NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - UAB BLAZERS VS HOUSTON COUGARS

March 18, 2022

Andy Kennedy

Michael Ertel

Quan Jackson

PPG Paints Arena

UAB Blazers

Media Conference

Houston - 82, UAB - 68

MODERATOR: We're going to get to an opening statement here from Coach Kennedy. But once he gets through his opening statement, we'll ask questions of the student-athletes first, and then we will excuse them and then get to questions of the head coach.

So with that, Coach Kennedy, if you could give an opening statement, we'd appreciate it.

ANDY KENNEDY: Coming in, I've got nothing but the utmost respect for Kelvin Sampson and the Houston program. And we knew we were going to have to really be on edge in order to have an opportunity to advance.

The way they shot the ball early really had us on our heels. I told the guys I was proud of the fact that we fought it back to nine. I think we got it as low as seven maybe in the second half. But to have it at nine at halftime, I still felt like we were in the game.

Defensively, their reputation precedes them. They give you nothing easy. They're tenacious off the glass. They're disruptive. They were very disruptive to our offensive flow. And as a result, we were uncharacteristically bad from behind the three, and they were very good.

Again, my math is not great. We lose a 14-point game, and we get outscored behind the 3-point line by 15 points in an area that we typically excel. So I give Houston credit.

Really proud of my guys, especially these two guys to my left that came initially when I was afforded the opportunity to come back and lead my alma mater. They helped us win 27 games this year, 22 last.

Again, math's not great, but that's 49 wins over last two years, including a conference championship and an opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament, and these two guys were huge parts of that transition.

So proud of our guys. Unfortunate we didn't play well enough tonight to advance.

MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Please raise your hand.

Q. For both players, just what's it mean to come in have the extra year and play your final season leading this team into the NCAA Tournament after a long career in the Sun Belt, for both of y'all.

MODERATOR: Michael?

MICHAEL ERTEL: I mean, obviously I really appreciated the opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament. I really appreciated playing with Quan these past two years.

Coming here, I wanted Quan Jackson to come with me, and when he trusted in me, I trusted in A.K., and really glad I ended upcoming to UAB and we were able to get this thing back on track.

QUAN JACKSON: Yeah, like he said, I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here. I still think even though we lost tonight, overall we got a win. Just being able to be back here like seven years ago and to even just be here just is grateful. And I'm glad I got to be able to do with Mike and A.K.

Q. For both players, how do they make it hard for you guys in the perimeter, and did they do anything different that you guys hadn't seen this season?

MODERATOR: Quan, want to start?

QUAN JACKSON: Well, we didn't expect them to make 20 threes tonight. That's one thing. Once that ball was going in on their end, just like Coach A.K. says, it's an energy drainer. We put our head down a little bit, and we come back on offense, and we just be like they just hit another three. So we need to focus on that and then just executing and running our sets.

MICHAEL ERTEL: Coming in we knew they were going to be real disruptive, man-to-man half-court defense. And so that really wasn't a shock, how physical they were, stuff like that.

What was a shock is them coming and shooting the cover off of it.

And we need to do better things defensively. It's not -- obviously, all credit to them. They made a lot of hard shots. But I thought we let them get going, gave them a lot of open looks. And we didn't play very good defensively tonight, and it costs us.

Q. Quan, you come out of a conference play averaging double double net, just really big on the rebounds, hold you to three tonight. Was there anything they did to limit you in that capacity, or was it just more so their natural rebounding ability themselves?

QUAN JACKSON: I would say that I think it was a couple rebounds I could have got that I just tried to run with the ball instead of being able to grab it and get it going, and it came off getting my fingertips, and they ended up getting it eventually.

But they're a good team. They're a good rebounding team. That's what they do. They lead the top five, top ten in the country rebounding. And we knew it was going to be difficult, and I knew they was going to scout me for like getting rebounds and stuff like that.

So they did good job on me as well. So I tip my hat off to them.

Q. I'll go ahead with Mike. Obviously you guys had a slow start on the offense. Just how big was it to finally see some of the three-pointers go down, especially when you're starting to get that going there in the second half and close the gap into single digits going into halftime?

MICHAEL ERTEL: That's all we were trying to do. When they went up big, just kind of keep fighting back in there, make some shots, get stops, keep chipping away. We were able to do that a little bit, got it down to, I think, six or seven.

