	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: BUFFALO

March 16, 2017

Buffalo, New York

Villanova - 76, Mount St. Mary's - 56

THE MODERATOR: Joined by Villanova head coach Jay Wright and student-athletes, Jalen Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo. Gentlemen, congrats on advancing to the winner of the Wisconsin game. Same format. We'll have Coach open with a statement.

JAY WRIGHT: I just want to compliment Jamion and his team. They were just great. They really outplayed us. We just, at the end, had more size and some more talented players that just made plays. But they were better prepared, Jamion had them better prepared than I did, and they played better. We just had bigger, better athletes, but they were a great team. I thought they were the better team tonight. And they deserve a lot of credit, a lot of credit.

Q. Donte, is @DonteDiVincenzo your actual Twitter account?
DONTE DIVINCENZO: Yes, it is. But I don't have Twitter anymore.

Q. But you only have, like, 4500 followers?
DONTE DIVINCENZO: Yes, it is. I don't have it anymore.

Q. I know a couple months ago, Coach Wright dared to compare you with your star player, and a lot of people are like, oh, really? But you had a bit of a break-out performance tonight. How is it happening for you especially, first half, when there was some turbulence?
DONTE DIVINCENZO: My job off the bench is just to bring energy, focus on defending and rebounding. The offense came tonight after just pushing it on offense, after getting a rebound. So if I just focus on that, all of the offense will come.

Q. Can you maybe talk -- describe how rebounding is a part of your game because you come into the game averaging only three and a half, but you have eight by halftime. And how significant do you think that was to getting the team kick-started?
DONTE DIVINCENZO: I mean, we didn't come out the first half with energy off the start, and, I mean, we have some great rebounders on our team. All of us can rebound the ball. I mean, throughout the year, you see us, some guys have eight, nine, rebounds a game. But tonight, I just -- my guy was going back, I was free to go to the rim and chase down the ball, and I just had a knack for the ball tonight.

Q. For Jalen, could you put your finger on why you guys got off to such a slow start and were there any nerves involved?
JALEN BRUNSON: I just -- Mount St. Mary's is a great team. We were watching them. We knew going into the game that they have the ability to play the way they did. I mean, they came out shooting the ball, sharing the ball and just playing with great energy. And, I mean, you got to give them credit. We just got to come out and play harder. Just got to give them credit about that.

Q. Jalen, also, for you, you guys live a lot on the three-point line, and when you come out slow like you did in that first half, particularly Kris, not to single him out, but he got some really good looks. What's your mindset in terms of how are we going to make up for what we're not doing?
JALEN BRUNSON: We've got to make up on the defensive end. We got to make sure we're defending and rebounding. I think when Donte came in off the bench he did a great job sparking us with some energy and defensive rebounds. It felt like he was getting every rebound out there and gave us a little bit of energy. When we're not making shots, we can't really focus on that. We have to focus on defending and rebounding on our possession. There are going to nights like tonight where we don't make shots, like in the first half, so we've just got to focus on defense.

Q. Last time this year you were hurt. What were your emotions like coming into this game to participate and play this year?
DONTE DIVINCENZO: I mean, it's a big stage, my first time being in an NCAA Tournament. But my mindset was just our next game. It was our biggest game because it was our next game. My energy went towards my teammates. I wasn't focused on anything on the outside, and I think it showed tonight.

Q. What did you absorb last year from watching on the bench.
DONTE DIVINCENZO: The leadership from Ryan and Daniel. When things got rough, they got us together and they really calmed us down. Grinnell wasn't playing, but you could can see we were just all together out there, all five guys on the court.

Q. Jalen, it seemed like tonight you made a concerted effort to take your guy inside and get shots closer to the basket. Was that something you were trying to do?
JALEN BRUNSON: I think like Coach said, we had a little bit of height advantage and athleticism. I was just trying to make the right play at the right time. When I got in the lane, I just felt like I could shore up my defenders and when I got that close, I just ended up shooting it.

Q. Last question, I guess, Donte, has to be asked, the two missed dunks. What happened there?
DONTE DIVINCENZO: I don't know. The first one I took off too far, I guess. The second one, I don't know what happened. I just didn't get a lot of lift. I tried to get it back off the steal.

Q. Was that one of those situations, the second one you were thinking I the got to make up for the last one.
DONTE DIVINCENZO: I wasn't really worried about that. It's something that goes through your head after that second missed dunk.

THE MODERATOR: Tried to get you out of here, Donte before that one.

