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ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 8, 2017Travis FordDavell RobyElliot WelmerPittsburgh, Pennsylvania SAINT LOUIS 72, Duquesne 71 TRAVIS FORD: If that's not March Madness, I don't know what is, because my goodness, I still don't really, you know, we were really sluggish for the first half, we just couldn't get anything going. We were changing defense the. We were trying a little bit of everything. We actually shot 56 percent at the half but we just couldn't guard anybody. We just looked like we were really sluggish. Second half, made a little bit of a run. Early in the second half, cut it back to, what, five or six and then they go back up 18. And when they went up to 18, I think we were in the time-out. Right when they went up to 18, there was a time-out, and I told these guys, you know, our defense is going to have it start creating offense. Our defense has to start creating offense or we don't have a chance. From this point on, our defense better start turning them over, we got to press, and we got to attack the rim. And these guys continue to amaze me, I'll tell you. We had every -- Jim does a terrific -- they were really well prepared. Jim was really well prepared for us, because we run a lot of stuff. We guard a little bit different and they were ready for it. But for us to fight foul trouble like we did tonight, we haven't been in foul trouble like that all year long, for 30-whatever games we played. But you know, these guys continue to amaze me. We just continue, under three minute, just made he every play. Made every play. To be honest, hard to explain. Told these guys, I've been part of a lot of comebacks in my life, as a player, as a coach. I played at Kentucky; we were down 31 points with 15 minutes to go and came back and won, and this one here to me was even more impressive, because we didn't do much, a lot, until we started making a few plays down the stretch. So really proud of those guys. Really proud. Really proud. Q. You're going to have to take us through that, such a scramble in the paint. DAVELL ROBY: Our coach say, Mike, get the ball to come off the pick-and-roll, and I told Mike, when you drive, I'm going to slash behind. And I saw Mike driving. Guy to knocked the ball out. Jalen picks it up, I see Jalen falling. I'm thinking about picking Jalen up so he can shoot the ball. But then I was like you know what he might make it because he's always falling over making shots. And then he throws over the side of the backboard, I kind of catch with two hands and I just throw it up there. Man, close my eyes and throw it up and it goes in. Q. So was it more just the -- all right, I've got to make the most of this moment, or was there a sense of determination coming into that final play; that we have to get something? DAVELL ROBY: Oh, definitely determination. Like he said, everything's working against us man, in this game, man. A lot of adversity in this game. TRAVIS FORD: I wasn't too happy in our time-outs. DAVELL ROBY: Coach Ford, he's chewing us out, man, from start to finish (laughing). I think it was the last shot we just all crashed the board. Just like we got to get the ball and put it back in. Q. The whole game, you're overcoming this. As players, what are you saying to each other to help you overcome the adversity and the deficit? DAVELL ROBY: I mean, we wasn't saying much, man. The leaders on the team was saying we've been down like this before, but really, the coaches did a great job of keeping us in it and encouraging us throughout the entire game and pushing us and never letting us get our head down. They huddled us; dead balls, they never let us get our head down. We kept our shoulders up. We kept fighting. Q. Just watching Duquesne's film studies, they have blown a lot of leads this year. Was that something that you guys had looked at or known when you were down 18 that, hey, this has happened before for those guys? ELLIOTT WELMER: No we didn't really look at that as much. We just prepared as any usual game. We just kept fighting and fighting throughout the game and you know, was able to end it in a win. Q. Just looking ahead, you guys have your hands full with Cavanaugh, and starting with you, Elliot, you're a younger player, bigger player. How do you make up for having less experience and how tough has it been to keep him off the free throw line? ELLIOTT WELMER: I don't really look at myself as a younger player, since I'm actually a little bit older than some of these guys (laughter). But yeah, we've just got to play, you know, extremely well against Cavanaugh. He's a great player. A lot of respect for the guy. I think we can do the job against him. Q. Looking at the points in the paint differential, 22 to six in the first half and you put 48 on them for the full game. Was that just sticking to the game plan and letting the law of averages take place with their jump shooting? TRAVIS FORD: Yeah, we were trying to take advantage of some mismatches size-wise. They were doing a lot of switching so we were trying to get it inside as much as possible, and we have five to seven different plays that we can run to try to do that. And we tried to -- I was trying to mix them up as much as possible. It wasn't the offense as much as it was our defense. We couldn't stop anybody. You know, they made seven threes in the first half, and you know, I was telling our coaches at halftime, every stat other than our shooting percentage was going against us. We didn't make free throws. We were in foul trouble. They made seven threes. There was a lot of adversity going on for us that wasn't going our way. But I