What Portland’s coach said after stunning Gonzaga

Shantay Legans explained what it took to beat Gonzaga after his team’s historic win

Portland Pilots head coach Shantay Legans. | James Snook-Imagn Images

Portland head coach Shantay Legans tore his Achilles tendon recently while participating in one of his team's practices due to the Pilots not having enough players available to go through their normal drills and scout team preparation.

Ironically, Portland had everything it needed to pull off one of college basketball's biggest upsets of the season Wednesday night: an 87-80 triumph over West Coast Conference kingpin Gonzaga, marking the Pilots' first win over an Associated Press top 10 team in school history.

Here's what Legans had to say about his team's effort, Joel Foxwell's 27-point performance, what it took to pull off the upset and more after the game.

On what it took from the program to beat Gonzaga

"We just had one of our worst weeks in basketball against Washington State and Pacific, and we haven't been really good on the road and we've been inconsistent. I knew our guys would step up in this game. I thought they played hard. I knew if we could slow down Graham, we'd have a good shot at it, and we tried to take out some of the shooters."

'They're probably the best team we played all year long. Everything has to happen right in a game like that. They have to miss some key shots and some key free throws, and our guys play with a lot of confidence, and kept their cool and kept their composure. And I think it helped play at home."

On what it required offensively to beat the Zags

"Joel was good tonight, but other guys made plays. I think we got into their ball screen defense a little bit, and we kind of spread them out. And then once they started missing shots, I think they got a little tight. But we ran our offense pretty well. I know that we always try to do something differently against them, just to compete and stay in the game. I think our guys really paid attention and focused on the defensive end, which I was really proud of."

On what it personally meant to beat Gonzaga, having coached at Eastern Washington and Portland

"It means a lot. You're coaching against one of the best coaches ever to coach college basketball, one of the best programs over the last 20 years in college basketball. You get a win like that, you're really happy for your program, you're happy for the university, but you're really happy for the players that really put all the work in."