NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - JACKSONVILLE ST. VS AUBURN

March 18, 2022

Jalen Finch

Jalen Gibbs

Ray Harper

Bon Secours Wellness Arena

Jacksonville St. Gamecocks

Media Conference

Auburn - 80, Jacksonville State - 61

THE MODERATOR: We're going to get started. Joining us is Jalen Finch and Jalen Gibbs, along with Coach Ray Harper.

RAY HARPER: Just really proud of these guys. That we competed till the final horn. That run at the end of the first half, the last four minutes in the beginning of the second half was a lot to try overcome. There's no quit in these guys. We kept fighting, and I think that's kind of who we were all season.

Q. Jalen Gibbs, that run that Coach Harper was talking about, end of the first half and beginning of the second, what do you think happened in that case?

JALEN GIBBS: I think we gave them too many open shots. As soon as that run started, it was hard to stop. That's probably why they ended up winning the game.

Q. I just want to ask both of you, obviously the finality of a season, you feel that now, but is there anything you can take positive from this experience of the game? I say that with respect to the emotions after a tough one.

JALEN FINCH: I feel like we competed. We left it all on the floor. We were proud of the effort we gave. And we stayed together, that's a positive, one of the positive things we took from it.

JALEN GIBBS: I say just out of the whole season, our brotherhood. I didn't know any of these guys before I came here. We're all brothers now, and I won't forget any -- I love each and every one of them. I'm just so happy I made the decision to come here. We had a really fun year.

It didn't end how we wanted it to end, but we had a really fun year. There's a lot of positive things to take out of it.

Q. Jalen Gibbs, you had a great shooting day. Could you talk about how you kind of saw things today?

JALEN GIBBS: I know coming in we had to shoot the ball well from three. We were in it in the first half, but like you said, that run messed us up. I knew coming in, if we shot the ball well, we'd have a chance to come out with the win. That didn't happen, but it was a fun run.

Q. Jalen Finch, can you tell me how you saw this team come together this year.

JALEN FINCH: We started off not the way we wanted to, but we stuck together throughout the whole season, even through the rough times. It showed. Once conference play started, we went on a great run. I think we went on an 8-0 run in conference play.

Since the beginning, we've just been sticking together, kept our heads down, just kept working. We finished the season off strong.

THE MODERATOR: Any more questions for Coach Harper?

Q. Could you talk -- you've had a very good year, sustained success. What do you remember most about this team and this season?

RAY HARPER: I think how they wouldn't quit. That's who we were. We had that little run, like Jalen was talking about, to start conference play. We were clicking. Then we went to Liberty and win on the road, a place where nobody had won since Liberty opened that new arena. And I saw us kind of take a step back. We lost two of three, and we talked about it as a staff, and these guys talked about it as a team, that we have to understand how to handle success just like you have to understand how to handle adversity.

I thought they did that. We win five in a row at the end of the season and win a regular season conference championship, the first in school history.

And their legacy, they're leaving a legacy. That's what you want when you go play somewhere. I'm going to hang a banner. They've asked, where's their team picture going to be? And they've earned it.

So hopefully it will set the tone for the younger guys as we move forward. That's kind of -- this is our third postseason in six years. We feel really proud about that.

Q. Your team only had a eight turnovers today. Do you think that clean play helped in scoring?

RAY HARPER: You think that clean play helped us in scoring? No. We did a good job taking care of the basketball, but we took some really tough shots. Some of it, you've got to give Auburn a lot of credit. They've got a lot of size, length. They're very physical, and a lot of times, especially in the first half, the shot clock was winding, winding, and they were forcing us into some tough shots. We didn't get enough ball movement.

I thought we got it cleaned up a little bit at the half and got some more movement off the ball, which was going to be important. I thought we got more catch and rips. We just wasn't doing that in the first half. We left the shot clock, and we played east to west.

But until that 3:47 at the end of the half, we were right where we wanted to be.

Q. Coach, talk about Kayne and being a key contributor. What were some of his struggles coming into this game?

RAY HARPER: I don't know, maybe Jabari. We talked about he's going to have to be a big part if we were going to win this game today. It wasn't one of Kayne's best games. It's not a secret. I thought his second and third effort on the play early in the first half kind of exemplified what he had grown into.

I think, when he first got to Jax State, he had to learn that. But proud of him. He's got a lot of basketball ahead of him, and I'm sure he's going to have a great career.

Q. How does the finality of this season compare to the finality of seasons you've had in the past?

RAY HARPER: They're all the same. Get ready, go, we'll meet as a staff. We'll get to the hotel, go find some warriors, some guys that want to hang banners. Obviously, the recruiting is your life. It never stops, but it's getting ready to pick up tremendously here over the next few weeks.

We need some help. We lose some awfully good players. So I think we've got some really good players coming back. The finality's always the same, unless you're the last team sitting in the locker room winning the championship.

Q. Could you talk about the difference makers? They had Kessler and Smith. They made some huge plays today.

RAY HARPER: That's why they're the Number 1 pick in the draft and the first round draft pick. Tell Bruce to enjoy them the next few weeks because he won't see them much after that unless he goes to an NBA game. You can't simulate that size and length in practice.

Jabari one time, we were right there, he catches it at the elbow. We were supposed to double it, but we didn't. And he looks, and it's Jalen Finch on him. What's he going to do? He's too big. He's got a lot of Kevin Durant in him. I would say he's got a lot of that in his game, and boy is he going to be a great pro.

Q. Along those lines with the mismatch of size and the talent you can't replicate in practice, still the two guys next to you doing what they did and putting up double digit scoring and hitting their threes like you wanted to see, how did that feel, especially when you guys were on the run early in that first half?

RAY HARPER: It didn't surprise me. What surprised me was them getting 19 offensive rebounds. I've been around this team a lot. There was no way they were going to be intimidated or scared. They believed, and we believed we could win this basketball game. Because of the way Auburn played today, they're advancing.

I had to watch them play over the last couple weeks. I don't know if they had played as well over the last couple weeks as they did today. They took us out of some things we wanted to do, but, again, it doesn't surprise me.

What I'm more surprised is maybe another guy or two didn't play as well as I know they're capable of, but it wasn't because of a lack of effort.