Postgame transcript
Because I had credentials for the women's tournament, I got emails with all the transcripts of every postgame press conference.
Here's Kent State's (I'll post Akron's in a minute):
COACH SENDEROFF: Sorry if we kept you waiting, fellas and ladies, sorry.
Listen, just an unbelievable game. Couldn't be prouder of our group. You know, Akron, we know how good they are and how good a program it is, and I say to myself, because I know how hard it was for us to even get to this game, just thinking that they've been there nine out of the last 13 years is just an incredible accomplishment.
But tonight the story is about our guys and what they've been able to accomplish here tonight, what they've been able to accomplish here over the past week, what they've been able to accomplish over the entire season, and just really, really proud of the entire group. Tonight Jaylin Walker, I said it to somebody, like a star is born. He didn't get any All‑Conference recognition. He had 30 points tonight in the championship game, career high. Just amazing.
And Jimmy, everybody who knows, he's carried us for the entire season. Three‑time All‑Conference player, First‑Team All‑Conference player, the MVP of the MAC Tournament.
JIMMY HALL: J‑Wall.
COACH SENDEROFF: Oh, J‑Wall was the MVP of the tournament? My bad. I think I got that one messed up. Three‑time First‑Team All‑Conference player, scored 1600 points plus in his career.
I wanted to make sure that Jon Fleming was here tonight because just how much he's meant to our team. I know he doesn't get the recognition that these other guys get, but he behind the scenes just does so much to help our program and our team. Again, I'll let you guys ask some questions and then we can talk about the game all you want, but that's really what I wanted as my statement.
Q. Jaylin, has it sunk in yet what you guys have done over the last six days, taking out the top scorer in the country, and then the top three seeds in the tournament?
JAYLIN WALKER: No. I mean, a little bit, but it's not going to sink in until I lay down, just start thinking about it, like dang, like this really happened, you know? Like our dreams really came true, now we've just got to keep going forward.
Q. Jimmy, what was the mindset tonight going against Isaiah, et cetera, and just how hard did you fight, how tired do you feel right now?
JIMMY HALL: You know, the mindset was just to battle. I knew it was going to be a battle. He's a great player, and I just feel like I've got a lot of pride in myself and what I do, and I just wanted ‑‑ I knew it was going to be a battle. It was mano y mano and see who comes out on top. And like how I feel, you know, I could keep playing, you know, the adrenaline is still in me so we could keep going if need be but.
Q. Jaylin, I've seen you in these press conferences a few days now. You seem like this kind of unassuming dude, your coach mistakenly call Jimmy the player, you just kind of smile it off. When you're out there you're kind of owning that stage. What switch turns for you, you seem to have appear different personality on the court?
JAYLIN WALKER: Out there, Deon and I think Jimmy had got in foul trouble so we was kind of just on me so I got to pick up my waiting a little bit and during half time, you know, I had it like, I think I had like 11 points and I was just feeling myself and my teammates, they was saying just keep going, you know, keep going and came out on top.
Q. Jimmy, after the game, I notice you go straight to your family and you have this emotional moment. From your personal journey from where you come from to have this great career, how could you describe that moment that you got caught up there at the end there?
JIMMY HALL: I can't even describe it. It's been a great journey, I'm blessed to be in this position, all my emotions just went when I see my mom and how much she cares for me and how much she comes out to every game, and her little scouting reports she be sending me.
COACH SENDEROFF: She sends them to me, too.
JIMMY HALL: Everything just came out. I just want to thank her so much for having me and raising me and believing in me and everything.
Q. Jaylin, can you talk about what it feels tonight compared to last night?
JAYLIN WALKER: I mean, I feel ‑‑ I actually feel way better than last night after saying, hey, you're the game winner, I'm just going to humble myself because I knew we had one more left. Now, the words can't explain how I'm feeling right now, man.
Q. Jon, you've been there all four years. This has to be ‑‑ this run, can you put it into words starting with the first Akron game when you broke their winning streak, it seemed like every game you've gotten better and better and better, thanks to Jaylin and Jimmy and Deon and all of them. Just watching them, can you just describe it for us what this team has done the last month and the last week starting with the Central Michigan game?
JON FLEMING: It's pretty simple, man. We just played so unselfishly and started playing for each other. These two right here, man, have stepped it up, along with Deon Edwin. Jimmy, if you ask me, he's player of the year. J‑Wal. Deon the same. So I'm riding and dying with these guys. Anyone who knows me, knows how much I talk about them.
And what switched was, man, we start playing unselfishly, started trusting each other, and the process of getting better every day, win, loss. We won a lot, but there were losses, too. We bounced back, too.
Senior night, we lost, and Demetric Shaw came in and told us that's the best thing that could have happened to us because we were hungry. I've got to agree with that man and it's just been a great ride.
