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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DES MOINESMarch 21, 2019Brian WardleDwayne Lautier-OgunleyeElijah ChildsDarrell BrownDes Moines, Iowa Michigan State 76, Bradley 65 THE MODERATOR: Welcome the Bradley Braves. We will have an opening statement from Coach Brian Wardle. BRIAN WARDLE: It's a tough loss for us. But I told the team, very proud of them. They're toughness, their competitiveness in this game, I don't think there are many teams that could have beat us today. I thought we might have ran into one that could. They did everything we asked game plan-wise. We were aggressive. There was just around the six minute to four minute mark where we had opportunities with some good looks and they didn't go down and they closed the game out and made some big plays and big shots and we just didn't. We've been doing it all year. Making those big shots and big plays, especially the last couple of months. It just didn't fall our way today. But the leadership, the aggressiveness, the toughness, it was on display and I told these seniors who I'm so proud of, where we've come with this program and these seniors. I told them they've left this program in a much, much better place and our goal is to continue to improve and hopefully get back on this scene again and get this opportunity again because I think these guys deserve it. Very proud of them. Like I said, Michigan State is a very good team. They were composed. Game was tight with six minutes to go and they made some big shots in key moments and we just weren't able to connect on those same shots. But overall just proud of how our guys competed and executed. THE MODERATOR: Questions for our student-athletes? Q. Elijah, you had a big first half and capitalized on that in the second half. What was working for you against that physical Michigan State defense? ELIJAH CHILDS: I think my teammates were finding me and I was getting to my bread and butter which is down low, just trusting in my shot and just executing the plays. Q. For any of the players, Michigan State is known to be a very physical team. You guys held your own. You mentioned toughness. Was that a point of contention going into the game, a point of emphasis or is that just the way you play? ELIJAH CHILDS: We're a very tough, physical team, too. So we came into the game knowing it was going to be a physical battle and we prepared for it, and I think my guys did a great job of being physical. DARRELL BROWN: That's our identity. We pride ourselves on being tough and playing defense and we play in one of the toughest conferences in the country, so we have been prepared for this moment all year. Wish we could have got some shots to fall down the stretch so we could have pulled the win out. DWAYNE LAUTIER-OGUNLEYE: It's what we do every day. We talk about compete, defend, rebound and that's what we do each and every day. We did it today. We were physical. Just didn't fall our way. BRIAN WARDLE: For our program I think the lesson we learned with the guys coming back is we gotta play with an urgency every single game. I thought today, like I said before, there weren't many teams that were going to beat us today. Unfortunately, we had that 15 seed and playing a really good Michigan State team. But if we can put it together for a full season and not have any lulls and take care of business, the Valley prepares us for this. Mississippi Valley prepares us for this. This is consistent in Valley play all year. So I thought our guys were tremendous today in that aspect of the fight in their heart. Q. You guys came into this 15th seed playing a No. 2 seed. There is another game tonight that's going to be that situation. Do you have any advice or thoughts about that? ELIJAH CHILDS: Advice I would have? I don't know who is playing, but execute your game plan and go out and play your basketball. At the end of the day it's all basketball. Once you step between those lines doesn't matter what's on the front of your jersey. Just play hard. DARRELL BROWN: Same advice. All guys put their pants on the same way. You just go out and do the best you can to get the best result. DWAYNE LAUTIER-OGUNLEYE: Stay true to yourself. What you do is going to help you stay true to the game and just be true to your teammates. Q. Different setting to play on in the tournament. How would you describe the feeling of the arena? What did you feel here? ELIJAH CHILDS: It was a great atmosphere out there. We had a lot of fans travel from Peoria, Illinois and we are thankful for that. It was a great atmosphere playing in a big crowd and a big setting like this. It was great. I dream about this. It's what I wanted when I came to college and for me to complete that goal, it was just a dream come true. We will be back here next year. So looking forward to getting back to work. DARRELL BROWN: The atmosphere was great. Our fans do