Talk of the Sound Journey to Dayton to Cover Iona at the NCAA Tournament #MarchMadness #Iona

After a dominating first 16 minutes of the game which saw Iona go up by as much as 25 points, BYU came all the way back to defeat the Gaels by 6, 78-72. It was a heartbreaking loss by the time that could no wrong in the first half and could do little right in the second. What follow is my liveblogging of my trip to Dayton (and back) to cover the Gaels first ever at-large appearance in the NCAA Tournament. I was posting photos and notes throughout and linked to other articles that contain flickr photo slideshows so click the links as you read along.

A big thanks to Brian Beyrer at Iona and the folks at the NCAA for credentialing Talk of the Sound to cover the tournament.

Liveblogging my journey to Dayton to cover the NCAA Tournament in Dayton, OH and the opening game between the Iona Gaels and the BYU Cougars.

4:30 a.m. – alarm went off as scheduled. Ugh! Why am I doing this again?

4:51 a.m. – getting in the car, driving to LaGuardia. Dark. Cold. Anxious to get on the plane. Excited to be going.

5:23 a.m. – at LaGuardia, huge line at security. Flight at 6:00 a.m. Line moving slowly.

5:50 a.m. – boarded plane, got my seat and hoping to sleep the entire way to my next stop, Chicago.

8:15 a.m. – slept most of the way, just touched down at Midway Airport in Chicago where it is actually 7:15 a.m. The sun is up and I need coffee!

8:38 a.m – found coffee at the terminal, about a 90 minute layover here in the windy city where it is sunny and 50 already.

8:47 a.m. – settled in with my coffee, reviewing email. The folks handling media relations just sent a heads up on the extra security (read “delays and complications”) for President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron who will be attending tonight’s game in Dayton.

Presidential Visit
WITH INCREASED SECURITY ON TUESDAY AT UD ARENA, PLEASE ALLOW FOR PLENTY OF TIME TO GO THROUGH SECURITY AT THE GATE. GATES OPEN TO THE MEDIA AT 4 P.M. ON TUESDAY.

No deliveries will be accepted after 12 p.m. on Tuesday (no exceptions). All media guides/game notes need to be in the building by noon or it will not be permitted. Especially for those teams who play Tuesday night, please try to overnight materials to get to UD Arena Monday or Tuesday morning, or bring boxes to UD Arena before noon Tuesday.

Credential distribution on Tuesday will not begin until 4:30 p.m. at UD Arena. We recommend your media arrive a little earlier due to higher security.

Any equipment larger than a briefcase (radio equipment, video equipment, etc.) needs to be dropped off in the custody of the Secret Service at UD Arena before noon Tuesday – otherwise it will not be permitted during the Tuesday games. Media can drop off equipment from 9 a.m. – 11:55 a.m. Tuesday at the credential entrance located at the Donoher Center of UD Arena.

10:07 a.m. – on runway at Midway in Chicago, weather hold in Indy has us stuck on Tarmac for now.

10:54 a.m. – weather cleared up, took off, back on NY time in Indianapolis, second time in a month (also Super Bowl XLVI).

11:41 a.m. – got my rental car and heading east on I-70 towards Columbus, going past downtown Indy, past Lucas Oil Field where Giants won the Super Bowl!

11:59 a.m. – Dayton is about 100 miles. Stopped for more coffee near Indiana-Ohio border.

1:31 p.m. – made it to Dayton, the Marriott is directly across from the University of Dayton Arena so no worries about how to find the place.

2:02 p.m. – settled in at hotel, set up computer on Wifi, uploading pix from the trip.

2:10 – NCAA providing free WiFi to the media. Free WiFi is always good!

The NCAA is providing wireless internet access free of charge to visiting Media. Please see below for your pre-assigned wireless username and password. If you have any questions, please contact the NCAA Communications Center.

2:39 p.m. – Iona team is over at Wright State University’s basketball facility, Nutter Center, finishing up a shoot around, closed practice. Team will wrap up and then have a team meal.