Q. Jon, a couple questions. One, talk about the fact that Jalen Avery and Mitch, both of them hit big ‑‑ I mean, these guys are hitting maybe one or two shots a game, but they've been big shots. Mitch's 3‑pointer was huge, that's his only point of the game. Jalen's two free throws keep you guys with a cushion. Talk about that, number one.
And number two, you probably have to give away some trade secrets here, what do you and Coach talk about during the game? Because I see you guys talking. He walks down to your end of the bench and just stands in front of you and talks. What are you guys talking about?
COACH SENDEROFF: Usually I say what in the hell are these guys doing?
JON FLEMING: That's it about 80 percent of the time. Other times, we just talking about what we think we should do, bouncing ideas off each other.
We've got a great coaching staff, he does it with everybody. I'm blessed that he'll let me stay and be a part of it again as a graduate assistant next year.
For your question about JA, especially, man. People that know me, my first three years here, man, I pretty much lived in the gym. And when Jalen Avery came in, I think he was the first person that was in there just as much or more than me. So everything you're seeing, man, is a product of what he did last year. Staying in the gym every night. Every time, I take a (inaudible) he's in the gym. Everybody time I'm in the gym, he's in the gym.
So I think that's what you see from Jalen Avery. And Mitch, man, just being confident in himself. He's really grown. He hit that shot and came back and said it's a man's game. For him to say that, he's showing how much his confidence has grown. I'm proud of everyone, Jalen Avery, too, because he's worked harder than anyone on this team, so I'm very proud for everybody, especially him.
Q. Jaylin, not to rain on your parade a little bit, but that 3‑pointer that Williams hit on, he kind of got you a little bit on that one, but then you come up and you're smiling still. You're on national TV, dude, how are you still smiling after that?
JON FLEMING: He had 30.
JAYLIN WALKER: Something like that where you like ‑‑ where you know that he did it, make you pause. So I just laughed at it, so I'm like just saying it just happens. So I just kept going because I know we was up and, like, three of them. It's cool, you know, things happen.
Q. You stop Akron's home winning streak, and then you beat them for the title. This would be great anyway, but does that make it a little extra sweeter?
JIMMY HALL: Yes.
COACH SENDEROFF: Yes.
Q. Do you guys feel the same way?
JIMMY HALL: I definitely do. We're rivals.
Q. And Jimmy, you've been battle balancing Isaiah for a long time, I guess that's over, but just describe how that was for you all those years?
JIMMY HALL: It's been fun, it's been fun. Just competing with him and just happy to get this win.
Q. Coach, could you talk about, like, how you guys were down 15 versus Central Michigan in the first half. What does your team look like now compared to when you guys were down 15 on Monday night in the first half?
COACH SENDEROFF: Just again, to me, it's just an amazing story, right? That was all part of the story is that we had won all these games and lost senior night, and then we come out against Central Michigan, and we're down I think it was 26‑9, and just the resiliency. Down 13 at halftime.
Over this last month, we've been up only two games at halftime, tonight and Buffalo, so we had been down almost all of them. So just the toughness we've shown and the togetherness they've shown, just an incredible story.
Q. Did you know Jaylin had this in him? Has he shown flashes of this?
COACH SENDEROFF: Oh, shoot, absolutely. He's our second leading scorer on the season. I thought last night he struggled from the field but he hit the game winner, and I think that really helped his confidence because he really hadn't played as well as he's capable of, and tonight he was just, he was like a man possessed. I mean, I say it, he deserves to have been the MVP. He was unbelievable.
Q. Coach, you guys got off on an 11‑3 run to start the game. How important was it to get off on a quick start against the Zips?
COACH SENDEROFF: I do think that was important. They have been getting off to fast starts here in the tournament and we haven't in particular. We sort of, like I said, we've generally been down at halftime at a lot of these games. So I thought getting off to a quick start, I thought that was important for us and I thought it helped our confidence. It also allowed me to maybe put a couple guys in to get some rest for other guys that maybe helped down the stretch.
Q. On the same territory there, Jimmy got his second foul. The fact that you were holding on to the lead there, did that give you some leeway in terms of, I know you brought him back, but did that give you some leeway in terms of ‑‑
COACH SENDEROFF: Having the lead allowed us ‑‑ it made the decision easier, let's put it that way. You want him to play as many minutes as he can. When he got his second foul, I think that was about the it 12‑minute mark, the fact that we had the lead allowed me to take him out and sort of feel confident of okay, we can maybe hold on a little bit here, and get him back in and get him out again.
We were able to keep the lead going into halftime, which again he only played 12 minutes in the first half. He's normally going to play 17 minutes in the first half. So that I thought was important.
Q. Coach, 2008, I believe, since you guys have been to the tournament. Quite a journey for you as a coach as well, so kind of what I asked Jimmy, I noticed you had your arms folded with two seconds left, but once you guys won, what was this journey like for you?
