Hear a portion of what the Head Hawk told the press after his team was eliminated from the Big Ten Tournament.
Question: I wanted to ask you about that last sequence where you got the timeout, you're down three, 7 seconds left, and [Brendan] Hausen takes that 3 coming out of the timeout. Was that the play you wanted, or what were you trying to get coming out of that timeout?
BEN MCCOLLUM: Kind of. We knew they were going to get Bennett the ball and we knew they were going to foul because they were screaming. To be honest, I think they tried to foul him. I'd have to go back and watch it, but I think they tried to foul him. That's why he shot that. So it looked worse than it actually was. You'll see the kid reach it and kind of shove him. And so he shot it, knowing he was going to get fouled.
It was actually a pretty crafty move. It looked worse, but like looking back on it, it was a pretty vet move. We knew we were going to have a tough time getting Bennett open, and if we did get him open, they were going to foul the other way. So you run him off that side, ran Brandon off the other side, and then Tate in the middle. We were just trying to get them to foul us for the most part, and then if they reached in, we were going to try to get a shot off and get three free throws.
Question: Bennett [Stirtz] said that your post game message was mostly about how you believe in the team and that maybe he feels like sometimes they don't totally believe in themselves. What is it going to take over the next few days to get it to the point where they fully believe in what they're capable of doing?
I think there's probably a couple different things there. I think, one, sometimes you can, one, listen to the noise, or you can just walk out on the floor and see the differences in body types. They're a little bit bigger than us, obviously. In every game, it looks that way, and even games where we win or dominate, it's just the nature of how we're built. That doesn't mean you're not good or better than your opponent. So trying to get them to understand that you're not just a win a conference tournament game team, you're not just a make the NCAA Tournament team, you need to be able to win those games.
Question: I'll ask you the same thing I asked Bennett, but just with those missed opportunities, how do you guys as a coaching staff kind of address that in preparation for the NCAA Tournament next week?
BEN MCCOLLUM: Missed opportunities in regards to
being able to win this game or missed layups?
Question: Both.
We were 6 for 13 at the rim, so that's a problem. Need to be about 10 for 13, but that's not what I think you're totally asking. I don't necessarily view it as a missed opportunity per se. I probably view it as we're still trying to improve and get better in the process, but not accepting any not lack of effort. We still played pretty hard. It's just like we've just got to get to 100 percent consistently to be able to win those games.