3:03 p.m. – I finally have a little breather before heading over to the University of Dayton Arena across the street. Normally it would be open and the practices would be there (as will be the case tomorrow) but the Secret Service always locks down buildings before the President comes. For those who don’t know, I managed blogger media credentials for two presidential debates during the 2008 election cycle (one Dem, one GOP) plus another set of events with 3 candidates (McCain, Clinton, Obama) so I know the drill with the Secret Service preparations.

So, I am on hold until 4:00 p.m. but below is the schedule the NCAA gave media for the rest of the day. I have already marked down “Media buffet” on my list of things to do 🙂

Events held at the UD Arena

4 p.m. Work areas and courtside open to media
4 p.m. Media buffet (located at the Flight Deck – entrance on concourse located at section 110)
4:30 p.m. Facility doors open to public
5:30 p.m. Floor open for first game participants
6:30 p.m. Western Kentucky vs. Mississippi Valley State
9 p.m. Iona vs. BYU

Postgame News Conferences

Postgame news conferences will be conducted immediately after a cooling-off period in the interview room, with the winning team appearing first.

3:39 p.m. – heading across the street to the Arena now.

5:36 p.m. – I wrote a post with a Flickr slideshow of the fun of getting through Secret Service security and into the Dayton Arena: Security and Set Up at NCAA First Four Event in Dayton, OH (photos)

5:37 p.m. – off to the media buffet.

6:28 a.m. – almost game time, as expected the media “buffet” was a few sandwiches and fruit salad. And some lady yelled at me for looking down from the front of the club.

NCAA Immediate Pre-Game for MV State & Western Kentucky (photos)

6:30 p.m. – Obama just walked in with David Cameron.

Obama Arrives at NCAA First Four Game in Dayton (photos)

7:02 p.m. – Obama pulls out some cash, offers to buy drinks for everyone sitting around him.

7:56 p.m. – Half-time is over, these two teams are not scoring a lot. MVU 23 WKU 19. Iona will score more than 42 points by themselves at halftime. Obama and Cameron left at the break but came back and Clark Kellogg interviewed Obama and Cameron a few feet away. Ohio Governor John Kasich is here too; just noticed him. The refs delayed the start of the half because Obama was taking pictures with the students sitting near him, a little bedlam as students tried to angle to get in the shot, lots of hands on Obama and lots of nervous Secret Service watching closely. Now, back to the game.

8.05 p.m. – OK, I am officially bored of Obama being here. I have taken about 100 photos of him. The action is a heck of a lot better than on the floor right now. I just realized, looking at one of the stat sheets they gave us, that Western Kentucky’s record is 15-18! That’s amazing. How did they ever get in this tournament? They lose 18 games and get a bid to the NCAA?

9:02 p.m. – well go figure. Some how Western Kentucky won 59-58 after begin down by 15 late.

9:04 p.m. – Obama heading out, taking photos with students.

9:20 p.m. – Iona and BYU out on the court for pre-game warm up. Iona President Nyre is here.

9:44 p.m. – Tip off. Gaels get off to a good run. Up 15-10 with 15:18 to go in the first half. I am not going to get way down deep into play-by-play since you can watch it on TV.

Iona Gaels Take on the BYU Cougars in the NCAA First Four (photos)

10:00 p.m. – Gaels go up 22-10 with 13:56 to go in the first half.

10:14 p.m. – Is the rest of the country seeing what we are seeing here? 8:30 left in 1st and they are up 16. Wow! They look great. Doing everything right.

18:18 p.m. – Gaels putting on a show for national TV audience. At 7:08 to go Machado hits a three to go up 22 points, 44-22.

10:30 p.m. – I am being told that Clark Kellogg or Steve Kerr said that Iona is like the Miami Heat. Nice! They are up 55-32 with 3:48 to go in the first. TV time out.

10:41 p.m. – Halftime. BYU closes out the half with an 8-0 run to close a 55-32 Iona lead to 55-40 as the clock runs out.

11:09 p.m. – Iona dips but comes back and builds 18 point lead with 15:05 to go in the game, now 62-44. There is certainly a smaller crowd here tonight and the folks who are here are mostly routing for BYU.

11:16 p.m. – Argh! BYU just ran off 8 straight points to close that 18 point lead to 10 with 12:44 to go in the game. Iona has never won an NCAA game. They are 0-7 (wins in the Ruland era were wiped out due to violations). This would be their first win and they are letting BYU back in the game.

