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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 15, 2019Travis SteelePaul ScruggsZach HankinsNew York, New York Villanova - 71, Xavier - 67 TRAVIS STEELE: Congratulations to Villanova. They've got a really good team. It's a high-level game today. That's what everyone would expect for a Big East semifinal game. Obviously, our guys were excited to play and have the opportunity to compete against Villanova. We competed hard, man. We really did. I thought we battled all the way to the very end. Unfortunately, we didn't come up on top. We got to bounce back and looking forward to whatever kind of the future holds here. Q. Travis, that Naji charge call there at the end of regulation, that was a tough one. TRAVIS STEELE: Yeah, it was. Q. What did you see through your eyes, and how do you think that affected Xavier moving forward? TRAVIS STEELE: I'm not going to comment on that. I will tell you that was a huge, huge call, though. Q. Travis, I feel like this game is kind of almost a microcosm of what you guys went through this year kind of fighting and never giving up. What do you tell these guys after a game like this? TRAVIS STEELE: I'm proud of them, how we competed. I thought we competed the right way. Villanova is obviously a really good team. We knew they had to get our best. I always tell our guys, execution doesn't have to be perfect, but our effort does. I thought that was there today. Obviously, we came up a little bit short against a really good Villanova team. Q. Travis, you guys had Nova for a majority of the game, but over the last 4:30 they held you to just one shot. What did they change that made it difficult for you guys? TRAVIS STEELE: Nothing really. I don't think they changed anything defensively. They were switching 1 through 5 most off screens and ball screens throughout the game. We tried to get the ball to the rim as much as possible for us to the post. Paul did a great job driving the ball as well. We just came up a little bit short. Give them credit. Jermaine Samuels made two enormous threes. The one three hit every part of the rim. Give him credit, he knocked them in. Q. The last two games we saw you guys play with different styles. Last game Zach performed extremely well. Tonight Paul did. Can you speak to the versatility of our team and how that could be beneficial to you going forward. TRAVIS STEELE: We have a lot of good players. Paul stepped up. He was terrific tonight. Zach was terrific. We had a lot of guys be really good tonight. I was really proud of our guys' effort. When you scout Xavier, the go-to guy for us is the open guy. I thought our guys did a pretty good job. I know we ended up with 22 assists, right? We had 22 assists -- I can't read the stat sheet. 13 steals. So 22 assists on 27 made field goals is pretty dang good. It means the ball was moving. Guys were making the right plays. Obviously, Paul did a lot of scoring tonight, but our guys did a good job finding him as well. Q. Coach, how do you feel now about the NCAA? Do you feel -- I mean, a win probably would have put you in, but do you feel better about it? Second, a couple weeks ago, losing streak, you guys were taking it. What's been the big difference, and are you surprised to be in this kind of position? TRAVIS STEELE: So I'll answer the first one first here. I will tell you, we haven't even talked about the NCAA Tournament with our team at all. We know what's at stake. Our guys know. We've just got to take care of business every day, get better in practice, and let our playing do the talking, which I think, again, if you see how we've been playing over the last month or so, we're a top 30 team in college basketball for sure. We're a team that can advance. There's no doubt about it. We won at Seton Hall. Won at Providence. Won at St. John's. Beat them on our home court. Beat Creighton on a neutral court. There's no question we'd be good enough to obviously advance. That's obviously up to the committee to decide whether we're in or not. What was your second question? Q. Are you surprised after what -- TRAVIS STEELE: I'm not really surprised. I think our defense has gotten a lot better. Again, we played against a really talented Villanova team today. Eric Paschall, Phil Booth. They're well coached. They move the ball. They're hard to guard. They're really hard to guard. They space you out a lot like Creighton did to us yesterday. Our defense has gotten a lot better. Like I've been telling our guys, our defense travels whether playing at Cintas Center, on the road, or here at MSG. Q. We all know how much talent Villanova lost from last year, but what makes them so hard to put away? For 36 minutes you were the better team, and they find a way to scratch and claw. What is special about their team this year? What makes them so tough? TRAVIS STEELE: I think they have two tremendous seniors. I would start right there. Phil Booth and Eric Paschall are First Team All League guys. They have an ability to make tough shots, make plays. Those guys are hard to handle. Starts with their leadership. You can tell on the floor. They're winners. They're used to winning, right? They've been in positions like this a lot during their career. And, again, for us, unfortunately, we came up short tonight, but I thought our effort was good enough. We just came up a little bit short. Give Villanova a lot of credit. Q. Coach, for much of the game, it looked like Villanova didn't have any answers for Zach Hankins. Were you trying to get the ball into his hands much in the overtime period? TRAVIS STEELE: Yeah. Zach, we tried to use our size to our advantage. Obviously, they were fronting as much as possible. We were trying to clear that back side, trying to lob over the top. Zach is 6'11", and Jermaine Samuels is 6'7" or Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree is 6'8". So we were trying to pound that ball inside as much as possible, but Villanova does a great job making it difficult to get it in there. They do a great job of fronting. Q. To the players, what do you feel changed the most over the last minute of regulation? ZACH HANKINS: Yeah, I think rebounding was big. I think -- I mean, a lot of offensive rebounds we gave up to Villanova and let in second-chance points. That more so is true for the overtime, but even that last play, that was a big time offensive rebound by them. They're going to make tough shots, and we know that, but we just got to stick to defensive rebounding. That wins games. Q. Travis, in that last time-out between Paul's free throws, what was your message? I mean, did you tell him to leave it short and want someone to come in and get that rebound? TRAVIS STEELE: Yeah. Obviously, we told him he's got to obviously hit the rim. I wanted him to make the first, not have to even think about the second one because what a lot of time happens is coaches will tell, hey, I want you to miss the second one, but then they miss the first one. I wanted him to think about making the first one, which he did a good job of. We tried to use Tyrique and obviously Zach. Size is our advantage. I thought that was probably going to put us in the best position to win the game, try to get an offensive rebound or foul right away, which obviously we fouled. Q. Travis, if the NCAA Tournament doesn't happen, do you still want to continue to play with this team if there's another opportunity out there? TRAVIS STEELE: Absolutely. I love coaching these guys. These guys are working hard every single day. Even when people were doubting us, we stuck together, kept on working. We've still got a lot to play for. Hopefully, we'll be getting back to practice here soon and see kind of what the next step is. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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