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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2016Jay WrightRyan ArcidiaconoKris JenkinsNew York, New York Providence - 68, Villanova - 76 JAY WRIGHT: I'm an old-school guy, but that was old-school Big East. That was fun, man. That was a great game. Providence is a really tough team. I said. that after the game. They're going to make a run. They're tough, man. And Bentil and Dunn, those guys really, really good. We did the best job we've done I think on two great players. That's the best we've done. That was a team effort. It wasn't just -- we never had one guy on either one of them. We just rotated bodies and tried to help. That was the best we've ever done defensively against two great players. Q. Jay, can you talk about how does it feel to be in a tight game. Exactly the same way last year against Providence. JAY WRIGHT: We just have such great respect for them. They're so tough, and they're so skilled at every position. They're always a tough guard for us, so we know we're always going to have battles with them like that. We didn't expect anything different than it was tonight. Q. Arch, what's going through your mind when you're flying three rows in the stands? RYAN ARCIDIACONO: If that was any other of my teammates they would do the same thing. I just think I seemed to find the opportunities to do it. But I love it. I saw a lot of Kris Dunn back there by himself. Everyone was else was there and I had to make a play on the ball. Q. Are you thinking about cracking your skull? RYAN ARCIDIACONO: No. I thank my parents I have a hard head. I've done worse when I was younger. I enjoy it. I like it and I embrace it. Anything I can do to affect the game on the defensive end and make the plays and get our team on top. Q. The decision on Ochefu to bring him in off the bench, A, what was behind it? Two, what did you see from him in the second half especially? JAY WRIGHT: He was in pain today. We had to make a decision in our preparation. Do we prepare with Darryl being in there? When you do, you have to prepare for playing small if you don't have Daniel. We told Daniel, Get out there and warm up. See how you feel. And he said, I want to try it. Went in the first half. He was okay. His adrenaline got going there in the second half and I think the pain went away. He was great. He was the difference down the stretch. Q. For Kris, you saw Daniel may not be able to go. You looked and you see the box score, 40 points in the paint. You have 21 points. Was there any kind of thinking in your mind that you had to step up because one of your big guys was going down? KRIS JENKINS: Definitely. Daniel does a lot for our team. When he's not out there, everybody on the floor has to step up, not just me. We were able to do that today and come out with a win. So that was good for us. Q. Coach, the 40 points in the paint, it looks like it's more than just Ochefu. I'm guessing you're pretty satisfied with the way things developed? JAY WRIGHT: Yeah. I think some of those were drives to the basket, too. They're a great perimeter defensive team; we only got seven threes. A couple of them were late. And we got to the rim on drives because they just extended so much. It was real difficult for us to run any offense. That was drives and post-ups. Q. Coach, you mentioned Dunn in your opening remarks. This will probably be the last time you play against him, unless you go against them in the Tournament. JAY WRIGHT: We're very happy about that. Q. Can you talk about him a little bit, what he's done. JAY WRIGHT: I've talked to a number of NBA friends that have just asked me. I really believe this. I said if you want to get a player to run your team and build your team around at the point guard position, there's nobody better. And if you want to get a guy to represent your organization in terms of character and being a great teammate and great guy off the court, you can't get a better guy. We really believe that. All our players, team, we have great respect for him. Q. Jay, when Ben is coming off a game like he had yesterday, how much of a match-up problem does that present and what do you think are the keys to holding him? JAY WRIGHT: He's a nightmare. Then when you watch him last night you just know. He's got it going. He has great confidence. We took a chance today. We did everything. We kept fresh bodies on him. We denied him everywhere. We left guys to double him. We did everything. I thought the best thing we did is -- I think our best defense was getting him into pick-and-rolls and driving the ball at him and getting some fouls. That was the best thing we did. Because it kept him off the floor for a while, and it eventually fouled him out. If he's going to be on the floor for a long time, he's going to score. He's one of the great scorers that I've seen in this conference. Q. For each of the players, just your feeling on returning to the Big East Championship game this year? KRIS JENKINS: Yeah, it's something that, you know, we look at and we love. Taking it one game at a time. We're looking forward to it. Q. Arch, you've been around Daniel for a long time. I know you know how bad he was hurt and how bad he is hurting. What did he show you down the stretch? He had those three big shots. Ideally, he probably wouldn't have played, I guess. RYAN ARCIDIACONO: I think that's what you see in Daniel. I've seen it for four years. He's a tough guy. If he's on the floor, he's going to give it all he has. For him to make those plays it's just big. He's a big-time player. We knew that if he wasn't in the game, someone else was going to make the play. But it was just great to have him out there to be able to finish and make those free-throws. Q. Coach, you held Bentil and Dunn to 2-for-13 shooting. I want to talk about the philosophy going forward, tomorrow against whoever you play and then the Big East Tournament. JAY WRIGHT: We took some chances today guarding those two. That's why Bullock had 18 and Cartwright had 14. They was smart. They saw it. When you see plays Dunn has got the ball and Bullock goes at the rim and they throw a lob, you have a wide-open dunk and nobody is guarding them. It looks pretty bad. We took some chances to just try to prevent those two from having monster games. Like I said, I thought we did a great job on Dunn. We had all kinds of bodies on him. We had five different guys guarding him. Then I thought going at Bentil offensively was probably the best thing we did. I have no idea what we'll do tomorrow until I see who we play. Q. Archie, coming into the game Coach had the strategy to take on Dunn and Bentil. What were you saying to each other as players to stop them? RYAN ARCIDIACONO: Just do what we do. Do what was on the scouting report. We've played them many times the last three or four years; we know what to expect. We just had to defend them with five guys. Make sure he wasn't able to see space. Like Coach said, we took some risks on the defensive end, left a couple of people open and they got open threes. If Dunn wasn't getting going, that was our strategy. Q. Kris, you went to Daniel down the stretch there at the end. Did you see he was in a mismatch and had an advantage down there even though he was limping? KRIS JENKINS: Great play call by Coach. We came out the huddle, Coach set the play, and we were able to execute it down the stretch. Q. Jay, what goes through your head and your heart when you see Archie soaring into the stands? As an old-school Big East guy, is it fair to call him an old-school Big East player? JAY WRIGHT: Definitely. That's what he grew up watching. That's all he knows. He grew up in Philly watching Villanova basketball and watching Allan Ray and Randy Foye. It's like a kid growing up in Indiana watching Indiana basketball. So I really don't think anything of it. He does it in practice every day. He does. He did it in high school. He did it before he came to Villanova. I love it. Thank you guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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