11:21 p.m. – Double Argh!! 62-52 and the momentum is now all BYU. The payers look annoyed. Momo Jones nodding his head towards the pocket of Iona fans in the crowd behind the media table as if to say “I know, I know”.

11:20 p.m. – Panic time. Lead cut to 1. 8 minutes to go.

11:36 p.m. – BYU closes it to 1 but Iona goes back up by 3 and now has the ball. 76-64 5:24 to go.

11:38 p.m. – Machado drives, scores, fouled, converts and Iona is back up 70-64 with 5:05 left.

11:43 p.m. – BYU closes to within two. Randy Dezouver (23) looks despondent for Iona. Cluess rallies the troops one more time. BYU is getting a lot of open looks and converted pretty much every time. The speed for Iona has dissipated, like they are not playing their game.

11:48 p.m. – Glover misses and easy shot from inside the paint and BYU knocks down a three and the lead Iona has enjoyed all night is gone. 70-71 with 2:11 left and Cluess calls timeout.

11:52 p.m. – Glover fouls out with 45 seconds left. 70-71. Free throw BYU makes it 70-72. Another 70-73. Iona misses. BYU takes the rebound all the way down the court and scores. Armand fouls. Now 76-70. Iona scored 72-76 with 14.7 seconds. Not good. Time out.

11:55 p.m. – After doing nothing wrong in the first half the Gaels have done little right in the second. After scoring 55 points in the first half they have scored just 17 in the second.

11:59 p.m. – Well the clock ran out on the idea of Iona College making a run in the NCAA. Iona loses 72-78. A very discouraged Iona team leaves the court. So ends March Madness for the Gaels. As I type this, the clock has struck midnight.

Iona Gaels Lose 25 Point Lead, Lose by 6 as BYU Makes Largest Comeback in NCAA Tournament History (photos)

12:08 a.m. – press conference with Scott Machado, Mike Glover and Tim Cluess

The NCAA media folks provided a complete transcript.

IONA QUOTES
THE MODERATOR: Joining us now are student athletes Mike Glover and Scott Machado of Iona, as well as head coach Tim Cluess.
Coach, an opening statement.
COACH CLUESS: I give BYU all the credit for the comeback they made. They made shots, they made plays. We had opportunities, but I think we were 1 for 15 on 3s in the second half. You’re not going to beat anyone that way.
We’ve had a couple of these losses this year like that and it really stems from the fact that when we don’t make shots, we’re not the same type of team. We’re a small team. They went inside, did a great job of getting it inside and kicking it back out and making plays.
So I give them a lot of credit. We weren’t good enough in the second half to withstand that comeback. I think giving up 10 of the points in the first half in the last four months when Mike got in foul trouble gave them confidence going into the halftime, and we had a couple of chances when we had it like 12 or 14 in the second half to extend it, and we missed, I can’t tell you, countless layups and foul shots in crucial times and wide open, wide open looks.
You can’t do that and win, so congratulations to them and thank you guys for hosting such a great tournament. Wish we would have put on a better second half performance.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student athletes.

Q. Scott, you guys scored 55 points in the first 16 minutes. They get more aggressive with that zone. Can you talk about how that zone disrupted your team offensively?
SCOTT MACHADO: I feel they were pressuring more in the zone. It wasn’t just like a steady zone, just sitting in the zone. They were pressuring the ball. They were making it hard to get in the lane and make passes into the interior.
And I take full blame for driving in the lane and not being able to get the ball to my man, to my teammates, and, I mean, I had five turnovers and one assist in the second half. And I feel like I could have did a better job at that.

Q. Scott, everything was working so great in the first half. Can you describe what you guys were feeling when it seemed like nothing was working for you guys at all in the second half?
SCOTT MACHADO: Coach hit it right on the money. When we’re not making shots, it’s kind of hard to be able to press like we were in the first half. It’s hard for us to get stops at that end because we’re so small. I think the number was 34, or 24, the one that was hitting all the shots.
He was just shooting right over us. And his length was just I mean, it was hard to guard. And when we’re not making shots, we can’t press him. We couldn’t do what we did in the first half. So it messed up our whole game plan.

Q. Scott, can you just describe what it’s like to go through that sort of dramatic shift from 55 points those first 16 minutes and then you go through that tough stretch where I think it’s like 10 points over the next 16 minutes? Just talk about that shift and just what that’s like.
SCOTT MACHADO: It sucks. It sucks. I feel like when there’s games like this and we’re trying to win a game like this, I feel like we all have to make the little things happen.
If we’re missing layups and wide open shots, there’s nothing we can do about that. We have to make those go down. And if we’re not making them go down, we can’t have the second half that we had, what we had in the first half.

Q. Mike and Scott, you had a couple of these earlier in the year and had some that got away, did you guys feel that you had moved beyond something like this? Did you feel like you had turned a corner in February where you were beyond blowing leads of this ilk?
SCOTT MACHADO: Yeah, I did feel like we did come over that and we haven’t had that happen in a while. I think we kind of forgot how that was. And we just let this one slip right by us. That’s it.

Q. Scott and Mike, can you talk about how you’re feeling now now that your careers are over, and at some point will you look back and think you enjoyed this experience, but what are you feeling like right now?
SCOTT MACHADO: Well, for me, when I first got to this program, it wasn’t a winning program. And we built this program up from a 0 something season, and then we built it all the way up to a winning program.
And I was here at the start of that, and with all the coaches that came through and all the players that they brought into the program helped build that as well. And I just seen the program change and all the love around the school and all the community and everybody just coming back to the school and showing a lot of support for the school, which is an excellent thing.
And I feel like I mean, we accomplished something, but at the end of the day we lost a big game that we should have won.
MIKE GLOVER: I would just like to thank Coach Cluess for giving me the opportunity to even play for the team this year, for Iona College. Me going out as a senior like this is pretty disappointing.
I’m just fortunate to play with guys like Scott and MoMo, and this year we’ve had history to share as far as bringing the team back to the NCAA since I think 2006.
So I’m appreciative and just fortunate to just be blessed with the talent that I have on this basketball team.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach.

Q. Coach, I know you guys like to play fast, keep the ball moving. It seemed as when they went into the zone you guys were shooting quickly, not getting a lot of ball reversal. Was that a big problem for you?
COACH CLUESS: Absolutely. I think we were holding on to the ball too long. I think their length stretched us out a little bit more than we like to be stretched out. We were starting our offense a few steps over half court. I think they did a good job of that. And we weren’t making the extra pass.
Part of it was like our guards didn’t drive the gaps to kick. They stood out there and just made passes. And even when we threw the ball into a gap, we didn’t reverse the ball quick enough. We just seemed to eat the ball for a second or two, and that allowed them to recover.
And they do a great job of recovering with their length and size and moving really well. And I think we should have been better with the basketball, as far as movement goes.

Q. Was there a point when you get to a timeout there where it was really starting to get tense with the guys, and what did you try and do, if so, to try to turn it around?
COACH CLUESS: We just tried to talk to them about being in the situation before and making plays and just trying to still trust each other and not trying to do things you can’t do, but to get more movement going again and to move the ball better than we had and to also defend better.
Our pressure hurt them in the first half. Second half we didn’t have that many opportunities to get into it because we didn’t score the ball. But when we did, we weren’t as aggressive with it and we just kind of allowed them to get into their half court sets.
And, again, a lot of their success came with big size that could just make plays over us. And when we’re not making shots and they’re starting to get a comfort zone, that’s a big part of the run of that start because they’re feeling good about themselves.
We got good looks, we got layups and foul shots and open 3s and open pull ups, and it felt like there was a lid on for all of our guys. It’s a point where these guys have won games for us, we tried them, and I have my trust in that, I can’t go away from that trust because they’ve done it all year long, outside of a game here, game there where we’ve had bad shooting games.
We know we’re built right now to have to make jump shots. So when that’s not occurring for us, we know we’re in a lot of trouble. Mike Glover, 6’5″, 6’6″, plays his tail off, gives us everything he can. He’s very much undersized. You saw when he got swallowed up inside with BYU’s size, and we don’t have the next guy to go to yet in our program. That’s an area where we need to address in our recruiting areas.

