JOE DOOLEY: First thing I would like to do is congratulate Coach Williams and North Carolina on a terrific effort. I thought the start of the second half obviously dictated the result. Really proud of our guys. I thought we played as hard as we could. We had a bone-headed start to the second half but I thought our effort was tremendous and I am really proud of our guys. Looking at some things I think Carolina, looking down the road, they will contend for a national title; they're so good.
I am proud of our guys effort and complement Caroline on their effort.
Q. Joe, philosophically, how proud are you of what everything you guys have been working for displayed itself in the first half, all of the classic fundamental pure basketball stuff working very well?
JOE DOOLEY: I thought the guys -- we played hard. I had no problem. We have no problem with our effort, and guys competed. Played as hard as they could. Lost to a better team and that's, you know, we can analyze and study, but, you know, they're terrific and our guys played as hard as we could. We just got worn down.
Q. Joe, if you would briefly comment on the season overall, and then, you know, what -- you guys grew a lot this season and then, again, you said coming into this, this will be a great experience to build on for the future. And just how do you feel about this tonight and how do you feel about starting next season?
JOE DOOLEY: I feel bad about tonight. You don't want the season to end. It's always miserable when the season ends. You take a week or so and look around. We got a lot of young guys, hopefully this is a learning experience for them. See what it takes. You can't play one way for a little bit and all of a sudden do it now. Part of it -- not part of it, most of it is a tribute to Carolina. When you come out and try to explain to these guys he is 6'11", he is 6'11". It's not a media guide misprint.
Carolina does a great job of wearing at you. They had four great posts. They had depth on the perimeter. Hopefully the young guys understand, you got to get stronger, you got to get bigger, hope to learn going into next season.
Q. Joe, from your remarks, and from Marc-Eddy and Christian earlier, it sounds like you feel like the game got away from you in the second half. It's not very common that a 16 seed gets to say that against a 1.
JOE DOOLEY: I'm sure Coach Williams challenged them at halftime. We had 14 turnovers. It wasn't just the turnovers. Some is shot selection. It's like live-ball turnovers. We ran in there on first sides instead of getting the ball to the third side, getting the ball in reverse, we came down and went early, and that's when the game really got way. That's when we stopped running offense. We scored and we tried to score quicker than they scored. That put us in harm's way. You can't give them transition. When you shot bad shots and they block it. Next thing you know it's a three-point play the other way. Some of those shots weren't turnovers but they should've been.
Q. Joe, could you comment on Christian. Tre gave you a big lift tonight.
JOE DOOLEY: Tre played well throughout the year. He's been a real factor. Unfortunately he put himself in harm's way with cheap fouls. He fouled on a rotational deal when he shouldn't have fouled, and then he hip-checked the kid on a ball screen, which wasn't part of the play. We have to get him to where he can play 25 minutes at an effective rate.
He's gotten good at the post. Scoring more effective. His field-goal percentage has gotten up and he's a sophomore. Hopefully there can be a sophomore to his junior year just like Christian.
Q. Can you comment on Christian and Marc-Eddy?
JOE DOOLEY: I thought once Marc-Eddy figured out how tall Carolina was and played facing them a little bit more. I thought he was a little bit effective. He had a couple open shots he couldn't make. For the most part I thought he played well. Christian was aggressive. For the most part found guys open. That's why he had a career-high in assists.
Q. You guys touched on my question about Christian. You mentioned his career-high and assists. His season assist-turnover ratio was 1.5-1 but today 7-1. What do you attribute that to him seeing? And then also, what would you like for him to work on for next year?
JOE DOOLEY: He's got very good vision. I think he has a tendency to dribble one too many times. I think he'll improve at that next year. He'll see something, he'll take one more to try to get a little closer. If Christian can put on 15 pounds of muscle. There's no telling how much further he can take his game. I think it would help a lot of things. First of all, I think it would help his confidence. It will help him not get worn down. He's 175 soaking wet. I think if he can does those things, he can make another jump. If you look at the jump he made in his freshman and sophomore year, he made a job and I hope he does.
Q. Speaking of next year you have two guys on red shirt this year who become eligible. You have three freshmen that we know of coming in. That's the first time you'll have 13 guys on paper starting. Can you talk about the prospect of having the experience and that array of bodies, all of the style that you like and what that could mean for this, you know, this program?
JOE DOOLEY: Hopefully this will be a learning deal for our program, our guys, create competition in practice. I imagine, you can see one of the reasons North Carolina is so good, because when you got those type of guys in practice every day and you're competing against them every day, you've got two ways to go: Either you compete and get better or you get left behind. I think it's a great lesson to learn. If you want to be a competitor, you have to go every day in practice and play against the guy in front of you, take his spot or let him take yours.
Our guys will hopefully learn that. We got enough depth going through the year that it will be very competitive.
Q. You talked about Tre developing in the post especially the latter half of the season, between him, between Johnson, between Terrell. Is there any one player that you think improved the most from the start of the season until today?
JOE DOOLEY: I would have to say Zach. Here's a young man -- Tre got to practice. Here's a young man a year ago that was not able -- everybody said he redshirted. He shot free throws. He couldn't practice, couldn't shoot, couldn't do anything with movement involved. You put the ball in his hands and say, make good decisions and get the other four guys involved. You're a freshman and you haven't played in a year.
You look at December on, his assist-turnover ratio, the way he scored. Obviously he saved us in several games. He'll make a big jump from this year to next year because he's seen it all now. We're excited to have him, very excited.
