NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - OHIO STATE VS VILLANOVA

March 20, 2022

Jay Wright

Collin Gillespie

Jermaine Samuels

Eric Dixon

PPG Paints Arena

Villanova Wildcats

Media Conference

Villanova 71, Ohio State 61

THE MODERATOR: We are going to start with an opening statement from Coach Wright and then ask questions of the student-athletes only. With that, Coach?

COACH WRIGHT: I would like to start by saying we really respect Ohio State and what a tough, intelligent team they are. We take pride in this victory because we watch a lot of film on them and they're really good. They're really good and tough in how they defended us. E.J. Liddell is a beast and Malaki Branham is a handful, we struggled with him. I'm just proud of these guys, proud of their leader championship and Collin and Jermaine have been great leaders for this team their whole careers and Eric, he's got guts, man. This is a big-time shot he hit. But he has confidence. He's a confident kid. That's what we love about him.

Q. Eric, you shoot 48% from the three, no hesitation, no doubt I imagine?

ERIC DIXON: I've shot thousands of threes in practice this year and by myself in the gym. My teammates expect me to make the shot when I shoot it, so I raised up and shot it.

Q. Collin, after Jamari Wheeler hit that three to bring it within two, Ohio State made only one more shot in the last 5 minutes, what do you think changed with y'all's defense to lock 'em down in the stretch after they had success before that?

COLLIN GILLESPIE: I think we just continued to do what we did the entire game. They had a stretch where they were hitting shot after shot, and we just said attitude, stuck together and came together on the defensive end and told each other, let's get this next stop, let's get this next stop and tried to make the next play.

Q. Collin, take us through the sequence. On Eric's shot. You had backed them down and found him out there on the wing.

COLLIN GILLESPIE: That's something we work on all the time. They were playing Justin pretty tight on that side and their big was in the lane and Eric was wide open and I have tons of confidence in him to step in and knock any shot down that he's going to take.

Q. For Jermaine, for much of this game it was their first round NBA guys versus and you Collin in the fifth years. How key was your experience and what did you make of their play?

JERMAINE SAMUELS: They're a talented, physical team, especially Malaki Branham and E.J. Liddell. We never viewed it as an us versus them type of thing, a one-on-one match-up, tried to play them as a team like we always do, dig into our concepts and try to make it as tough as possible on them and whatever happened after that we were ready to accept the outcome.

Q. Eric, Coach talked about two guys to your right and the leader championship that they display. How would you define the leadership of Collin and Jermaine?

ERIC DIXON: It's everything to the team. I would say it can't be overstated, on and off the court, when we're walking around, eating food, watching film, whatever it is they lead us so when we are on the court it just feels natural.

Q. I remember seeing you guys in San Antonio in 2018 in the corner of a locker room on the way to a national championship. This is different but it's Michigan in San Antonio. How does that fulfill the full circle nature of your journey?

COLLIN GILLESPIE: I didn't think about that. We're just happy to be moving on. We're taking it one day at a time. We're just having a growth mindset. We want to go back this week, watch the film. We can get a lot better from it. There's a lot of things we can do to get better this week and prepare for Michigan. We know how great of a team they are and the difficulties they present. Our Coach is going to put together a great scouting report but didn't think about that.

JERMAINE SAMUELS: I didn't think about it until you brought it up but that team is very battle tested, they've been through a lot all year and they're going to be ready to go. It's cool it's in San Antonio but great to be in the Sweet 16.

Q. When Collin is playing like he is early, Jermaine, what's it like being on the court with him when he's in that kind of mood?

JERMAINE SAMUELS: It's great if he's in the mood, everybody is in the same type of groove, we're ready to make plays for him and he's ready to make plays for us. We have the ultimate faith and trust in him. We see him work every single day and anything he does we follow. Anything he needs we do and that's the beauty of our team.

