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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: BROOKLYNMarch 20, 2016Jay WrightKris JenkinsRyan ArcidiaconoBrooklyn, New York Villanova - 87, Iowa - 68 JAY WRIGHT: We're thrilled. We're thrilled that we came out and played a first half like that. When I shook hands with Fran, I just said, hey, I'm sorry. We haven't played a first half like that in a long time. We played a game against Xavier at home that we played like that, and we've been on the other side of this. When you just have a team that comes out and makes shots, makes every play defensively, it's tough to get back in it. I just thought the first half was the key to the game. We were just hitting on all cylinders. Great leadership by Ryan Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu. I'm thrilled for that senior class that they get to play in a Sweet 16. Q. Ryan, it looked like when they announced on the loud speaker that you guys had made it to Sweet 16, you looked like you kind of sighed maybe a little sigh of relief. Is it nice to finally be able to kind of check that box off? RYAN ARCIDIACONO: Yeah, for sure. It was definitely a big time sigh of relief. I was ecstatic that we won our game against Iowa because we know how good of a team they are. But I'm just happy for our senior class to be able to get to experience it, and I know I was ecstatic. Q. Ryan, this is for you. Can you just describe your relationship with Jay. I mean, you guys had a long, extended hug there at the end when you got taken out for the last time. I know it's been four years of ups and downs tournament-wise, finally getting the Sweet 16 together. What's going through your mind during the hug, and just can you describe your relationship. RYAN ARCIDIACONO: It's a great relationship. Ever since day one, I think we've had trust in each other, and he trusted me as a freshman and throughout my years. But I think it's just -- I try to think of myself as him on the floor because he tells me, if he was to play and when he played, that's how he wanted a player to play. So I just take pride in wearing this jersey at Villanova, and just my relationship with Coach is very special. We're kind of from the same area in Pennsylvania. It's just -- it's a great one. KRIS JENKINS: (Inaudible comment.) RYAN ARCIDIACONO: (Laughing.) I can't say that. Q. I know with you, Arch, your freshman year, you guys got in as an at large your freshman year against UNC, but for Kris, this is your third time now in the tournament. Each time, you've been with those round of 32 exits. What does this mean for you knowing your team finally can get past that hump? KRIS JENKINS: It means a lot, especially, like Coach said, for our senior class because they've done so much for our program, and for our junior class to come into school and have those guys to look up to and for us to win and advance, it means a lot. Q. You guys have all heard that Sweet 16 question probably till you got sick this entire week, and I'm just wondering, did you guys have any sense before the game that you would come out so aggressive, so loose, so unburdened? RYAN ARCIDIACONO: No, I don't think it was kind of the same way like it was the other day when we played UNC Asheville. We try to keep every game as the same magnitude, and we just try to come out and play our basketball and the basketball we know how to play. I think we try to hold each other accountable, and I think in the first half, we knew how good Iowa was, so we knew how Uthoff and Jok could go off at any time. So we tried to focus on them. I think we just got stops and made all the little plays. KRIS JENKINS: Like Arch said, we just came out aggressive on defense, and that fueled our offense. We were able to get some turnovers. Our seniors did a great job in leading us and making sure that we stayed on top of playing Villanova basketball for 40 minutes. Q. For both guys, Ryan, you said it was a sigh of relief. Do you almost feel like, now that you won this game, the pressure's off and you can just move forward even more freely? And how far can this team go? RYAN ARCIDIACONO: Yeah, it's definitely a sigh of relief. I just think the biggest thing is I'm honestly just done answering the questions about getting past the second weekend. I know it was always in the back of our senior minds and our team. But we definitely can go all the way as long as we stick to what we do. If we defend like we did in the first half and stay solid like that, our offense will eventually come. I just think, once we set the tone on the defensive end in rebounding, we can go as far as that takes us. KRIS JENKINS: Like Arch said, just defensive rebounding because at this point in the season, all the teams that you're going to play are great offensively. So it's going to come down to who executes and who's the tougher team on defense. Q. This was your 140th game for Nova. That's more than anybody else. What does that mean to have that kind of longevity and just be the guy at Villanova? RYAN ARCIDIACONO: I'm old. I'm a senior. I try to -- it's great. I think our training staff has done a great job with keeping me healthy, whether I'm diving on the floor or diving over tables. So I've just been able to stick with it and just kind of trust the process of what Villanova basketball is. But we know that, as a senior class, the next year, I think these guys will beat every record that we ever set here. So something to look out for that junior class. Q. The guys in the locker room were all saying that nothing was different this morning, no extra sense of anticipation or excitement. How does that happen? It just doesn't seem like they were overly phased by an elimination game when everyone had been talking about it for a year. JAY WRIGHT: We have a really mature group, and we -- I think I've been trying to explain this. The will of a really determined athlete is much greater than any of the pressure that media or coaches or anyone puts on them. They were so determined to win this game and give their best effort in this game that it just superseded everything. As a coaching staff, we try to approach each game that way too, that, you know what, you've put all that work in. Let's just do what we do. Fortunately, it was good enough for them. I'm really happy for that senior class that it was good enough. Q. Obviously, for these guys, it's uncharted waters now going to a Sweet 16, but the fact that it's a lot of older guys like Arch and Daniel, would you expect them not to be wide-eyed and they would come out on Thursday like it's just a regular game? JAY WRIGHT: This coming Thursday? Yeah, I really do. They've done a lot. They've won a Big East Championship, played in Big East Championship games, played in Bahamas championship game, NIT championship game, they've been through a lot. They will not be impacted by the moment. I think they'll be inspired. Now, Miami might have a lot to say about what happens there, but I have great confidence in them that way, I really do. Q. Jay, can you kind of walk me through, when Jalen was coming in, was the plan all along to use him and arch at the same time? And what does having two point guards do for this year's team that last year's team didn't do? JAY WRIGHT: I didn't want to be rude when you asked your previous question, but when you asked him about the relationship, Kris said you're his son. Because they all call him my son. That's what he said. I couldn't say that. That was the plan. We look at our guards as guards. We really don't have a point guard. We don't have a two guard. We don't have a three guard. We want all of our guards to do the same thing. When we were recruiting, Arch had the biggest impact on the recruitment of Jalen. When Jalen came on his recruiting visit, he stayed in Arch's room. We got a hotel room for him, but he stayed and slept in Arch's room. They developed a great relationship. They're very similar people and players, very similar backgrounds. So we knew it was going to be fine. The traditional definition of a one guard and two guard, a lot of people asked us about that, thought it was going to be a problem, but we were not worried about it. Q. Jay, now that this group finally busted through and got to the Sweet 16, when you look at what's gone on around the tournament this year, is it more than ever a reminder that, even if you're a favorite if you're a high seed, just how difficult it is to get to this point? JAY WRIGHT: Definitely. When you don't get there a number of times, nobody -- no one wants to hear that from the team that doesn't get there. And I get that. But that's really what we -- when everyone was asking us, are you worried about your program? You just know how hard it is. You look at Michigan State, that team is a great team. It only takes one game. If you really follow the tournament, you see it happens a lot. So we were not concerned at all about the tournament. We wanted it badly for this senior class. They're just great guys. I really didn't want them to go down as the winningest class in Villanova history but they never got past the first weekend. That class. For everyone else, we were fine. Q. As far as just -- we got to talk to the players about this, but for you, how relieving is it to get past the first weekend? The past few years with the disappointments, has it weighed on you guys who have accomplished so much but everyone bringing up the past ? What's the relief and what's the past few years been like for you? JAY WRIGHT: Honestly, the natural -- it's like if you have a cold and everybody keeps asking you, how's your cold? How's your cold? How are you doing? After a while, you're like, I'm fine, you know. You know you've got to answer the question. I'm just relieved we don't have to answer the question honestly. It wasn't that big of a deal to us. Like I explained earlier, we don't evaluate our program that way. The biggest part for me was I really wanted those -- we have Ryan Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu, but we have three walk-ons -- Pat Farrell, Henry Lowe, and Kevin Rafferty. These three walk-ons, they were the original bench mob