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NCAA MEN'S FIRST FOUR: DAYTONMarch 19, 2019Fran DunphyShizz Alston, Jr.Nate Pierre-LouisDayton, Ohio Belmont - 81, Temple - 70 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Temple head coach Fran Dunphy and student-athletes Nate Pierre-Louis and Shizz Alston Jr. COACH DUNPHY: Hard-fought game. I thought that Belmont did some really good things at opportune times. I thought our comeback in the second half was terrific. They made a couple of big shots that helped them. They got a couple of offensive rebounds. A couple of plays that just didn't go our way. We needed to be a little sharper offensively and do some different things that would have allowed us to get to the rim and maybe get more foul shots attempted, those kinds of things. But very proud of our guys, who they are and how they comport themselves and do a good job. I'm proud of these two. And it's been a great four years with Shizz, a great two years with Nate. I'm grateful for that. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Shizz, it was a one-point game at the eight-minute timeout. I don't know if you remember the exacts. They came out and hit a couple of 3s at the top of the key, where they got space. I don't know if you recall the sequence there, what happened defensively to you guys there? SHIZZ ALSTON JR.: I think a couple of those 3s were in transition, and we just didn't match up in transition. They pushed the ball up the court. And we talked about it for the past couple of days, how they were running to the 3-point line but we didn't find them in transition and that's how they got some open looks. Q. Shizz, you kind of gathered everyone on the court around you at the very end, after the game. What was the message you kind of wanted to share with your teammates? SHIZZ ALSTON JR.: I just thanked them for their work and allowing me and Ernest to get to the NCAA Tournament like we wanted to so badly. Me and Ern got here our freshman year. We hadn't been back since and I thanked them for all their hard work and helping us get back here. Q. Nate, could you talk about your defense on Windler. You really shut him down numbers-wise? NATE PIERRE-LOUIS: I just was really focused the entire game make it really tough for him. I know he's one of the best players in the country. So I know he's a catch-and-shoot player. I was trying to make him drive to the basket as much as possible, pressure, because I know he doesn't like really dribbling the ball like that. I was just trying to make it really tough for him and shut him down. Q. They seemed to, Belmont seemed to mainly shoot just 3s and inside the paint. Not much else in between with the mid-range game. How much did that make that difficult for them to defend just the fact that they only settled for whether it was 3s or inside the paint; they didn't settle for anything in the mid-range? How did that make it difficult to defend them? SHIZZ ALSTON JR.: That's what they do. They're really good at that. They're really good at shooting the 3 ball. The big fellow got freshman of the year. So he's really good at post-up. That team is smart. They only do what they're good at. Sometimes I get asked, start trying to try things, other guys start trying new things. But they stuck to what they were good at and shot the 3 and post-ups. But we knew they were going to do that. That's why sometimes their numbers are so good because they just stick to what they do well. Q. Shizz, when the shots stopped falling, was it a little bit of fatigue or did shots just stop falling? SHIZZ ALSTON JR.: I think it was just one of those things where the ball just stopped bouncing my way. I had a good run for a stretch. And if I had to do it over, I would get my teammates more involved once the shots stopped falling but I was so locked on just trying to win. If I had to do it I would have probably turned down some of the shots I took. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Broadly speaking, what didn't get done offensively for the team all night? COACH DUNPHY: Well, I thought we forced a couple of things. We had some decent opportunities. That one stretch in the second half we probably can't play any better than we did. We got some good baskets off of transition. I thought our defense was really solid in that same part of it. But I think toward the end of the game we just -- we didn't -- weren't as efficient, weren't as sharp, weren't as crisp as we needed to be. When we did get to the rim we didn't finish. We got to the foul line. We missed a couple of foul shots, too, that would have stemmed the tide a little bit. I would say a number of those things. But I thought our defense overall was fairly good. I thought -- you had mentioned something to Shizz on the one jumper that McClain hit. I thought, from what I saw -- it would be nice to see on the film, I thought Shizz was in