Q. Jay, about ten years ago you started that run where it seemed like you couldn't get out of the first weekend and now three out of last four you advanced past it. Did anything change with your philosophies? What changed? Anything?

COACH WRIGHT: Actually, nothing, really. I get that, and you're absolutely right. It's just part of the journey. You've got to accept what your journey is and you've got to learn from it. I think we played really good teams in the second round. I don't think we ever lost a second round game where we didn't show up to play. So if that was the case, we would have changed some things, but I thought our guys brought it.

I can give you a different story for each one but never something that we thought, okay, we gotta change what we're doing. We just understand that's the experience of playing in the NCAA Tournament. You can get tough match-ups, you can get a tough night and as long as you're bringing great effort and great attitude every game you accept what the outcome is. We understand we have to answer to that. We get it.

Q. When you have a player like Collin who has been through the battles, how hard is it to find a player like that and how much did their success matter when you're making a tournament run?

COACH WRIGHT: It's really difficult to find guys like that. It is really difficult. Somehow we have been blessed to have guys, a number guys like that. I don't take it for granted that we are really fortunate, somewhat like a Scottie Reynolds we got lucky on, a Kyle Lowry we got lucky on, Collin we probably got lucky on, too. We never expected this. All of the intangibles that he brings we expected. To be able to go out and dominate games like he does, we did not.

It's so valuable to have somebody that you know is going to make the right play and it might be on the defensive end. There was a couple times E.J. Liddell got the ball in the post and he came from the weak side and attacked the post. He makes every intelligent play to help you win a game. It's invaluable and you don't go anywhere in this tournament without guys like that.

Q. Jay, a little more on that. Was there a time in the second half -- was it spoken by you or unspoken there was a timeout where all right, Gillespie it's time to do a couple things?

COACH WRIGHT: I don't think we ever say that, Mike. No, we never say that. We all kind of feel it. Then we are running plays to put him into the is decision-maker position. Sometimes somebody else will get shots because he make the right play, sometimes he does.

That's what it is. He's the decision-maker out there. We will call the play for him to be the decision-maker and he will determine who gets the shot. Kind of like a quarterback running a two-minute drill, they're going to pick who is open. That's what he does a great job of.

Q. We were told in October Eric Dixon at the three-point line to get you to the Sweet 16, what would you have thought then, if you were told?

COACH WRIGHT: I would have thought you were crazy. Not that we don't think he's a great shooter but to have the guts to take that shot. He had other options that was part of that play. And Collin gave it to him and I think you heard him say this, if Collin gives it to them -- I think they have the confidence if Collin is giving it to me that's telling me go ahead and shoot it. He had other options. I give him a lot of credit, man, that's guts. And players just have that and if you're a player you've got to have guts and he's got it.

Q. Jay, in the final five minutes when Ohio State looked like it was charging every one of your players looked like they had been there before. How key was your experience tonight?

COACH WRIGHT: I think it's a good point, Collin. When you're playing great teams in big-time atmospheres like this, there is a lot of pressure there. When that team makes the run if you haven't been there before and know that you can withstand that, that this is what happens when you play great teams and it's happened to you before, and you can fight through it, if you haven't done it, it's hard, you can panic. But all these guys have been there. I think the Big East Tournament provides for them, I think our game at UCLA, our game at Baylor, our game against Purdue, those kind of games provide that for you and it's really valuable.

Q. Coach, this tournament is about advancing and surviving. Last game against Delaware you had five players in double figures, and today I believe you had four. What were the adjustments that you made within the team, even the players on the floor to advance?

COACH WRIGHT: Well, I think against Delaware we were more effective from the three-point line and we were getting more threes. They did a great job of taking away our threes and I think we did a good job of getting the ball inside. Points in the paint I think we had 26, so, you know, that's what you've got to do this time of year. You've got to be able to against different teams see where you can be effective. If you only have one way to do it you're going to get knocked out early. I was proud of our guys' recognition of that adjustment.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach, appreciate it.