Butler 75, Providence 69
KIM ENGLISH: Disappointing effort. Disappointing outcome, but played true to the pitiful, embarrassing season we've had. You know, that falls on me and the work to correct it begets, and we will.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. Obviously been a couple of disappointing seasons to start here at Providence. How do you get this program back to where you want it to be?
KIM ENGLISH: The work starts and identifying the personnel, the student-athletes that have the right make-up of what it takes to win at a high level at this level, and cultivating that culture, that standard every day. Yeah, that's how.
Q. As a transfer, this is what you signed up for. In retrospect, was it more difficult than you thought? As a transfer, how hard was it?
BENSLEY JOSEPH: Just, you know, adjusting to the game, and obviously the season wasn't how we pictured it to be. I don't think it was hard. You know, I had a lot of fun with my teammates off the court. Got to really bond with them.
Obviously, overall, we didn't have the season we want, so it was very unfortunate, but just continuing to watch this next year's team grow.
Q. Coach, you spoke about trying to identify the right guys and cultivate the culture and the way that you see it come together. There's obviously no certainties in college basketball.
KIM ENGLISH: No what?
Q. No certainties as far as one season to the next. How do you plan to bring guys such as Bensley in as well as developing the guys you have returning?
KIM ENGLISH: The intel we get on guys, deep dives, really looking at who they are where. We watch them at their worst and talk to their coaches and talk to everyone around them and look at their social media and really finding out who they are and cultivating that every day. It's two parts.
Q. I'm sure in Game 3 you probably didn't want to cast your rotation as wide as you did. Was it kind of a microcosm of the season trying to find that player mix today?
KIM ENGLISH: Yeah, we haven't had a rotation all season. We haven't had a rotation all season, and like the player in me, the player in me is, like, it's my job to play. It's my job for my coach to keep me on the court.
The coach in me would love to have a set rotation, but in winning basketball there are certain things that you don't deserve to play. Giving up offensive rebounds consistently, you know, playing off one foot at the rim when you don't have an angle to score, not boxing out, not guarding the ball, allowing shooters to shoot threes. Forget the rotation. You need to sit on the bench.
Again, identify the right people, players, and cultivate that and get our players up to that standard.
I have no quarrels with any of our players. We failed. We failed as a staff to get the level of shared purpose, to get the level of buy-in where you can go from film or practice to the court and do it.
We're teaching the right things. Our methods may need to change because it simply didn't get through all season. We played off one foot tonight at the rim and missed. We didn't box out tonight. We allowed shooters to shoot threes tonight, and we didn't have good low-man help on drives, early help on drives tonight.
Our guys know it, but it hasn't gone through to do it on the court. That's squarely on my shoulders, and we'll fix it.
Q. Coach, you guys out-rebounded Butler 53-29. Were you happy with the effort on the glass, and why do you think that wasn't able to translate to a win?
KIM ENGLISH: Yeah, I mean, we didn't make many shots, so it was a lot of rebounds to be had. On the flip side, it wasn't many offensive rebounds for them to have because they were making them, yeah.
Q. Kim, obviously last year in the portal you brought in guys that you felt were going to be big parts of this going forward. I wonder how similar or different that process will look this time around when you go back into the portal?
KIM ENGLISH: Yeah, player acquisition is a wide net you cast globally. We have two freshmen, Jaylen Harrell and Jamier Jones, who are coming in. We have to replace some really good players... Bensley, Wesley, Jabri.
Yeah, back to the first question, making sure that we are bringing guys in to a culture that is going to help them get better.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports