	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 2, 2018

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

Loyola-Chicago - 54, Northern Iowa 50

THE MODERATOR: Right now we have the victorious Loyola Ramblers with us. Porter Moser in the middle. Marques Townes and Ben Richardson flank his sides. We'll have Porter to make a statement about this game.

PORTER MOSER: I thought it was a classic Valley game, especially with Northern Iowa. It was gritty. It was tough. It was ugly at times. Just crazy how well they defend. They really guard you.

I was proud of our guys. I was proud of our guys' mentality. There were times I think we were down six. These two guys here -- all of them. None of them. There was no panic. I think there was more panic in our fans than there was in our guys. You could just feel them pulling their hair out. And these guys, we were like, hey, we got to keep guarding. They made some big -- both these guys made some big plays and some big defensive plays. We came out of a time-out when we really needed an intangible lift, and Ben got that steal in the corner. That's why he's defensive player of the year.

Marques was really getting downhill, and just a classic gritty game.

Q. Marques, how do you think your postseason experience helped today?
MARQUES TOWNES: In terms of?

Q. Playing in the NCAA Tournament and now coming to Arch Madness.
MARQUES TOWNES: It's not really anything different. All I got to tell the guys is just try to play your heart out and play every game like it's your last. Every team here -- Missouri Valley Conference is a tough league, a real tough league. So I just told the guys like in the beginning of the game, just play your hearts out and give everything you got because nothing comes easy.

Like you see out there, it was a gut-out game. It was a great game. That's all I got to -- I told them just play your hearts out and everything will fall into place.

Q. Ben, you had that steal your coach mentioned and that three-pointer. There just seemed to be kind of a look in your eye after that too. Did you feel like you guys just needed to get a few shots going? And maybe discuss, too, kind of the mentality of being down and struggling.
BEN RICHARDSON: Yeah, that's one aspect of this team that I think is pretty special. We've had adversity a couple times, and we've responded. Times we've been down, senior night, went down six in the second half against Illinois State, and we didn't panic. We just did the little things we need to do to win, make a little play here and there, and focus on doing that rather than hitting the home run.

You know, I just try to play hard and let my teammates feed off energy. At that time, that's all you need. You need to come in and bring energy and let the guys feed off you.

Q. Ben, didn't take a single shot the first half, stepped up, I think, nine points in the second half. Was that a conscious decision at halftime, or was that just the flow of the game?
BEN RICHARDSON: I think it was the flow of the game. I mean, Northern Iowa is super tough defensively. They're going to make it tough on you the whole game. You're not going to get a whole lot of looks. We want to get a lot of possessions, and they kind of slowed us down a little bit. I didn't feel like I had a lot of looks in the first half, and then I kind of just let it come to me, tried to be aggressive, tried to make plays. Trying to get downhill most of the second half, I think would be more of what I was focusing on, and then some good things happened.

Q. Ben, sticking with you, what did you see on that three-point shot? Obviously, you didn't have a whole lot of time to think on that one.
BEN RICHARDSON: Yeah, I caught it. I think I got a release from Krutwig. I think he kicked it out, and I just looked up for a split second. I was about to go try to get downhill, and I just saw two, one, and I just tried to get it up fast. I had a look at the rim, and it fell.

PORTER MOSER: You should have said, "Coach Moser told me to get it." (Laugher). I've had your back so many times. It's a little last-second play we were working on. You missed your opportunity.

Q. Just to follow up on that, as a guy who's the Conference Defensive Player of the year, what does it feel to make a big offensive play to turn the game around?
BEN RICHARDSON: Yeah, just I think we have a lot of weapons on this team, and any guy can go make that big play. I'm ready. Marques is ready. Donte is ready. We're all ready to make a big play like that, big shots. At that point in the game, I had to take it.

Yeah, but I think we have tons of weapons and tons of guys who hit big shots, and that's why we've pulled out games like this. It's going to be tough games this whole tournament. So we're going to need everyone to come along.

It's not always going to be the same guys. It's everyone's going to have to step up to win this tournament.

Q. As Ben just mentioned, all the weapons you have, how important is that when your Player of the Year is struggling a bit?
PORTER MOSER: It's real important. You know, the one thing about Ben -- I know the question was about his shots the second half, he didn't force any of them. That's what's good. Because sometimes guys, when adversity hits, you start forcing and pressing and taking -- you saw me a lot, I was clapping. We had a bunch of good shots. I shouldn't say that, not a bunch. We had some good shots, but I don't think they were forced.

Like Ben's first pull-up was really natural. He got some space, and it was just a nice, clean pull-up. And then the -- he hit another one, a little drive to the basket. Marques is so strong. We have a term that we call, "body up, body in." When you start beating a guy, you go body up into them. Marques really does that; you see how strong he went downhill.

But it is, I mean, for guys there was no panic. Obviously, Clayton was struggling, and you look at some of the big plays down the stretch the second half the guys made, and that's why -- not one person can lead a team to 26 wins. We're much better with Clayton Custer, no doubt, and I'm telling you, he's going to make some huge, huge plays for us here in St. Louis.

Q. It looked like on the bench at one point, he was kind of like rubbing his ankle and wincing a little. Is that troubling him?
PORTER MOSER: A little bit. A little bit. We'll get some treatment on his ankle afterwards.

