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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2015Kadeem JackEddie JordanMyles MackCHICAGO, ILLINOIS Minnesota – 80 COACH JORDAN: Last year our season ended with one Pitino. This year our season ended with another Pitino, so I hope there are no more Pitinos out there we have to play against at the end of the season. These guys have been a pleasure to coach, and we understand what this league is about. It is a tough, tough league. It was a pleasure to step up to the challenge, to be successful. I told my team you don't measure your success in numbers as you move forward in life, even now. So we don't measure what we have done and what we tried to accomplish this year in numbers. It's about what was in our heart, what was in our head, how we developed, how we became a team, how much we had a competitive spirit. So all that was right above board for us. Did we have enough to be successful with the 12th toughest schedule in the country? We're not built for that yet. We will be, and we're working every day to be that way. That being said, congratulations to Minnesota and Richard. He's a terrific dude. He's a terrific coach. They turned us over at opportune times for them, not for us, and they made shots. So when they turned us over and they made shots, that broke the game open, although we had the ball with four points down and we had chances to take the thing back to a tied game. But they did enough to overcome what we tried to do, and that's where we were. Q. First year in the Big Ten finally over, how would you categorize the experience, and especially today at the Big Ten Tournament? MYLES MACK: The experience was great. Every arena we went to, the atmosphere was great. They had great fans. It was great competition, great players. The experience for me was A+. I love the Big Ten. It's a great conference. KADEEM JACK: I pretty much second that. I think the Big Ten had a lot of different opportunities going to big floors, playing in different arenas, and also people coming into our arena. I think it was real, real big opportunities. Q. I was wondering what you would like to be remembered for, your legacy with Rutgers, obviously a lot of ups and downs your four years here. KADEEM JACK: I'd say passionate. That's about it. Passionate. MYLES MACK: A great teammate, always wanted my teammates to just do better, be great guys on and off the court, and just play as hard as they can. Just a leader out there. Q. In the second half when they kind of started to pull away a little bit and get that cushion, what sort of happened when the pace of the game got away from you guys a little bit and they sort of pulled away? MYLES MACK: They started pressing and they sped us up and they turned us over, and they hit big threes and got easy lay‑ups, and it was hard for us to come back after that. Q. I was just wondering what are your thoughts knowing this is the last time you're going to play in a Rutgers uniform collegiately? KADEEM JACK: Just thankful. I think a lot of people don't get this opportunity, and I'm very, very thankful for this opportunity, and I'm thankful for everybody that helped me through my four years, especially Coach Van Macon. He did a lot for me, and I really appreciate that. MYLES MACK: I'm also thankful. A lot of kids would kill to be in a Rutgers uniform, so I just appreciate the school for giving me the opportunity to come here and being a student‑athlete, and I just want to thank everybody for believing in me. Q. You guys were looking for a third scorer to support you guys and you got 15 today from Bishop in the second half. Talk about his effort. MYLES MACK: We broke the press and that pull‑up jumper is his shot, and every time he got to it, it went in. He got hot and kept breaking the press and took those shots, and I think those are good shots for him. KADEEM JACK: I think him having a game like that kind of gave him a lot of confidence coming in, probably carry over to next year. Just get in the gym, work, and do what he has to do next year. Q. Was there anything that necessarily surprised you about this first season in the Big Ten or something that you found out that was maybe unexpected? COACH JORDAN: No. I thought we knew that the league was going to be tough from 1 to 14. Last year we were in the AAC, they had the defending champions in Louisville, they had the future champions in UConn, but we had success against the bottom half of the league. It's tough in this league. There's no real easy bottom half. But I thought we were competitive, we had some chances. We just didn't have enough. We didn't have a third scorer. We didn't have another playmaker. I thought Myles was wonderful converting from a small 2 guard to trying to keep us organized as a point, and that was a process in the last two years, but he did everything for us. He tried to score, kept us organized. Kadeem had an up‑and‑down year, I thought. It