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NATIONAL INVITATION TOURNAMENTMarch 28, 2017Vlad BrodzianskyJamie DixonKenrich WilliamsNew York, New York TCU 68, UCF 53 COACH DIXON: Just a great win for us and what I liked about it was we played all nine. Mike Williams, a senior, made some big shots for us; and Brandon, a big three early. Just to have all the guys, everybody, all nine of them as we're down a couple guys. All nine just making plays and doing what we need to do and just found a way. And different guys stepped up early, different guys stepped up late and that's what you want to have as far as a team in March. It's just been fun to coach. I told the guys, we love coaching these guys all year long and we just want two more days with them, so they gave us that. We'll look forward to getting ready for Georgia Tech. I thought Kenrich was terrific the second half. He just kind of took over, passing, finishing, offensive rebounding, and you know, that's pretty big. Just let him go do his thing. Q. Kenrich, can you talk about the second half? Seemed like every time the ball went up it came down in your hands on the glass, offensively, defensively, what have you? KENRICH WILLIAMS: Yeah, going into halftime, one of the assistants just told me I need to pick it up, pick my play up. I did a little bit more hustling the second half, and thankful that the ball touched my hand. Q. What was the strategy? Obviously you made some real adjustments in the second half. What did you tell them? COACH DIXON: Just, you know, I felt pretty good. We made a run in the first half at the end of it and I kind of thought we had the momentum going in. I felt we played pretty good defense. Williams hit some really tough shots, but we didn't get too upset about that, frustrated. Just stick with what we were doing defensively. I thought the second half, we emphasized more driving, penetrating and making decisions, jump-stopping and finding the open guy. Fall obviously is going to rotate, change shots. I thought once we started hit some guys, getting some layups on some dump-offs, then we got some layups at the end when he had to stay closer to his guy. But I thought that was the key, real will I, getting after it offensively and just making a little better decisions in the lane one we got him. They overplayed, yeah, they tried to force the drive, force you into their size, Fall. And I just thought we made better decisions at the end, and Vlad finished really well and then obviously Kenrich got a lot of put-backs. Q. Tacko is really tough to combat. Can you talk about your approach today? VLAD BRODZIANSKY: It was a challenge to play against the tallest basketball player in the NCAA right now. You cannot really get ready for that. We were talking about in practice: He is going to be tall; he's going to be there. Just get used to that he's going to be there all the time and try to block the shot and go harder and finish. Q. How much of a fight did it feel like out there tonight on the rebound? KENRICH WILLIAMS: It was a fight. Of course, you've got Tacko Fall, he's a big guy. But I mean, I think everybody did a great job rebounding on our team. We really picked it up second half. We got a lot of loose balls. I mean, rebounding was huge for us throughout the game. Q. Did you feel like at halftime that the motivation was coming player-to-player, coach-to-player, or was it just looking up at the score? KENRICH WILLIAMS: I mean, it was just player-to-player. First half, we didn't play too well but we were playing hard. Second half we played, I think we played pretty good. We were hitting shots. And as player-to-player, you just go out there and you've got to do what you've got to do and that's what we did tonight. Q. You guys opened the half on a 16-3 run. What really sparked that charge for you guys? VLAD BRODZIANSKY: We were just talking about in the locker room, we have 20 more minutes, and if we're going to last 20 more minutes, how about just try to come up with blocks and play our hardest and try to execute. Q. The last time you had the triple-double, flirted with another one, and all year you've had a bunch of double-doubles. What's been the increase in the assist numbers? KENRICH WILLIAMS: I mean, getting the ball more; I'm being more aggressive in finding my teammates. It has something to do with our point guard missing, me stepping up and Jaylen missing. Just me being more aggressive and finding open guys. Q. You talked about getting momentum turned. How big was the 10-0 spurt to give you life and build on that going forward? COACH DIXON: Yeah, just they made some shots early that we thought we guarded well, and we didn't think they could sustain it. They were 1-for-14 in the second half, and I don't think they really had a good look in the three. And I thought really, really that was the big difference. Out rebounding by ten was our goal; we got them by nine. And then guard the three. And obviously they hit some early. So that obviously gave them the lead. But as the half progressed, I felt good because the shots they made, except for the one on the breakdown when we were in zone to man, were guarded. So he hit tough shots, Williams, but we didn't believe he could sustain that. That was our mentality. That was our thinking. I thought we defended really well. They shot 33 percent, 24 from three, and again, most of those makes were early, early in the first half. So we stayed with our self defensively against their tough shots they had early and didn't panic. We threw the zone in there a little bit to get them out of rhythm a little bit, but the end of the day we knew we were going to have to man. That was the message at halftime. We're manning and we gave up an open three in the zone, which we hated to do. But we said at that point, we're manning the rest of the way and we're doing what we do, and I think that message got to across to our guys. You're talking about Kenrich. I mean, Kenrich, he missed so much. He didn't start playing until a couple games into the season. We didn't even know, he was so far behind; you talk about being out a year and a half. He's just getting, finding his legs, getting better. We're finding ways to play through him and play with him. I think it's just growth with him and us, and he's getting better. He's getting better. But we're telling him to be more aggressive, straight line drives, just go by people. He's too good an athlete and too good a decision maker, and he's a player in the making as far as doing those things right now. I think it's something that's evolved and come and we're playing through him in the post and we're playing through him on the perimeter, as well. Q. Outside of the rebounding, what was the most important aspect tonight? Was it perimeter defense? COACH DIXON: Yeah, guarding the three, that was important to us. We actually did it against Richmond, too. Their big guy scored on us, Richmond, but we didn't guard the three. We felt the way they could beat us was by making a lot of threes, and same thing