BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 4, 2022

Kurt Godlevske

Butler Bulldogs

Mohegan Sun Arena

Postgame Media Conference

Seton Hall - 58, Butler - 39

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Butler head coach Kurt Godlevske.

COACH GODLEVSKE: I thought we did a really nice job in the first half executing our game plan. We had some moments there where, especially at the start of the first half, where I think we were a little bit nervous and tentative. And that comes with having a young team and seniors that really haven't been in that limelight, really, before. But I thought we rebounded well from that start and did what we wanted to do.

And in the second half I thought Seton Hall, they've got some really solid, excellent players, and defensively they really clamped down and took away the things that we were looking to get in the first half with post touches and really forced our guards to make plays. So they did a great job, I thought, the second half defending us.

Q. In the second, you mentioned their defensive efforts almost hurt your offense. What would you have liked to see more offensively in the second half?

COACH GODLEVSKE: Well, I thought our guards got really tentative and they really extended the pressure on the wings. Made it difficult for us to enter and really run the actions that we wanted to run. And so those actions that we were able to do in the first half really helped us control the tempo and got ball reversals. So we were able to get better looks.

Once they took that away, things kind of broke down on us, put a lot of pressure to make individual plays. We're just not there with our perimeter play to do that.

Q. We talked a little bit this week about the youth of this team and moving forward and how to get past a season like this. And I know Toure talked to them. What is this offseason going to look like as far as mentally rebuilding to come back stronger and have some of that extra experience at the beginning of next year?

COACH GODLEVSKE: Well, it all goes back to the culture we had, Toure talked to them about. And they have to embrace that part of it and understand that the things that we're going to receive next fall and winter are going to be earned in the spring and summer. So they have to embrace that part of it.

Getting back to the things that we did well as Butler basketball two, three years ago, and that was defending which I thought we did a much better job of that today -- defending more one-on-one, defending more as a team.

That's what this spring's going to look like for us, is we've got to get better defensively and hopefully with inserting new bodies in the lineup. And I think we'll look a lot different next year than we have this past season.