TicketsTemple at Cincinnati
BB&T Arena
Jan. 24, 2018
Postgame Quotes
Cincinnati Head Coach Mick Cronin
Opening statement:
"I am really happy with how hard we played tonight; we had 45 deflections and 46 rebounds. Temple plays really hard. They rebound really well. They had 17 on us offensive last time; they had 19 on Memphis about one week ago offensive and they are getting at least 13 or 14 per game offensive in conference. I thought our physicality was better and, once we were able to keep them off the backboard; that is the key against them. That, and I thought Darrin Savino had a great game plan. We changed some things from the last time we played them. We were a lot more aggressive in our on the ball defense and on our pick-and-roll defense, which got us up in the bridle, so to speak. It took them out of their three-point shooting and, once we started scoring the ball, we could get our pressure going and you start playing downhill. I thought our effort and our toughness and our physicality was great.
"I want to congratulate Gary Clark. To be the fifth player in the history of the school, in over 100 years of basketball, with 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds is unbelievable. It is an unbelievable feat. He is a winning player and is probably the most valuable player in our league, in my opinion, because his scoring, his rebounding, his intangibles, his steals, his blocked shots, his field-goal percentage, his ability to guard big guys, his ability to switch and guard perimeter players; I am sure there are more talented guys in the country – I have obviously seen Marvin Bagley (Duke) play on TV – but, Gary Clark is such a winning player. It's such a great feat and tonight is his night, in my opinion. Any time you did something at Cincinnati that Oscar Robertson did, you're doing something. I think it was Paul Hogue, Jack Twyman and Bob Miller. When you accomplish something Kenyon Martin wasn't able to accomplish, or Jason Maxiell, that's pretty impressive because those guys were unbelievable players. It just shows you how hard it is to get 1,000 rebounds. He has been a great player for us for a long time."
On if that is a compliment to his consistency:
"He is an under rated player, other than among coaches. If you talk to coaches, especially the coaches in our conference, Gary Clark is their favorite player. See, we (coaches) are paid to win games, so, when you ask a coach about it, they see what that guy brings to the table. He makes no mistakes; he is just plus, plus, plus, plus. If he makes a mistake, it's like a meteor storm; it just never happens and you are in shock. He is just such a good player in every aspect of the game. Coaches appreciate that more. Fans see guys scoring 35 points and taking 30 shots, but Gary has 17 tonight on seven shots with 10 rebounds in 26 minutes. Any time you are getting those types of numbers (it's great). I'm watching and he is still getting better. He is a much better player than he was one year ago and he continues to improve because he has a great work ethic. Like SK (Sean Kilpatrick), he listens to everything the coaches say; not when you are coaching him because that is easy. He listens when you are coaching other people because there is something there for him to learn. Kenyon Martin was that way and that is why Gary is going to have a long career playing basketball."
On the ovation the crowd gave Gary Clark after recording his 1,000th rebound:
"Yes (I noticed). He deserves it and I was really happy about it. I was worried and I was hoping he was going to get it. I thought it was awesome. We had advertised it. (Tom Groeshen) helped us too. You (Bill Koch) did it, so people knew it (the milestone) was coming. I thought it was probably our best crowd of the year tonight. I thought it was our loudest crowd of the year tonight."
On Jarron Cumberland:
"The way he attacks the basket and as well as he is playing; he was dominant in the first half. He had a great practice yesterday, too. You see he was 1-of-6 from three, but his floor game is so much better. His defense, his passing, his focus, his understanding of basketball; he just continues to improve. It is going to be a chore to keep him healthy because of the way he attacks the basket all the time."
On the play of Elliel Nsoseme:
"He is earning minutes. He screamed 'play me' the other night when he set records for blocked shots per minutes played. He did in practice as well. I thought his physicality and his fearless toughness was needed tonight against Temple. I need to play the guy; he is our leading rebounder per minute played, and that is saying a lot on a team with Gary Clark."
#11 Gary Clark, F
On achieving 1,000 rebounds for his career:
"I didn't realize it at first until Coach (Cronin) wrote it on the board and was explaining it and Kyle (Washington) always telling me how good of an accomplishment that will be. For me to do it tonight was pretty cool."
On what if felt like receiving the ovation from the fans:
"It was cool. I think the last time that happened was my freshman year when they started chanting like that. I had like 17 rebounds."
#24 Kyle Washington, F
On Gary Clark's accomplishment of 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds:
"It is amazing. He is an amazing person and I am just happy to be by his side. I am happy to be his front-court mate, and happy to see that everything he has worked hard for and everything that he has sacrificed for this program - before I was here and after I was here. Like I said, he is an amazing person and an amazing player so I am just glad to be by his side and I am really happy for him."
