TicketsECU at Cincinnati
BB&T Arena
Jan. 20, 2018
Postgame Quotes
Cincinnati Head Coach Mick Cronin
Opening statement:
"We were up eight a half, but we weren't happy with our defensive effort in the first half. When a team shoots 55 percent against you, we're never going to be happy with that. And, the other number within that number is they had one really good three-point shooter and we let him go 3-for-3; he went 6-for-6 the other night. So, they scored 90 the other night and they were confident. They hit a lot of late in the clock, hard shots in the first half, and that puts pressure on your defense and you have to step it up and play harder. When that happened, I thought our attitude should have been 'let's play harder'. Instead, I thought it was a little bit of, 'what's going on? Why are they playing well?' I don't think the guys expected them to put the ball in the basket the way they did. But, we had a little attitude adjustment at halftime and locked in much better, so they shoot 1-for-9 from three, 11 percent (from three) and 30 percent (overall) in the second half, and you end up with an easy win when we finally started playing some defense. The only other thing I would say is that once we started finishing around the basket with some strength, I thought that changed the game as well. We were looking for fouls and not going up strong around the basket. You can't look for fouls in conference play. You can't look for fouls; you have to finish. You have to go up to finish. If you get fouled, you get fouled, but they are not calling every little touch that goes on. Early on, we were finishing with one hand or just going up soft. We got tougher as the game went on, which has kind of been really the way we have been playing, to be honest with you. Even though we weren't down 10 this game – the last two games we were down nine and 10 – we haven't gotten off to good starts here of late, which is probably a concern for me."
On overcoming a slow start:
"We have to play better early. It's not rocket science. We have to play better early in the game. Early in the game today, we were bad defensively. The other games, early in those games, our offense was just non-existent and our rebounding was non-existent. Today, early in the game, our defense was atrocious. They did make some late clock shots that were very, very tough shots, but, that being said, we had some breakdowns that were not characteristic of us. There are different reasons. It's not just getting off to slow starts because every game, it's a different thing, so it's not just one thing."
On the contributions of Broome, Brooks and Scott:
"Cane (Broome) is starting to get comfortable coming back from his ankle injury. I though Nysier (Brooks) was huge coming in and Nysier and Tre (Scott) are good players and are just playing behind Gary (Clark) and Kyle (Washington), who are both highly productive, veteran guys. You look at it and Tre Scott gets seven rebounds in 14 minutes and Nysier gets five rebounds in 11 minutes and then 'E' (Elliel Nsoseme) comes in and gets five in four minutes. Rebounding was probably the difference; we were plus 17 on the glass. Those guys, their development is key for our team."
On if the low number of turnovers committed by Cincinnati, including zero from Broome, is a good sign:
"Yes. The more Cane can play without turning the ball over, the more you are going to see him be more productive and help us; really help us. That is an adjustment for him. That and his defense has been his biggest adjustment. He played at the low Division I basketball where it is not as physical and he was a high turnover guy at Sacred Heart, but that was because he had to take a lot of chances because he had to score a lot of points. It has been an adjustment, but the ankle injury slowed him down. When you are out a couple of weeks because of your ankle, it's hard to get any rhythm. He had a great practice yesterday and is slowly finding his rhythm."
On the reason for the improvement of the team's free throw shooting:
"That is the one thing that has escaped me in all my years of college coaching. Practicing them; you just never know. I saw what happened to the Lakers last night. They were 2-of-14 or something and that's a pro team. I am serious, that is the one thing (that has escaped me). We do all kinds of things to try and get better at it and I really believe it is concentration. I also do believe that sometimes it rubs off. Makes rub off and misses rub off. When the guys see each other missing, they go up there thinking, 'Oh, I better make it because he just missed'. I think it's also they see guys making it and they go up there thinking they have to make it, but those are just my bad theories. We work on it, but no different than anything else. We haven't changed the way we were working on them lately."
