. We followed our own guide. Both of them are going for the lob dunks and we followed each other. And all those little plays add up. We kept battling. I thought we made a lot of plays, but they made a couple more that helped them win the game. Q. Was that kind of the ideal effort you want your guys to play with all the time? COACH WEBER: Well, I told them if we play like yesterday and today we're going to beat a lot of good teams. We've got to get a little better on the offensive end against good people, against teams that really guard. Hopefully that will come when we get back. But right now we've got to come up with that big‑ time effort tomorrow and see if we can get a third‑place finish here and go home with a good feeling against playing pretty good competition and kind of regroup. You've got home game Tuesday, next week, and then go on the road to Tennessee. It's not going to be any easier. Q. Thomas mentioned it, but how critical was the rebounding difference? COACH WEBER: They had eight offensive and we had seven. But it seemed like theirs, they get 12 second‑chance points and we had six. So those few baskets, it's a four‑point game, a two‑possession game. Those are the differences. We got called for an over the back. They go over the back and they don't get called. There are some little plays like that. But you can't rely on the refs. You've got to box out and make sure you get the ball on and the call. I think they had a couple of put backs there in key times. Q. Can you analyze that stretch when they did go up 11? What went right and what went wrong for them? COACH WEBER: I think we missed a few shots. We broke down defensively, and we got it. That's where we've got to grow up and learn when teams make runs, to make sure we get a good shot. You can't be casual with passes and then really be disciplined on the defensive end. I guess the only way you can do that is to go through these experiences. We took a gamble coming here and going to Long Beach on the way. Hopefully we learned a lot about our team and we can use it as a positive step forward as we get deeper into December and into the conference. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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