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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 4, 2017Anthony BozzellaJaquan JacksonChicago, Illinois Seton Hall - 73, Providence - 60 ANTHONY BOZZELLA: First of all, I want to congratulate Providence. I know, you look at their record and you would think that it wasn't a successful season, and obviously they just -- obviously on wins and losses they have a tremendous leader in Coach Crowley. As somebody who's played against Providence now for four straight years, they're very well coached and have a very bright future ahead of them. They have some very good young players, and obviously are led by a tremendous coach. So I know you'll see Providence be a big force in the Big East as we move on in years to come. But I am very proud of our girls. We've obviously struggled recently. But we've actually had two real good weeks. We had a good week of practice before St. John's and we played a very good St. John's team in a very competitive game. The young lady on my left played outstanding as she has all year, and then we had a good week of practice this week. So I thought we would play well. I didn't know how well we would because a lot of our girls have never played in a Big East playoff game before, and they came through, and I'm proud of them. The young lady on my left and Kaela both, I thought, could have been honored a little bit differently by our league's coaches, so I think they came in with definitely determination, definitely focus, and all year the young lady on my left has been a focused, determined young lady, seeing double teams in her first year of action in the Big East. She's never complained. She just works as hard as she can. She's going to be a tremendous player obviously for us the rest of this year, but for next year I'm proud to coach her. I was proud of the team. I thought Lubirdia really exerted herself in the second half. In the first half she hadn't scored any points and stood in the locker room pouting and said, no, Coach, we got it, don't worry about it, my time will come, I'll be more aggressive on the boards. And she was, and I was proud of her because she is a senior and she didn't want to go out with a long losing streak, and she's not going to. She's going to advance to the quarterfinals round of the Big East, and for our program that's a stat, and that's what we needed to do. I thought having Deja win us back, as you can see, No. 15, clearly she's a working team member, as well. She was injured and she missed a lot of time. Not just her, 9 and 5. But I thought she played with a lot of energy defensively, as did Shadeen Samuels, a kid who has been hurt all year. So we're getting there little by little. And obviously this is just a small stat, but for us it was a big stat. Q. Why was the offense so in sync today? JAQUAN JACKSON: It was just us being patient and knowing what to do. We've been practicing all week for a good shot versus a great shot, so I thought that was very important tonight. Q. When you see that there were five players who scored at least eight points in today's game, it's been you and KK carrying the load this season, but when other players are contributing, what's that like? JAQUAN JACKSON: It's very great. We just tell them just be ready to shoot; we're going to kick it out to you, so always be ready to shoot. Q. How did you guys kind of handle this stage going in, knowing that it's the postseason, knowing that you're playing for your season to keep going? JAQUAN JACKSON: At first it was tough, but we just keep pushing. As everyone knows, we haven't had like a great season, but we're just here to make a statement. We're going to keep pushing and fighting as much as we can. Q. Coach, you talk about the offense, but Providence has been a team that can hurt you from three-point land, and today you guys did a nice job. What was behind that? ANTHONY BOZZELLA: No, I think that was our main focus. There's no question when we beat them in our gym we did a great job on defending the three-point line. When we played in their gym 8 in a row and 11 for the game and we knew that was unacceptable. So we give up some drives, and obviously they adjusted. Coach Crowley is a great coach, and he told the kids just keep their head down and drive the ball to the basket. Botteghi was hot early, but in the second half she cooled down. And that's when we were able to Lubirdia inside a little bit. I thought that made a little bit of a difference. I just knew that if we could stay competitive from the three-point line we'd have a chance. And obviously not only did we stay competitive, we won by 15 points. That was a big thing. That was a huge part of our strategy and to stay close on the boards and actually out-rebounded by them by a lot and that was a big thing for us. Q. Encouraging some regular season finale and it seemed like offensively some of those stayed with you through today. I know you broke it down, but why now? Are you noticing an offensive rhythm here? ANTHONY BOZZELLA: Well, that's a really good question. It's obviously been -- you obviously know me very well. It's been a very frustrating season for me, not because of the record, but because of how uncompetitive we are sometimes in some games. And I'm a really transparent coach and it's unacceptable to me. I think we really struggle with our confidence. We've had a lot of meetings, too many meetings, to be honest with you, and I just felt in the past two weeks we showed them some film of some other coaches and what they do and how they talk and how they treat their team. We watched the UConn film the other day in the new thing on HBO special, and even Coach Auriemma, a friend of mine, how he coaches the team. And I think they understood a little bit better, we're not yelling at them, we're coaching them. I think the past two weeks they've adjusted on that a lot better. I think maybe they're growing into themselves, taking a little more accountability, moving the ball better, sharing the ball better, and I think those things are important. And I think when you're young and things go bad, you don't know how to react. So this win was important to us. At the end of the day, I understand the task at hand and who we play, and we've been in that spot before, so I know that. But for us, this was an important step in our progression. We're going to go into the off-season knowing that we've won a game in the Playoffs again, that we have some confidence. Of all the players we played today, 3, 5, 8, seven are returning, and I think those are big steps for us. Q. Can you speak to the character person Lubirdia Gordon? ANTHONY BOZZELLA: She is -- people don't realize the health issues she's had and how she's battled it. Before the St. John's game she was in the hospital for two days because of her medical condition, and she walked into the game at 2:00 and played, and she played well. So you know, she's been a good inspiration for the kids. And I'm just glad she came in with a real big game in a Big East playoff game because she's a great kid. I've known her since she's been in eighth grade. And I just would like to see her go out with some confidence and stuff. And today I thought she carried us in the second half. She had nine points and I think 10 rebounds in the second half. She did very well. Q. You were pretty excited at the end of the third quarter put back buzzer, right? ANTHONY BOZZELLA: Yeah, you want to score the last point of every quarter and the first point of every quarter. And our goal today was to just break the game down into quarters. And we just said win every quarter, and we did. We won all four quarters. And I think if you win every quarter you have a good chance to win. And we just want to make it so small for them to see some sort of positivity. So that was important, and that made us win the quarter. We won by two, not I can go into the huddle and be like, we won another quarter, and that was important for the girls. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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