BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 13, 2021

Patrick Ewing

Georgetown Hoyas

Madison Square Garden

Postgame Media Conference

Georgetown - 73, Creighton - 48

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing.

Q. So many things were aligned tonight. It seemed like 49 years today since John Thompson was hired. Back in the Big East Tournament for you as a player and coach. Did you feel there was something bigger going on and that maybe you were guided by something else? Obviously the defense and offense were great, but something beyond just that what's going on on the court.

COACH EWING: I think so. Like you just said, it was ironic that 40-plus years ago that Coach Thompson was hired at Georgetown. And it was on this date that he was hired.

And today we won the Big East championship. They had us ranked last. I kept talking about that Drake song. Drake, he's probably going to get some more money now because I've been saying it so much: We started from the bottom; now we're here. We started at the bottom; now we're number one.

But we still have a lot of work ahead of us. We're happy. We're going to celebrate it today. But we fly to Indianapolis tomorrow and we have to get back to work.

Q. You obviously had some great moments in the Garden as a player. How do you compare this to some of your greatest moments as a player, to win a Big East Tournament as a coach?

COACH EWING: It's right up there. It was a different chapter in my life. As a player, I'm the one out there trying to score, block shots, rebound. And as a coach, I'm here where a lot of people didn't think that I had the ability to do. And I'm proving everyone wrong.

I worked at this craft 15 years in the NBA, given the opportunity here at Georgetown. And we've been through some trials and tribulations, kids leaving, guys stepping up and playing to exhaustion last year. This year started off slow with all the new faces. But everyone has done their part to get us to this point.

Q. When you look at where you are where this team is, four wins in four nights, you were picked last. Are you even surprised at what this team was able to do these last four days?

COACH EWING: No, I'm not surprised. I believe in these kids. I think they believe in me. I keep telling them from the first day we met, once we got on campus, I told them we had enough talent to get to win the Big East, to make it to the NCAA Tournament. And once you get to the NCAA Tournament, anything is possible.

Q. All year long you've talked about steps for the program. How big of a step was tonight?

COACH EWING: Huge. Huge step. A lot of people discredit us, talk bad about us, talk about our team. But we believed in ourselves. We worked hard. We fought hard. We got on each other. We hated on each other. I kicked them in the butt. We did everything that we needed to do to get to this point. And I think it's paid off.

Q. I know you've been asked this a couple times before, but can you pinpoint a couple of things from the beginning of the season that changed until now? Even the beginning of the season you guys would sometimes go up, get big leads in the first half and then squander them right away. Now you're extending that lead. So what are some of the changes allowing this to occur?

COACH EWING: I can't put my finger on one specific change, I think it's just growth. Like I said earlier, we were the last team to on campus. A lot of the teams were already there this summer getting to know each other, working on their craft. My guys was at home. All our stuff was via Zoom.

Once we got on campus, it's going to take time to gel. We had nine new faces. So it took some time for us to become a more cohesive unit. And also the pause helped us. We were able to exhale, refocus and get back on the grind.

Q. Talk about your guys shrinking the floor and choking off driving lanes tonight, which put a lot of pressure on their shooting and they didn't shoot well.

COACH EWING: Our last two games, that was our best defensive games of the year. We did everything that we needed to do. We shrunk the floor. We took away gaps. We got to them at the 3-point line for the most part. We rebounded the basketball. To me, the last two games was our two best games. And I'm hoping that it won't stop.

Q. A week ago probably seems like a lifetime ago. You got routed at UConn and you said it was a royal ass kicking, that was your quote. How did you get from that point to this point and did that strengthen your resolve after that game?

COACH EWING: We had been playing well up to that point. We had opportunities to win. I think our record to that point was what, 9-3 or whatever it was, I don't even remember. I know we had lost -- that was the third game that we lost. We had been playing well.

I was definitely shocked the way that we came out and performed that night. I wasn't expecting it. But you take your hats off to them. They kicked our butts and took name. But we regrouped and here we are today.

Q. Neither you nor Georgetown do much in the way of being an underdog. What's been just overall the hardest challenge for you just to get this team where it is right now, what's been the hardest part of it?

COACH EWING: Just blocking out the noise, I guess. Our home noise, our road noise, just blocking out the noise. This year has been a trying year for everyone in the world with the pandemic. It's been a trying year for all athletes -- going to class, online, doing all the things you have to do, staying away from folks. It's been a trying year.

And I just have to thank my guys for their resolve. We were able to, for the most part, stay safe except for the only time we got shut down. And they've been doing a very good job of just persevering.

Q. How did you get these guys to play this kind of defense when it mattered most?

COACH EWING: We work on defense every day. And for the better part of the year I've been kicking myself saying what the hell am I not doing right. But we picked the right time to get it done, especially these last two games. We've been locked in. It starts with Dante on the ball. He's been doing an outstanding job of defending the point guards. And everybody else follows his lead.

Q. What made you guys the difference in this tournament? What made you all so special? What was something different that you saw from your team this past week?

COACH EWING: I just think our belief in ourselves, from when we got here, I keep talking about the steps. That's one of the things I keep talking to them about. First step is to get the first win. We did that. Second step was to get the second win. We did that. Third step, fourth step, here we are, champions, Big East champions.

It's great to be, we have eight now. We have a rich history. And especially where we started with people thinking that we weren't going to be this good, and to finally achieve it, it feels very good.