On what this difference was on beating Temple in Philadelphia and tonight:
"They are a tough team. I think our defense intensity was way better. I think that we were just communicating, like I said, on the defensive end of the ball. They are a good offensive team. You know regardless of their record they have a lot of different individual pieces that can hurt you so we were really locked in on defense and I think that we did a good job on moving the ball and it was just a great team effort I thought."
On if the team is staying sharp through the current win streak:
"You know that is how coach is. He is never complacent and never happy with success. He's never happy with small successes. He sees that we are 7-0 and he doesn't want us to get big heads. But this team isn't like that, we really keep it level-headed and we always tell each other that we have got to keep on going, keep on getting better, what can we do better next game. I am excited about that because you don't get it that often."
Temple Head Coach Fran Dunphy
On the difference in today's game compared with the meeting in Philadelphia:
"I thought we were in pretty good shape in the stretch in the first half and then at the end of the first half we were not so good taking care of the basketball, which led to some easy baskets by UC. They are a really good team. You have to take care of the ball. We turned it over nine times in the first half that turned in to 13 pretty easy points for them. We didn't do a good job taking care of the ball. We turned it over 20 times overall, but some of that was obviously late in the game, but you have to be taking care of every little aspect of how you play against them, because they make you run your offense differently. You have to play basketball, you have to make a cut, you have to be strong with the basketball. We drove the middle of the floor and got a number of turnovers just by not being strong enough with the ball."
On what Cincinnati was doing in the first half:
"Nothing that we were not used to, we knew exactly what they were going to do. We just needed to pound the ball inside a little bit more and work inside, but it's difficult. They do a great job of setting their defense. We were patting the ball way too much. We didn't move the basketball nearly enough. When we did get open shots, we didn't knock it down and that was probably they key to us, too. That one corner jumper Obi [Enechiontia] was wide open and he typically makes that. That would have made it go from nine to six toward the end of the first half. But we don't make it and they run it down and instead of making it six, it was 12. Things like that."
On moving forward from the loss:
"It's a really good team, first of all, that we played tonight. A really good defensive basketball team. We have a new slate on Sunday against UConn, a team that's looking for a win like we are, so we have to be ready to go. It's one of those games that you have to hang your head a little bit and say we have to do better and learn from it."
BB&T Arena
Jan. 24, 2018
Postgame Quotes
Cincinnati Head Coach Mick Cronin
Opening statement:
"I am really happy with how hard we played tonight; we had 45 deflections and 46 rebounds. Temple plays really hard. They rebound really well. They had 17 on us offensive last time; they had 19 on Memphis about one week ago offensive and they are getting at least 13 or 14 per game offensive in conference. I thought our physicality was better and, once we were able to keep them off the backboard; that is the key against them. That, and I thought Darrin Savino had a great game plan. We changed some things from the last time we played them. We were a lot more aggressive in our on the ball defense and on our pick-and-roll defense, which got us up in the bridle, so to speak. It took them out of their three-point shooting and, once we started scoring the ball, we could get our pressure going and you start playing downhill. I thought our effort and our toughness and our physicality was great.
"I want to congratulate Gary Clark. To be the fifth player in the history of the school, in over 100 years of basketball, with 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds is unbelievable. It is an unbelievable feat. He is a winning player and is probably the most valuable player in our league, in my opinion, because his scoring, his rebounding, his intangibles, his steals, his blocked shots, his field-goal percentage, his ability to guard big guys, his ability to switch and guard perimeter players; I am sure there are more talented guys in the country – I have obviously seen Marvin Bagley (Duke) play on TV – but, Gary Clark is such a winning player. It's such a great feat and tonight is his night, in my opinion. Any time you did something at Cincinnati that Oscar Robertson did, you're doing something. I think it was Paul Hogue, Jack Twyman and Bob Miller. When you accomplish something Kenyon Martin wasn't able to accomplish, or Jason Maxiell, that's pretty impressive because those guys were unbelievable players. It just shows you how hard it is to get 1,000 rebounds. He has been a great player for us for a long time."
On if that is a compliment to his consistency:
"He is an under rated player, other than among coaches. If you talk to coaches, especially the coaches in our conference, Gary Clark is their favorite player. See, we (coaches) are paid to win games, so, when you ask a coach about it, they see what that guy brings to the table. He makes no mistakes; he is just plus, plus, plus, plus. If he makes a mistake, it's like a meteor storm; it just never happens and you are in shock. He is just such a good player in every aspect of the game. Coaches appreciate that more. Fans see guys scoring 35 points and taking 30 shots, but Gary has 17 tonight on seven shots with 10 rebounds in 26 minutes. Any time you are getting those types of numbers (it's great). I'm watching and he is still getting better. He is a much better player than he was one year ago and he continues to improve because he has a great work ethic. Like SK (Sean Kilpatrick), he listens to everything the coaches say; not when you are coaching him because that is easy. He listens when you are coaching other people because there is something there for him to learn. Kenyon Martin was that way and that is why Gary is going to have a long career playing basketball."
