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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2015Dee DavisChris MackMatt StainbrookNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Xavier - 65 COACH MACK: I told our coaching staff in the locker room that I've only been involved in one other game like that that I can remember. I was an assistant coach. Certainly, the stakes weren't nearly as high. But I was an assistant coach at Wake Forest, and we played Arkansas in preseason NIT, and at one point we were up by 25 and we ended up winning by one. I feel like, if we played three more minutes, we might have lost by 17. I don't think it's anything other than we missed some free throws. You can't stop momentum if you can't score. Georgetown started to solve the zone we had out in the second half. I thought we did a good job, for the most part, of taking care of the basketball, drawing some fouls. We did have a few turnovers down the stretch. We've been the league's best free‑throw shooting team all year in conference play. Tonight we didn't do not even close to what we're capable of, especially down the stretch. But we hit enough at the very, very end to play tomorrow night. Q. Talk about the swing of momentum after the technical foul when they got a five‑point possession, it seemed like. COACH MACK: It certainly changed the game. I didn't have the luxury of being able to see the monitor. So I'll leave it in those guys' hands. I do know that there have been some double technicals called throughout the season, and not necessarily for guys being separated or pushing, but some taunting. At least what I saw live, I felt like that could have been the appropriate call, but I'm not the referee. I'm just the guy that yells at them. Q. You've had some great wins. You've had some obviously bad losses. Today you played great for about 32 minutes, and then you had some bad minutes. Is this a hard team for you to figure out? COACH MACK: No. Next question. Q. What does it mean to you and the program to be in the Big East finals for the first time? COACH MACK: It means a heck of a lot. These guys sacrificed their summer. We went overseas to Brazil this summer. Basketball, as a college athlete nowadays is 24/7, 365 days a year. In the stone ages, when I played, you got to go home for the summer. These guys stick around for the entire summer and take classes. Then to have three weeks off like you normally have for the summer session, too, they said, no, we're going over to Brazil and going to practice. These two took it like champions. It's not the easiest thing in the world to do wallop drills and taking charges in July. We felt it was necessary to get our young team together. It's been a long journey, ups and downs. It means a lot. We've been in a lot of good leagues. This is obviously the best league, and we're looking forward to the championship tomorrow night. Q. Looks like J.P. rolled his ankle. How is he doing, and how will that affect his availability tomorrow? COACH MACK: I really don't know. I don't think it looks good, to be honest with you, for tomorrow. The X‑rays were negative, which is a good thing. But in terms of when he gets back on the floor, I couldn't tell you. Q. Do you think it's an ankle sprain? COACH MACK: It is an ankle sprain. Q. Matt, down the stretch, after your turnovers, you were going back on(inaudible)what was it like for you to get yourself back in check? MATT STAINBROOK: We just wanted to make sure we kept our team calm. We weren't going to implode on ourself. We were in control. We wanted to play like we were in control. Though we didn't, I think, have the best leadership by us‑‑ that's something we're working on‑‑ but I think we were able to handle it in the game. So I'm happy. Q. Dee, as a point guard, you weren't having a good shooting night. You had a poor night from the free‑throw line, but yet you didn't allow that to frazzle you. You weren't turning the ball over or anything like that. Could you talk about how you were able to maintain and keep a level head even when they started pressing you guys. DEE DAVIS: In my position, that's your job, to take care of the ball and make sure the team is calm and is ready to do what we need to do to win. Having a bad shooting night, it happens. You just got to go through it. I made some big ones in the end to make it feel like I did all right tonight. Q. Chris, James Farr hasn't scored much recently, but it seems like he's gotten more minutes and settled into a role. What are your thoughts on his play the last few weeks? COACH MACK: I think he's done a great job. James has handled maybe not getting as many minutes in Big East play like a champ. He handles our team, our team winning, and he comes to practice every single day with a great attitude. That's what you need to be a team that plays in tomorrow night's game. If guys start to pout, guys start to separate; that's when it becomes a problem. James hasn't done that. He's a terrific rebounder, and tonight we needed him on the floor. Q. Coach, can you talk about your decision‑making process with opting to foul up three towards the end of the game? COACH MACK: I've had some negative experiences with not fouling as an assistant coach and watched [] Ron Lewis, when we were up in the Ohio State game to go to the Sweet 16. We were up three, and he hit a three to go to overtime, and it took all the momentum. We felt like with 10 seconds, by the time they maybe got to half‑court, these guys did a good job of turning them, maybe 5 seconds on the clock. I trust the guys to block out, rebound, and inbound, and that's just the strategy we chose to go with. Q. Following two double‑digit victories over Georgetown in the regular season, was the game plan any different? COACH MACK: In the quick turnaround, it's a very hard team to prepare for. As well as these guys played Georgetown the first two games, it's also very difficult to quickly remember all the actions they run‑‑ the dribble handoffs, back door‑‑ but we try. I thought early on they got a little bit of a rhythm. We decided to go to our zone. It was very, very effective, and we never got out of it. We didn't play that zone much the first two games. I don't know how much Georgetown has seen. Again, they only have 24 hours to prepare as well. Q.  For Matt and Dee, you guys don't seem to be afraid of any team, whether it's a ranked team or non‑ranked team. You beat Georgetown three times ranked. What do you think gives you guys the best advantage against a Villanova team that you haven't beaten? DEE DAVIS: Believe in ourselves. We came here to win a Big East championship. We didn't come here to beat Georgetown. We came here to win a Big East championship. So that's our plan. Q. Chris, style‑wise, where do you and Villanova most drastically differ? COACH MACK: I would say that they tend to play four perimeter players. I know they start Pinkston and Ochefu together. But the separator in Game 2‑‑ Game 1, we were never in it. Game 2, the separator was when Josh Hart and Jenkins were on the floor. That's really four guards and a small power forward, if you will. That's the difference. We can certainly play that way if we put Tre at the four. But I also really like having Matt, Jalen, and James out there at the power forward and center position. So just the contrast with the traditional lineup in the frontcourt versus a four quick line would be the major difference. And their coach dresses a hell of a lot sharper than me. Q. Matt, talk about the battle with Josh Smith tonight. He played nearly half the minutes that you played, and you guys got him in foul trouble pretty quickly. Talk about how that limited their role. MATT STAINBROOK: He's a load to guard at the beginning of the game. He started to get rolling a little bit. That's something we've got to make sure we can catch the ball out farther. Had to dig down even though they did a good job of helping me. I had to make sure I was locked in and returning to him and going high side, making it tough for him, because I knew my teammates were going to do a good job of crowding. Luckily, we got him into foul trouble, and we were able to keep him off the glass for the most part. But a tough battle. Q. Chris, you mentioned the quick turnaround, less than 20 hours to tomorrow night's game. Explain a little about the process of preparing for Villanova. COACH MACK: It's different for players and coaches. My main priority for these guys is to get back in their beds and get some rest. Put a lot of fluids in. Fortunately, Villanova is a very, very simple team, but they're also really, really good. When I say that, they don't run all these different actions and 50 set plays. If we had to play Butler tomorrow night, that might be an issue. They run a million plays. It's their players that get you, how hard they play. Our guys know them very, very well, having played them in this true round‑robin league a lot. They'll rest a lot. We'll watch a lot of tape, figure out how they really played here the first two nights. Obviously, we're not going to change a whole lot. They shoot the ball pretty well, I hear. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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