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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2015Matt CarlinoLuke FischerSteve WojciechowskiNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Marquette - 78 THE MODERATOR: We're going to take questions for Marquette. Q. Coach, what made it so much easier for you this time against Seton Hall than previous games? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: I think our team is getting better. We haven't been healthy for the better part of the second half of the Big East season. Obviously, Matt was not with us for over three weeks. Juan Anderson has been injured. Duane Wilson's had some injuries. In the last ten days to two weeks, we've had all our guys, and I think we're improving individually, and I think we're improving collectively. Obviously, tonight that was about as well as we can play. We had everybody play well once, and that certainly helps. Q. Coach, how's Duane doing? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: Duane's really a tough guy. He'll be fine. He'll be fine. He's taken some hits over the last couple weeks between his shoulder and his face today. I expect Duane will be fine. Q. You've had a tough last couple of months or weeks losing a lot of games. How do you get your mindset? Is it a brand new game? Is it a brand new season coming into the postseason? How do you do that, Coach? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: The very first thing, I credit our guys. Even though we've had a tough season in the win/loss column, I think, if you watch the effort of our practices, watch the attitude of our guys behind the scenes, our guys have really had good attitudes. The tournament play allows you the opportunity to start fresh. Regardless of what's happened in the regular season, whether you've had a great season or whether you've had a season with some bumps in it, everybody starts 0‑0. I think that's how we approached it, and our guys were terrific today. Q. Steve, just your thoughts on the turnaround against the No. 1 seed Villanova and what challenges they present. COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: They present all sorts of challenges. I think Villanova is capable of winning a national championship. Obviously, they're extremely well coached, and they have some outstanding players. That's why you play the games. I think our guys will be ready. Our thoughts are we're happy to be alive in the Big East Tournament. Q. Luke, what was the difference down low tonight? LUKE FISCHER: In the first half, they were pretty physical. In the second half, my teammates told me to push back. So we did. I credit Steven and Juan all down low. We played pretty well tonight. That's been a trend for us the past couple games, and it's resulted in wins. Hopefully, we can keep going to that. Q. You guys practiced for the game, the one game that you're playing, or do you look ahead with the time period that you had before, knowing that they're back to back to back to back, as far as Villanova is concerned or down the road? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: You take the game in front of you. You can't do that in postseason play. Q. So now you have 15 hours? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: So now we have 15 hours, but it's going to be a darn good 15 hours. This is really survive and advance. You're only focused on the opponent at hand, and that's where our guys' mindset was completely. Q. Coach, it just seems early your zone play kind of kept them off balance. Then when their big guy, Delgado, got in foul trouble, you were able to use your size, it seems like. So you made that switch. COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: I thought we did a nice job of locating their shooters. Sterling Gibbs is one of the best players in our conference, percentage‑wise, the best three‑point shooter. I thought we did a good job of locating our shooters. Luke, in particular, did an amazing job of protecting our basket. We put a lot of pressure on him in our zone to protect the basket. He was phenomenal tonight on both ends of the floor. Luke has improved a great deal, and it's exciting to see his growth as a player. Q. Could either of the players or both of them talk about or follow up with what the Coach said about clean slate or brand new season or something like that. How do you guys come in like that? MATT CARLINO: Everyone starts at 0‑0, like Coach said. It's one game. That's why we play the game. So I do think we're getting better at this time of year, and we are healthy. So we're excited. We're excited for just every game that comes to us. LUKE FISCHER: Same thing. Q. I don't know if you talked about this yet, but would you qualify this as your best game of the season? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: Are you asking me? Q. I'm asking any of you guys. COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: I thought it was one of our better games of the season. I think there's a couple reasons: I think our guys have really good preparation. I think it's the healthiest we've been in the second half of Big East play. Our guys are getting better. Luke Fischer is a much better player today than he was a month ago or even two months ago. Then, obviously, having Matt healthy. Before Matt was injured, he was having a First Team All Big East. He was having a great, great year. He's one of the best guards in the country. He showed it tonight. Q. Matt, when Derrick's doing what he did tonight with 14 assists, how much of a different monster does this offense become? MATT CARLINO: I mean, it's huge, like it was a combination of everything. Derrick really finds guys with the ball. Guys who set screens. Guys are getting open. I think collectively, as a team, it just really clicked for us tonight.  Derrick's really good at finding the open man and making the smart decision. Q. Is there something that this matchup with Villanova comes down to tomorrow? MATT CARLINO: We're going to have to look at it. COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: Against a team like Villanova, you have to be great across the board. You can't say we played a great defensive game and the offense let us down. You've got to play a great offensive game, you've got to play a great defensive game. It's going to be a great challenge and one we're looking forward to. Look, there's no better time than March, period. Period. Q. Going back to Villanova, is there one aspect or two aspects of Villanova that you feel like you have to concentrate on? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: They really have no holes. Their guard play is terrific. They're experienced. Their guards are, I think, as good as any perimeter in the country. We're going to have to play a great game on both sides of the ball. We'll go back and try to get ready to do that. Q. Matt and Luke, how big was that three by Steve right before the half after Gibbs and Whitehead both hit back‑to‑back threes? It kind of gave you guys a little extra momentum going in. MATT CARLINO: That was huge for us. We haven't had that a lot this year, going into halftime with some extra juice to us. So it was a big shot, and I think it really got us going for the second half. So it was good. LUKE FISCHER: Just to add, I know they had two threes right before that, and they were crawling back in the game. Steve's shot going into halftime gave us that little jump start to go into the second half. Q. Matt, so you guys all year have jumped out to leads and then kind of watched it disappear a little bit. Was today just confidence carrying over from the end of the regular season? MATT CARLINO: I mean, yeah, coming off a win obviously gives you more confidence, but like Coach said, I think we're getting better this time of year. We've made those mistakes all year, so now we're kind of learning from the mistakes and just getting better as a team. Q. Luke, once Delgado got in foul trouble, were you just given the green light, any time you're in the block with Anthony, just kind of take him off? LUKE FISCHER: Yeah, we did a great job of executing our offense. Coach was calling plays for me to get the ball. If it was open, I would take it. If not, we could relocate and hit other shots. It was just good offense, and we were able to move the ball and get good shots. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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