But we couldn't just get over that hump, and they ended up going on another run. So it's kind of disappointing, but at the end of the day, we left it all out there, and they just played better than us tonight.

MODERATOR: Michael, Quan, thank you. Appreciate it.

ANDY KENNEDY: Can they take their name tags?

MODERATOR: Sure.

Questions for Coach Kennedy. First one right here.

Q. Andy, for as well as Houston shot the ball, you guys at one point early were shooting over 60 percent, and you were down nine. Obviously you don't see that very often, but how tough is that as a team that shoots that well still having that type of deficit?

ANDY KENNEDY: We had 37 points at the half, and I know what Kelvin Sampson and Houston basketball is about. I said this leading into the game when I saw the -- when I saw the draw, and I watch basketball just as a fan, when I really got deep into the tape -- I worked for Bob Huggins at Cincinnati for five seasons in the early 2000s, and that's what it reminded me of where literally a missed shot is sometimes your best offense because you're so tenacious off the glass.

I was really impressed. They were better offensively than I had anticipated on tape. I knew defensively they were gonna be disruptive. They don't give you anything free. I knew they were going to really try to tilt the floor and limit Jelly's open looks, and they certainly did that.

But offensively I think that -- we call it operating right. By that I mean just executing properly, everybody doing their job, everything going downhill. It was very difficult to get them strung out east-west. And a lot of that is Jamal Shead -- am I saying that right? A lot of it is Jamal Shead. Man, he is a true quarterback on the floor, where the ball stays in his hands 90 percent of the possession and he's making the right decision at the end. And then when Kyler Edwards shoots it like he did today, well, they're a very, very formidable opponent.

Q. Coach, when Edwards shoots like that, how much tougher does it make him? He's been somewhat streaky this year. And how far do you think that team can go as well?

ANDY KENNEDY: Well, again, the way they played -- you know, March Madness is crazy. We're all watching the games, and crazy things happen, and sometimes one game does not necessarily lead to success in the next. But the way that he shot the ball tonight and the way that Shead had the offense in control, their bigs, they do what they do. When they need a basket, they're going to go to Fabian White in that short corner and that midpost, and they're going to work. They're very good with understanding where Carlton is.

I think their pieces fit very well, and that's a tribute to Kelvin. Despite the injuries that they've had, despite the adversity they've gone through, he's still got a lot of good pieces that fit.

Defensively, they're not going to give you anything free. Physically, they're really going to try to dictate tempo.

And then today offensively. And some of that's us, and some of that's them. We weren't at our best defensively, and they certainly made us pay.

Q. Andy, obviously with Mark and Quan -- excuse me, Mike and Quan, they come to you, they never met you face to face. But tell me, how important is it their contribution to this program after these two years leading into this revival and resetting the Bartow standard?

ANDY KENNEDY: Yeah, I will always be indebted to Mike and Quan. I get the job, the world goes into a global pandemic. Go figure. So we were doing everything virtually. I'd never even met these kids when they signed. And then the only positive from COVID was the fact they got an extra year, and so they were able to cut down nets and be part of a championship team and then live their ultimate childhood dreams of playing in the NCAA Tournament.

So I was really proud for those guys. But they've helped us. They've helped us turn this program back in the right direction, as they alluded to, a lot of momentum moving forward.

Q. Coach, Kelvin pulled Jelly aside afterward, and seemed like he gave him some words and he talked about him in here, how impressed he was with him. What does it sort of mean for you to see him get this kind of national attention and have this kind of moment even though the game didn't work out?

ANDY KENNEDY: Yeah, he's crushed back there, man. Jelly's a kid that -- he obviously was very, very familiar with Houston from his time in the AC at Tulane, and he wants to play well. He's a pleaser. And he's been terrific for us all year. Player of the Year in the league, MVP of the tournament.

Without Jelly Walker, we're certainly not sitting in this position today. He wanted so badly to perform on the biggest stage, and he just didn't. He missed some shots that he typically makes. Some of that is due to Houston's terrific defensive tenacity, and some of it was -- he takes tough shots, and sometimes tough shots don't go.

But really proud of Jelly. Proud of the contribution that he made. And again, he's a kid that's got another year so. Hopefully we can build off this moving forward as well.

MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

ANDY KENNEDY: Thank you, guys.