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AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT


March 14, 2015


Quenton DeCosey

Fran Dunphy

Jesse Morgan


HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT

SMU  - 69
TEMPLE  - 56


MODERATOR:  Gentlemen, ladies, welcome to the podium from the Temple Owls Head Coach Fran Dunphy, Quentin DeCosey and Jesse Morgan.  After an opening statement from Coach Dunphy we'll take questions for the players. Coach?
COACH DUNPHY:  I thought we were in pretty good shape throughout most of the first half.  We made a basket right away in the second half that put us in decent position and then I thought it got away from us a little bit.  I thought we had some decent shots in the second half, some decent looks.  I thought we may have rushed it a few times.  Did we shoot poor shots?  Not necessarily, but we shot some quick shots that didn't go, and I think against this team, because they are so efficient, that when you get your opportunities, you must make it good and we obviously didn't shoot it very well in the second half at all.  2 for 16 on 3 will probably hurt you.  So we struggled with that and they are -- they're a really good team.  I thought, when I look at the box score and you see Moore's numbers, and I thought we did a pretty good job but his 3 in the second half was a killer, it took it from 4 to 7.  We just didn't get out on them quick enough. I thought that gave them a little bit of separation and I thought they did a good job from that point on.  Again, we had some good looks but we couldn't knock anything down.

Q.  For both players, what are the next 24 or so hours going to be like waiting to see if you guys hear your name on Selection Sunday in?
JESSE MORGAN:  We've just got to, you know, focus and locked in and just be ready for, you know, whatever's next.

Q.  Can you just talk about what it was like when Jaylen Bond picked up his fourth foul and you knew you were going to be most of the second half without him?
QUENTIN DeCOSEY:  It really hurt us when he picked up his fourth foul.  We knew we would have to go small so they hurt us a little bit on the inside getting rebounds, second chances, so that really hurt us when he went out.

Q.  Q, especially you having to play like a power forward, just talk about how tough it is going up against that big physical front line that they had.
QUENTIN DeCOSEY:  It was a tough challenge.  I was up for the test but they got a couple rebounds second chances that hurt us and they got some separation in the second half.

Q.  What is it that SMU does in the second half of the games that kind of limits you guys offensively?
JESSE MORGAN:  I mean, just like Coach said, they're very efficient offense, so we got -- me, myself, I got a little carried away, just my emotions, I guess.  I wanted to beat that team so bad, and trying, you know, be a leader.  You know, we rushed some shots.  We wasn't very poised down the stretch and they took advantage of that.  That's what they do well, they take advantage of your mistakes and they've got a senior point guard who's a leader, he led them tonight.

Q.  Conference tournament, obviously it's rare that you guys play back-to-back days.  What was that like?  I know Jalen had an ankle injury, Will had a couple bumps, can you talk about the struggles playing back-to-back days?
JESSE MORGAN:  I really don't think it was a struggle.  You know, you come out and play basketball.  You know, we just -- they played a little harder the 40 minutes.  Just that quick turnaround is kind of what you want, when you get a chance to just play basketball, it's not about the X's and O's; you get to go out and play together as a team.  We've just got to continue to push forward and kind of worry about what's next.

Q.  Jesse, it looked like you guys might have employed, you know, defending Nic the same way you guys guarded Boatright a week ago.  Was it a matter of some of the other guys knocking down some of the open looks that they got?
JESSE MORGAN:  I mean, yeah.  I mean, we try to do a good job and cut the head off the snake but other guys for the team stepped up.  You know, their bigs did a great job tonight and they played as a team, so they pulled out the win.
MODERATOR:  All right, gentlemen, thank you very much.  Questions for Coach?

Q.  When Jaylen picked up his third foul, you elected to keep him on the court.  Just what factored into that decision?
COACH DUNPHY:  It was relatively early, and I was hoping he could stay out of foul trouble and I thought his fourth foul was an interesting call.  I thought he made a pretty good play on it, I didn't think there was much contact there.  I'll wait and see the film and see if it was.  You just take your chances at that point.  You could feel that we needed him in there, that they were going to go even more inside, and just you're hoping that he doesn't pick it up right away.  It was an interesting play, to say the least.

