UTSA Head Coach Brooks Thompson
Opening statement ...
"This was a tremendously hard-fought basketball game on both sides. You hate to have to see a team lose because I think Nicholls State did a tremendous job. How much they’ve improved as a team since we played them early on in the year is impressive. It shows what a great coach J.P. is and what kind of job he’s done. Those guys played hard and they play the right way. Our guys made the plays that they needed to make to win. I think early, defensively, we came out a little flat and let them run their stuff and they were getting what they wanted. Yet they only scored 24 points in the first half. I thought our defensive mistake were affecting our offense and we weren’t able to get into a groove offensively in the first half. I think in the second half we came out and Joey hit some big threes and it loosened us up and we started to play the way we wanted to play and the way we needed to play to win. That was the difference in the game.”
On what Joey Shank gave them in the second half ...
"I think it’s what Joey’s given us both games to be honest with you. He hit some big shots in the Sam win and obviously tonight. For Joey and Travis it’s kind of ironic and I hope these two are the ones up here Sunday right after a win. I know we’ve got a hard fight there. These two, as seniors, it means a lot to them and it means a lot to all of our guys. From the rebuilding process, these were the first couple of guys that came in to our program. I know what it means to these guys and I know that they are by no means satisfied. It means a lot to these two guys and that’s why they have played as hard as they have. Joey all year long, and for as long as he’s been here, what he said is true. We always pray that Joey hits his first three because if he does, he’s going to rattle them off. Travis has stepped up huge in this tournament and done some things that’s not normal for him. He’s a very finesse guy and a very talented guy for his size and we’ve asked him to be physical and do some different things. He’s done that and he’s taken some hits in the mouth. It’s a tribute to these guys that we are here right now with their leadership and then the rest of the guys. It’s just a great team effort more so than we’ve had all year long.”
On whether he’d like to play SFA or A&M-Corpus Christi in the SLC Finals ...
"It will be SFA or Corpus Christi. To be honest with you, I have a great deal of respect for both of their basketball teams. I can’t pick and choose. It’s like picking your poison. They play different styles of basketball and we’ve got to prepare a different way for each team. I think they’re both really good basketball teams. I can’t stand out and say I’d like to play Corpus because we already beat them once, but we played Stephen F. Austin and we played them pretty well. I think they’re both really good basketball teams and we’re going to have to fight and play as well as we can play to win on Sunday.”
On the lull they hit in the last 7 minutes of the first half ...
"I truly believe that we were guarding so hard. Nicholls State does such a great job of executing their continuity, half-court offense. They are really going to take good shots. It’s going to wear you down because they’re not going to take a shot early in that shot clock unless it’s Bathie or Bose getting a wide open three. I think our guys were fighting so hard when they reversed the ball and do other things and we’d give up a three because of the great execution on Nicholls’ part and not necessarily a mistake on our basketball team. I think it deflated them a little bit, because they were playing so hard and so intense to execute everything that we wanted to do and to get stops. I think that was kind of the lull. I think that affected what we were doing on the offensive end as well. It was big, but we overcame it.”
On the state of UTSA basketball ...
"I think it’s the state of the athletics department and the university overall. The support that we get, not only from our president and his wife being here, but from our Director of Athletics Lynn Hickey, our associate athletic directors that are here. I think it’s a commitment. I think you guys all know that we just made a huge hire. We’ve got football now and we made a huge hire and are bringing Larry Coker to campus. I think it’s UTSA Athletics in general and the steps we are trying to take forward to be a championship contender every year in every sport. I want to congratulate Rae Blair. I know she was in the championship last year. She’s a tremendous coach and has a tremendous basketball team. I’m glad we can join her. I hope that Sunday evening in San Antonio is a wonderful evening for not only the women, but for the men. That’s what both teams are fighting for.”
Joey Shank, Sr., G
On him getting hot from behind the arc ...
"Anytime time I get going and hit a few I’m looking to get the ball again so I can get a few more off. I know that I can rattle a few off if I get them off right in a row if I get the opportunity. The clock was running down and I got the pass and I heard coach yell ?Shoot it!’ and I shot it and it went down.”
On hearing the crowd chant “You Got Shanked!” ...
"It feels good. I try to not hear everything so I can focus on the game, but it does feel good that we have a lot of really supportive fans. It just feels really good. I just try to keep them coming so they can keep screaming. It’s fun.”
On him coming alive in the second half the last two games ...
"I just couldn’t get anything to go down in the first half. I had some good looks and they were finding me, but I just couldn’t get them to go down. Fortunately I got one to go down pretty early in the second half and then after that the team did a really good job of finding me and they were trying to help me get shots off. They just started going down and the guys just kept finding me and we got in a good rhythm.”
Travis Gabbidon, Sr., F
On the state of mind of the team coming down to the last minutes ...
"After last night, I think that we controlled the ball well. We stayed calm. We knew that if we could get a clean rebound that they were going to foul us. We had to go up to the free-throw line with confidence and just pull it together as a team, no matter who was at the line or who was getting the rebound, we all needed to help each other out and pick each other up. We did hit the good free throws last night and tonight at the end.”
On what going to the SLC Championship means to him ...
