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NATIONAL INVITATION TOURNAMENTMarch 29, 2018Larry KrystkowiakSedrick BarefieldJustin BibbinsNew York, New York Penn State 82, Utah 66 Q. The obvious question: How did this thing escalate? Pretty close game for a while and you made a run in the third quarter and then what happened after that? JUSTIN BIBBINS: They are a good team. I mean, they made plays. We missed shots, and, you know, it was kind of a home court for them and that's the way it goes. It's a game of runs and they hit shots and we didn't. Q. Sedrick, do you have any thoughts on that? Said said no, I agree with what he said. They made shots. They went on a run and you know, they had their little MoJo going, especially with the fans. I'm not making any excuses but they definitely had some great energy today. Q. That's your last game -- JUSTIN BIBBINS: It hit me walking in the tunnel with Sedrick, knowing it's your last game, last time on the court with this team. We love each other. It's just the next chapter, though. This chapter ends, another one opens. I'm excited for the future, but I'm always going to look at this team as family. Q. Did they do anything different or was it just a matter of trying to spread the ball around? SEDRICK BAREFIELD: I think my teammates did a good job of finding me and Coach had the confidence in me to shoot it when I was open. That's all really that happened. Q. At what point do you think the game turned for you? Obviously it was close as was mentioned but what happened that you thought it kind of slipped away? JUSTIN BIBBINS: I think there was a point in the third of turnovers. I had two -- they got a lot of those 50/50 balls and scored off of them, and can't do that when you're basically playing an away game because the fans get going. I would just say it's turnovers. Q. Can you talk about the journey of getting to the NIT Championship game? Or does not winning overshadow that at the moment? SEDRICK BAREFIELD: Well, I think it's a great feeling because there's only a few teams playing at this time of year, no matter if you're in the NCAA Tournament or the NIT. Playing with this group of guys, probably the most fun I've had as being part of a team and a culture. It mean something to me, to us, and I'm sure to everyone. Q. Is the New York experience a nice way to finish? JUSTIN BIBBINS: Win or lose, you want to win the game but losing it doesn't take away from anything. You know, you get to come to New York with your boys. You've been practicing since August, grinding with them, so nothing is going to take that away from you, especially playing this deep in March. Q. You talked early in the season about the adjustments and ups and downs. What do you think you'll take from this going forward with obviously another season to come? SEDRICK BAREFIELD: Just confidence going into next season. I want to learn from the guys that are leaving, as far as what they brought to the table, try to come back next year and improve. Q. At what point do you think there was a shift where Penn State just seemed to be running away with it? HEAD COACH LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: It doesn't just happen. It not like flipping a switch on, two points, add another two points. You know, for us, in that case it was all about defense. You know, you've got Stevens is 11-for-15. Got their point guard, Tony Carr, that almost is one rebound away from a triple-double. They have some good players and those two are top players in the Big Ten. Give credit to them. You play the game, only one team is going to win and I've always all along, ^ defense wins championships. It's been a long time since we let a team shoot 50 percent from the field. We led the Pac-12 in defensive field goal percentage. We did a really good job with game plan and preparing our guys and our guys did a nice job of getting stops. I don't care if you're in the NIT, the NCAA, baseball, football, whatever it is, defense wins championships. Plain and simple, they had guys that stepped up and made plays and when you're taking the ball out of the net and you're not scoring at the same clip, you can do the math, and that becomes a run. That's what happened. I thought there was a difference in -- as one of the guys said, some of the 50/50 balls, loose balls. We got two defensive rebounds in the first half, clean and then they popped them away and scored. It's just a little bit more physicality. They have got extra possessions, extra baskets at the rim and we were flailing around at the rim. There was a lot of baskets from close proximity that we should have finished and that ends up being a significant difference I think in the basketball game. So, you know, it's not that complicated in my mind, but our hand on it. Q. What happened with David Collette, and obviously he came in for about two minutes and checked back out. Was he just not able to sustain that? HEAD COACH LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: I didn't really talk to him. I mean, he got whacked pretty good. You know, hurt his neck. They were fearful initially of a concussion and he passed all that, came back in the game. Didn't quite look like he had it. Jayce had been giving us some good minutes, but we threw him back in there in the second half and made a decision for his own health and the betterment of our team to play with Jayce. I thought Jayce did a good job. It was unfortunate. We've had a hard time staying healthy at various points with different things, but no excuses. It was just having a man down was a little bit difficult, especially with the physical nature of the game I thought. Q. I think you've talked a little this year about the chemistry and dynamics. Wonder if you can put into words what this senior group that's leaving, what it's meant to you and the program? HEAD COACH LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: I spoke to the team