Q.  Fran, all three games against SMU, you had foul trouble in the front court whether it be Watson, Bond, Obi in the first game.  Do you look back and think or coming into this game do you think could you play things a little differently to try to avoid that?
COACH DUNPHY:  We probably could have played some zone but I thought zone would hurt us against those guys.  Again, I thought we did a really good job against Nic Moore.  We don't rebound very well in zone and I think we have a little bit of an issue with that, and obviously that was somewhat of an issue today.  They got 11 offensive rebounds, a couple of them really stung us.  I thought the biggest issue is, again, Kennedy stepped up and made a couple really huge jump shots for them, on hit the front of the rim, back of the rim.  He made another big jump shot at the top of the key.  But you know we're a man-to-man team, that's what we do, we stay with what we do well.  We did get in obviously some foul trouble early.  We stemmed the tied a little bit in the first half and we weren't as good at it in the second half.

Q.  What's your case for Temple belonging in the field of 68 in the NCAA Tournament?
COACH DUNPHY:  Obviously I don't follow it as close as some others might.  The only time I see it is when I'm watching another game and I see a bubble team, Temple, and so I guess I have to believe whatever is out there that the prognosticators have it pretty much in tow.  I think we've done a really good job this year.  The hope is that we've done enough and that will be in someone else's hands other than me.  We'll get together tomorrow maybe and watch it together as a team, but really haven't decided what to do yet.  We'll see.  I don't really know how to answer that.  We're hopeful but whether or not it's good enough will be in somebody else's hands.

Q.  Coach, beating this SMU team since there was two losses earlier this season, obviously would have been a huge help on your resume, but how confident are you with a big win against Kansas and other significant wins that you guys will continue your season in the NCAA Tournament?
COACH DUNPHY:  Well, it's certainly the hope, did we do enough.  Again, it will be something that we don't have anything as a basketball team and the coaching staff and players, it's for somebody else to decide.  Hopefully we did enough.

Q.  Fran, I want to ask a similar question, just a little different context.  You've been coaching 26 years, this is probably the first Sunday where you're truly on the bubble.  So what kind of anxiousness, what kind of feeling?  It's a little different?
COACH DUNPHY:  Yeah, there's great angst, great angst.  I didn't think a lot about it going into the game today, I was thinking about SMU and how we were going to play against these guys who are a really good team.  But now, and I just said it to our guys, we're in an unknown area that we're not real familiar with, and we just kind of have to take a step back and see what this next 24 hours brings.

Q.  Coach, yesterday you mentioned that you wanted to get Devin Coleman back in in the second half, and he deserved to get back in, but the minutes didn't work out.  Today when Will Cummings went down, he seemed to be the spark.  Can you talk a little bit about Devin's performance throughout the season?
COACH DUNPHY:  Yeah, I think he's done what he could do.  I think he's been a terrific teammate, he's been a pretty good defensive player, he's done a good job rebounding the ball.  I think he will shoot it very, very well next year when he's got a much different role for us.  I thought he made a couple really big plays for us today, a steal and a nice drive to the basket as well.  I thought overall we had some decent looks at that 3-point line.  He was one of them that had it, we just couldn't make a shot.  But Devin, he's a good man and I'm anxious for him to get what he deserves.

Q.  Fran, what is the status of Will's shoulder?  It looked like even before the injury he was wearing that bandage.
COACH DUNPHY:  Yeah, I think it was sore before and I didn't check with the doctor yet, I will when we get out of here, and I'll talk to him a little bit, but I think it's more of a bruise rather than a -- I was worried initially that it was a separation.  It doesn't appear to be that way.  He seemed to be fine when he went back in.  He said I'm ready to go.  I was a little surprised that he told me that because I thought he was really in tough shape there, but he's a pretty tough kid.  He wanted to get back in, he was champing at the bit at that point.

Q.  You said yesterday that Bond had the right ankle sprain but you didn't know what his status was going to be.  When did you have the idea that he was going to be able to start for you guys?
COACH DUNPHY:  Earlier today we had a little shoot around, we didn't do much on the full court level but he did half court and he said he felt pretty good about it and he was with the doctor and trainer most of the afternoon as well so I thought everybody did a good job.  In the first half he did a great rebound and stick-back, we could have used him doing that a little bit in the second half but it didn't work out that way.
MODERATOR:  All right, Coach.  Thanks so much.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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