told our guys at halftime, first thing I walked in, I said, it's absolutely amazing we are not down 25. We could easily be down 25 right now. So you fought -- I told them, you fought your way back to 10-points at halftime, so you've earned the right to go win this game. You've put yourself back in this position because really how we played, we could easily have been down 20, 25. Tried to motivate them a little bit that now they need to finish it. Came out the second half the way we wanted to. Came out the second half and really executing a few things we talked about at halftime to go at them and changed our defense a little bit. And you know, then all of a sudden, the wheels came off. We cut it to five or whatever it was and then they go backup to 18 in a matter of, I bet almost two and a half minutes, three-minute span. It was fast. Reggie, after really struggling, the first half, really struggling, made some huge plays and made some free throws. Q. You were able down the stretch to cut it to one possession, cut it to one possession but never get over the top. Was that thought going in your mind? TRAVIS FORD: No, once we got it down there, I felt, all right, anything can happen at this point. I kept telling our team, we're going to win the game and we're going to finish this game. You fought back through all kinds of adversity and you deserve to win this. You need to go out and do it. The big thing is, I like how we executed down the stretch. We're down three, I told them, go ahead, take a two, 16 seconds to go in the game and I told them, we were able I think to foul out, we were able to huddle up real quick and I told them, take a two if you've got it, let's play the clock here. Let's play the clock. We got fortunate they missed free throws and things like that, but I thought our press really got them out of rhythm a little bit in the second half, we really started pressing a little bit harder, I think got them out of rhythm. But yeah, I really was happy how we managed the clock the last two, three minutes of the game. Q. How did being picked last in preseason inform the team, and also you in your first season? TRAVIS FORD: Say that again? I'm sorry. Q. How did being packed last in preseason inform the team and you in your first season as you're trying to establish things? TRAVIS FORD: Yeah, we've talked a lot about from day one, being picked last, it's not something we ran from or something we tied to hide or that we were necessarily embarrassed about or anything like that. We talked about it freely. And I told our team, I understood why. I get why we were picked last. But I told them, you know, none of that really matters, and all we've tried -- from day one, we haven't talked about winning or losing. We've just talked about playing hard and playing, stick to the game plan, scouting report, get better, ail of the typical things but never talk about winning. We went through our lumps early. We went through our lumps early, as we all tried to figure out each other. I was trying to figure out them and they were trying to figure out me. And then we slowly, you could see it coming, you could see it coming. We slowly just continued to get better and better and believing in each other, and one thing we talked about a lot, we fully understood our weaknesses we have a lot of them. We fully understood who we are. We get it. We are not world beaters or anything like that. We don't -- you didn't see any of our guys's names on the all-conference teams or none of that. But none of that matters. I've had as much fun coaching this team as any team I've had, because we've just got a group of guys that, no egos. No egos, do the right thing in the classroom, and just every time-out, I say some pretty crazy things and they just nod their head and look at me, okay, okay, and they go out and do it and they take it. They are always looking at me with big eyes and just wanting to know what to do. Because they understand who they are. They understand, we get that we've got to be overachievers. We talk about that all the time. We've got to be overachievers. We've got to be overachievers. So from that standpoint, it's very rewarding to coach these young men. I told them in the locker room, that's win of the craziest games, for 30-something minutes, we didn't play too well and then figure out how to win. It's pretty good for those -- pretty cool for those guys. I'm happy for them. Really happy for them. They deserve it. Q. You referenced a 31-point comeback when you were a player at Kentucky, and this is more satisfying than that one; is it more satisfying to do that as a coach than it is as a player? TRAVIS FORD: Yeah, probably a little. We had a bunch of All-Americans on that team at Kentucky. We had a pretty good team. We had a bunch of guys that are just trying to figure it out. Really guys, if you haven't seen us play, we've been playing a lot better than this, and we had every reason to sit out there and a, well, this is just not our night. Hey, let's just, whoo, just not our night. We had to play in the hometown of the opponent and they played here a couple -- I think this was their third game here in this arena. It would have been easy for us to just say, hey, tonight wasn't our night; we've had a fun season, good year. But not once, every time-out, I was trying to give them a reason, everything's going to be all right and why we could come back, and they just look at you, and nod and go out and try to figure it out. But no, it is -- that was -- this ranks way up there, without a doubt, way up there. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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