“I’m sorry and grateful to the players,” says coach Hee-Jung Joo after 31 straight wins
“I feel so sorry for the players and thankful for them.”
Korea University defeated Yonsei University 64-57 in the men’s championship game of the 40th MBC National Collegiate Basketball Championship on Saturday at Sangju Gymnasium to win its 14th title. It is the third consecutive title since 2022 and the ninth straight final since 2013. It also extended their winning streak to 31 games dating back to the 2017 tournament.
KU fell behind early in the game to Yonsei, but back-to-back three-point plays by Moon Yoo-hyun and Yoon Ki-chan at the end of the first quarter tied the game at one, and the team began to pull away in the second quarter with three-pointers. It was 47-34, a 13-point advantage at the end of the third quarter. KU faced strong resistance from Yonsei in the fourth quarter, 파워볼사이트 but maintained its lead until the end.
Below are some quotes from KU head coach Ju Hee-jung at the press conference.
On the win
Today (26th), we played the final against our eternal opponent Yonsei University, and I feel so sorry and grateful to the players. The players have always done what I told them to do, so we won back-to-back MBC titles and set a record of 31 consecutive victories. I’m so grateful to them.
Secondly, I have coaches Kim Tae-hyung and Kim Tae-hong behind me, so I can coach the players with ease. If I didn’t have these two coaches, I wonder if I could have done better. I’m very nervous about this tournament. Even though we have five players, every time we make a substitution, every player tries to understand the strengths and weaknesses and absorb them quickly to create synergy with their teammates. It’s not only the players, but our coaching staff also has a good synergy between the three of us, Kim Tae-hyung, Kim Tae-hong and myself. I want to thank the two coaches for believing in me, apologizing for my struggles, and thanking me.
The third is that we have some players who have played a little and some who haven’t played much since we came down from the MBC. The ones who didn’t play went out at night, and Kim Do-eun, Kim Min-gyu, and Lee Eun-hee played an hour and a half of road work. So I apologize for not giving them a chance. We have a tournament in Japan (2024 World University Games) starting Aug. 9. We’re going to rest the starters and play them a lot in Japan.
The last time we played our rival Yonsei, we won, but we can only take this joy until August 5. The disappointing part is that we lost the rebounding (38-42). What we did well before that was evolving our perimeter defense, but we need to work on our defense in the center. We don’t have the speed, even though we have the highest floor. That’s where we’re going to work on developing our centers into runners.
Today’s game is a spear vs. shield match because Yonsei is on the outskirts, but we are the spear. I think we’re always guarding the shield, so we’ve been preparing for it in practice and the players have learned it. I think we’ll do well even if we don’t have to shield. The window didn’t open until yesterday (the 25th), but Sim Juen broke it from the outside. She did a good job. It’s a cheeky thing to say, but we had a chance to extend our lead to 15 to 18 points, but in the middle of the game, the players got complacent and got greedy, so we couldn’t extend the lead. We’ll work on that and come out stronger on Sept. 2 (against Yonsei) and Sept. 27 (regular season).
The importance of the three-point shot (5 of 6)
He gives a lot of mental advice. In high school, he made several three-pointers in a row. Shooters are supposed to look at the rim, but he didn’t look at the rim in college, so I advised him to look at the rim first. I told him that when he shoots a moving shot from the corner, he should open his chest to the rim instead of closing his chest. Thank God he broke out today (laughs).
Who was the MVP (chosen by the winning team’s coach)?
It was Kim Tae-hoon. The coach award is Kim Tae-hong. I won (the coaching award) last year. I’m sorry and grateful to the coaches. He’s a fiery coach, and I’m a perfectionist, so it’s going to be stressful. I want to share this joy with them, and it’s only right that the coaches get the coach award.
Minsoo Yoo (10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists) and Ki-chan Yoon (6 points, 3 rebounds)
Yoo Min-soo has a short reach, so his ball control and fundamentals are poor. Min-soo did his part in the offense. Ki-chan Yoon has been playing basketball since elementary school, so his fundamentals are solid and his movement without the ball is very good for our team. We put them together to get synergy, and Lee Dong-geun has so much sense that he can play on any card. So we rotated the three of them.
Evaluating Seok Jun-hwi and Moon Yoo-hyun’s game-changing reads
Coming to the MBC boat, if Moon Yoo-hyun played 100, he only played about 50. It’s not a slump, but I think it’s growing pains because he’s trying to do too well. I think he will become a better player after this period. Seok Jun-hwi is still a freshman, but he did well from the first game of the MBC Varsity. If he continues like Yoo Hyun-i did until his second year, he won’t have growing pains and will excel.
I’m criticizing him as a guard, but I keep injecting him. Yoo Hyun-yi thinks about it more, so she misses it once in a while. I’m the coach, I’m a senior, and I’m a guard, so I want to tell him things he can’t see. I think he’s going through growing pains because he’s thinking a lot. He’s a good player, so he’ll do well enough after Japan. I’m not worried.
What to expect when Seok Jun-hwi and Moon Yoo-hyun play two guards
It’s a very fast transition, but it’s unfortunate that he didn’t play in this MBC tournament, so we used four forwards so that when Yoo Hyun-i didn’t play and Seok Jun-hwi played at one guard, Seok Jun-hwi could defend well. It’s unfortunate that Yoo Hyun-i and Jun-hwi don’t play fast tempo basketball and are a bit slow, so they have to work together.