Q. Did you play fast enough early to neutralize the height and was that part of the strategy coming in?
COACH CLUESS: I thought we did a good job in the first half doing that. We actually made them I think put two point guards in together at a time and only have one big in.
But when Mike got his second foul about four and a half, five minutes to go, somewhere around that, in the first half, the whole momentum of the game swung right there.
The guys who went in for him, they were getting second shots, we weren’t controlling the boards. Early on we did a nice job on the boards and not getting beat there where it hurt us. That started to turn. And some of those shots we had that could have kept it a 20 point game going into the locker room, which is a whole different mentality, the same guys who were making them earlier in the half just, unfortunately, missed it that time. It’s a game of streaks.
We knew or I knew they were going to get better than the way they were playing in the first half. Obviously we didn’t think we would fall off that much.

Q. I’m curious, did you there’s nothing obviously you can do about the height, but did you see in your guys the same tendency sometimes to perhaps not pass it as much, to not move it as quickly, to try to do a little bit too much individually that you saw in Fairfield, that you saw
COACH CLUESS: In the second half? I saw the decision. I’m not going to say it was a conscious effort not to do it. I just think some of the decisions we made were not great decisions. And I think all of our guys gave everything they had. We didn’t make great decisions in execution or delivery of the basketball.
And that comes with young men. There’s times that every coach has to deal with this maybe not to this magnitude. And that’s our job is to try to get us better at it and obviously I didn’t do my job well enough.

Q. Coach, are you aware that this is the largest comeback in NCAA Tournament history, and if so does that make it more difficult to maybe put it behind you knowing it’s a part of history now?
COACH CLUESS: You know what, I said that in the locker room not knowing that, because I just imagined it probably was.
And it’s going to be one that we have to live with the rest of our lives that we had an opportunity here to win in advance. And, again, you’re looking for answers out there, looking for guys to make a play and had we been able to make one or two, even late in the game when it was a game again, we have a layup point blank by one of our better players, he comes up short. We have two foul shots by him he misses both. You go down to the other end their good player is drilling it with guys in his face and draped all over him and knocking him down. And big time players have to make big time plays.
And we’re going to have to live with this one because it’s a tough one we let get away. No excuses. I’m taking all of it.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports

POSTGAME NOTES
General
• Brigham Young University defeated Iona College, 78-72, in the second game of the 74th NCAA Men’s Basketball Division I Championship. The Cougars held the nation’s leader in points-per-game to 17 second-half points to overcome a 25-point deficit.
• BYU’s 25-point comeback is the largest deficit overcome in NCAA Championship history. The previous record was held by Duke in the 2001 National Semifinals against Maryland (4/1/2001) in Minneapolis, Minn. The Blue Devils won 95-84 en route to their third National title.
• BYU advances to the Second Round in the West Region and will play No. 3 seed Marquette on Thursday in Louisville, Ky.
• Both games of the First Four on Tuesday featured double-digit comeback victories. In the first, Western Kentucky overcame a 16-point deficit to defeat Mississippi Valley State, 59-58. BYU recovered from a 25-point deficit to defeat Iona, 78-72.
• The West Coast Conference is now 77-100 in 97 appearcnes in the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference is 15-41 through 39 appearances.
• Tuesday was the first meeting between Iona and BYU.
• It was the 89th NCAA Championship game hosted by University of Dayton Arena, spanning 33 years (1970-2012). The home of the Dayton Flyers became the most-used site in tournament history last year while hosting the First Four. UD Arena passed Kansas City’s Municipal Auditorium which hosted 83 games from 1940-1964.
• Attendance for the first two games of the First Four was 8,510.