On the impact of Gary Clark's play:
"He is one of the best players in the country. We are lucky to have him and he has evolved into one of the best. There was a time his freshman year that he couldn't have guarded me. And then last year, he wins defensive player of the year (in the conference). He improves because he has aptitude. His attitude is tremendous and he is smart. And now, his effort level is more consistent. That's what happens to guys when they get older; he has learned how to play harder longer and he has become a dominant player. And, to be honest with you, I think he should have had 22 (points) and 14 (rebounds) tonight. I think he would like to have a lot of those short shots back that he missed. He is a dominant player."
Cincinnati Player Quotes
#1 Jacob Evans III, G/F
On what the guys did to take ECU out offensively in the second half:
"Just try to play harder, we were trying to take them out of their things but we just weren't giving enough effort. They were getting every loose ball even when someone would drive to the goal and our bigs would block it, they would just pick it up and lay it up. We would get a back tip, loose ball on the ground, we would try to pick it up and they would dive on it and get a bucket. So we just tried to come out in the second half and play a little harder and that got things going for us."
On if the second-half surge was adjustments or just playing harder:
"Just putting in more effort and being smarter, paying attention to the scouting report is one thing we really wanted to focus on coming out, in every game, but really in the second half we weren't doing a good job. We let their shooters have some easy ones and (Williams) got hot, made a couple tough shots. You just can't let them get going like that in the beginning of the game."
On the spark Cane Broome gave the team in the first half:
Cane comes in and him and Justin are both fast but they play at different paces. Cane, he always puts pressure on the defense with him trying to attack the goal and he can set people up because he can cause defenders to come up when he is driving so he can get by his man. He comes in in the first half and he definitely provides a spark. He changes the game a little bit and gets us going up and down a little bit more and today we obviously needed that. He caused a couple 10-second counts in the backcourt so we definitely needed him today."
#11 Gary Clark, F
On what the key is to his six double-doubles this season:
"Just constantly going on the offensive end and defensive end rebounding. A lot of them are put-backs and easy ones right at the rim, guys are finding me for lobs and dump-offs so just constantly going, giving effort to get position and dominate when I have position."
On if this is a game that shows what having a better offense can do for you:
"Yeah, definitely. I think back to my past years here, it would be like a rock fight down to the last minute if were weren't better, getting the ball in the basket. And like you said it just goes to show we are reading and executing offensively to get better shots and get guys open."
On if the recent slow starts with comebacks to win are a concern:
"Yeah, I think there are two ends of it. I think it is teams coming out with nothing to lose and playing as hard as they can against us because they understand what we have done to other teams so they come in with their best shot and give us their best shot and we've just got to be able to withstand that way when they come in especially when we are on the road and when we are at home we have to come out, we are in our arena, we have got our fans here so we just have to come out locked in and 100 percent effort."
ECU Interim Head Coach Michael Perry
On ECU running out of gas toward the end of the game:
"We can't have that against teams like this, certainly. That's one of the things we talked about after the game was being able to sustain our play for longer periods of time. We gave them a battle there for 32-33 minutes. We really fought them hard but their defenders worn us down with their physicality, particularly in the paint, with their bigs. They had 22 offensive rebounds, an astounding number. That was the tale of the game."
On Cincinnati's advantage in rebounding and points in the paint:
"That was the tale of the game. You try to match it as much as you can. Try to get the guys to be as sound as possible with the box outs. We did it but we need to do for longer periods of time."
On Cincinnati's defensive adjustment on Sean Williams after halftime:
"I'm sure there were a couple of conversations about him at halftime and they were really dialed in. We anticipated that and were hoping some other guys would be able to step and take the challenge offensively but we weren't able to sustain it."
On comparing Houston, Wichita State and Cincinnati. Which one is the best at this point in the season:
"Cincinnati is right now. They are the most sound on both sides of the ball right now but we've got a long season to go steal it. There's about 11-12 games (left) for most teams. The last 10 games are going to tell a lot. When you go into other teams' home courts it's a factor. It think it's going to be a factor when people come in here (BB&T Arena) as well as go to Wichita State. It's something you're going to have to really do, be able to win on the road here in this league which is very difficult. We knew we were going to have a tough time coming in here. I was really proud of the effort the guys showed. I just wish were able to sustain it for a longer period of time."