was probably on me. I didn't do enough things for him to be consistent enough. It's a tough league. Wonderful coaches, wonderful venues where you go to different places, and we're looking forward to being ‑‑ next year with a new type of team and new style of play. Q. What would you say the fan turnout was for Rutgers today obviously being very far from the school, and just what was the difference do you think between the Big Ten Tournament and the tournament experience from last year? COACH JORDAN: Well, we won a game last year in the first round of the tournament, and then we saw the big Pitino. We weren't really concerned about Rutgers' fan turnout. We were concerned about that locker room and how we would compete and what kind of positive spirit we would have. We weren't really anticipating a crowd for us, for anybody necessarily. But we love playing here in the United Center. I think it was a great experience for our guys. We got a shootaround today, we even took a group picture in front of Michael Jordan's statue. And again, I told them moving forward in their life, this team has been great for us. They going to graduate, all our seniors will graduate in May, and you measure yourselves by your heart and how you develop and how you get along with people and how you learn. They left a lot of things for our future team, and hopefully our guys understand what it takes to be successful in this league. It's a tough league. Q. Speaking about the team of the future, obviously losing Kadeem and Myles is going to be a tough loss. What is your thought process on moving forward? You've been talking about getting a consistent third scorer, now you've got to get a consistent first and second scorer. Has that been a worry of yours? COACH JORDAN: Absolutely. Of course. I'm a coach. Coaches always worry. Yeah, I think we have some good recruits coming in. We have two redshirt freshmen stepping up next year that had a year to develop, 6'10" Ibrahima Diallo, and a 6'5", 6'6" 2 guard in Ryan Johnson. We look forward to Michael Williams and our three freshmen that are playing, Shaquille Dorson, Michael Williams, and D.J. Foreman to step up now that they have a year of experience. Yeah, I'm always worried about who's going to be the next scorer, but when I got here, my first year last year, Kadeem was coming off a year where he averaged four points and two rebounds, and last year he averaged 15 and 9. We think that's going to happen. Someone is going to step up. Look, even if it's by committee and it's across the board, we can average pretty much the same. We don't need a major scorer, just consistent scoring. Q. After there was that tough stretch in the second half where they were pressing, for the most part were you pleased with the way your guys were handling the traps and pressing, especially in the first half when the pace was‑‑ COACH JORDAN: Yeah, I mean, we really don't have‑‑ other than Myles, there was no one throughout the year that could make plays for us if Myles didn't have the ball. Bishop had some moments today that were good. He had some moments that were bad. But we feel moving forward that we have‑‑ we're going to have people coming in the program who can do that sort of thing and will be good for us. Yeah, they sped us up, and I didn't mind being sped up. I really didn't mind it. I thought if we could get in the open floor, that's Bishop's kind of game, that's Myles' kind of game. We put Kadeem at 5 so we were small, we could run, we could match up with them, and we just turned the ball over. We didn't‑‑ just make simple plays is all I said. I thought they did a wonderful thing, they being Minnesota, when some timeouts they came out and trapped us in the corners, and on the wings they were sort of game turning plays. So give them credit for having a game plan that way. Q. We spoke about Mac and Kadeem, what they meant to the program. What was your message to them and to the team following this loss? COACH JORDAN: Again, like I said before, you don't measure success in numbers. It's what you leave for the next generation, and they've left some lessons for our future team. They've been terrific guys to coach. They will graduate, and through the tough times they remained vigilant in their practice approaches and in the way they communicate with each other. There was no cracks in the armor for us. We stayed together, and they were successful for our program. We've got great support from our staff, from our AD, who is here now, and Sarah. We've had from our president all the way down, they support where we are, what we have to do. They understand the process we have to go through. Again, we're not built to be successful, to have the 12th toughest schedule in the country. But again, that's what we're striving for, to be good enough to be in that‑‑ be successful with those other programs. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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