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AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT


March 13, 2014


Mick Cronin

Kevin Johnson

Sean Kilpatrick


MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

Cincinnati: 61
UCF: 58


THE MODERATOR:  We will get started with the University of Cincinnati Mick Cronin, Student Athletes, Sean Kilpatrick and Kevin Johnson, Coach?
COACH CRONIN:  I want to congratulate Coach Jones and Central Florida on their effort last night and tonight.  Some of the teams that finished toward the bottom in our league faced a great challenge in adjusting to playing in a different league against teams that had time to build.  I had time eight years ago to build to play in the Big East.
Especially guys like Donnie and Coach Dickey coming from Conference USA and their team had every right to pack it in coming here.  They had a great finish, big win over Houston in their last regular season game and they had a great win last night and they probably deserved to win tonight so it's a credit to Donnie Jones and his staff and their kids for the character they showed.  I wanted to congratulate late them.
As for the game, Kevin Johnson made a big shot for us, obviously, in the game and we were able to get enough stops to win but other than that, I don't know how much we did well or how much we have to be proud of.

Q.  Mick, talk about that play, because you used your All‑American as a decoy and two people stayed with him and you count on your freshman.  Was that a drawn‑up play?
COACH CRONIN:  Yeah, and I have a lot of confidence in Kevin because he's got a lot of confidence in himself.  He believes in himself and he deserves a lot of credit.  There were times in the regular season of conference play he didn't get a lot of minutes because he's playing behind the player of the year in the conference and an All‑American.  But they were playing a box and one on S.K. so somebody was going to have to make the shot and we knew we could get that open shot in the corner.

Q.  Mick, you went three guards a lot in the second half.  Was that trying to combat the box and one or trying to get a different look to get things going?
COACH CRONIN:  I thought Kevin‑‑ we needed some energy on the defensive end and Kevin had some great rotations.  They got him credited for two steals, but I thought defensively his energy was tremendous.  We had some other guys that were a little lethargic and he deserved to play.  He was playing well, he deserved to play.  He's tough enough to guard bigger people, so is S.K., so trying to go with the guys that I thought were giving us the best chance to win.

Q.  Kevin, can you talk about that shot and were you surprised when they drew it up for you?
KEVIN JOHNSON:  I wasn't so surprised, I know Coach Cronin has confidence in me.  Throughout the game I had a nice rhythm offensively and defensively.  S.K. was getting box and one so we needed someone to step up and hit the shot.  When the play was drawn up and I shot it, I was pretty confident and it went in?

Q.  Mick, I know that you don't know who you will play yet with UConn and the Tigers going on the floor right now but if you were to match‑up with the Tigers again, this will be on their home floor tomorrow night, just comment on the environment if you get them tomorrow night?
COACH CRONIN:  My thoughts on you mean if we have to play Memphis and beat 'em for the third time in front of a sold‑out crowd in the FedExForum?  You gotta ask that question?  Either team we play tomorrow night we're going to have to play well.  Chance to get a quality win and get ready for a quality tournament.  Obviously we're trying to win a championship here, but from here on out we're going to play teams with winning records.  We're done playing anybody without a winning record.  You know obviously a tremendous challenge for us to pull that off.  We struggled tonight trying to beat a team for the third time.  Some other teams did as well today around college basketball.
It's hard to beat a team three times in a row.  Hopefully in a few years they will have that same problem in our conference tournament.

Q.  Sean, talk about the‑‑ this year just the job that they did?
SEAN KILPATRICK:  They did a good job, being a decoy for my teammates is something that really pays off for me.  I know that a lot of teams are going to have a lot of attention on me but my teammates can score as well and that's something we have on this team.  We have a lot of weapons and a lot of talent so I let my teammates take over what they can do.

Q.  Sean, were they playing you like that the whole game or just the second half?
SEAN KILPATRICK:  Second half.
COACH CRONIN:  Midway through the second half.

Q.  Do you get frustrated when that happens?
SEAN KILPATRICK:  No, we have talent, everyone can shoot and we have Justin and Titus that can pass in the high posts and that helps us a lot.

Q.  Kevin, what was it like when you weren't getting much playing time, playing behind S.K.?
KEVIN JOHNSON:  I love basketball and I understand the position I'm in and I would come to practice and guard S.K. and continue to get better so when my name was called I could step up and help the team.  I'm always willing to do anything to win.  It was a tough period but it pays off now.
THE MODERATOR:  Gentlemen, thank you very much.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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