Iona College (25-8)
• Iona College made its first ever at-large appearance and ninth overall appearance in the NCAA Championship this season. It was the Gaels first tournament berth since 2006 and their first under head coach Tim Cluess. Cluess has 148-43 record after six seasons at Iona.
• Iona is 0-8 in the NCAA tournament with its last appearance ending in an 80-64 loss to LSU (2006).
• The Gaels earned their seventh MAAC regular season title with a 15-3 conference record.
• The Gaels hit seven of their first 10 field goals in the first 4:42 of action.
• Iona went on a three-minute 15-0 run to build a 28-10 lead with 12:14 left in the first half.
• Iona shot 58.5 (24-41) percent from the floor in the first half. Their 55 first half points was their third-highest first half total and highest since they posted 56 in the first 20 minutes against Marist in a 100-76 win on January 8.
• The Gaels went 0-6 from the floor in the last 4:44 of the first half.
• Jermel Jenkins’ 3-point jumper at the 8:05 mark in the second half snapped a 9:15 scoring drought by the Gaels.
• The Gaels scored a season-low 17 points and hit a season-low 24.1 percent (7-of-29) from the field in the second period.
• Scott Machado led the Gaels with 15 points on 6-of-9 from the field. Mike Glover added 12 points on 6-of-12 from the field while Sean Armand posted 10 points on 4-of-8 from the floor.

12:17 a.m. – caught the tail end of the BYU press conference but did not feel like listening to the whole thing.

BYU QUOTES
THE MODERATOR: Right now we’re joined by BYU student athletes Brock Zylstra and Noah Hartsock as well as head coach of BYU Dave Rose.
Coach, an opening statement.
COACH ROSE: What an exciting game. I thought that the first 15 minutes of that game was really fast paced and Iona was really good. It was hard for us to even catch them. They’re good in transition. They were really active defensively. We turned the ball over. They were good after we made baskets. They raced it back on us and scored.
We had to make some real adjustments defensively in those first 15 minutes and it didn’t pay off until later. We started sending three back to try to slow down their break. But those guards are really good. They’re fast. They’re talented as far as their ability to drive the ball, score the ball, dish the ball, shoot the ball.
So it was tough. It was tough for us early. And the start of the second half, kind of the same way, where we turned it over. But our guys fought. We fought hard. We fought all game long.
And we got a big win. And I’m really happy for our players.

Q. Noah, this was the largest comeback in NCAA Tournament history. Can you just talk about how it feels to be a part of that?
NOAH HARTSOCK: You know, it’s part of that March Madness I think and it’s a team that’s worked hard all year. Never given up on anyone. And we just came out here and we got down early but we’re just trying to make adjustments.
Coaching staff did a great job helping us, and players got out there, competed and played as hard as they could.

Q. Did you notice a difference when you became more aggressive with that zone? Can you just talk about how that disrupted them offensively?
NOAH HARTSOCK: When we got out there, we played a lot of zone this year. I think we felt very comfortable in it. We were just trying to be active. We started getting our hands on loose balls and tipping it. We just started getting that momentum and confidence. That’s what helped us make those runs. And we were just being really aggressive as a team.
And when we get in that mode, we become a team that’s hard to stop.

Q. Brock, Scott Machado had nine assists in the first half and you held him to one in just the second half. And you were talking about adjustments. What kind of adjustments did you make on the team and him in particular?
BROCK ZYLSTRA: I didn’t know that stat. But that’s it’s amazing. He’s a great player. We knew that coming into the game, that he can score as well as pass the ball. He gets people open right under the basket in position to score.
I think, like Noah was talking about, that we just were more aggressive. We were doing to them what they were doing to us in the first half, getting hands on balls and trying to just knock things away and just being more aggressive.
So I think that contributed to that quite a bit with his one assist. But just aggressive aggression on the defensive end in the second half is what helped that.

Q. Noah, any part of you wondering if maybe President Obama should have stuck around and seen you guys made history, were you thinking that after the game?
NOAH HARTSOCK: I started looking around and didn’t see him. But I’m sure he had some important things to take care of.
But it was just great just being here at the game and just grateful that we could man together and get a win.

Q. Noah, how much did that little run you make right before halftime play into the confidence that you guys had at halftime? And then can you kind of share with us what was said in the locker room at halftime by the coaches?
NOAH HARTSOCK: Yeah, I think that gave us a lot of confidence, making a little run there, and we talked about it at halftime, Coach Rose, talking about how that 15 point lead wasn’t safe, either we were up 15 or they were up 15, that the style of the game that was being played, that a comeback could happen.
We just focused on chipping it down, trying to get it 12, and trying to get it at 10 at the 12 minute mark and get it to six points. And we just kept doing that little by little going on runs. And it really helped with our confidence and the momentum swing.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach.

