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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: BUFFALOMarch 16, 2017Jamion ChristianJunior RobinsonMiles WilsonElijah LongBuffalo, New York Villanova - 76, Mount St. Mary's - 56 THE MODERATOR: Joined by Mount St. Mary's head coach, Jamion Christian. We'll open with a statement from Coach Christian. JAMION CHRISTIAN: First of all, just congratulations to Villanova. This is a tremendous program, one of the best programs I think we've played against. I think when we look back historically at what they've been able to do over the last two years, I think we'll be able to understand what a good program they are. They obviously have the opportunity to march on. They outplayed us today. But I'm really proud of our group, and I use that word "proud" because they were tremendous in their ability to execute our game plan and just really give this number one team a big scare there in the first half. We've got a lot of things we can work on and improve, but we're expecting to learn from this experience like we've done time and time again and have an opportunity to improve on it. Q. Elijah, what were you thinking at halftime? ELIJAH LONG: Like Coach said, I was proud of the guys and myself, how we came out. But Villanova is a great team, so we couldn't let up. It wasn't obviously the end of the game. So we had to reset and try to do the same thing we did the first half in the second half, and unfortunately that's not what we did. But I'm proud of my guys for coming out the first half like that. Q. Miles, I know the result wasn't what you wanted but you went over to the fan section and saluted each other. What did that mean? MILES WILSON: The fan base has been really strong for us, and for them to come out to Buffalo and show support is amazing. We were 1-11 at the beginning of the season, and nobody believed in us. Our fans and our family and our community were so supportive. They stayed with us the whole time. That was big. Q. Junior, you guys haven't backed down from anyone all season. Was that the attitude that you brought on to the court tonight that you weren't going to back down or flinch especially after you played two nights ago? JUNIOR ROBINSON: Yeah. I mean, I feel like we shouldn't have to back down from anyone, after putting on a jersey, they play the game the same way we do. There's no in backing down. Just come out and play hard and try to attack them any way we can. Q. Elijah, you mentioned what the mood was at halftime. When it was up 10-2, what were you guys thinking? ELIJAH LONG: You're talking about the beginning of the game? Honestly, we thought they were going to try to come in and punch us in the face right away. That obviously wasn't the case. We had how many stops? JAMION CHRISTIAN: Ten stops. ELIJAH LONG: Ten stops in a row. That was a great momentum swing for us when we were up 10-2. I honestly didn't look at the clock until two minutes -- a minute toward halftime. I didn't look at the clock. I didn't know what the score was. I just knew we were playing good. Other than that, I was very proud. I was excited, you know, that this might be a good game, we could get this win but unfortunately we didn't. Q. For Elijah as well. Do you guys feel like you almost squandered an opportunity in some ways, too. They were really cold in the first half and your shooting wasn't as good as it was on other nights. Do you feel you could have built an even bigger lead at points? ELIJAH LONG: Oh, definitely. I feel like first half, we were doing well, swinging the ball, getting easy buckets. But I think second half, I don't think we were settling because we wanted to shoot a lot of threes, but I just think the ball wasn't falling for us. I think half the shots went in for us three. And the other players on the team, like Greg, Alexander, if half the shots went in, it would have been a close game. The result might have been different. It might have not, but it would have been a close game for sure. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Not seeing any, gentlemen, congratulations. Follow up questions now for Coach Christian. Q. Jamion, what do you think tonight's performance says about your program? JAMION CHRISTIAN: I think everyone got a glimpse of how good we can be. That was really a really well-played first half. It was at the tempo we wanted. I thought we really dominated the pace of the game in that first half. It was exactly where we wanted it to be, and so I think it shows that when you have a program, no matter your seed, and you have guys committed to a plan and a high level of enthusiasm to execute that plan, that anything is possible. So I think in one regard it shows how good we can be. On the other regard it shows how much work we have to do to continue to get better and move our program forward. Q. Coach, in the first half, you had a moment to yourself before you jogged off to the locker room. You kind of gave a chagrinned look. You looked up at the scoreboard. Could you tell me what was going through your head at that point? I kind of know. JAMION CHRISTIAN: I felt like we should have been winning the game. I felt like we really played a good half. I felt we were just right there. In one way, I was really so inspired by our group's defensive effort, but I felt like we really squandered an opportunity to finish that half and go into the half up one, which would have been huge for us, momentum-wise. We talked about getting a stop in the time-out. They got to the front of the rim and shot the ball at the block. That was my thinking. Typically I'm a real positive person. I looked up at it and I though I wonder how many 16 seeds have taken a one to being down one in a half. We're in pretty elite company right here. Let me settle my troops in the locker room and make sure we come out with some fire. Q. How did the schedule you played earlier in the season prepare your team for this game, and did that factor into how competitive you were at the start of the game? JAMION CHRISTIAN: No question. I thought the schedule prepared us for everything that was going to happen here. One thing we're trying to do as a program is we're trying to learn from the mistakes we made before. Being able to look at our team and to say you've played six NCAA Tournament teams. We've play three or four teams that won their conference tournament that are elite teams in this country definitely gave us a big benefit, and to also look at them and say what do we need to do better in those games? That's was a tough stretch of games playing there, and the guys would say we have to get back to transition defense. We have to have a focus on that. We've got to rebound the ball. It's always more powerful when it comes from them than when it comes from me. Trying to create a program where they have that ownership is extremely important. And so that schedule allowed us to have extreme ownership in a lot of different areas. I thought it definitely helped us compete out there today against one of the best. Q. Not many teams over the last few years have been able to frustrate Villanova like you guys did in that opening stretch. What specifically do you think you were doing so well at that point, and what's going through your mind when you're watching Josh Hart air ball floater? JAMION CHRISTIAN: Yeah. One of the things watching on film, when they get out and play in transition, they all get going and I think you saw that in the second half. We wanted to honestly come out there and control the tempo. One thing when see on film, if you make shots against Villanova, they're going to walk the ball up the floor. They're going to take shots under ten, and that's going to give you the opportunity to set your defense and get stops. Some people might say Villanova didn't play their best in the first half. On the contrary, I thought we controlled the tempo and played very well. And there's another team on the other side of that that dominated that pace and that tempo, made them have to take one shot and get out. Q. Jamion, are you aware Jay Wright said you out-coached him and the team that played better tonight might not have been the winning team? JAMION CHRISTIAN: That's very flattering. Jay Wright is one of those guys I look up to. If you're a young guy coaching, you have a lot of admiration for those who have done the job and done it well for a long time, especially when you dress as well as Jay does. I don't know if I out-coached him tonight. I know his team outplayed our team. I look at it as we're all a team, we're all a family. I didn't find enough ways to give our guys the advantage. He certainly did that. He made a ton of adjustments playing small some, playing big some. A lot of credit to him. I'm going to take from this game a lot of things I need to get better at, so when we have an opportunity to get back here that we have more tricks up our sleeve to make sure we move on to the next round. Q. You know, a 16 seed has never beaten a No. 1 seed. Mount St. Mary's has been a 16 seed, I think four times. Do you think that will ever happen or what will it take for a 16 seed to come in and win this game? JAMION CHRISTIAN: What's crazy about me, I wanted the 16 seed. I really wanted that. My team will tell you that. I think when you sign up to come to a good program, you sign up to do something that's never been done before, and you sign up to do it with the best of your ability and a ton of enthusiasm. I was enthusiastic about it. I know where we are in Mount St. Mary's and NEC. There's a great possibility we'll be a 15 or 16. I think it takes an enthusiastic bunch, we have that. It takes a team that's going to make outside shots. We have that. A team that's going to have some ball handling at the four, five spot. We have that. And most importantly, it's going to take a team that has a defensive mindset that can do that for a full 40 minutes. It's going to happen. The distance between 1 and 16, as you saw tonight is closing down. They may have had bigger bodies than us, they may have made some shots over top of us. But the heart of athletes and the heart of teams is getting better and better. The gap is really closing. It didn't happen here tonight. It might not happen here in this tournament, but I'd like to think we're starting a trend with what we did there in the first half. Q. I saw you share an embrace with Josh Hart. What was that moment like what did you say to each other? JAMION CHRISTIAN: I love Josh, Josh and Kris. I love those guys. I would be lying to you if I didn't say last year I was rooting for them and through the tournament. I just love those guys. I told Josh I'm so proud of the man he's become. I get a chance now -- I've known Josh since he was about 15 years old. I remember the first day at Sidwell Friends High School. Now I get a chance to see him do his interviews and see people react to him. I'm so proud of the person he's become because I know his story. I'm disappointed that we lost today, but I just love those guys so much, that I'm rooting for them. They don't have a bigger fan. Josh knows that, he knows if he ever needs anything in this life, he always has my phone number, he can always call me. I'm really proud of him and the person he's become. I think that's what college athletics is about. It's about helping them grow up and become all that they can become. Jay Wright has done a great job with that with Josh. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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