|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 16, 2019Mick CroninNysier BrooksTre ScottMemphis, Tennessee Cincinnati, 66 - Wichita State, 63 COACH MICK CRONIN: Well, I want to congratulate Wichita State. Their effort is always tremendous. Their growth as a team this season is really unbelievable. Credit to their two seniors, Haynes-Jones and McDuffie, and Coach Marshall is one of the best. They always complete. They never give up. They are always physical. They play the game the way it's supposed to be played. And to have a winning record with what they went through and all the players they lost -- I was telling Gregg the other day, they reminded me of my first year. To literally have eight guys playing that didn't play for you last year and I know how hard that is, so a lot of credit goes to them for the season that they had. They have been a great addition to our Conference. But obviously, you know, at this time of year, you're not into splitting atoms, you win and move on. Really proud of our rebounding. Obviously, these two guys sitting next to me did a great job on the glass. But I look down and I see guys getting rebounds where they were getting none or getting two and four, and that was -- that's the only reason we really won today when you really look at it. When you shoot 47 percent from the foul line and the other team shoots 85, it's hard to win. It's really hard to win. So I think to advance in the tournament, somebody told me one time you've got to be able to dance to every song they played to win the trophy. You can't just have one dance. I know Nys can only slow-dance, Tre and I can dance to a lot of different stuff. Nys don't have our footwork. Yesterday we won with offense, today we won with defense and rebounding. Again, though, that team's got a lot of heart, man. They would not quit. So I give them a lot of credit. Our guys sucked it up. Big basket obviously for Cane Broome down the stretch; Jarron Cumberland set a great screen. Win and advance, survive and advance. Q. Coach, do you expect Bearcat Nation to come out in full force from Cincinnati since that's drivable distance, and how does a win like this over a great Wichita State team down the stretch get you prepared for March Madness coming up? COACH MICK CRONIN: Well, I wanted to get to the Championship game. But I told our guys, the thing about it, SMU's at full strength. This shows how good our league is, to watch them play yesterday and realize that they were a 10-seed. But playing a team that gives you a fight, where you don't build false sense of security because you're not going to advance in any tournament if you don't play well. And whether it's today, or this week obviously, or next week, teams aren't going to be alive. The next team you play, anybody that makes this tournament obviously won their Conference tournament or they qualified. I keep telling our guys the layups are over. So, it makes you better when you have to play against good competition. I wanted to get to the Championship game. I told the guys because in my feeling Houston is as good as anybody in the country. So it gives us an opportunity to play against -- obviously you don't want to -- you want to right the fact that they beat you twice. That doesn't happen a lot around Cincinnati, and you're playing for the Championship of our Conference. But this third part is you get a chance to play against a team that's good enough to win a National Championship. So that tells you where you are at, what you need to do, what you are capable of and what you need to improve on. It was really important for us to win today. Q. Can you talk a little bit about this league and the fact that this is one year where people are finally starting to realize that it's had a better season than leagues like the Pac-10 or the Big East, in terms of their top six or seven teams. You mentioned SMU as a tenth seed. What does it have to do to get over the hump? Is it just winning? COACH MICK CRONIN: Open mind by I think others helps. Winning is a big part of it. You've got to remember, Hoops, our first year in The American, we won the National Championship, UConn. So a lot of it is preconceived notions, but, you know, hey, at the end of the day, everything's about money, Hoops. So, if a certain network owns the NFL's rights they're going to talk about them the most. You are going to talk about the teams that you've got the most money into. There is a reason they are talking about Zion Williamson, they're being told to. That is the way it is now, Hoops. Whether it's a network, or the Sheakley Group back home or the Wyler Group, the University of Cincinnati, you know what kids follow, they follow -- marketing people that follow social media. And so they tell them talk about this, talk about that. So, you know, we will probably get talked about. Memphis had a really good team, but they will get talked about more next year because of James Wiseman. He might be the number one pick in the drift. I don't read it. Other than your stuff, I don't really follow it too much. (Laughter). I try to tell my guys, man, to find success for yourself, that's what we try to do, we try to worry about ourselves. Our league's been great all year. What I will tell you outside the ACC, our league has been as good as any other league, it really has been this year. Q. You had some foul trouble, Jarron goes out, you put some guys in that aren't in all the time and they really seized the moment. COACH MICK CRONIN: That was awesome to see. Really happy for those guys. (Applause.) We have great guys on this team. When you see Mamoudou make a big basket, Rashawn making plays, the more you develop those guys, the more weapons you have the better chance it's going to give you to win games, you can't just win if Jarron has a great game and lose if he doesn't. You have to be more -- nobody can play that way. You've got to be able to beat people three ways: Win with your offense -- we did it yesterday. Today we won with rebounding and good defense, not great. We had great rebounding today. So you win with offense, defense and rebounding. Whenever kids have success, man, especially guys that haven't had a chance to contribute maybe as much as some others -- obviously these guys are more happy for them than the rest of us, I trust. We have really good kids on our team. Q. Guys, what do you tell each other heading into the season game, I know they beat you twice this season. Is that rematch on your mind? NYSIER BROOKS: We focus on ourselves, we make sure everybody is on the same page, on how hard this game is going to be, how hard we need to fight. TRE SCOTT: Like he said, we need to make sure -- whatever our coaching staff tell us to do, we need to make sure we are on our Ps and Qs from offensive and defensive standpoint. Be ready, don't come out half-stepping. We have to come out with tremendous energy, have more effort than Houston for us to win. That is what we have to do. If we don't, we won't get the job done. Q. You won the boards today, what do you have to do to out-rebound Houston? They are a tough rebounding team. NYSIER BROOKS: Numbers, numbers. Crashing the glass. TRE SCOTT: Numbers, crashing the glass and boxing out, keeping them off the glass. It goes both ways, you have to keep them off the glass and impose our will more than them, especially on the offensive end. Get second-chance points also. COACH MICK CRONIN: Numbers means amount of people we have on the offensive glass. You can't rebound if you have one or two guys going. We've got to have a third or a fourth guy. It is all about numbers. That's why Houston's a great rebounding team. They send numbers, multiple people. They get the third and fourth guy there, so we've got to box out the way we did today. You have got to use your body, you can't use your arms. They go too hard. Q. Tre, that last deflection, what did you see as far as the pass they were trying to get across? TRE SCOTT: I saw me playing football in high school. COACH MICK CRONIN: This is an inside joke. Here we go. (Laughter). I'm checking the huddle tape. Do you believe he played... NYSIER BROOKS: I believe my guy. COACH MICK CRONIN: You played wide-receiver. Did you really play defense? TRE SCOTT: I did. COACH MICK CRONIN: You're the tallest defensive back in history. I'm checking the huddle tape. TRE SCOTT: Coach Cronin always tells us to read up, when our guards in the front line giving tremendous energy, making sure the guards up front -- NYSIER BROOKS: You have to show your energy in the back. TRE SCOTT: We can't make the guards up front work hard and we rest. He tell us to read up, and that's what I did. I just bathed in the tour like I wasn't there, and as soon as the ball left his hand, I ran through it. The buzzer went off. COACH MICK CRONIN: It's a great play. I'm still checking the tape. (Laughter). TRE SCOTT: I'm telling you... FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|