COACH SENDEROFF: I'm just thankful, you know, I'll start with one of my closest friends, Geno Ford, who hired me back to Kent along with Mr. Kennedy, Laing Kennedy, along with President Lefton. Personally I had some baggage that not everybody would have given me an opportunity to coach here.
And then when Geno left, our current AD, Joel Nielsen, entrusted me with this program and I'm more thankful and grateful for the opportunity that those people gave me and just feeling happy that I was able to help lead the group to get back to the NCAA tournament because I know how important it is to the school and to our current president, President Warren. I now how much she loves basketball. The amount of support she's given to our program is just incredible, not just financial support but personal support. She's at almost every game, it's amazing the investment she has personally in our guys and knows every player on the roster.
So for me, when the clock was winding down, these guys deserve all the credit, but you asked about the personal thing ‑‑ I mean my family, I was happy for them because this isn't easy for a family. I've got two daughters, young daughters. When their dad's got to go recruiting and he's missing things, you know, I just felt happy for them.
And really grateful to the people at Kent State who gave me this opportunity to lead the program.
Q. With the way you guys have been on the offensive glass all year, how fitting was it that two of the biggest plays of the game came with Jaylin coming in with the tip‑ins
COACH SENDEROFF: Huge, huge. We're fourth, I think, in the country in offensive rebounding, and it was fitting that those plays ‑‑ I mean, he's a 2 guard and we allow our 2 guard to go offensive rebound because it's Jaylen Walker, and he's one of the best that you would ever see. I.
Didn't really think about it until you just mentioned it, but it really is fitting that those offensive rebounds were huge, huge plays to allow us to win.
Q. Turnovers has been something you talked about a lot this year, 12 against Buffalo, 14 against Ohio, and you guys are currently averaging 7. What's been the key of keeping control of the ball against the Zips?
COACH SENDEROFF: That's something that Jon mentioned. If there's things that we changed, I mean we really, putting Jalen Avery in the lineup, I don't know how many turnovers he's had in the last 15 games, I think he has like five or six, so I think he sort of steadied the ship for us as a team. Us trusting each other more as a group, and then obviously tonight, six turnovers in an up‑and‑down, get in your face, tough, hard‑nosed game to only have six turnovers in a game like this on this stage, there's jitters and they're pressuring you, it speaks volumes and that's why we won, absolutely.
Q. Rob, can you talk about your shooting in the second half? I remember a month ago at Toledo when the Rockets hit everything out at Savage Arena, it seemed like you had that mojo and momentum, just making almost everything. You blunted every run that the Zips tried to make. Can you talk about that?
COACH SENDEROFF: Yeah, I mean, listen, 63 percent we shot against a really good defensive team in the second half. Today was our day. I mean, today was our day. This week was our week. Again, I said it to the guys, Central Michigan had a shot that was halfway down at the buzzer. Then we would be sitting here saying, you know, how did Kent lose at home to the 11 seed. They had two All‑Conference players. That's not your normal 11 seed now. But that didn't go in and the rest of the story is the story, the rest of the story is us then beating the 2 seed, 1 seed, who we had just beaten two weeks prior. These are the best three teams in the league that we beat but you know what, we felt like we were the best team and over the course of the last month I think we've shown that we are.
Q. Starts with Jimmy and Jaylin, seems like the more you guys won this week, your team got a little more swagger. How do you think that's going to transfer now that you guys are moving on to an even bigger stage?
COACH SENDEROFF: Listen, we said it, we're hoping and thinking and going into whoever we play thinking that we say it's our story that they're telling, that there may be another chapter in the story and that's what our plan is. Whoever we play ‑‑ I do know this, whoever we play, they're going to get our best effort. These guys have played so hard over the last month and so together, it's really a little more than a month, about the last month and a half that whoever we face, we'll respect them, and obviously they're going to be a high seed because that's how it works. But we'll be ready, we'll be ready.
Q. Rob, talk a little bit about ‑‑ I saw a lot of guys from a lot of different eras, I saw a lot of guys walking around with their rings.
COACH SENDEROFF: That's Kent State.
Q. You fostered that.
COACH SENDEROFF: That's Kent State. I don't mean to, but yeah, you know what, I mentioned Geno, but Coach Christian, Jim, he brought me here in 2003 after the Elite Eight run when he became the head coach and to see so many of these guys, the pride that they feel in Kent State basketball, Mike Scott drove in from Indianapolis, he was on the last team that went to the NCAA tournament. Julian Sullinger was here, Mike Perini, Justin Manns. I mean, Demetric Shaw was giving our guys pep talks after every game. I mean, he does this for a living, but people need to hire him as a motivational speaker. This dude's unreal. Just to see that's part of what makes Kent, Kent. You know this, Elton, we don't have the prettiest facilities and things like that, but what we do have is we have a tradition. And again, we have a toughness level and it doesn't start ‑‑ it starts way before these guys here. But these guys now can carry that on very proudly.
MODERATOR: Thank you, Rob.
COACH SENDEROFF: Thank you, guys, appreciate it.
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