Q. Dave, you were in this position against Gonzaga about a week ago and couldn’t come close to even getting a rally like that, what was the difference tonight with the guys?
COACH ROSE: I thought the pace of the game early was really fast. And the challenge for us would be to fight through that and find a second wind where we could keep that pace the entire game. And that was what I think was a big difference for us. And one of the reasons I’m so proud of these players is it wasn’t like we just went on a 7 , 8 , 9 possession run where we just made shot after shot after shot.
We had a lot of disappointing offensive possessions that we still had to react to positively on the defensive end. And that shows some real character from the guys.
And I think that they were maybe a step slower in the second half for whatever reason, which helped us. But a huge key for us was to try to control their penetration, because when they got inside of our zone, they just kind of torched us. And I think we did a better job in the second half of not letting them in the seams of our zone.

Q. On Sunday you talked about character of this team. Seeing what they’ve done throughout the season, seeing the hardships they’ve overcome that maybe not everybody else that watches them on TV has seen, now to set a record coming from behind like this, what does that say about their character, not just your seniors or team leaders, but guys who are role players too?
COACH ROSE: Coming back from 25 points down is really satisfying now that we’ve won. At the time it wasn’t that satisfying being down 25. But I don’t think that any one of us, especially our coaching staff or our players, doubted the fact that we could chip into that lead.
If we could get and we’re going to have to be very fortunate to be able to get the lead. But when we got that thing down to I think it was 10 and then we got a steal, hit a big 3, got it to 7, and they called timeout, the look in our players’ eyes at that time was game on, we got a chance here, and we were able to finish it off.

Q. You played Damarcus Harrison way more than he’s played lately, obviously rewarded you with the 12 points. Can you just talk about your decision to play him, why you played him so much and how it paid dividends?
COACH ROSE: I think that the break, the eight or nine days without a game, really helped Damarcus in practice. We talked coming here, when we got the information that we were going to be in the NCAA Tournament and our first staff meeting, we talked about Damarcus and how well he had practiced. And I think a lot of times you get so caught up in preparing for the next game that practices are difficult, especially for young players that haven’t played the game before.
And I think that break where we weren’t preparing for another team, we were practicing. We were really worrying about ourselves, and Damarcus had a couple of really good practices early, and then the last three practices he was one of the best guys on the floor.
So I told you all along he’s a really good player and I think his confidence really grew tonight. But he stepped up in a really big time atmosphere and had a great game, and a lot of that has to do with preparation.

Q. I know last year you used a lot of zone to help protect Jimmer a lot. Is it something that you’ve continued to use a lot through this year, or was that an anomaly that you threw out there tonight?
COACH ROSE: We’ve played more zone this year than probably we’ve ever played in the six years we’ve been together as a staff. And a lot of that was we were having a hard time keeping our big guys in the game. We were in foul trouble a lot. That was a huge part of this game, the fact that there weren’t very many substitutions on our bench based on foul trouble, foul issues.
But that zone has gotten better and better for us all year long. We play so many new players, especially early in the year, and we’re trying to win and our man to man is pretty complicated with our assignments and rules, and we played that zone quite a bit early.
And with Brandon, as good as he is in the middle of that zone, as long as he is, as good as he is rebounding and challenging shots, it actually had us look more and more at playing zone and we kept winning games, and so we kept playing it.
Tonight was good, really good in the second half.

Q. How maybe extra happy were you for Brandon Davies tonight considering he wasn’t able to play in the tournament last year?
COACH ROSE: There’s a time one of the timeouts where I think Brandon took the ball from half court and dribbled it on the break and charged, and it just was not him. It’s not what he does. And I kind of brought him over at the timeout and just explained some things to him about how important it was for him to play well for us, but for himself; that he waited for such a long time and worked so hard to be in this situation, let’s at least play like you play and make the plays you make, and I think he settled down from there.
And I’m happy. I’m really happy for him. He’s been through a lot, but he’s been terrific through the whole thing.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