after the game and I can say without a doubt, I might have had some times at the Milwaukee Bucks as a player, but there's a lot of years of playing and coaching that I've never enjoyed the year more from start to finish. We've been practicing since the end of July because we went on a foreign tour and that might have been beneficial for a guy like Justin coming into the mix and needing to get his feet wet with our guys, so it was very beneficial. But that's a long time, you know. Ten practices, ten days abroad, come back, a lot of practices here. We've been grinding and we're one of the last teams standing, still playing and I loved every minute of it. I'd keep going. You know, it was a testament to our guys. They were enjoyable to come in and practice every day, and I would say, if we had 100 meetings this year,99 of them with our coaching staff, involved how to get better as a basketball team, not how we were going to fix mistakes, problems, guys stepping out of line, not going to class, getting in trouble, whatever it was. So it was a real dang good year, and nobody's going to take the fact away that we got on a nice roll. I think as a coach, you always want to be playing your best basketball at the right time of year. I think our team improved throughout the course of the year. I think we were playing real well going down the stretch. We just ran into a really good team. Could have been one of those Cinderella finishes, but it wasn't. We got beat. We got beat. I have no problem when you lose a game. I've told our guys that for years. I've always felt that way. If a team beats you, shake their hand and congratulate them, and they outplayed us. You know, we needed to play better in order to win. But I take a lot of solace in the fact that we didn't beat ourselves and I really think that guys maximized it and it was a great college experience. It was a great year to be a part of. Q. Was there anything in particular about Penn State's guards that you didn't see in the Pac-12 that was different from what you usually see in your own league? HEAD COACH LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: Well, you know, not really. I mean, if you do -- if you're in the middle of a boxing match, we're not exactly in the same weight class but I'll take Justin Bibbins any day. Although I wouldn't mind having their point guard, either. But that's significant, and he took advantage of us in the post, I thought. You know, seeing over our guys. So there's teams in the Pac-12 that are plenty big, but this Penn State team, I noticed when I came out after the Western Kentucky game to watch, they are 6-5, 210 guards and we have Justin and said Rick who are smaller guards. We tried to find a way to combat that but weren't able to do it. It was a lot the same; short time to learn personnel. We've always depended I think a little bit on game prep and personnel and we made a lot of personnel mistakes in the game that I think if obviously we were more familiar with them, hopefully we could have been smart mentally. Sometimes that makes up for some of that physical difference that we don't have. But it was similar. Q. I know you dedicated the season to Mr. Huntsman and all that and you wanted to get this one, but can you talk about getting here and the things this team accomplished and how you're feeling at the moment? HEAD COACH LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: It's the time of my life, actually. I talked about it, how great the season was, and to be able to do this, to be a part of it. I've always been on the outside. Never been in the Final Four of the NIT but I've talked to coaches that were here. I talked to a coach that's -- I won't mention his name; he's actually gone to a Final Four NCAA Tournament, and went to the NIT one year and won it, and said of all his experiences, the NIT was the best experience. Looking from outside-in, you're always kind of watching the NIT, and maybe you think of it as the consolation prize or whatever, but man, when you're in the middle of it at a competitor and a coach and you're winning games and you're in the Garden, and some of the tradition that's been around here, people on the outside writing articles, have comments, opinions about what's going on. They have no idea how cool this was for us. Again, nobody's going to take it away and it was an absolute highlight and especially being with this group. Q. For a guy like Sedrick, I think early in the season there was talk about expectations and him adjust to go playing off the ball more and off the bench and he's had a lot going on this season, to finish strong, do you feel like you've seen some growth or development or value that's going to carry into next season for him? HEAD COACH LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: I hope so. It's part of the process. It's written all over our practice facility. You know, you don't just flip a switch. These kids are young. Sedrick just finished a year and a half of college. He's going to be a senior next year but he's competed for a year and a half. He was with us at Christmastime last year. I would expect him to be better. He was one, like a lot of guys, that started to figure some things out, some roles. I told him when I met with him two weeks ago before the NIT Tournament, "We can't go to New York without you." Put him in the starting lineup and things changed. Certain kids respond differently. But I would hope he's ready. I don't expect him to get home and start working right now for next year. We need to decompress. But being one of the seniors for next year, and us knowing some of his limitations and strengths, gives us the opportunity to work with him in the off-season and I would expect some big things out of him and a number of our other young guys, so that's all part of it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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