BB&T Arena
Jan. 20, 2018
Postgame Quotes
Cincinnati Head Coach Mick Cronin
Opening statement:
"We were up eight a half, but we weren't happy with our defensive effort in the first half. When a team shoots 55 percent against you, we're never going to be happy with that. And, the other number within that number is they had one really good three-point shooter and we let him go 3-for-3; he went 6-for-6 the other night. So, they scored 90 the other night and they were confident. They hit a lot of late in the clock, hard shots in the first half, and that puts pressure on your defense and you have to step it up and play harder. When that happened, I thought our attitude should have been 'let's play harder'. Instead, I thought it was a little bit of, 'what's going on? Why are they playing well?' I don't think the guys expected them to put the ball in the basket the way they did. But, we had a little attitude adjustment at halftime and locked in much better, so they shoot 1-for-9 from three, 11 percent (from three) and 30 percent (overall) in the second half, and you end up with an easy win when we finally started playing some defense. The only other thing I would say is that once we started finishing around the basket with some strength, I thought that changed the game as well. We were looking for fouls and not going up strong around the basket. You can't look for fouls in conference play. You can't look for fouls; you have to finish. You have to go up to finish. If you get fouled, you get fouled, but they are not calling every little touch that goes on. Early on, we were finishing with one hand or just going up soft. We got tougher as the game went on, which has kind of been really the way we have been playing, to be honest with you. Even though we weren't down 10 this game – the last two games we were down nine and 10 – we haven't gotten off to good starts here of late, which is probably a concern for me."
On overcoming a slow start:
"We have to play better early. It's not rocket science. We have to play better early in the game. Early in the game today, we were bad defensively. The other games, early in those games, our offense was just non-existent and our rebounding was non-existent. Today, early in the game, our defense was atrocious. They did make some late clock shots that were very, very tough shots, but, that being said, we had some breakdowns that were not characteristic of us. There are different reasons. It's not just getting off to slow starts because every game, it's a different thing, so it's not just one thing."
On the contributions of Broome, Brooks and Scott:
"Cane (Broome) is starting to get comfortable coming back from his ankle injury. I though Nysier (Brooks) was huge coming in and Nysier and Tre (Scott) are good players and are just playing behind Gary (Clark) and Kyle (Washington), who are both highly productive, veteran guys. You look at it and Tre Scott gets seven rebounds in 14 minutes and Nysier gets five rebounds in 11 minutes and then 'E' (Elliel Nsoseme) comes in and gets five in four minutes. Rebounding was probably the difference; we were plus 17 on the glass. Those guys, their development is key for our team."
On if the low number of turnovers committed by Cincinnati, including zero from Broome, is a good sign:
"Yes. The more Cane can play without turning the ball over, the more you are going to see him be more productive and help us; really help us. That is an adjustment for him. That and his defense has been his biggest adjustment. He played at the low Division I basketball where it is not as physical and he was a high turnover guy at Sacred Heart, but that was because he had to take a lot of chances because he had to score a lot of points. It has been an adjustment, but the ankle injury slowed him down. When you are out a couple of weeks because of your ankle, it's hard to get any rhythm. He had a great practice yesterday and is slowly finding his rhythm."
On the reason for the improvement of the team's free throw shooting:
"That is the one thing that has escaped me in all my years of college coaching. Practicing them; you just never know. I saw what happened to the Lakers last night. They were 2-of-14 or something and that's a pro team. I am serious, that is the one thing (that has escaped me). We do all kinds of things to try and get better at it and I really believe it is concentration. I also do believe that sometimes it rubs off. Makes rub off and misses rub off. When the guys see each other missing, they go up there thinking, 'Oh, I better make it because he just missed'. I think it's also they see guys making it and they go up there thinking they have to make it, but those are just my bad theories. We work on it, but no different than anything else. We haven't changed the way we were working on them lately."
