BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 12, 2021

Damien Jefferson

Creighton Bluejays

Madison Square Garden

Postgame Media Conference

Creighton - 59, UConn - 56

Q. UConn came in here with a lot of, like, they've been playing really well. And I think a lot of people probably thought they were the favorites at least to win this league based on how the season ended for everybody. Did you guys take that stuff to heart at all? Were you guys playing for more than just a chance to go to tomorrow night? Was this pride on the line a little bit tonight?

DAMIEN JEFFERSON: Oh, yeah, for sure. We have a group chat with us and the coaches, and they were sending us tweets, who was going to win the Big East championship and everyone was saying it was going to be UConn. We took pride towards that and everybody said that just added fuel to the fire. And I think we came out there played like fuel -- used it as fuel, I should say.

Q. What was it like to have to overcome that early deficit, the 13-2 and have to play at UConn's pace and be able to overcome that in the process?

DAMIEN JEFFERSON: It was nothing we haven't seen before. We've been facing games like that all year. It was nothing new to us. We just had to stay composed and do what we had to do and play the right way, which is play our style of basketball, don't get too sped up or too slowed down. Obviously we did what we had to do, we fought and we came out with the W.

Q. To be able to say that -- because there were questions just asked about that deficit, you really just kind of just went back and forth, back and forth. How were you able to shut down UConn's bigs and guard play defensively?

DAMIEN JEFFERSON: Coach kept preaching we can't go back and forth with them. Like you said, we can't keep going back and forth with them. And he told us if we get a couple of stops we're going to win this game. And I was just telling everybody in the huddle, keep fighting, keep fighting, get some stops on the defensive end.

And, man, I'm proud of my guys. We did a great job stopping those dudes like you said stopping their bigs and keeping their guards to a good pace where we wanted to be at. I feel like we did a good job.

Q. I want to affirm, UConn, you talked about, wanted to shut down the notion as favorites. I picked you before the tournament started, let me add that. But UConn started off hot, 13-2 start. They went for a first-round knockout right there. How were you guys able to just collect yourselves get back up from that knockout punch and come back the way you did?

DAMIEN JEFFERSON: We know that basketball is a game of runs. They had some good runs; we had some good runs. But it came down to key stops. I feel like we did a great job of stopping their main guy, James Bouknight. And we kept him to the pace we wanted him to be at and we did a good job with that and obviously came out with the win.

Q. Your team has the opportunity tomorrow to play for a Big East title. I know you're coming off this emotional win right now, but what are you guys looking forward to tomorrow night going up against Georgetown?

DAMIEN JEFFERSON: Just taking it one game at a time. We have to play Georgetown just like how we approach every game and that's play the Creighton way play, the right way, and obviously get some stops. And we know we go into the game we have to guard their bigs, contain their bigs and their guards.

They've got nice guards with Blair and the freshman, Harris. We've got to contain him and do what we can with Wahab. We know he's a force in faint. Once we do that, we're going to be good.