here with Central Florida. And Williams was 3-for-11, Taylor is 1-for-7. So when you can hold them 4-for-18, we'll live with that. Those were the two main guys, and you know, Banyard, we were going to -- we were going to live with him making some. He only had two. But we wanted to make it tough on all those and like I said, I think Williams got one open three, and the two he had were deep and guarded of those three. So guard the three, and you know, that was the message and that was the goal. I thought we did a good job for 40 minutes. Again they are 24 percent from three. So they made five in the first half, and our goal was under ten, and you know, that was a key. Q. What was your opinion of Tacko Fall now that you've played against him? He took five shots, made three and had six blocks. Just your opinion? COACH DIXON: He got some touches. Main thing was get him farther out as far as we could and not let him be by the rim and not give him second shots. If he made -- I think he made one little jump hook on us. We can live with that. But no put-backs, which I thought we did a pretty good job. I think maybe he got one in the first half. So that's how I thought we hurt him. But we pretty much let our guy guard him in the post offensively. Defensively, as I said earlier, I think that we had to get in the lane, we had to penetrate, and I think we had to do -- as the game went on, we did a better job of decisions once we got in the lane, whether it be passing or going to the rim. I thought our big guys finished well, once the game got going: Vlad getting fouled, finishing, and I thought that was good. But Kenrich getting in the lane; I think Josh getting in the lane -- I mean, Alex getting in the lane was key for us, too. We also spaced the floor well; that they had to guard the threes and we are only 7-for-20, but we thought we were getting open looks often times lead to offensive rebounds. Q. You get 20 assists on 26 made baskets today, and it seems like the offense has been moving fluidly. Can you talk about that? COACH DIXON: It is, and the spacing's been better. Our penetration has been better. And that's an amazing number because I don't know how many put backs we had, so you're talking about 26 baskets, 20 assists like you said, and I've got to think we had four or five put-backs after second shots and we look at those as almost assists that we're taking a good shot and we're going to the glass. That's part of good offense. So yeah, we didn't shoot it great, and you're not going to shoot it as good when you have a guy like Fall in there. It's just fact. You know, you can say play the same and do this and that, but he is changing the game in some way. But I thought -- if told me he would shoot 43 percent, 35 from three, I would be comfortable with that if we had a low turnover. I thought we had a few too many turnovers but that's something we should -- we've got to work on here going forward. We've got two days to figure that out. Q. You say you like playing in Madison Square Garden, but can you speak about what it means to you and the program? COACH DIXON: Yeah, I mean, I love this place, and obviously being, I don't know, I guess a New Yorker by parents, but it's special. My parents are here. I tried to get the message across to our players how special playing in Madison Square Garden is and how important it is, the history, and get it across. I think they sensed how important and how much it meant to me, and I appreciate that them for recognizing that and understanding my connection with West Point and New York and our families connection to Madison Square Garden. So we love this place, and our family can't thank them enough for the hospitality, the history and Joel Fisher, he's a good friend, but just so many people, Joseph Fiene (ph) that make this place so special for us and I try to get that across to our players. But as far as getting to the championship and winning 23 games now, we've kind of put all these firsts, things that we could do first. Obviously we've kind of had to adjust as we've won maybe more than people thought, but our goal now is to get the second-most wins in school history, which would be 24, which was my senior year I guess, and then get a championship at NIT. I think we just like -- we don't want the season to end. I think that might be more the motivation than anything. These guys are practicing hard. You talk to my assistants, you can't believe how much energy they have brought to etch auto practice. I think more than anything, we don't want the season to end. They love going to practice and they love being around each other, and the celebration in the locker room was, you could just see the joy. We're going to enjoy it for about a couple more hours and then we'll get ready for Georgia Tech. Q. Can you talk about what it's been like this year to go back and coach at your alma mater, and are there any surprises once you got back there? COACH DIXON: Yeah, I talked about it a bit with our seniors. I would say the biggest surprise is our seniors. The type of kids, the type of character, the unbelievable unselfishness they displayed throughout the season, and their work ethic. I mean, their roles have been different. They have changed throughout the year. But they have come and practiced hard, and how much they love TCU and the opportunity they have given them: Brandon, Chris, Mike, is less spoken about it, but Karviar, but they just love -- they love TCU. They love the opportunity they have been given and I think they are really enjoying the ride. So I mean, I just can't believe -- I can't thank enough. When you get into a job, you wonder if you're ever going to get those seniors to buy in; they have a new coach, and how are they going to respond, how are they going to handle and these guys have been, as I call them, the four believers, because they have been through a lot: 0-18, playing in a high school gym for a year and a half, practicing in different place, injuries, coaching change. But Trent had them ready and had high-quality kids, and I was just fortunate to be falling after it. That has been the thing that's really been the biggest surprise to me but a pleasant, pleasant surprise. Q. (Off-mic). COACH DIXON: Yeah, he's one of my best friends in coaching. He's been around for success at Pitt and he's a former coach that won a lot of games and was a big part of Georgia Tech, having a great year last year, because they won. They got deep in the NIT, as well. Barely missed the NCAAs and won; I think the highest team not to get in RPI wise so they had a great tournament last year. He's great with Zebo (ph). Watched a lot of film with his positioning and can do a lot of different things. He brings a lot of knowledge and just great for all their assistants, too. Just great in letting them know what we are trying to do, I'm trying to do as a coach, not so much basketball but just building a program. Thank you. Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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