Q. Should people expect to see FGCU in the Tournament next year, maybe as a better seed?
JOE DOOLEY: You know what, we'll line up tomorrow and figure out tomorrow. We'll line up next year and try as hard out again. Like I tell you guys, it's hard to get here. There's teams throughout the country -- there's good teams; there's 68 of us. We'll line up again next year and try as hard as we can.
I am proud of our guys effort and complement Caroline on their effort.
Q. Joe, philosophically, how proud are you of what everything you guys have been working for displayed itself in the first half, all of the classic fundamental pure basketball stuff working very well?
JOE DOOLEY: I thought the guys -- we played hard. I had no problem. We have no problem with our effort, and guys competed. Played as hard as they could. Lost to a better team and that's, you know, we can analyze and study, but, you know, they're terrific and our guys played as hard as we could. We just got worn down.
Q. Joe, if you would briefly comment on the season overall, and then, you know, what -- you guys grew a lot this season and then, again, you said coming into this, this will be a great experience to build on for the future. And just how do you feel about this tonight and how do you feel about starting next season?
JOE DOOLEY: I feel bad about tonight. You don't want the season to end. It's always miserable when the season ends. You take a week or so and look around. We got a lot of young guys, hopefully this is a learning experience for them. See what it takes. You can't play one way for a little bit and all of a sudden do it now. Part of it -- not part of it, most of it is a tribute to Carolina. When you come out and try to explain to these guys he is 6'11", he is 6'11". It's not a media guide misprint.
Carolina does a great job of wearing at you. They had four great posts. They had depth on the perimeter. Hopefully the young guys understand, you got to get stronger, you got to get bigger, hope to learn going into next season.
Q. Joe, from your remarks, and from Marc-Eddy and Christian earlier, it sounds like you feel like the game got away from you in the second half. It's not very common that a 16 seed gets to say that against a 1.
JOE DOOLEY: I'm sure Coach Williams challenged them at halftime. We had 14 turnovers. It wasn't just the turnovers. Some is shot selection. It's like live-ball turnovers. We ran in there on first sides instead of getting the ball to the third side, getting the ball in reverse, we came down and went early, and that's when the game really got way. That's when we stopped running offense. We scored and we tried to score quicker than they scored. That put us in harm's way. You can't give them transition. When you shot bad shots and they block it. Next thing you know it's a three-point play the other way. Some of those shots weren't turnovers but they should've been.
Q. Joe, could you comment on Christian. Tre gave you a big lift tonight.
JOE DOOLEY: Tre played well throughout the year. He's been a real factor. Unfortunately he put himself in harm's way with cheap fouls. He fouled on a rotational deal when he shouldn't have fouled, and then he hip-checked the kid on a ball screen, which wasn't part of the play. We have to get him to where he can play 25 minutes at an effective rate.
He's gotten good at the post. Scoring more effective. His field-goal percentage has gotten up and he's a sophomore. Hopefully there can be a sophomore to his junior year just like Christian.
Q. Can you comment on Christian and Marc-Eddy?
JOE DOOLEY: I thought once Marc-Eddy figured out how tall Carolina was and played facing them a little bit more. I thought he was a little bit effective. He had a couple open shots he couldn't make. For the most part I thought he played well. Christian was aggressive. For the most part found guys open. That's why he had a career-high in assists.
Q. You guys touched on my question about Christian. You mentioned his career-high and assists. His season assist-turnover ratio was 1.5-1 but today 7-1. What do you attribute that to him seeing? And then also, what would you like for him to work on for next year?
JOE DOOLEY: He's got very good vision. I think he has a tendency to dribble one too many times. I think he'll improve at that next year. He'll see something, he'll take one more to try to get a little closer. If Christian can put on 15 pounds of muscle. There's no telling how much further he can take his game. I think it would help a lot of things. First of all, I think it would help his confidence. It will help him not get worn down. He's 175 soaking wet. I think if he can does those things, he can make another jump. If you look at the jump he made in his freshman and sophomore year, he made a job and I hope he does.
Q. Speaking of next year you have two guys on red shirt this year who become eligible. You have three freshmen that we know of coming in. That's the first time you'll have 13 guys on paper starting. Can you talk about the prospect of having the experience and that array of bodies, all of the style that you like and what that could mean for this, you know, this program?
JOE DOOLEY: Hopefully this will be a learning deal for our program, our guys, create competition in practice. I imagine, you can see one of the reasons North Carolina is so good, because when you got those type of guys in practice every day and you're competing against them every day, you've got two ways to go: Either you compete and get better or you get left behind. I think it's a great lesson to learn. If you want to be a competitor, you have to go every day in practice and play against the guy in front of you, take his spot or let him take yours.
Our guys will hopefully learn that. We got enough depth going through the year that it will be very competitive.
Q. You talked about Tre developing in the post especially the latter half of the season, between him, between Johnson, between Terrell. Is there any one player that you think improved the most from the start of the season until today?
JOE DOOLEY: I would have to say Zach. Here's a young man -- Tre got to practice. Here's a young man a year ago that was not able -- everybody said he redshirted. He shot free throws. He couldn't practice, couldn't shoot, couldn't do anything with movement involved. You put the ball in his hands and say, make good decisions and get the other four guys involved. You're a freshman and you haven't played in a year.
You look at December on, his assist-turnover ratio, the way he scored. Obviously he saved us in several games. He'll make a big jump from this year to next year because he's seen it all now. We're excited to have him, very excited.
Q. Should people expect to see FGCU in the Tournament next year, maybe as a better seed?
JOE DOOLEY: You know what, we'll line up tomorrow and figure out tomorrow. We'll line up next year and try as hard out again. Like I tell you guys, it's hard to get here. There's teams throughout the country -- there's good teams; there's 68 of us. We'll line up again next year and try as hard as we can.
