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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: WICHITAMarch 15, 2018Steve DonahueAJ BrodeurDarnell ForemanWichita, Kansas Kansas - 76, Penn - 60 THE MODERATOR: At this time we'll ask Coach for his thoughts on the game. COACH DONAHUE: Yeah, first, give can an a ton of credit. I thought they played a terrific game. Couldn't be more proud of my guys and how we played and competed and did everything I would hope. Just thought it was a great college basketball game, in particular for about 35 minutes, and they finished us off. I think fatigue happened. But as I said, I couldn't be more proud of our guys. Q. Darnell, just from an X and O point of view, what regrets are you going to take away from this one? DARNELL FOREMAN: More or less just some ball screening defense. Could have been a little tougher there, you know. It was a credit to their guard, Graham. He was so good at it. He knows how to play it. So I wish we were a little bit more -- we spent a little bit more time just getting them in and out of rhythm. But to their credit, I mean, we did a good job. We played as hard as we could play. And that's all that I ask for. That's all that the coaches ask for. It's just that we try to give our best effort. Q. Darnell, you guys held Kansas and especially Graham in check for the first 12 minutes or so, but then he really went off at the end of the first half. What changed there? DARNELL FOREMAN: Just, again, credit to him. You know what I mean? He realized what was going on in the game. He has a great feel for the game. He knew, being a senior leader also, that he needed to step up, you know, and force the tone and create, and he did a good job of that. He got our guys in rotations. He was able to finish at the rim. So, again, just a credit to him just in a sense just taking over. Q. AJ, can you just offer sort of what the feel for the game was inside, especially at the offensive side of the ball? AJ BRODEUR: I mean, just like it has been all year. We were focusing on limiting the inside touches around the hoop while at the same time guarding the ball screens to not allow those uncontested jumpers, trying to get those contested while still guarding back and not letting them make those lobs. In our film that we watched on them, a big emphasis was on the lobs and if the big man steps up in the paint to try to stop the downhill drive. They like to throw that. So I think for the most part I think we did a pretty good job in cutting them off and taking away that lob to not allow those easy dunks or easy layups at the rim for guard. But they were still able to take advantage of those ball screens, whether it was on the three or being able to get to the rim on the weak side. Q. Obviously there was a long way to go, but when you were 10 points up on Kansas in the state of Kansas, what's filtering through your mind? DARNELL FOREMAN: Just to stay poised. You know they're going to make a run. The fans really did a good job of getting them back in it. You know what I mean? Their support was never wavering. But for us we just tried to find -- we just had to find a way to stay poised throughout it all, knowing that they're a good team, and good teams go on runs, and like we went on runs, they were able to do the same thing. AJ BRODEUR: We were just trying to realize that as a good team as they are to take that punch that they're going to give us, you know they're going to go on a run inevitably. What we were focusing on is how we were going to handle that, how we were going to respond to it, taking that and making it as short as possible, getting our stops and then getting back into our flow. Running our game, our speed, was I think crucial to getting us back into the game in the second half. But eventually they kept making runs and we kept faltering. THE MODERATOR: At this time we'll take questions for Coach. Q. Steve, in the second half after a few minutes it looked like you put Woods on Graham. Did you ever -- what was the reasoning maybe not using him in the first half on him? COACH DONAHUE: Well, Darnell and Antonio are both great defenders. I think that's why we're a very good defensive team. I think Darnell picked up his third, and we were more inclined to get Antonio. Now, look, he had 29 points. He took 24 shots. That's kind of what we wanted. Couple plays at the rim I thought we guarded really well. Call didn't go our way. But our game plan and the way the kids executed, I think it was 62-54, 6 and change against No. 1 Kansas in this building and we have already missed eight foul shots. Defense was awesome. They were 5 for 18. Got them to shoot 18 hard twos, something we preach. Got seven threes for a team that makes 10. I think the big difference in the game was their ability, their athleticism and length to stay rotation players. I couldn't -- our inability to go deep into our bench I thought wore on our players. When we had open shots during that last six minutes in particular, I thought the fatigue really played a factor. Q. You mentioned the free throws. How much are you going to wince looking back at that? And then obviously Kansas made a lot of free throws. And the other part is when you had a ten-point lead, what did you feel like needed to happen to get you to halftime that didn't quite happen? Obviously there was going to be a run at some point. COACH DONAHUE: You know, when you have a ten-point lead, it really isn't much. It's a little over three possessions, and it's Kansas. You know, you gotta try to keep doing what you're doing. I do feel foul shots were a big part of this, and this unfortunately was part of our DNA this year. We were able to overcome it. But if you're going to beat a team like Kansas in this environment, you just gotta make 'em. It's more than just the points. It's a -- your morale kind of gets a hit. Your defense may sulk a little bit, but I thought that was a big part of this. But as I said, I thought we went toe to toe for long stretches, and unfortunately the free-throw shooting probably finally got us. Q. Coach, first off, hats off on an impressive fight today. We saw you make multiple reappearances to the NCAA Tournament with Cornell. What are your expectations moving forward with this team? COACH DONAHUE: Yeah, Penn is an incredible place to coach basketball. Your ability to recruit outstanding student-athletes in a place that supports basketball, loves basketball, I sense that we're going to try to keep building, keep getting better. I think we have a great future. We have a lot of young players that are a big part of this. I love our young group and their mentality, and I would hope that we get back here, but there's no guarantees, but we're going to start working pretty quickly on trying to figure out how to get better. And our league is really good. And we're really young. All the teams in our league. So this isn't -- you know, I think we're a good representation of the league, but by no means are we the only team that feels that they're going to have a great future ahead of them. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for Coach? Okay. Thank you very much, Coach. COACH DONAHUE: Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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