Q. Hey, Jay, a follow-up to that question about the two dunks. Obviously Donte had a great game. Is that one of the things you let him know about or, after missing the dunks you kind of let it slide?
JAY WRIGHT: I have no problem with that at all, none. Like you said, he made two great defensive plays to get out there and he just took off. He's one of our best dunkers. He took off too far on the first one and probably on the second one, he should have gone off one foot. I think he heard the crowd as he was going. They were kind of laughing and I think he slowed up and said I'll go off two feet, which he did didn't have to do. It's one of those things a freshman does. I won't say a word about that. I'm so proud about how he rebounded and how he defended.

Q. I noticed during one of the time-outs in the first half you got a little animated with one of the refs. Do you care to share that conversation?
JAY WRIGHT: I do remember getting animated. I get animated on a lot of things. I couldn't remember which one that was. You get frustrated when your team is not playing the way you like them to and the other team is actually playing better. Sometimes at that time you think it's a call. You always go back and watch the film and find out it wasn't the call, it was your team. But, you know, you'd think I'd be better at that after all these years but no.

Q. Jay, your team prides itself on energy and playing as a team, and that really wasn't present in the first half. What do you think was missing?
JAY WRIGHT: You know what, Dana, I honestly don't know. I really thought after -- this is our 35th game. I didn't think we were capable of that. I thought we were capable of coming out and, you know, missing some shots, coming out and making some mistakes. But the level of energy we started the game with, I just didn't think we were capable of that. I'm in a little bit of shock myself.

I do have to say, when you play a really quick team like Mount St. Mary's, that's coming off the game, too, like, they came in the game with great energy, great confidence. I think that's a credit to Jamion and his staff, that they were right from the start. And we tried to have our guys ready. That's on me, too. We didn't. I honestly don't have an answer. If I came up with something, I would be BS'ing you.

Q. I appreciate you didn't. Could it be the pressure? You don't know how they'll handle pressure of a repeat until they walk into it. Could that be a factor?
JAY WRIGHT: It could be. You guys asked me a number of times, you dealt with all season having to repeat as Big East Champions, and all this, how does that affect you? I know now that it's over, how is this going to affect you? I don't know. We'll see. Maybe that was a part of it. It surprises me if it was. I know they were fired up to play. I do think some of it was Mount St. Mary's. I really do. I think those three guards are smaller and quicker than any guards we played against. It gave us trouble. We had a hard time early. We adjusted to their speed and quickness. I think that was part of it.

Q. You mentioned you felt Mount St. Mary's outplayed you. You said you had to do a better job and everything. You seemed pretty animated at the end of the game talking to Jenkins and Brunson on the bench a minute. What are you saying and how kind of annoyed are you by what happened here tonight?
JAY WRIGHT: I'm not annoyed. As I said to Dana, I really am shocked. I really am. Again, not how well Mount St. Mary's played, just that we didn't start the game with energy. We always do; you know? And I really don't have time to figure it out. We've got to get on to the winner of this game, and that's the beauty of this tournament. The beauty of the tournament is, if this was the season, I'd say all right, we got to address this right now. I got to say we got to forget about it and we got to get ready for the winner of this game.

Q. Kind of a follow-up on that, 48 hours from now, you're going to be playing again. If you play like you did in the first half tonight, can you survive that?
JAY WRIGHT: No. No. And I think they know that, you know? But that's still not an excuse for not coming to play. But again it's on all of us. It's on our leadership. It's on me. That's just part of it, man. We're lucky to advance. We're lucky, and I think we'll put it behind us and I think we'll get ready. We'll get ready for the winner of this game.

Q. Jay, just before the game, I saw you were talking to your alma mater in the locker room of picture service. Can you tell us what you said to your alma mater?
JAY WRIGHT: I just told them all of us are really proud of them. I have a bunch of Bucknell guys I play basketball with, and we have a text thread that we all stay on and follow the games. We always follow them. I thought they had a great season and I thought they played great against West Virginia. West Virginia is good, man. They're good and so is Bucknell.

Q. Jay, Josh Hart didn't have his biggest statistical game. He really did settle things down for you when you put him back in in at the end of the first half and then the second half. Was he a settling presence?
JAY WRIGHT: Definitely. Even at the end of the first half, we never had a lead. He had a big play. We put him in at the end of the first half with two fouls which was a shaky decision. Because when you play a smaller team like that, when a bigger body hits them, they go flying, and it looks like a charge. We were afraid on that drive he could pick up his third foul and it worked out for us. But he, in the second half was fresh, played really well, played defensively well. We posted him up some. He's a huge part of what we do. Him getting two quick fouls made the difference in the first half, too.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much.

JAY WRIGHT: Thank you, guys.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297