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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2017Kevin WillardAngel DelgadoNew York, New York Seton Hall - 82, Marquette - 76 THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Willard and Angel. Q. You won five games in a row. You won now again at MSG. Do you have a feeling of deja vu from last year? COACH WILLARD: No, I mean, I think both years are a little bit different. Each opponent is a little bit different. We've been battling for the month of February and it feels good. I mean, I think the biggest thing in the feeling this year is I think these guys understand the excitement and the importance of the Big East Tournament. So I just think we've been battling for a good month and proud of the way they're playing. Q. Can you give your thoughts about playing Villanova tomorrow in the semifinals? COACH WILLARD: Yeah. It's like waking up on Christmas you're all excited, you go down, you open up the present and you've got a bunch of coal. (Laughter) No, they're a fantastic team. They really are. I think Jay, this is his best job by far. I think it's his best team by far. They're balanced. I think the way Paschall is playing is really impressive. It puts a lot of pressure -- it was a difference in our second game. He came out and he banged two 3s. Our game plan was to let him have them and he made them and it was kind of a backbreaker. So I think they're probably the best team in the country, and we're going to have to get to work and figure out a way, but we'll come battle. Q. You mentioned earlier the importance of the Big East Tournament. Just on the road, the ACC is playing their tournament today. I just wanted to ask you: What sets apart the Big East from, I know the Big Ten is also coming to New York pretty soon, what separates the Big East from the rest of those conferences? COACH WILLARD: First of all, I think the ACC's in Brooklyn, right? That's a different world, man. I got three guys from Brooklyn. They can have fun with that over there. I love my Brooklyn guys but I ain't hanging out over in Brooklyn all that much. (Laughter) I went to Lincoln High School so many times over the last couple of years, I said I'm never going back to Brooklyn. I think it's great for New York that the ACC is going on at the same time. I mean, our fans are still going to come to our games. Their fans are going to come to their games. I think it's exciting for the city. I think it's exciting for both tournaments. The coverage has been great on Fox and on ESPN. I don't see a downside. I think last time I checked there was over 8 million people in Manhattan. So I think people have plenty of options. And our fans are going to come. Villanova's fans are going to come. I'm sure tomorrow night is going to be just like the Big East final was. Q. Angel and Coach, were you aware of your stats that you're one assist away from a triple-double. ANGEL DELGADO: Yeah. Q. Did you say anything to Coach about maybe running a certain play so you could get that last assist? ANGEL DELGADO: Yes, but I told Coach, put me back in. He was like, nah, you might get hurt. I was, like, all right, I'm just staying here then. COACH WILLARD: I knew he had nine for a while, but once it got down to them -- if they had missed a couple of shots and we could have been up 14 or 15, I would have kept him in. But they were just fouling anyways. But if they weren't fouling I would have put him back in. Q. To follow up, this is your fifth Big East win in a row. You had so much confidence going into this stretch. What was it about this stretch that you knew that your team was going to turn it on at this point? COACH WILLARD: I've said this all year long, I thought we were playing good basketball all year long, even when we were 3-6, he'll tell you, I put up on the board, I think it was against Georgetown, at Georgetown, I said guys our RPI is better, our strength of schedule is better. We've had a brutal start to the conference season, which I've said about a million times. And I knew that once we could get past that stretch that the second half of the season really looked good to us. I just kept telling them you've got to just keep believing in what we're doing. We haven't really changed anything. I think the schedule kind of fell into our favor just a little bit more. Q. Angel, Coach doesn't seem like he's so happen about playing Villanova tomorrow night. What about you? You told me the other day you said it's hard to beat a good team three times? ANGEL DELGADO: I'm happy to play anybody. I'm always happy, I tell the Coach and the guys, I'm playing ball to have fun. That's what I'm doing right now. When we can play a NBA team, I don't care, I want to go and have fun. Q. What about Villanova? They beat you up pretty bad twice. COACH WILLARD: It happens. ANGEL DELGADO: It happens. They're a really good basketball team. Tomorrow is going to be a good team and I expect us to win. Q. Do you feel you have something to prove? ANGEL DELGADO: No, we don't have nothing to prove. We're just coming tomorrow and just playing ball. Q. Coach, Big East has a chance to get seven NCAA Tournament bids this year. In your opinion is this the best version that this league, in its 10-team form, has been? COACH WILLARD: Oh, yeah. Marquette's definitely an NCAA Tournament team. The way they can score, the wins they've had all year. I think it's exciting the fact we can get seven in. It's as balanced of a league as you can play in. The true round robin makes -- it also makes it a lot of fun. I've had fun getting to know Josh Hart and Kris Jenkins, and watching them grow as players. And Travis Diener, who's on the staff of Marquette, twice a year. I think the league has good coaches. They all want each other to do well. And Markus Howard is as good as a freshman there is. It's got great young talent and great veteran talent. Q. Coach, both regular season games seem to be like a grind-it-out, it could have gone either way. What made the difference in this game that you were able to pick up? COACH WILLARD: I thought we had -- I think we had a six-minute stretch where they didn't score in the second half. I thought both teams were a little sloppy the beginning of the second half. But we were able to really defend. We made them take some tough 2s. We chased Rowsey off the line a little bit. He really hurt us. We were able to chase Howard off the line which really helped us. And I thought we really shared the ball well. I thought the big fellow was tremendous in making extra passes and just getting everybody involved in the offense. Q. Myles Powell plays in his first Big East Tournament game, and he goes ties the team high in points with 17. How big is that for a guy like him getting his feet wet for the first time and for the team to see a youngster play with so much confidence? COACH WILLARD: I mean, we were 10-2 in non-conference. And he was averaging almost 15 points a game. And he's a guy that we've continued to need. And he went through a little tough stretch at the end of February. But he's played this way all year long. He might not get as much attention because of the big fella and Khadeen and Desi, the way they're playing, but Myles has had a phenomenal freshman year. Everybody forgets, I have to limit him minutes-wise and I have to limit him practice-wise because he's coming off a broken foot from high school. So I battle that. That's also kind of hurt him a little bit where some of the other freshmen in the league getting 36 minutes and twice the shots. I've had to be very careful with his foot, especially this time of year. Q. Coach, how far has Angel come offensively passing out of the post drawing double teams, just how much has he improved? COACH WILLARD: Where he's improved dramatically is his mental approach to the offensive game. And I think that's, for big fellas, he always works hard on his offense, works hard on his 15-footer, puts the time into his post moves. He's a relentless rebounder. Eight offensive rebounds. I got nothing to do with that. But I think what we've really tried to work with him with is understanding offense. When you get double teamed, kick it out, that means they're going to scramble you're going to get a guy driving you're going to get an offensive rebound. He's matured come light years, I mean light years from his freshman year where he would run around try to make a post move. I think he's come a long way in understanding the offensive game. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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