On the impact of Gary Clark's play:
"He is one of the best players in the country. We are lucky to have him and he has evolved into one of the best. There was a time his freshman year that he couldn't have guarded me. And then last year, he wins defensive player of the year (in the conference). He improves because he has aptitude. His attitude is tremendous and he is smart. And now, his effort level is more consistent. That's what happens to guys when they get older; he has learned how to play harder longer and he has become a dominant player. And, to be honest with you, I think he should have had 22 (points) and 14 (rebounds) tonight. I think he would like to have a lot of those short shots back that he missed. He is a dominant player."
Cincinnati Player Quotes
#1 Jacob Evans III, G/F
On what the guys did to take ECU out offensively in the second half:
"Just try to play harder, we were trying to take them out of their things but we just weren't giving enough effort. They were getting every loose ball even when someone would drive to the goal and our bigs would block it, they would just pick it up and lay it up. We would get a back tip, loose ball on the ground, we would try to pick it up and they would dive on it and get a bucket. So we just tried to come out in the second half and play a little harder and that got things going for us."
On if the second-half surge was adjustments or just playing harder:
"Just putting in more effort and being smarter, paying attention to the scouting report is one thing we really wanted to focus on coming out, in every game, but really in the second half we weren't doing a good job. We let their shooters have some easy ones and (Williams) got hot, made a couple tough shots. You just can't let them get going like that in the beginning of the game."
On the spark Cane Broome gave the team in the first half:
Cane comes in and him and Justin are both fast but they play at different paces. Cane, he always puts pressure on the defense with him trying to attack the goal and he can set people up because he can cause defenders to come up when he is driving so he can get by his man. He comes in in the first half and he definitely provides a spark. He changes the game a little bit and gets us going up and down a little bit more and today we obviously needed that. He caused a couple 10-second counts in the backcourt so we definitely needed him today."
#11 Gary Clark, F
On what the key is to his six double-doubles this season:
"Just constantly going on the offensive end and defensive end rebounding. A lot of them are put-backs and easy ones right at the rim, guys are finding me for lobs and dump-offs so just constantly going, giving effort to get position and dominate when I have position."
On if this is a game that shows what having a better offense can do for you:
"Yeah, definitely. I think back to my past years here, it would be like a rock fight down to the last minute if were weren't better, getting the ball in the basket. And like you said it just goes to show we are reading and executing offensively to get better shots and get guys open."
On if the recent slow starts with comebacks to win are a concern:
"Yeah, I think there are two ends of it. I think it is teams coming out with nothing to lose and playing as hard as they can against us because they understand what we have done to other teams so they come in with their best shot and give us their best shot and we've just got to be able to withstand that way when they come in especially when we are on the road and when we are at home we have to come out, we are in our arena, we have got our fans here so we just have to come out locked in and 100 percent effort."
ECU Interim Head Coach Michael Perry
On ECU running out of gas toward the end of the game:
"We can't have that against teams like this, certainly. That's one of the things we talked about after the game was being able to sustain our play for longer periods of time. We gave them a battle there for 32-33 minutes. We really fought them hard but their defenders worn us down with their physicality, particularly in the paint, with their bigs. They had 22 offensive rebounds, an astounding number. That was the tale of the game."
On Cincinnati's advantage in rebounding and points in the paint:
"That was the tale of the game. You try to match it as much as you can. Try to get the guys to be as sound as possible with the box outs. We did it but we need to do for longer periods of time."
On Cincinnati's defensive adjustment on Sean Williams after halftime:
"I'm sure there were a couple of conversations about him at halftime and they were really dialed in. We anticipated that and were hoping some other guys would be able to step and take the challenge offensively but we weren't able to sustain it."
On comparing Houston, Wichita State and Cincinnati. Which one is the best at this point in the season:
"Cincinnati is right now. They are the most sound on both sides of the ball right now but we've got a long season to go steal it. There's about 11-12 games (left) for most teams. The last 10 games are going to tell a lot. When you go into other teams' home courts it's a factor. It think it's going to be a factor when people come in here (BB&T Arena) as well as go to Wichita State. It's something you're going to have to really do, be able to win on the road here in this league which is very difficult. We knew we were going to have a tough time coming in here. I was really proud of the effort the guys showed. I just wish were able to sustain it for a longer period of time."