On the ovation the crowd gave Gary Clark after recording his 1,000th rebound:
"Yes (I noticed). He deserves it and I was really happy about it. I was worried and I was hoping he was going to get it. I thought it was awesome. We had advertised it. (Tom Groeshen) helped us too. You (Bill Koch) did it, so people knew it (the milestone) was coming. I thought it was probably our best crowd of the year tonight. I thought it was our loudest crowd of the year tonight."
On Jarron Cumberland:
"The way he attacks the basket and as well as he is playing; he was dominant in the first half. He had a great practice yesterday, too. You see he was 1-of-6 from three, but his floor game is so much better. His defense, his passing, his focus, his understanding of basketball; he just continues to improve. It is going to be a chore to keep him healthy because of the way he attacks the basket all the time."
On the play of Elliel Nsoseme:
"He is earning minutes. He screamed 'play me' the other night when he set records for blocked shots per minutes played. He did in practice as well. I thought his physicality and his fearless toughness was needed tonight against Temple. I need to play the guy; he is our leading rebounder per minute played, and that is saying a lot on a team with Gary Clark."
#11 Gary Clark, F
On achieving 1,000 rebounds for his career:
"I didn't realize it at first until Coach (Cronin) wrote it on the board and was explaining it and Kyle (Washington) always telling me how good of an accomplishment that will be. For me to do it tonight was pretty cool."
On what if felt like receiving the ovation from the fans:
"It was cool. I think the last time that happened was my freshman year when they started chanting like that. I had like 17 rebounds."
#24 Kyle Washington, F
On Gary Clark's accomplishment of 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds:
"It is amazing. He is an amazing person and I am just happy to be by his side. I am happy to be his front-court mate, and happy to see that everything he has worked hard for and everything that he has sacrificed for this program - before I was here and after I was here. Like I said, he is an amazing person and an amazing player so I am just glad to be by his side and I am really happy for him."
On what this difference was on beating Temple in Philadelphia and tonight:
"They are a tough team. I think our defense intensity was way better. I think that we were just communicating, like I said, on the defensive end of the ball. They are a good offensive team. You know regardless of their record they have a lot of different individual pieces that can hurt you so we were really locked in on defense and I think that we did a good job on moving the ball and it was just a great team effort I thought."
On if the team is staying sharp through the current win streak:
"You know that is how coach is. He is never complacent and never happy with success. He's never happy with small successes. He sees that we are 7-0 and he doesn't want us to get big heads. But this team isn't like that, we really keep it level-headed and we always tell each other that we have got to keep on going, keep on getting better, what can we do better next game. I am excited about that because you don't get it that often."
Temple Head Coach Fran Dunphy
On the difference in today's game compared with the meeting in Philadelphia:
"I thought we were in pretty good shape in the stretch in the first half and then at the end of the first half we were not so good taking care of the basketball, which led to some easy baskets by UC. They are a really good team. You have to take care of the ball. We turned it over nine times in the first half that turned in to 13 pretty easy points for them. We didn't do a good job taking care of the ball. We turned it over 20 times overall, but some of that was obviously late in the game, but you have to be taking care of every little aspect of how you play against them, because they make you run your offense differently. You have to play basketball, you have to make a cut, you have to be strong with the basketball. We drove the middle of the floor and got a number of turnovers just by not being strong enough with the ball."
On what Cincinnati was doing in the first half:
"Nothing that we were not used to, we knew exactly what they were going to do. We just needed to pound the ball inside a little bit more and work inside, but it's difficult. They do a great job of setting their defense. We were patting the ball way too much. We didn't move the basketball nearly enough. When we did get open shots, we didn't knock it down and that was probably they key to us, too. That one corner jumper Obi [Enechiontia] was wide open and he typically makes that. That would have made it go from nine to six toward the end of the first half. But we don't make it and they run it down and instead of making it six, it was 12. Things like that."
On moving forward from the loss:
"It's a really good team, first of all, that we played tonight. A really good defensive basketball team. We have a new slate on Sunday against UConn, a team that's looking for a win like we are, so we have to be ready to go. It's one of those games that you have to hang your head a little bit and say we have to do better and learn from it."