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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2016Dave LeitaoEli CainBilly Garrett, Jr.New York, New York DePaul - 53, Georgetown - 70 THE MODERATOR: We have Coach Dave Leitao from DePaul. DAVE LEITAO: Real brief. A couple of things that you talk about: One is the game. As I told the team, I'm not sure we -- our game plan coming into the game were things that we wanted to do that we executed with any regularity. We had a lot of bad possessions or disorganized possessions of what we were trying to do and wanted to do. Some of it is explainable. Some of it is not explainable. That got us in trouble. When you play in a tournament situation, both teams are playing for their lives. You pay a price for it, and Georgetown did a really good job of making us pay a price for it. Secondly, when you lose this time of year and you're not playing anymore, it brings the season to an end. In wrapping it up, we had some trying and difficult times. There were some few days there when we put things together. It looked like we could be about something. In year one when you're trying to build a program, you don't want to shortchange any part of it, any season. But as that catchphrase of culture, and we got to be hard at work not only throughout this year as we tried to be, but especially starting tomorrow morning about improving our program in a lot of aspects, recruiting and getting more talent and getting more personality and all the things that it takes to put a good program together. Q. Coach, you talked a lot about trying to change the culture, trying to bring in a new energy to the program. Now that the season is wrapped up, where have you seen progress this year? DAVE LEITAO: Well, you know, one of the concerns and a little bit of it is human nature. When you're trying to create a culture is you know you've got to do some things that are abstract; believe in something you may not always see. And that will allow you to forge ahead day by day. And little by little hopefully it comes to fruition. I thought whether we were winning games or losing games, for a lot of the season that we were making progress in that way. That's why we were able to win a couple of games we weren't supposed to win. Somewhere along the line we lost a piece of that. And I couldn't get it back where our defense started to falter. When that happens, there's a little less belief in what we're doing. And when you don't have that, then part of that from a culture standpoint isn't as visible as -- again, scoring didn't have a whole lot to do with it. It's how you're playing. So I've got to evaluate all of that and see where we're at and again build. The two parts to do it is the guys that are here, the guys that remain have got to get better at those things. And the guys that come in have to do that, too. Q. Coach, what do you think were the positives this season with the team and the program? DAVE LEITAO: You know, it's always -- again, coaching basketball first of all, it's not a job. I've been doing this since 1984. I haven't worked a day in my life. One of the positives always going into this is that you get a chance to impact people's lives. Young people who at some point, whether it's through basketball or in life they are going to send out to the world. The positive for me initially is to have those types of relationships, from a basketball standpoint is to see on certain days remnants of what a program is supposed to be about. And then the opportunity to build on that. Sitting here today with 22 losses, it's hard to say that you saw that regular because we didn't. But there is a hope and understanding that there's people here and there's administration right alongside of us that are going to make sure that happens. Q. Obviously you've had struggles this year. What does that mean, what will that mean going into next year? DAVE LEITAO: Are you asking me? Q. Yeah. DAVE LEITAO: There are teachable moments in everything we do. You can learn from some positive things about everything, teamwork, camaraderie, hard work, and appreciating the opportunity that we have. You can also learn from things you don't do well. We can look at today or any other day that we didn't play up to our capabilities and learn. Basketball is at its core a team game, and you've got to be invested in the team 100%. If there's any level of it that you look at yourself in the mirror and see anything other than you and your teammates, then you're not looking at it properly. And so we've got to continue to focus on that and getting better at all of those areas. Q. Coach, as you prepare for Georgetown with the uncertainty of Bradley Hayes playing or not. What does he bring to them different now that he's back that you saw tonight that opened up some offense? Your impressions of how he changes them. DAVE LEITAO: One of the things obviously with he and Jessie is you've got big, huge bodies. Not just height-wise but they both have really good girth which allows them. They did a good job of getting deep post position. They became distributors out of the post or scorers out of the post. And he does a very good job at the elbow, at initiating offense and having people play off of him, which fits John's system very, very well. You always have to admire a guy that hadn't played in three years and then has a breakout season like he's had. It would have been a shame if he wasn't going to be healthy the rest of the year, because as you saw today, he's an important piece of the team. And so he means a lot from a basketball standpoint, as I mentioned. I probably means more than I even know as a person or member of that team. And that allowed him and them to play through him and with him very well today. Q. Billy, what are your feelings on the season individually? How do you feel like you progressed this year and what do you need to do moving forward? BILLY GARRETT, JR.: There were some good games and some bad games; up and down year. Struggled with consistency and didn't finish how I wanted to finish. But, you know, everything is a learning process. You know what I mean? Every situation you're in you're in for a reason. So, you know, you relax, look at the season, figure out where you can improve. That's what I'm going to do, sit back and look at what I can improve on, what I can do better and try to come in next year and apply those things to my game. I wouldn't say I was happy with my performance this year. But I mean, there's nothing you can really do about it now. Just got to try and improve. Q. Eli, now that the season is wrapped up, how did the season shake out compared to your expectations at the beginning of the year? What did you come expecting and how did it differ? Was it similar? ELI CAIN: I'm a pretty confident guy. So coming into the season I thought I would play well. But obviously transitioning from high school to college is not going to be as easy as you think. So I had my struggles. But I had people that kept me going: Coach Leitao, the guys in the locker room. But I think I picked it up pretty well. Being 9-22, I'm not a real losing guy, so I feel that I failed personally. THE MODERATOR: DePaul, thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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