pretty good position. This was just a tough jumper that McClain made. The one by Hopkins, we just didn't switch out quickly and well enough. Those two plays hurt us. I thought there was another play that really hurt us was we were up five and they missed a shot and we gave up an offensive rebound. It was to McClain again. McClain, he did some damage to us. Q. Has it hit you at all that it's the end? COACH DUNPHY: No, I'm just disappointed for the guys that we're not able to continue on and go to Jacksonville and play against a team like the University of Maryland. And give a lot of credit to Belmont. They're a good team. Rick does a great job of coaching them. A kid like Windler, who I thought Nate did a terrific job on him, but he didn't do anything crazy. He let the game come to him. He goes 14 rebounds. And he was a critical piece to their whole game plan, even though he wasn't scoring. I think that's a sign of a terrific basketball player. But, no, to answer your question, I haven't thought too much about it. I will reflect in the coming days. And again I'm very appreciative of what Temple University gave to me, what the University of Pennsylvania gave to me. And I'm a pretty fortunate guy. Q. How did Muszynski impact the game from inside, especially with Windler kind of limiting his production? COACH DUNPHY: I thought he was terrific. I thought he's got great pace to his game. He's very intelligent down there. He knows what he can do. I thought he had a couple of really terrific moves inside. A couple of those I thought we did as good a job as we could have defending him. But he's a talented kid. Q. On Muszynski, seemed like you only probably doubled him a couple times. Pretty much left him one-on-one. Just talk through that, the way you approached that. COACH DUNPHY: His assist-to-turns are pretty good for a big guy. Obviously their 3-point shooting is something that you want to limit if you can. So we took our chances just to play him one-on-one with Justyn Hamilton. And I wouldn't change that part of it, I don't think. But he was very good. And one of those baskets he made in transition, after Ern made a field goal, he made a transition basket, which that hurt us, too. Q. Seems like at different points in the second half during runs from either team, the pace picked up. Were you okay with playing at that pace? Or, looking back, would you have preferred to have slowed it down a bit? COACH DUNPHY: When we were picking it up and we were scoring, I was terrific with that pace. And when we missed a few shots, I would've chosen that we would have been a little bit more deliberate in our pace of play. Q. How much do you feel like Ernest's first half foul trouble played a part, Fran? COACH DUNPHY: I mean, I'd certainly would have liked Ern play more minutes in that first half for sure. I thought -- I didn't see the first foul. The second one he was sort of over the top. We mentioned it to him at halftime: If you've got that first foul you've got to be careful of doing things like going over somebody's back on that foul. And it just limited how many minutes he had. I thought Damion did a decent job of getting himself in the right spots, didn't finish a couple of layups, but he helped us there and Justyn Hamilton did a pretty good job. The last play hurt us, too, where we had a foul to give. Shizz thought he gave it but he didn't. And I could see on the film that he didn't. And we needed somebody else to step up and limit that. It was a back-breaker at the end of the first half. Q. I know it was thrown off a little bit with Aflakpui getting into foul trouble and having to sub a little bit more than you would have liked to, but would have you have changed anything defensively, whether it be switches or otherwise to kind of have avoided some of the cuts they had going to the basket that seemed like they got one too many of? COACH DUNPHY: There was a big cut that they had going to the basket off Muszynski, I think. I thought Muszynski made a real nice pass there. We didn't do a good job on that. I was pleased with our positioning defensively. I thought Chris Clark did a great job of walking us through exactly what we needed to do to try to beat them. Obviously Nate did a terrific job on Windler. As I said Windler is a pretty smart guy. He's not going to force anything. McClain, there was one time when Quinton Rose went to the basket. He banged his head on the floor and we were a little bit lost in transition. McClain made a huge jumper there. So those kind of plays hurt us. And McClain in the first half. We had him under control and he just, we didn't go out far enough on him. So with those kinds of plays, but I think our X and O thought defensively I was okay with. I'll learn a little bit more about it tonight when we watch the film. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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