"I can’t even express it. I want to cry. I want to laugh. I want to smile. I came in here coach’s first year and got hurt. I’ve been here. It’s been a long road. This is what me and coach talked about, to get in here and to get a championship. It means a lot. Sunday we want to come out and play hard and see if we can get a victory. We don’t have the championship yet, but we want to get it. We want to bring one to UTSA.”
Nicholls Head Coach J.P. Piper
Opening statement ...
"I just want to say how proud I am of my guys and what they were able to accomplish this season. This is certainly not the way we wanted things to end. I thought they fought their hearts out and gave it their all and I couldn’t be prouder. Hopefully things aren’t over for us. Hopefully we get a chance to play in one these new tournaments. Hopefully I get to coach them one or two more times.”
On the last three minutes of the game ...
"You look at last night’s game. We don’t normally shoot 80% from the line, but we scored 35 points from the line and won a tough game. It’s almost scary. I don’t know if we can shoot free throws like that every night, and tonight we shot 58% from the line in a game that’s so close and so tight. You can’t leave those points at the free-throw line. Despite that we’re still right where we want to be. There was a great defensive stand and there’s a loose ball. It gets batted around and they end up falling on it and getting a timeout. We thought we had a good call and we changed to a trapping zone defense and we got the ball in the corner where we wanted it. Gibson made a great play with an extra pass. That’s just a big-time play. Shank made it. I thought Anatoly contested it well, but it just went in. It really put us in a bind. We still gave ourselves a couple of opportunities. It just wasn’t meant to be.”
On the difference from the first half to the second half ...
"I thought in the first half our game plan was to take the ball out of Johnson and Gibson’s hands and make their other guys make plays. Pressure them into putting the ball on the floor. We did a great job of that in the first half. The guys that have carried the load for them all year really weren’t making the plays and the decisions for them, and it worked in our favor. In the second half, they were much more determined to keep the ball in those guys’ hands. What you saw is that they went out and stood at half-court and held the ball until it got down to ten seconds and then either Johnson or Gibson would go make a play. They never gave us a chance to get it out of their hands and then not get it back. Those two guys make the plays for them, and they made big ones tonight.”
On looking forward to a strong program next season ...
"I am not prepared to think about coaching without Justin and Ryan around. It’s going to be difficult. The future is bright. Anatoly and Dominic and Fred and Iles. We’ve got a bunch of great recruits in the pipeline. I think the future is really bright. The leadership that Justin has brought to our program is going to be hard to replace. Someone will have to step up and do that. It may not be one guy. It may be a couple of guys. It’s hard to articulate how much Justin and Ryan have meant to our program and the turnaround. I think often about where things were three or four years ago. There were days I didn’t want to go to work. There was never a day this year when I didn’t want to go to work.”
On correcting their mistakes since the losing to UTSA in the regular season ...
"We told the guys that this was going to be the way the game was played. We were not surprised by anything out there tonight. UTSA is a heck of a team. Quite frankly, I credit them for a lot of our success. They came over early in the conference season and exposed us in some areas. We went to work. We had a couple of days of practice that I don’t think these guys will ever forget. It really redefined who we are and how we play the game. That was the start of the run through conference and we only stumbled two more times. We lost to San Antonio. We had two extremely difficult days of practice that really compromised our chances of beating Stephen F. Austin that Saturday. We went over the SFA and we struggled mightily. After that we were a different team down the stretch. That was the team you saw tonight and I knew the game would come down to the last 30 seconds. I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that we weren’t the ones winning the game. I truly believed we would. I would put the same guys at the free throw line. The same guys would have the ball trying to make the plays that we were trying to make tonight. If we played the game ten more times, there’s not much I would change. I don’t think they would beat us ten times. I think it would go either way every night. These are two good basketball teams. I have a lot of respect for the job Coach Thompson does.”
Justin Payne, Sr., G
On the physicality of the game and how it affected their approach ...
"We were prepared that it was going to be more physical. Coach made us aware that the referees were going to let a little bit go today. We were prepared, but I think it just came down to toughness. They made plays and we missed a couple of free throws. ”
On being a senior and how far this program has come ...
"Three years ago we were kind of in the dirt, but now we put in so much hard work. Coach stuck with us. He had faith in us. We’ve come a long way. I’m so proud to be a Colonel.”
On their season as a whole ...
"It was amazing. I was glad to be a part of it. I thank God for it every day. Like coach said, I hope we can play one more in the new tournaments that came around. I’m just happy.”
Anatoly Bose, So., G/F
On whether he thinks they left it all out on the court ...
"Definitely. I thought we all prepared really well for it. The coaching staff and the players. We all were mentally prepared for it and I think all the guys gave 100%. Speaking for myself, I know I busted myself trying to do as much as I can. All of the guys try to rev each other up and do the best that they can.”
On trying to keep this program improving going into next season ...
"It will definitely be harder without J.P. and Ryan back as our main leaders on the floor. As coach said, we’re going to have to fill a couple of big gaps there. Personally this season is not going to put me down. It’s going to make me stronger. We have a couple of key freshmen in Fred and Chris who are about to have to step up next year. Hopefully we can surprise some people again next year.”
