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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2016James FarrChris MackNew York, New York Seton Hall - 87, Xavier - 83 CHRIS MACK: Give Seton Hall the credit. They were the much better team tonight. They did what they do to a lot of teams, that is they punked us. The first eight minutes of the game, our offense really, really allowed Seton Hall to be at their best. Whether they were deflecting passes, whether it was our quick shots. When you put Seton Hall in transition, you're asking for trouble. That's exactly what they gave us. A little disappointing. We talked about it. You have to be about it. These two teams battled on the floor. Again, we played uphill from that point on. Our guys didn't quit. But I don't want to say you spot, that would be the wrong choice of words, but when another team jumps on you the way they did and you're playing uphill and they're as good as they are, it's hard to dig yourself out of a hole. Q. Chris, the turnovers in the first half, more having to do with their swarming or something on you guys? CHRIS MACK: A little bit of both. You know they're going to swarm. You know they're going to pride themselves on getting deflections. Their ball pressure. Even the very first play, we get the tip and we've got a play to start the game, like every team does, drawn up, and we get deflected out of bounds. From that point on it was deflection city. You can't run good offense that way. So Seton Hall had a lot to do with it. If you want to win, you have to be able to hold your water. You have to be strong with the ball. Your decisions have to be solid. You have to be able to deal with pressure much better than we did. Pressure goes away over time. There aren't too many teams in the country that can play that way for 40 minutes. But in those eight to ten minutes they punked us, and we tried to play catch-up the entire game. Q. Coach, how much did Isaiah getting off to a strong start making 9 of the first 11 points affect you guys? CHRIS MACK: He's a monster. He's the best player in the league. Put that down. I voted for him. He's the best player in the league. He is. He is the real freakin' deal. Q. Did you feel this was the best he played in the three meetings? CHRIS MACK: I don't know. I feel like he plays great every time I watch him on film, every time we play him. He's got unlimited range. He's strong. He's grown up. He can pass. He defends. He's the real deal. Q. James, how disappointing is this coming so close to having a chance to win the Big East and perhaps also giving up a chance for No. 1 seed in the NCAA? JAMES FARR: We don't really think about being the No. 1 seed. We just control what we can control. We didn't do our job tonight, that was to win a basketball game. It's very disappointing because it's my last season here at Xavier. I wanted to go out with a Big East Tournament Championship. But that's life. Life goes on. It didn't happen. You know, just wait for Sunday to see where we're headed. Q. James, in the second half you guys played much better but never were able to get over that hump. Why do you think you came so close, four points twice but couldn't get over it? JAMES FARR: There's many reasons: Our turnovers, our quick shots in the first half just put us in the hole. Seton Hall is a team once you get down on them, it's going to be a battle to get back. We were right there. Our toughness was right there. But you know, we just put ourselves too deep in the hole in the first half and struggled to get out of it. Q. Coach, now that the games you'll be playing now, is it a little bit of a relief you're not playing games against teams that know each other? CHRIS MACK: I don't know if it's a relief, but we'll quickly turn the page. As bad as we feel right now at MSG, we'll feel really good on Sunday evening. We'll know our opponent, we'll know where we'll play. And we'll turn the page quickly. Very few teams win conference tournaments. They're hard. But the good thing is we put ourselves in a great position to play in a tournament that everybody watches. That's what you sign up for when you come to Xavier. This will be our tenth NCAA Tournament in the last 11 years. I'm proud of these guys. Disappointed for tonight. But yeah, it'll be a little bit of a relief. We're still going to play good teams, though. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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