Q. Did it happen earlier or in this game?
PORTER MOSER: It happened this game.

Q. Coach, for the past, all season you've been talking about body blows during the game. Can you talk a little bit about how that applied.
PORTER MOSER: Well, one of the things, you can see we continued to try to push it and push it and run. We kind of call body blows because, if we keep running, even on misses, we run, people got to get back, and we pass ahead. We kind of call body blows, hopefully getting people tired. That was something -- that's kind of what we mean by that is that we just keep coming, keep coming throughout, and then we just had this mentality, though, in the second half, we're going to be the one in better condition. We're going to be the one to kind of carry it through.

Northern Iowa is just tough, tough kids. If you don't -- if you don't know, if you're outside of this league, we all feel in this league, they just have clamps on defense. They're really well scouted. They take away a lot of things, and it's just -- there's a reason why they've been so good in these tournaments, because it's their defense.

Q. Coach, Northern Iowa took that 37-33 lead in the second half. How did you go about keeping your guys locked in?
PORTER MOSER: You know, it's some veteran leadership. It's some confidence. I know there was a question about Marques' postseason. How I would have answered it was he doesn't get rattled. He won three state championships in high school. He was in the NCAA Tournament at Fairleigh Dickinson. Ben, same way. These guys have been in some games, and you just can't panic. There's a lot of possessions. When we were down six, we're sitting in the huddle, we knew there were a ton of possessions left. We've been in that spot. We were down six at Illinois State. We've been in those positions.

We've been down a number of games, and we just have to keep grinding. It's a confidence. It's togetherness and just not panicking.

Q. Was there a defensive adjustment the last ten minutes or so? I think their field goals were something 1 of 10, 2 of 10. Was there any changes schematically on the "D"?
PORTER MOSER: They moved Koch was obviously bothering us. They did a good job, they move him to kind of a different spot. They moved him high in that spot and spaced him to where it was a little bit difficult to trap him at first. Then he was catching it, and then he was just turning and driving on Krutwig and Dre so much.

Then we were trying to get Donte to go, just get it out of his hands. I don't care where he is, we've got to rotate and get it out of his hands.

So there was a little bit of a chess match with that. Where Koch was getting the ball, it was an awkward spot. He was really catching it and turning and facing. He was patient. Koch is quicker than you think. He puts it down on the deck, and then he spins on you, it's a tough move. So I thought we did a better job of limiting his wide open looks. We were just trying to -- we let him turn the corner in the first half. You know, it's the whole thing called "through you to the rim." He turned the corner and got looks. We were trying to stay between him and the basket.

Although Krutwig fouled him the one time on a reach, he had another couple ones that we didn't give him angles. He's so quick to do what I was saying through you to the rim because he spins off you. He's 6'10", and he's got like a 7'2" reach. So I thought we did a better job of doubling him and getting it out of his hands, and it was Donte with that length.

Q. Are you guys finding the Number 1 seed is something that you relish and really are enjoying, or does it bring with it another level of pressure that you don't really have if you're not Number 1?
PORTER MOSER: We don't talk about the Number 1 seed in terms of pressure. We talked about a lot of teams say, hey, this is a new start, a new season, the tournament, and we said we didn't want to say that. This isn't a new season for us. This is a continuation of us, our journey, what we're trying to do. We've got to get better this week. We said all that.

So we haven't talked about the pressures, number one. I thought it's a benefit. I've been on the other end of this. We won our first game and had to play Wichita, I think it was two years ago, and we came out in a game like this -- if you remember that game, we were up five or six, and Baker and VanVleet, not that I want to talk about those guys.

But we really didn't talk about the pressures of 1. We just talked about, hey, this is a mentality, what's right in front of us. It's a continuation. It isn't a new beginning. You can't just all of a sudden flick on a switch and say, oh, we're going to guard, we're going to have great culture. We said it's been a continuation of our journey and what we're going on.

Q. For those of us who haven't seen Ben during the season, he's been out with a broken hand, what's the season been like for him? How has he come back?
PORTER MOSER: Let me tell you just about Ben Richardson. When Ben invested so much this off-season in -- I mean, you talk about a kid who wants to be good. And all of a sudden, he breaks his hand. You just want to break your heart when you get a senior injured.

So he says to me, when they said he has to have surgery, he says to me, "Well, maybe this will give somebody else a chance to step up and get more minutes, and then when I come back, we'll be deeper." I mean, who says that? I wouldn't have.

Lucas Williamson was starting. Lucas Williamson made the All-Freshman Team. Came in -- I know he missed some shots today, but I love Lucas. Lucas made those free throws. Lucas is a darn good player and was able to do that.

In a crazy way, Ben is so hard on his body and he plays so hard, having that time out he's fresher in March than he's ever been in his three years because he plays so hard on defense every minute, every practice. He just seems like he's like an old man this time of year. And he looks fresher. So in a crazy way, maybe that helped him here this late in the season because Ben is fresh. He's the freshest he's been, by far, his body, in his career.

Q. When you look at some of the early game struggles, do you think it was due to Northern Iowa, or do you think it was kind of the first game jitters down in St. Louis?
PORTER MOSER: Could be both. Could be both. I remember distinctly we missed some good shots, and I was just -- missed some threes. I thought both teams were guarding at a high level. So could be both. I mean, Northern Iowa, I know it's that. I know part of it's Northern Iowa. Whether our guys were jitters or not, but I will tell you it is an advantage to get a game in the bank in a tournament. You get a feel. You get an atmosphere. You get a feel.

The second game, you're a little more comfortable. So maybe there was a little of that. Don't know. I'm just very, very pleased that we're moving on tomorrow, and we've got to play the winner of Drake-Bradley.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297