NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL SEMIFINAL: VILLANOVA VS BAYLOR

March 27, 2021

Jay Wright

Hinkle Fieldhouse

Villanova Wildcats

Sweet 16 Postgame Media Conference

Baylor - 62, Villanova - 51

COACH WRIGHT: I'd like to first say congratulations to Dan Gavitt and JoAnn Scott and everyone at the NCAA. Just put together an incredible tournament and gave all of our players, all the teams in the NCAA an opportunity to play in this great tournament. The logistics were incredible what they did. And we really appreciate all their efforts in allowing these guys to play.

Second, I want to congratulate Baylor. They're an outstanding team. And Scott Drew is a great coach. And they're just a really good team, definitely a team capable of winning a national championship. And they have a lot of great teams to play, but they're definitely capable of winning it.

Thirdly, I want to say I'm really proud of our guys. Love this team, loved coaching this team. We were good enough, we were good enough to beat them. They just played better down the stretch. I think down the stretch their defense just got into us and wore us down. And it made the difference in the game.

Q. In the second half it looked like the offense was really, I don't know, confused about where to go. Was that just the tempo of the Baylor defense kind of interfering with your thought processes offensively?

COACH WRIGHT: Yeah, they really got into our guards and prevented us from initiating offense. They just contested every pass, every cut. And it did make us -- it actually took us out of running offense and we had to try to just kind of drive the ball and try to get some post-ups, but we didn't do a good job of that. But I think the credit goes to their defense.

Q. You answered it in many ways, but early on you could run offense through Jeremiah a little bit or a lot of bit. Was there anything extra you saw that was tough getting the ball in his hands?

COACH WRIGHT: Yeah, they just got really physical, really physical in denials. And they denied him on his top shoulder. And we just couldn't get him the ball. And then that forced us to initiate offense in other places. And we really weren't good in those other spots against their matchups. Jeremiah was the good matchup for us.

Q. What would you say was the turning point in this game? You guys were good handling their 3-point shooting, but what was it down the stretch that made things a little difficult for you guys?

COACH WRIGHT: I think that stretch, I think around seven, eight minutes, when we started to turn the ball over. It was a tight game. They went on a little run. And then we had two or three straight turnovers on just basic passes. Now, they were basic passes but they were being pressured and contested aggressively by a really good, physical defense.

Q. Looking big picture here, I mean, kind of simple one. What's your main take away from this Villanova team?

COACH WRIGHT: I want to sit back and look at this season. I think we've got a lot of room to grow. We've got a lot of potential. But I'm really proud of this group. I think our guard play has got to improve.

I think we have a lot of room for improvement and we've got a lot of guys who can do it. I like the guys we have coming back. So, you know, I feel really good about the team and the program and especially proud of this group how much they grew during this season.

Q. You had just kind of talked about it a minute ago. How much fuel does this one give you for next season especially since you guys didn't necessarily have a complete roster for the NCAA Tournament?

COACH WRIGHT: We can learn a lot from this. We talked to the guys about that in the locker room. You play a good opponent like Baylor, a great opponent. And you give them credit and you learn from them. Their defensive intensity, their ability to take care of the basketball in the offensive end, their efficiency in a tight game like that, you gotta see that's what it takes to advance. And then you've got to get to work in the offseason and really concentrate on those skills.

Q. Just talk about how difficult the season was for you guys trying to get people healthy with COVID-19. Is this one of your more difficult seasons, and what are you going to learn from it?

COACH WRIGHT: With everything that's going on, people have lost their jobs, lost lives. It's hard to complain or say how difficult this was. I just -- I think the best thing I can say is we had challenges, maybe not as much as people who are dealing with real-life situations. But our young players did a great job of dealing with every adversity that hit them. All of our quarantines, we had three of them, and our injuries, that's what you learn. As an 18-to 22-year-old in college you learn how to deal with these things with some coaching and how to respond to those challenges.

And I thought our guys did a great job. I'm really proud of it. And I looked at all those challenges as blessings for us, that we could be fazed from them, learn from them, and I think it's going to make us stronger going forward.

Q. I know it's tough to picture long-term questions at this time, Jay, but Jeremiah, did you almost like at Robinson-Earl as a senior? And did he play like a senior at all throughout?

COACH WRIGHT: Yes, I did. And we used him as one. He was -- we don't take him out of the game. He does everything for us. And any adjustments we make defensively he's the guy that does it. Offensively we were trying to run the offense through him. And I think you made the point earlier, in the second half we couldn't do it.

And they just did a great job of taking him away. And he's got the maturity and the intelligence and definitely the talent. Even when we couldn't get him the ball he went to the offensive glass. He does everything defensively for us. I don't think he'll be a senior in college. So I definitely think he played like one.

Q. What did Brandon tell you after he twisted his ankle? And was that a big loss for you guys losing such a strong defensive player?

COACH WRIGHT: It really was. He was playing great. We had a tough time, like, certain guys were struggling with matchups on their quick guards. And he was doing a great job. And I think that's -- besides us turning the ball over, that's when it turned, too, when he went out.

And you know what, honestly, I don't know where he went. They must have taken him in the back because I turned around and he wasn't there. They must have taken him in the back. And with a minute left he said, I can play, but he wasn't 100 percent.

Q. What was your message to the team after the game? What's your message to the Villanova fan base about how everything you guys went through this year?

COACH WRIGHT: Simple message to the team. I just told them I loved them and I was very proud of them and that we have to take advantage of this opportunity that we just had and learn from this.

And to our fan base, I say it's the best place in the world to play college basketball. We appreciate them sticking with this team. They're always loyal and passionate. And we appreciate -- we had great fans out here tonight. You could hear it, first time all year, really seemed like a real game. The crowd was awesome.

Q. Looking at the box score, you seemed to do a good job on Butler and Teague. Was that a main focus heading in the game, kind of just if the other guys are going to beat you, let them do it?

COACH WRIGHT: We really did. We really tried to -- we really tried to emphasize those three guards -- Mitchell, Butler and Teague. And we did do a decent job. Mitchell got going a little bit. But Flagler came off the bench and was great. And I thought we did a really good job defensively.

I think just our half-court offense, it wasn't that bad. It's just the turnovers. The turnovers killed us. A team like that, we gave them on that run too many easy baskets. Then we came down with empty possessions. I think that was the difference in the game.

Q. Is there a specific thing you can point to from how much you all improved on this season from the Connecticut bubble back in November to now?

COACH WRIGHT: Probably defensively. That's a pretty good offensive team we just played right there. We did a pretty good job. I think by the end of the year -- really by the time we played Georgetown in the Big East tournament we were playing pretty good defense finally, pretty consistent solid defense.

Q. Did they come out in the second half and make more of a concerted effort to attack the rim? Seemed like they didn't settle as much for 3s and you defend them well in both halves with the 3. But were they a little more aggressive offensively in the second half?

COACH WRIGHT: Yeah, they did. And they played really four guards in the second half, which opened up the floor a little bit more. When they had the two bigs in, there wasn't as much space, but going to four guards and then creating that space, it did allow them to get to the rim, I thought. And we didn't do as good a job in the second half, obviously, of containing them. But partly it was because they had us spread out with four guards.