BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 11, 2021

LaVall Jordan

Butler Bulldogs

Madison Square Garden

Postgame Media Conference

Creighton - 87, Butler - 56

COACH JORDAN: A lot of congratulations to Creighton. Obviously they played a heck of a ball game. And ton of respect for the program. I think they have a really good team, really good team. And obviously we've seen them three times this year. And they handled us pretty good twice, two out of three times. They played well. Give them credit.

I thought the start of the game they set a tone. We had some good looks early and needed a couple of them to fall to just stay with them there in the first beginning stretches of the game. Thought we did a good job battling, fighting. I think we cut it to nine points in the middle of the first half there before they broke it open and kind of got away from us. Just couldn't reel them back in.

You need shots to fall to get back in it so you can set your defense because of the pace they play at. And we just didn't have it. So credit goes to them. They're a big reason why.

And so they had a lot of attention on Chuck. Bryce Nze did a good job competing. And we just couldn't help our guys enough to find some success offensively to be able to stay in range. A lot of credit to them.

Q. Can you tell us anything about Myles Tate's apparent knee injury?

COACH JORDAN: You know what? We'll get an evaluation when we get back. And obviously he couldn't put much weight on it coming off the court with the team into the locker room. But nothing determined at this point. As soon as we get back we'll get an evaluation.

Q. Creighton burst ahead so early. Maybe it was not an issue but do you feel like your guys were fatigued physically or emotionally from everything they put into Wednesday's game?

COACH JORDAN: Yeah, could be. I'm not sure. I know they came out, like I said, they came out swinging. I thought we had some opportunities early, but and I don't know. You never know why. You play one way a certain night and something totally, something different the next night out.

Obviously played a lot of guys a lot of minutes last night and went into overtime. But you still know it's Creighton. You know the pace. We couldn't control the pace of it early. And I thought that was a big factor in the game.

Q. How much of an impact did Marcus Zegarowski have on the game itself, especially that part of the game you just mentioned, the pace there and getting it controlled?

COACH JORDAN: He's a tremendous player, a tremendous player. At their place, again, 32 points. We couldn't get him under control or contain him. Early on we had a lot of attention on him. He moved the ball and let his teammates do the work.

Jefferson set a tone early, driving us. And so that's what makes Zegarowski good is he's willing to let his teammates be aggressive and just kind of took what came to him. That's what good players do.

Q. You guys have been able to come back from double-digit leads all season long -- we saw that last night especially. Why was it harder to close that gap this game?

COACH JORDAN: It's not the position you want to be in, to be down double digits. Unfortunately we've been in that situation quite a bit this season and battled back a few times. But it's hard to do that against a team with the type of firepower that Creighton has.

You need them to miss a couple. I thought a couple of those shots early were contested and they made them anyway. So they got into a really good rhythm and everything kind of started to go in. So that makes it harder.

So, again, you've got to be able to get to the foul line to dictate the pace. You've got to finish when you have the opportunities to just kind of slow them down and cut into that lead. And obviously we couldn't do that.

Q. A trying season with all the adversity off the floor. What did you share with your team in the locker room after this one in that regard?

COACH JORDAN: Just obviously we've got five seniors in the locker room there. Jair has been with us for a year. Just to thank those guys for their efforts. They've all been here and battled through some things physically and emotionally.

We just talked about their journey and what they've contributed to the program for the time that they've been here and our gratitude for them sacrificing themselves for others and learning the power of that. And I thought we played our better basketball down the stretch and found some wins and created some memories that nobody can take away from them.

And then the other guys will be motivated through this and play for those guys should they not come back. We haven't gotten to those conversations yet, but we will. Just kind of the lessons we learned through all the circumstances and what that brings out of you. And I thought it brought the right things out of this bunch.