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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2017Greg McDermottDavion MintzKhyri ThomasNew York, New York Creighton - 70, Providence - 58 COACH MCDERMOTT: I'm extremely proud of our team. We kind of won a rock fight tonight. Neither team shot free throws well. Particularly in the first half neither team shot well. But I talked to the team at halftime. They had scored 30 points in 36 possessions the first half, and I felt like if we continue with that defense, that things would loosen up a little for us offensively. And we were able to force some turnovers -- Khyri was terrific defensively. And I thought Davion, after maybe having some freshman jitters playing in this tournament the first time in the first half, I thought he really settled in and was great on both ends of the floor the second half. So extremely proud of the team to get back to the semifinals, to have an opportunity to play in another championship game. Q. Really the first time you dominated a great team since losing Watson. You have a sophomore and freshman there but did it a different way. Only seven assists but both had three steals. This man did great from the line. Is the team learning to win a different way than you did with that 18-1 start when you had the senior passer to run things? COACH MCDERMOTT: While we've scored some games, we probably don't have the spreadability that we had prior to Maurice's injury. But we've had to reinvent ourselves. And I've said it many times, Khyri and Marcus, in particular, the first 20 games of the season they were secondary bought in, secondary decision makers. And the last 12 or 13 they're primary decision makers and ball handlers. And that's quite a change to make 20 games into a season. And there's been some peaks and valleys to that. There's been games they've been terrific. There's been games where they turned it over a little bit too much. But they've gotten better. Davion went from not playing much to playing a significant role. Isaiah is playing some point guard he wasn't before. Tyler Clement is playing a bit. We've had to move pieces around but they've stayed together. That's a credit to the leadership in our locker room and these young guys. As you said I've got a freshman and sophomore up here. They've grown up fast. Q. Khyri, you didn't guard Cartwright much in Omaha the last meeting, but tonight you were switching off him and Bullock. And Bullock goes 1-for-8. Khyri turns the ball over six times. What were you doing tonight to make things chaotic for both of them? KHYRI THOMAS: For Bullock, I wasn't really doing a whole lot. I don't think he was being as aggressive the first two times we played him. And Cartwright he's super quick. He blew by me every time. But with him I just kind of laid off his shot and laid back off the 3-point line and made him drive. And he kind of made some tough shots and missed some as well. Q. What does it say about your team that you were able to win this game when your leading scorer was on the bench with foul trouble and really not on the court when you made that big game-changing run early in the second half? COACH MCDERMOTT: Well, you bring a guy like Isaiah Zierden, who's in his fifth year off the bench. Isaiah has played every role we've asked him to play. He's dealt with three major injuries during the course of his career. He's led us in minutes last year. He's coming off the bench. He just does what he does. He was instrumental in that run. He brings a calmness to our team. But we had to balance a lot of foul trouble. And while Marcus was in foul trouble, he was our best cheerleader over there on the bench, talking to the guys at every timeout and never became unengaged in the game while he was sitting on the bench with foul trouble. And that's the sign of a pretty mature player. Q. You had eight free throws in the first half, jumped up to 25 in the second half. Was being aggressive and getting to the line one of your points of emphasis in the second half? COACH MCDERMOTT: When you're not shooting 3s well you better do something different. Obviously the threat of our ability to shoot the 3, because we've been one of the better teams in the country all season, opens things up and allows us to maybe get to the rim a little bit more than some teams. But Khyri was terrific. Justin was active, slipping out of some ball screens and getting to the rim and putting pressure on the rim. But without question, getting into the bonus early was really critical for us that second half. Q. Davion, coach just mentioned you got some turnovers to start the second half, but looked like you were just playing with a little bit more energy as a team. I guess, did you notice that? And why do you think you got off to such a good start in the second half? DAVION MINTZ: I want to say I have best teammates in the nation because the first half it was ugly for me. When I came into the locker room they uplifted me and calmed me down. I came out a little anxious, just ready and excited. But once I calmed down and got my groove, that's when I could hype myself up and it started with them. I thank them and the coaching staff for sticking with me. Q. What does it say about the league the same day that the 2, 3, 4 seeds get knocked off? COACH MCDERMOTT: I said it a long time ago, when we lost Maurice and Xavier lost Edmond, you could take -- obviously Villanova separated themselves on the top, and DePaul, while they got a lot better, didn't win a lot on the bottom. But you could take the other eight and put us all in the hat and pick us out any night. There's not much difference and any given night anything could happen. I think that's what you've seen happen in the league over the course since those two injuries have taken place. But there's great basketball in this league. And I think that's going to be evident when Selection Sunday rolls around. Q. You talked leading up to this about 50/50 balls and wondering why not everybody is kind of sacrificing their bodies. And I think at one point in the second half there was a possession where all five of your guys touched a loose ball at half court. You pushed it to 10. Did you feel like that was when the game switched in your favor, and what's changed in the days leading up to that? COACH MCDERMOTT: We've talked about it after the last game. And those guys that made those hustle plays at Marquette fueled something that in everybody in the program -- and that possession was a great microcosm of the game for us. We talked about, really simple before the game, you don't have a lot of time to talk to your team when they have 20 minutes to get ready. So we talked about intelligence and toughness, shot selection, being in the right spot, communication, and then winning the 50/50 plays. And for the most part tonight we were able to do that. Q. You've alluded to this a little bit, but in a game like this, where you don't play your best, to find a way, just how important is that, and what does it say about your team that you were able to get this win? COACH MCDERMOTT: This time of year you try to survive. You're trying to get to the next day. And that's going to be the case this weekend and then next week the NCAA Tournament is the same way. You see what you've got that night. Do you have your A game? Do you have your B game, shooting the basketball? And you just adjust and you try to find a way to win. But our guys really competed tonight. And we were playing a team, Ed's done an unbelievable job especially these last three, three and a half weeks of the season to take a team that was 4-8 and get them into the NCAA Tournament. They're the hottest team in the league. And for us to be able to frustrate them with some of our defense is really a credit to our team. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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