guys. They did that before anybody did it their freshman year, when we stunk. I told them, we need that because we need some fun around here. We need some positivity. Then after their freshman year, I said, guys, we need you to grow up now, and we need you to have an impact on these younger guys, and they really did. They stopped doing it. We had posters of the bench mob. This was back when they were freshmen. They stopped doing it, and they really concentrated on basketball and getting the younger guys to buy in. So they're such a special group. If I'm really honest with you, the biggest stress on me was I wanted it for them, and we all did. Q. Jay, you guys could -- you mentioned how it wasn't a big deal to kind of address this all season, but you guys could have easily dismissed any talk about not getting past this first weekend or said we're not going to talk about it. Do you think the fact that you were kind of so up front about the way you guys had to kind of just deal with it all year helps this weekend, the way you guys kind of just dispatched these teams? JAY WRIGHT: It might have. It really might have. The way we looked at it was we were either going to win this game and it was going to go away, or we were going to lose this game, and they were going to have to deal with it. That's life. You're going to have to deal with it. It's like the Buffalo Bills. They never won the Super Bowl. They got there three times. Q. Four. JAY WRIGHT: Sorry to some Buffalo Bills fans. I mean, that's sports. You lay it out there. You get a lot of praise. But you've got to deal with it. I think they really knew that's what it was going to be. Maybe that did help us because they weren't afraid -- they definitely were not afraid of the failure. Nobody was afraid of playing this game, great Iowa team. We knew we could have lost this game. No one was afraid of that outcome. Q. Coach, typically teams make runs in the second half, especially when being down by a lot of points. What did you tell your guys at halftime to make sure they didn't allow them to get back in the game? JAY WRIGHT: I was very proud of our guys in the second half as well as we played in the first half. We said at halftime that Iowa doesn't have to press us to speed this game up because they play so fast anyway. So don't -- all they have to do is play the way they play because they've beaten teams the same way in the first half. They're capable. And I thought our guys responded to that really well. Some teams, they play a slower pace, they've got to change how they play to get back in it. They were not going to have to. And we know guys like Uthoff and Jok, they could just go on a spurt. That's why we made the subs at the end. Them being down 16 isn't that big of a deal. Those guys could hit threes consecutively, and you could be in trouble. Q. Jay, can you elaborate on your relationship with your son, Arch. JAY WRIGHT: We both are from Bucks County. We both are from the same -- our high schools are right next to each other, rivals. He is -- you know, if you grow up in Indiana, you aspire to play in Indiana. It's your dream school. But if you're in the northeast, there's so many schools around you. Both his parents went to Villanova. His mother was on my wife's freshman hall. The kid grew up watching Villanova basketball. Him putting on a Villanova jersey is like a kid at Alabama putting on an Alabama football jersey. He just lives it. I really don't talk to him that much. It's amazing -- he is me. He takes care of everything. I really do worry about not having him here next year because I'm going to have to work harder because he just -- everything he does is what I do. Everything he thinks about is what I think about. So I really -- I never meet with him. And it really allows me to coach the other guys because my best player, I don't really have to spend time with. We know exactly how we think. We're right -- his family -- his parents grew up where my parents grew up in northeast Philly. It's just we're the same person. It has just been a thrill to have him. I really do want to cherish every second we have him. Q. I know there was a lot of talk about not going to Philly. Is it almost good going to Louisville? Now you get more focus. You won't have the distractions of Philly and just kind of focus on playing. JAY WRIGHT: That's the way we're going to look at it, Adam, but I would love being at home in Philly for a week right now. I've just got to be honest about that. But Louisville is a good spot. I'm not mad about it. And that is the advantage, you know, that you don't have as many distractions. The tickets -- the tickets for us -- this was like a home game. That was the other thing. I said sorry to Fran. That was a home game. That was crazy. The Nova nation was so loud in there. If we would have played in Philly -- but the tickets were a major problem. So that helps. It really does. There is a positive not being in Philly. I'd still rather be in Philly. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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