Long Beach State 66, Providence 65 quotes & notes

Long Beach State coach Dan Monson – “If we would have lost, I wouldn’t sit here and talk about the refs. Certainly, after a win I am not going to. All I know is I have had both Les and Terry in the Big 10 and they have always been fair and good officials.”

“That’s what I keep telling our kids. To win games like that you are going to have to win when calls don’t go your way. They could have certainly not called the foul on the 3 that Michael (Carter III) had with 3 seconds left. It all evens out if you play hard and keep playing, I’m proud of the guys because they did that.”
“I feel great about our future. I tell them all the time; my problem is I trust them more than they trust themselves. Just getting them to learn to trust each other, that’s why these tournaments are so great. I want to thank ESPN and the Big West for letting us participate. These go a long ways for us, for a mid-major to get a team from the Big East on a neutral court. Ed (Cooley) is a phenomenal friend of mine and I wish it could have been against somebody else, but it was a much-needed win for us. He’s even talked about coming to the pyramid. I like these guys; I think they’re going to be really good. As I tell them when’s it going to happen? When is the lightbulb going to click on, and hopefully it was today.”

Regarding the young guys on the team, Long Beach State guard Michael Carter III – “Oh no they’re young. On the court it’s important for the veterans and the older guys to step up and make sure the younger guys are always calm. In games like this you get real rowdy and real rushed. You play a way that you are not used to, and it’s not by force or anything its due to never being in this atmosphere. So, me Colin (Slater), Jordan (Roberts), and Chance (Hunter) all got to step up and make sure that the younger guys stay calm and patient.”

Providence Coach Ed Cooley– “You saw the game; it wasn’t one of our better finishes and very disappointed in the outcome. Give Long Beach a lot of credit; they executed down the stretch and took advantage of our mistakes. Anytime you get those close games, everything means something. There’s a lot of people disappointed; there’s no one person more disappointed than myself. Clearly put this on me. I didn’t do a very good job with my group. We’re clearly not executing in critical situations and that’s coaching for which I need to do a much better job at. But you have to give Long Beach a lot of credit. They withstood a second half rally. We were very stagnant offensively. Give Monson and his kids a lot of credit. It’s not the end of the season, it’s not the end of the world. I’m very, very disappointed in the outcome of my team and hopefully we are better tomorrow. Gotta pick our guys up; they’re emotionally disturbed after this one. We can’t let this game be on us tomorrow.” (On the last foul at the 3-pt line) “I would have to take a look at it. It’s an emotional situation when it happens. I think the officials do a great job. I don’t think you can ever blame games on officials. They’re out there doing their best as our kids are doing ours. We shouldn’t put them in position to do that. The crew that did the game did a great job. It’s not a matter of a call that cost us the game, it was our lack of execution that did, so it was nothing about those officials. They’re all Final Four officials and they did a great job. (On turnovers down the stretch with more experienced players) “It’s the most upsetting point in the game. We kept a veteran group out there purposely because we thought we could finish the game with our older group. Hopefully we do a better job coaching them up to stay in the moment a little bit more. Crazy things happen out there, the game is 40 minutes long. They had an opportunity to execute late and we didn’t. Hopefully we can make those adjustments. No excuses. (On dominating the first 30 minutes but then lost) “I have to do a couple of things better. I think we do have a really good team nationally. We’re not playing as well as we want to early, and that’s the good part that it’s early so we have an opportunity to fix some things not going our way now. Our program is at a point early in the season where we want to define who we want to be and how we’re going to get there. I never thought I would say that seven games in but I’m seeing things characteristically that I haven’t seen in my program before. Whether it’s lackadaisical or lack of focus, I think I have to pay attention more to the coaching side of it. Maybe pull some guys out a little bit more.” (On different rotations and satisfaction with 5 minutes left to go) “I was. Offensively we just stopped scoring the ball. I don’t know what the final score was; they had 60 some odd points? Normally you’re winning those games. But in tournament play anything is possible. They got a break late and took advantage of it and we didn’t. It’s really that simple.”

 

Wooden Chips
• The 1-point game was just the fifth time ever that a Wooden Legacy game was decided by one point, and the first occurrence since 2011.
• Providence led by as much as 17 points (last time at 49-32 with 16:51 remaining)… from there LBSU outscored Providence 34-16… that comeback tied for the second biggest ever in Wooden Legacy history (biggest was Washington State overcoming a 20-point first half deficit against Saint Joseph’s in 2017).
• With Long Beach State scoring 66 points, this was just the seventh time since the 2014 event that the winning team had as few as 66 points… in the other 54 games the winning team had at least 67 points.
• This marked the first ever meeting between these two teams.

Long Beach State (3-4)
• Long Beach State has now won seven straight games that have been decided by one point in regulation.
• LBSU is now 3-0 when holding teams to 65 or fewer points, and 0-4 when allowing 69+ points.
• After starting the game 2-13 FG (.153), the Beach ended shooting 23-40 FG (.575).
• Long Beach State finished with 20 assists on its 25 made FGs and nine of the 10 players to play had at least one assist… Drew Cobb tied his career high with five assists (has now done it three times).
• Michael Carter III led the Beach in scoring with 23 points, the third time he has led the team this year… this marks the fifth time in seven games at LBSU that he has scored 10+ points and the second with 20+.

Providence (4-3)
• Providence had won its last nine games when taking a lead into halftime before today.
• Luwane Pipkins led the team with 14 points, the 71st time in his career he has surpassed 10 points.
• Providence had 12 steals in the game, which is one shy of the Wooden Legacy record (done twice).
• Alpha Diallo recorded five steals today, one shy of his career best as well as one short of a Wooden Legacy record.