UM v UNC PostGame press conference

Montana

#23 Anthony Johnson - AC
#5 Will Cherry – WC
Head CoachWayne Tinkle – WT

WT –
Really thrilled to be in position to play tomorrow night
What a great season
They (UNC) showed heart of a lion
Proud of guys for squashing runs and holding their own.


We tried to do was spread the floor, take some time off clock weave action

Pick and roll drive it into the basket.

Northern Colorado did a great job defending it

Nobody felt worse then will after first half. Grabbed him before we started the second half and said, Will if you want to play in the championship game tomorrow, we need to step up force this half and we certainly did enforce.


Our teams got great character and we’ve had our share of close ball games. We’ve lost a couple, we’ve won a few and so I think that under four minute time out, it was tied


I thinkt hat under four min time out was tied

Nobody panicked. The first thing that was said, our caption, senior AJ said we need to go out there guys and win these last three minutes. It starts with the stop on this possecion, we had just turned it over. Set a tone in these last few minutes and I think he said to win this game and get to a chmapionship and everybody joined in.


We’ve been in this sit. Before lets get to this..
We scrimmage all year long. Everytime we scrimmage it’s a four minute segment and so we said hey, we’ve done this everyday from day one, lets win the last four minutes.



WC

Plan had been get ball to AJ
As it went in the whole team


Going through your mind? When they took that one point lead?


At the bottom of my mind I was just thinking here we go again. Like Coach Tinkle said been in close ball games. We have a tendency to go up 15 and kind of relax and take our foot off the pedals. That’s what happened today. We’ve lost a lot of close games like that but today we were able to pull through


Regarding shot in the end:

Since day one, watching NCAA basketball, I’ve always dreamed of shots like this.
Coach said step up play big in second half.


AJ

We battled. It’s important how we play the first 35 minutes in the game, but its about closing out the game.

When they made their run, I didn’t even wink. I had faith in my team I knew we would make our plays down the stretch and come out on top.


Yahosh, I don’t even have words to describe what type of defender he is. Each and every time I play this guy, he forces me into four or five turnovers. You know, he speeds me up a lot and to tell you the truth, he gets in my head all thetime. It was no different today. He chases me down, beats me up and I’m feeling the affects now.

Yahosh, again, incredible defender.

COACH

Tonight, we were focused more on AJ being set up man and let some of our other guys get going, get off a shot and relieve some pressure.

AJ wanted to step up to be our guy, but in a positive way, not a selfish way, we just had to remind him to be patient while some other guys were making big plays.

As a senior, stepped up on a big night and its kinda neat…

Two gaurds, one in their last year, one in first year, stepped it up, get tandem down the stretch.



AJ

Will cherry, great anticipation, long arms, quick speed good reaction speed

As a senior, Freshman hit the big shot you normally take?


Nothings better than getting a team win

I don’t have to be the last guy taking the shot. I didn’t take it personally at all, in fact, been high on Will Cherry all year, he’s going to be huge for us.

COACH


We’re talking about AJ passing the torch..


NCAA Tourn –

We’ve done a nice job, before the UNC game, it starts with one. One rebound one corny


We’ll take whatever hand we’re dealt

A

Gonna be challenge all


Last thing we talked about on the board


AJ

Smart together

Last 4 min tough, huge but we made the plays and at the end of game, don’t settle.. semi finals, post season.

I was asked to sum up the season in one word and the word I picked was destiny.

We’re in this moment for a reason
We’re battle tested
We’re looking forward to tomorrow. We shouldn’t overlook tomorrow, but NCAAs will be great if we make it, but focus on tomorrow.






UNC

COACH
We plyaed well.
We’re obviously disappointed, we had a great year.

These guys have worked to hard to end it like this



Really disappointed that in a great college basketball game had to end the way it did.
Got the best defender in the league
We didn’t make plays when we had to, bottom line
Proud for our guys. Again, all the respect in the world for Montana.




Yahoshas foul. Hes a great defensive player. Lot of pushing, shoving and flopping going on Disappointed it had to end the way it did. but hey that’s the way basketball goes. We’ve overcome those all year long we just weren’t able to do it tonight in the last minute 23, but I’m proud of our guys.


Difference in rebound?

I thought our guys competed,
When they go big, they’re all full of tall in there. Some of those long rebounds, but we battle. I thought that was the key to the game.


WILL FIGURES

Q: take about the run, when you guys were 14 down.

We caught a time out and just wanted to come out and pick it up on defense. Got some key stops ran a trap..

Made some big plays down the stretch three in a row. Just

Q: what is like going against AJ?

YAHOSH BONNER:

You can’t fall asleep on AJ
Tough competitor and he realizes that I take pride in my defense.

Good player, quick, fun mtach up


Experience in playoff?

COACH:

Not a factor
Tradition might have been but exp. No.

Great week of practice

Hooked it up really executed at a high level

I think the way this team came back in the second half…

We got guys that aren’t going to quit

We got our heads down a bit in the second half but we fought back and we got the effort there.

Special season?

One of the best seasons in the history of the school. The records we went through, we had a chance to break that tonight.

Break record Chance to surpass that tonight, one more win to 25.

It’s where this program was three years ago.
Its not where we have..

We’ve had to scratch and claw, we had at the bottom of D1

Players like Yahosh and Will helped put this program on the map, players continue to develop



WILL FIGURES:

We came inot the huddle thinking we were going to win

We talked about just one more stop.

They came down and thinking it’s a free throw and now it was on us to make a play

It just didn’t go our way, the calls didn’t go our way

Just didn’t end the way I would have liked it to end.


SUM UP SENIOR YEAR

YAHOSH BONNER:

I just love playing for Coach ___. Playing for Northern Colorado basketball team
One things special is that when things do get rough, we stick together. we’ve built some great friendships.


WILL FIGURES:

Came in my freshman year playing the team we played having the season that we had, it was a rough year for us.

Everybody on that team took that summer and make a name for ourselves. Everyone works hard, and that’s what it was that got us to this point.

Add tigns to my game,

Our community around greely supporting us, seeing people come out and support us, its been great. The guys are great the coaches are great, everyone really supports each other and I’m gonna miss it.

Like coach said its not over for us as far as post season. But I’m definitely going to miss it.