TicketsCincinnati Head Coach Mick Cronin
Opening statement:
"Our guys came with a tremendous effort tonight on the defensive end, forcing SMU into 18 turnovers, which doesn't happen; well, at least it hasn't happened, I don't think ever, when we've played. They are such a poised offensive team and they usually do that to their opponents. Our guys were first to the floor, diving all over the floor. Jarron Cumberland, Jacob Evans III, Gary Clark, Justin (Jenifer); all those guys and their commitment to winning and I appreciate their effort. We are not always pretty at times, but our effort is tremendous and, as a coach, you appreciate that. It makes it fun to coach when your guys are really trying to play for each other and compete as hard as our guys competed. We really have. We competed the other night (at Temple) or we would have lost big because we were bad on offense. We continue to strive to get better on the offensive end. I thought there were two keys to the game: the first half was everybody kind of getting it going and the second half, Gary Clark decided he was going to quit waiting on the double team and take over. I tried to remind him his senior year is going to disappear and, if you just let everybody double you – they are not going to stop doubling you – you have to go score before they get to the double team. He was much more aggressive in the second half and, once he did that, the game was over and that is why we shot a much higher percentage. We shot too many threes in the first half; 19 threes in a half is way too much, even though we led by 14. The second half, we got the ball inside more and he (Clark) was more aggressive, therefore we shot 58 percent in the second half. We have to continue to do that. I though we dictated the tempo of the game with our press, with our ball pressure and the relentless effort by our players."
On measuring his program against SMU:
"My respect for them (SMU) is off the charts. I did not anticipate winning this game the way we won it. I am just so used to everything is life and death when we play each other. That being said, I think we have a distinct advantage in the height department in the interior scoring on them. They are a better shooting team. They came in to tonight sixth in the country in three-point shooting and we only let them get 19 attempts and make six. That was a key to the game. It's not easy. They are very well coached. They are extremely well coached. They pass the ball and execute better than anyone in the American Conference for five years; since the inception of the conference. It took a tremendous defensive effort to do what we did tonight. We made it look easy, but anyone that watches and knows SMU, they don't make some of the plays they made tonight. They don't have 18 turnovers; it just doesn't happen."
On how Cincinnati disrupted SMU's three-point shooting:
"I think when you pressure a team and you have tremendous ball pressure, first of all, your shooters have to handle the ball. They have to handle the pressure. The second part of that is, when you pressure a team, theoretically, they have to put their head down and drive more. My theory is a comfortable team shoots a better percentage. We tried everything we could and it worked tonight. We will probably play them two more times and we will need to make them uncomfortable. They have guys that are better players than they played tonight. Jahmal McMurray is a great player for them and he had five turnovers at halftime. That's why I can't tell you how impressed I am with our guys' effort and how hard it is to defend them. Our on the ball defense was excellent. Darrin Savino's scouting report and the players' aptitude and application of the scouting report and game plan was awesome."
#11 Gary Clark, F
On the difference in his play in the second half:
"In the first half, I was allowing SMU to set up their defense and double team by holding the ball too long. In the second half, when I got the ball I wasn't waiting for the defenders to come trap me. I would get the ball and look to get to the basket right away."
On how much of the game plan was to keep SMU from scoring on the perimeter:
"It was one of our biggest keys was to not get beat off the dribble. They do a lot of driving and triple weave with their guards to try and get them down the lane. We really worked on trying to play man defense instead of helping so we could limit SMU from getting open looks."
#1 Jacob Evans III, G/F
On limiting each league opponent to only 18 baskets each, Has anything changed defensively:
"Just digging in, it's conference play and we have to turn it up a notch on both ends. If we worry about defense and rebounding we will be in good shape."
On what it means to beat a program like SMU by 20 points:
"Its's just a win for us. We play them again this season and we know it will be a tough one."
SMU Head Coach Tim Jankovich
Opening statement:
"Beyond frustrating. It was as frustrating as any game I can remember in a number of years. Whenever you turn the ball over that many times, just play so sloppy, it's really hard. For me it was as frustrating a game as I can remember in a number of years and very disappointing. I thought we were ready to play and we were excited to play and know we are playing a great team. They are, to me, one of the best teams in the country and on a floor where they never lose, but I wasn't expecting that. It was very disappointing, really in all ways."
On what happened during Cincinnati's first-half run:
"Part of it is fouls. Part of it is we got in a little foul…you know we have to stay out of foul trouble. Sometimes we're good at that, sometimes we're not. Our starting rotation, our first group was going good, then we started subbing we had some fouls trying to protect and started going the other way. But I thought, shockingly, I thought our half-court defense was outstanding the first half. Good enough to put you right where you want to be, put you with a chance to win. But our offense with the turnovers gave us no chance and that's what dug the deficit that we could never crawl out of and gave them the confidence the whole time to play with a big lead. That's never – I shouldn't say never – that's rarely a good situation when you're on the road to be coming back from a 14-point halftime deficit. So, we lost the game for the most part really in two areas. You can always find the areas you lose. Way too many turnovers and sloppy offense and in the first half we didn't block out nearly well enough. Had we, we could have been close enough even with our poor offense to have a chance. We can analyze but the bottom line is that it's a very, very disappointing night, to say the least."
On the team's mindset after back-to-back losses:
"Probably, as of right now, horrible. We all, when you play competitive sports there are not too many things more painful than a loss, really. If you're a competitor and want to keep it in perspective there are certainly things in life more painful but those are somewhat catastrophic, but when you're just talking about guys that deeply care, coaches that deeply care, losing is painful. I always try to tell our team it's going do one of two things to you: it's going to fuel you and make you angry and make you more determined or it softens you. It just can't do that if you're a true competitor. We've had a rough two games, rough road swing. College basketball on the road is not kind. We didn't take care of business two games ago. We had a chance to win that, didn't quite finish. So, you know, tough times. A lot of teams are having a tough times and it's a long season and we just, you just have to fight through it."
On the effort from Ethan Chargois:
"I give him credit. He's had the flu, been in bed for five days, didn't really practice yesterday. He just came out and got a little sweat up. And then we are asking him to come right out of bed, right out of the flu, no practice, and play against two of the best big guys in our league. That's a pretty tall order without any real rhythm. I thought he did fine. My gosh, I didn't even know if he could play, so I can't fault him in any way. That's a lot to ask of him."