BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 11, 2021

Dan Hurley

UConn Huskies

Madison Square Garden

Postgame Media Conference

UConn - 94, DePaul - 60

COACH HURLEY: Thrilled with obviously the win. Watching DePaul last night versus Providence, their athleticism and they played really, really well last night. It was really important for us in the first half to separate ourselves and to try to take their hope away by the level that we would be able to play at both ends of the court. And it was just a really, really clean, really clean performance on both ends.

Q. There was almost like joyous celebration just in reaching this city, this tournament, this platform again. And then there's another part of the conversation that, like you said last week, has you a sneaky Final Four team. But in between, how satisfied are you that the team kind of met this moment and focused on the basketball opportunity at hand?

COACH HURLEY: You mean for the tournament here or just overall?

Q. How you came out and actually took care of business and blocked out any noise, really?

COACH HURLEY: Well, listen, it's all about obviously your culture and just having like a great group of talented players that are about the right things. Just having an excellent staff. And if you've got the right players and the right staff and the right culture, you can turn off the noise and just go about your preparation. And go out there and play to the best of your ability.

And we feel the excitement. I mean our fan base is it's one of the best in the country. And we're just happy that we're giving them something to be excited about in March again. It's been a while.

Q. Season high 53 rebounds. A season high 21 offensive rebounds, that's the good news. The bad news is you had a lot of second- and third-chance opportunities and couldn't get points off of it. Talk about the ying and the yang.

COACH HURLEY: What? (Laughter). You can't obviously make everything. We scored enough. We were tenacious on the glass. And that was a real concern of ours coming in because we're one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country. But DePaul as well is they're a beast on the backboards.

So to dominate them on the glass the way we did, the way they go after the ball, it was obviously -- it's a huge part of who we are, huge part of our identity, defense and rebounding.

Q. Can you update us on James. I know you mentioned cramping, what's going on there?

COACH HURLEY: He's getting the IV and he's got -- he's cramping. And I guess we'll just see. I've not -- I'm just not sure where it came from. Our medical team and James and Mike, the strength coach, James Doran, they have to have him ready tomorrow. So they'll figure it out.

Q. Creighton, you played them twice; they beat you both times. You're a better team now. Just watching them in the last couple of games, do they look like a different team, and in particular is Zegarowski playing very well right now?

COACH HURLEY: To be honest with you, we played Georgetown and then in our last game and we were preparing for the winner of Providence and DePaul. So when you're preparing to play your first-round game, you really don't spend a whole lot of time watching other teams in the league.

So we know how good those guys are. I've got a ton of respect for -- they've got a hell of a team, a team that has as good a chance as any to win this championship. And a team that can make a deep run into the NCAA Tournament next week.

So they've got -- I've got tremendous respect for them, their players and the way that they're focused right now with everything that they've been dealing with, the way that they're locked in and playing really, really good basketball.

So, I mean, that's -- we're just excited for us to be in the Big East Conference semifinals versus one of the best teams in the country. And we get a chance to play a marquee game tomorrow night, which is exciting. To be able to give college basketball fans kind of a fun game to tune into tomorrow night during this, like, brutal COVID time. We know it's a tremendous challenge but it's exciting, too.