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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2017Steve WojciechowskiMarkus HowardAndrew RowseyNew York, New York Seton Hall - 82, Marquette - 76 COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: First of all, I'd like to congratulate Seton Hall. Kevin's done an outstanding job with his team. They present a very difficult matchup for us defensively with their athletes and their versatility defensively. They can really smother you. And honestly Delgado inside is a load for everyone, but he's been, in particular, thinking the last two games we've played them he's had 35 rebounds in two games, which is pretty incredible. But Kevin's done a great job with his team. I'm proud of the way our team has handled our Big East play. I'm sad that it's over right now. But we're hopeful that there's more basketball to be played for us. Q. Both regular season games seemed to be grind-it-out plays where it could have gone either way in both cases. What made the difference in this where they were able to pick up a large win like that? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: I thought where we really started the game pretty well. We were moving the ball really well. We got some good looks we normally make that we didn't make. And I thought that had an impact on our decision-making offensively, later, and it impacted our defense as well. There's no secret. We're a good basketball team. We have a chance to beat really good teams like Seton Hall when we shoot well. When we don't shoot the ball well it's harder for us. Q. How hard is it for you as a team that shoots well when you're getting the looks in the first half and they're not going? What's the mental process you guys go through as the game goes on? MARKUS HOWARD: I just feel as a team as a whole we have to find ways to make other things happen when our shots aren't falling. Even though when our shots aren't falling we have to find ways to defend and also try to be uplifting and bring energy. When our shots aren't falling we still have to find ways to stay in the game. Q. Coach, you came out really small today, obviously your two sharpshooters there as well as Duane. And that strategy, did you think it worked? Seemed to disrupt their offense? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: I thought we started the game fine. That's the lineup that allowed us to win four of five and put us in a great position right now. That lineup served us well. We played nine guys double figure minutes. So we do, we play a lot of guys. Q. Do you think that in spite of today's loss you've done enough to go to the NCAA Tournament? ANDREW ROWSEY: We're hoping so. Nothing is guaranteed at this point. We can just hope for the best. In my opinion I believe we've done enough. We've proved ourselves multiple times. And I mean nothing is guaranteed at this point in the year, so we'll just have to wait and see. Q. Coach, they score 40 points in the paint tonight. It seemed like especially early on where there were a lot of passes where that created space there. How difficult is it, even when you have a normal 3-point shooting night, to keep up statistically with just how many points they were able to get? COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: They're a tough matchup for us. I'm not sure there's a more physical team in our league. And Delgado is just an absolute beast. And you look at, when you say, well, he only had 12 points. He had nine assists. To me he was the guy who dominated the game. It's not just us. It's the reason why he's first-team all-conference. He's got to be an All-American type player. I've been doing, playing or coaching for 20 years; that's an All-American-caliber player right there. Q. Andrew and Markus, do you feel in the first half you moved the ball really well and got a lot of shots. They started not to fall. Did you feel yourselves kind of moving away from spreading the floor, moving the ball all the time as the shots stopped falling? MARKUS HOWARD: Yeah, a little bit. I feel when the shots aren't falling some guys, we feel the need to be that person to bring it back and get us back rolling on offense. But in times like that we just have to stick to our game plan, the one we've been using for the three, four games that have been working really well. We just have to keep playing Marquette basketball. Even when things aren't going the right way. COACH WOJCIECHOWSKI: You have to trust the pass even when shots aren't falling. Our team has the ability to play some really pretty offensively basketball, and it's when our team is trusting the pass. Sometimes when shots aren't going in, shots that you're normally used to seeing go in, there's a tendency to go to, like, I gotta do it because we're struggling. We're not struggling; we're just missing shots. If you play the percentages, we're going to make enough high-percentage shots to score a lot of points. It's -- when we get in trouble is when we don't early in a game make shots and we start thinking, you know, I've got to put the team on -- we don't have any guys like that. We have to continue to trust the pass. If we do that, we're as good as an offensive team I think as there is. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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