Brigham Young University (26-8)
• BYU is making its sixth-straight and 27th-overall appearance in the NCAA Championship. The Cougars are 15-29 all-time and 10-17 in opening round games in the tournament.
• BYU head coach Dave Rose is 3-5 in six NCAA Tournament appearances as a coach. Rose played in the NCAA Championship game for Houston’s “Phi Slamma Jamma” team that lost to NC State at the buzzer in 1983.
• Rose is 185-53 over seven seasons at the helm of the BYU program. He is the only coach in BYU history to begin his career with seven-straight 20-win seasons. He’s also the only coach to record six 25-win seasons.
• With its first round win over Iona, BYU advances for the third-straight year. Last season, the Cougars advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1981.
• BYU trailed by as many as 25 (49-24) points in the first half.
• Iona’s 55 points in the first half are the most first-half points of any BYU opponent this season. BYU’s 15-point deficit was its largest at the half this season as well.
• Brandon Davies led the Gaels with a game-high 12 points (6-of-8) and a game-high five rebounds in the first half.
• BYU used a 17-0 run (14:23-through-8:42) and held Iona scoreless for nine minutes (17:20-through-8:05) in the second half to cut the Cougar lead to one, 62-61.
• A 3-point basket by Noah Hartsock at the 2:26 mark of the second half gave BYU its first lead of the game, 71-70. The Cougars never relinquished the lead, taking the 78-72 victory.
• Iona’s 17 second-half points were the least by any BYU opponent this season. BYU outscored Iona 38-17 in the second half.
• With 18 points and 15 rebounds, Brandon Davies recorded his eighth double-double of the year. His 15 rebounds were a game-high.
• Noah Hartsock led all scorers with 23 points (10-for-14), his 12th 20-plus point game this season. Damarcus Harrison was the third Cougar in double-figures scoring with 12 points.
• Craig Cusick tied his career high in assists with eight (Weber State, 12/7/11). The eight assists are tied for the second-most assists by a Cougar in an NCAA Championship game.

12:28 a..m. – back across the parking lot from the Dayton Arena to the hotel then to be.

4:30 a.m. – double ugh! alarm went off again at 4:30 in the morning but worse I had a two hour drive back to Indiaapolis. Cold and damp this morning.

4;40 a.m. – puling out of parking lot of Dayton Marriott.

6:30 a.m. – dropped rental car at Indianapolis airport with plenty of time to spare, surprising even me. Purchased the driest, worst cranberry scone I ever had inside the main terminal and board my flight.

7:20 a.m. – taking off and falling asleep.

8:43 a.m. – arrived at BWI Airport in Baltimore, having been out cold almost the entire flight.

9:35 a.m – on my connecting flight from BWI to LaGuardia. I am aware now. Got a cup of coffee for what is supposed to be a 35 minute flight to NY.

11:11 a.m. – after a ground hold, made into LaGuardia.

11:40 a.m. – got my car and got an email that Iona College was organizing a welcome home event for the basketball team at 1:00 p.m. (later changed to 12:30 p.m.)

MEDIA ADVISORY WELCOME HOME GAELS

Who: Iona College Men’s Basketball Team
What: Gaels Welcome Home Celebration
When: Wednesday, March 14, 1:00 pm
Where: Iona College, Hynes Athletics Center

There will be a campus community “Welcome Home to the Gaels” Celebration today for our MAAC Regular Season Champions as they return from the NCAA tournament today at 1:00 pm. All media are welcome to attend.

12:15 p.m. – made it to Iona campus. Team bus still not here but the entire administration, some professors and students gather, bag pipers practice, Iona President Dr. Nyre arrives with his family.

12:35 p.m. – Iona team bus arrives and players exit. The second bus with the team cheerleaders stays back. The cheerleaders do not make an appearance at the event.

12:40 p.m. – Iona President Nyre makes a few remarks as does coach Tim Cluess. The players are quiet until the seniors are asked to come forward. Scott Machado and Mike Glover make their final remarks as members of the Iona Gaels, a team which they did so much to propel into an up-and-coming program after years in the wilderness.

12:49 p.m. – ceremony ends and the crowd disperses.

Iona Campus Welcomes Gaels Basketball Team in Melancholy Ceremony

THE END