a great job of traveling and supporting us regardless of the circumstances. Hats off to them. I enjoyed it. It was a dream for all of us, I think. It was a blessing to be out there today. DWAYNE LAUTIER-OGUNLEYE: Yeah, it was a game in a big arena. We played a lot of games in neutral venues and our fans travel super well. They were there with support and they helped us. Q. Biggest take away from when you guys first walked on to campus in Peoria to winning the Valley Tournament title to where you are today, in terms of trusting the process, trusting Coach, trusting each other. What's one thing you can take away from that entire process to where you are today? ELIJAH CHILDS: One thing I can take away is staying level headed, just staying true to who I am and just going to my bread and butter, what I worked on all off-season and what I will work on now. Staying true to it. DARRELL BROWN: I mean, I think the main thing for me, D-Lo and his group, they won five games in the year before I got there and my freshman year we probably within 13 games or something like that, and last year we won 20 games and lost a heart breaker in the semifinal tournament. Putting in hard work, we got to where we wanted this year. We got to the tournament. It was a dream come true, and like Eli says, staying true to who you are, putting in the work that got you this far and working to get back here. DWAYNE LAUTIER-OGUNLEYE: No shortcuts. Nothing that we did was simple, years of hard work, years of believing, years of trusting and just staying together. We couldn't have done this without everyone being together and helping each other out. Seeing where DB has grown, Eli has grown and the rest of my teammates, it's lovely to see because the position the program was in was very low when I arrived and now as a senior leaving and the position it is now is just a dream come true. Q. Coach, you talked about the D-Lo affect after the conference tournament and D-Lo got to the line 10 times even though the shots weren't falling from the field. Talk about how he was able to get to the line and causing trouble for the other team? BRIAN WARDLE: I told the guys in the back room, I'm going to miss D-Lo flipping and flopping in practice. But he is relentless and competitive in attacking the rim, attacking the glass. He just doesn't stop. He just keeps going and going and going. I think it's contagious. It's contagious. All these guys have something that's contagious and that's what they brought to the team. Darrell's work ethic is contagious to the team, and Elijah's enthusiasm and his ability to lead is contagious to the team. D-Lo's affect is what it is. We're going to lose leadership and a lot of toughness with this senior group. Q. Coach, you have great ties back to Michigan State. This team all year has not necessarily been pretty but resilient. Now that you've played them can you give us what your scouting report was and what you were thinking, please? BRIAN WARDLE: Well, it's a team that's improved and matured throughout the year and has very high level of play. I think that's one thing that we've shown all year, that no matter who it is on the other side of the floor, we can compete with anybody. Our game plan, we wanted Winston shooting mid-range jump shots. I thought they were hurting us on the ball screens a little bit. I liked our aggressiveness in transition, and I liked how we attacked when we created misses and rebounded the ball. I like a lot of the shots we took in the second half and the looks we got. We just weren't able to get it. We probably didn't get to the offensive glass as much as we would like, but give Michigan State credit there. They're disciplined in blocking out and offensive rebounding. But at the six minute mark a few shots fall for us and they don't for them. We could be sitting here with a whole different outcome and that's basketball. That's momentum and that's those game-changing plays. We've made a lot of them all year, just not today. Q. Coach, can you quickly talk about the pace of the game? There was a lot of fouling and traverse. Were you trying to slow it down or did that just happen? BRIAN WARDLE: I think we wanted to get up and down, and so did Michigan State. We had opportunities in transition. I thought we capitalized on a lot of them. I'll go back and watch the film. It just became two defensive teams getting back and in transition and getting half court defense set. Making the other team run a lot of clock and I think there were several times where it got under 10 seconds. We knew it could be there and we had to foul and let the game open up. Give Michigan State credit, too. I haven't even addressed the free throw shooting they had. They shot the daylights out of the ball on the foul line and give them credit for shooting 25 out of 26. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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