Miami I thought in the second half offensively played really good. We had some trouble stopping them, but we stepped up and made some big plays late. TJ, as he always does, put us right on his back. Ralston stepped up and made a couple of huge shots for us. Key defensive rebounds late in the game I thought. We’re excited for these young guys to do what they’ve done this year. I’m really proud of them.
Q. Coach, the role of freshman, Ralston, he did a tremendous job tonight. How could he handle that pressure as just a freshman scoring so many points?
COACH GOTTFRIED: Ralston is a junior. Ralston has set out transfer. All of our guys, our point guards, Tyler and Cat combined, freshman and a sophomore, they get 11 assists with no turnovers between the two of them. Cat had seven, Tyler had four, but they didn’t turn the ball over. Young players. We forget sometimes TJ is just a sophomore. He’s just a young player too. Step in this environment, in a tournament setting, Lennard played big for us. Kyle made a couple of nice ones, all of those guys. So great to see the young guys step up.
Q. TJ, how much pressure does it take off of you especially when they’re playing box and one a lot for Ralston or somebody else to provide what they did tonight offensively?
COACH GOTTFRIED: Ralston stepped up and made a lot of big shots. My teammates, they do a great job finding me. I just keep working and keep moving with the basketball.
Q. Coach and TJ, can you talk about a second chance now with Syracuse for tomorrow and obviously that was such a close game up there, I know you’re probably looking forward to a rematch?
COACH GOTTFRIED: First of all, I think they’re really a great team. They spent more weeks I think at number one than anybody else in the country. We played well up there. But we let one get away. We were in a position to win and we didn’t close it out. I think with Jerami Grant back now, he missed some time, I think they’re playing with great confidence and they’re really good. And the only time they really haven’t been good is when he was out. So it’s a great opportunity for our players to play against a great team. So I think our guys are going to be excited about it.
Q. Coach, could you speak about your team’s defensive effort tonight, mainly with the disparity in turnovers that you created and also the number of points you created from those?
COACH GOTTFRIED: Well, I thought defensively we were good at times. There was a stretch in the second half we had a hard time stopping them. The good news was we were scoring. That was okay. We were trading baskets, but we had a difficult time. But I thought late in the game, in the last three minutes, our defense was better. Probably the best it had been all night. Maybe the first couple minutes of the game. Miami is a tough team to defend. They take the ball to the basket really well off the dribble. They get you spread out sometimes. And they’re hard to guard. But I thought late in the game our guys stepped up defensively and really did a nice job.