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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2006Allan RayWill SheridanJay WrightNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK COACH JAY WRIGHT: We played against the leading scorer in the BIG EAST in the first half and we played them like we didn't know he was the leading scorer in the BIG EAST. He hit some deep, deep shots and some tough shots. I think we were ready to play and I think he was just incredible in the first half. I think Allen, Randy, in the second half, we just kept fresh bodies on. They did a great job. We played team defense. That was the difference. Just finally getting Douby under control. He got 31, I'm saying we got him under control. He was incredible in the first half. THE MODERATOR: We have Allan Ray and Will Sheridan here. Q. Are you starting to feel better about him scoring when he gets an opportunity to score? COACH JAY WRIGHT: Yeah, I'm always fine with him scoring. Just that we have so much options. He's always the one that no one talks about. You know, everyone talks about the four guards. Well, if there's four guards, there's one other guy but we never talk about him. He does all the dirty work and he keeps a great attitude. When the ball gets to him, he makes plays. Last year in the NCAA tournament he did it, we know he can do it. Just depends on how people play him. Q. Did the UCONN loss come up at all, in terms of keeping everybody focused? COACH JAY WRIGHT: Yeah, I mean, our guys are playing well and they're confident. I want them to be that way. But I felt this afternoon was a good dose of reality. Without it happening, it still happened on the court. You hope you don't have to go through it in the first half, but we did anyway. But we talked about the fact that I thought UCONN came ready to play, too, but in tournament time it only takes one game, one guy getting it going, and we definitely used that as something to learn from. Q. Did you do anything differently in the second half defensively, or was it a matter of Allen and Randy playing more in space? COACH JAY WRIGHT: We didn't do anything different except for the fact that, it just seemed in the first half, there was loose balls where he got the ball and then there was sometimes when we got switched on to him and he just backed up a little bit. He hit two threes, that we had, one Will and one Dante Cunningham were on him, it must have been 32 feet. They're just not used to guarding someone like that that far from the basket. He drilled them. So we were doing a good job for a while in the first half, and then he just broke loose 'cause a lot of them were in transition also. Q. Is this as balanced as you've seen the team? COACH JAY WRIGHT: Yeah, we did, offensively, in the first half I thought we played all right offensively. Also, we just couldn't control Quincy. Second half, I thought we spread the ball out pretty well. That was good for us. Q. Is that a key to winning here, to be balanced? Obviously, you have one player who scores 31 points. COACH JAY WRIGHT: Yeah, any time we can spread it out like that, I love it. Q. Will, you had a big first half. Allen, obviously a big finish down the stretch. Can you guys talk about the flow and how you got into it, you, early on, Will, then later on Allen. WILL SHERIDAN: I think it just came to us. We did the same things we always do. I got some good looks. Allan got some good looks. It was just regular, it was our regular offense. It wasn't necessarily anything special we did. ALLAN RAY: I think we felt off our defense a little bit more in the second half. We got into a flow offensively as a result of our defense. Q. With the No. 1 seed being knocked out, are you more encouraged, do you have a better opportunity to win? COACH JAY WRIGHT: I know exactly what you're saying, but I don't want to think about that at all. Because we made the point to our guys that everybody has been talking about the UCONN-Villanova matchup, the third time. I told them if we don't get by Rutgers, there is none. That happened today. I don't even want to think about that yet. Of these two teams playing now, whoever we play, we are going to have a battle. We haven't played Pitt, which is scary in itself. The other guys, everybody knows. Q. In the grand scheme of things, what's going to happen in the next couple weeks, how important is this tournament? COACH JAY WRIGHT: This is, you know, if we said anything except this was really important, we'd be lying to you. We love this. Basketball players, everybody's from New York, Philly, DC, this is the BIG EAST, Madison Square Garden. We love this. When you lose in this, you're crushed. You're crushed. You just, you need some time to get over it. So, you know, the only good thing was last year we played a great game against West Virginia and got beat so we felt good about how we were playing. We were crushed that we got beat. This is big, this is big. Q. (Inaudible)? ALLAN RAY: Definitely. After watching UCONN lose, they was the No. 1 seed, everyone realized anything can happen in these tournaments and you got to come out ready to play. Most importantly you got to go out there and execute. So that's one of the main focal points that we're trying to do here, is stay focused and execute and make sure we take every game, game by game, not looking ahead to any other game, you know. Just take it day by day. Q. (Inaudible)? COACH JAY WRIGHT: Yeah, yeah (smiling). Are you telling me I talk too much? Q. I thought we'd have that conversation in private, but, really, did you just do something like that, put the score up? Was had a conversation with them? COACH JAY WRIGHT: It was simple. We all came down to eat dinner together and we just -- I just got up in front of them and said, "Hey, we just saw what happened." I said, "Everyone's been talking about the matchup with UCONN, and it's not going to happen now for them. If we don't beat Rutgers, it's not going to happen. We don't have a chance at playing anybody either". We have to answer your questions but to talk about all that is crazy. You're going to play two very tough teams before you could ever get there. Q. (Inaudible). COACH JAY WRIGHT: You mean that it might shock that we only won it once? Q. (Inaudible). COACH JAY WRIGHT: You know, we always look at the history stuff after the season. But during the season, whatever we're doing is paramount to us. Like right now, this is the biggest thing in our lives and we're going to live it every day, we're going to love it. And if we lose, we're going to be crushed and then we're going to come back the next day. Yeah, if we won it, it would be great for Villanova. We would be psyched about it for Villanova and then we'd concentrate on the NCAA tournament. Q. Will you allow yourself even a moment tonight to think the No. 1 team in the country lost, you are No. 2? COACH JAY WRIGHT: No, because I'll battle myself for that and I will battle with them. That's what I fight with them about all the time. I won't let them and if I think they're thinking it, I'll talk a lot, like Lenny says. I'll keep talking to them until they stop thinking about it. Q. In the first half, was that a wakeup call? ALLAN RAY: Yeah, I think we didn't come out as aggressive on the defensive end in the first half. You know, like Coach said, there was a lot of loose balls Rutgers has beaten us to. A lot of hustle plays they were making, we were always a step behind. You know, the second half, we just came out more aggressively on defense and talking and playing together. 'Cause first half, we didn't really play together out there. Q. Were you surprised about that? ALLAN RAY: I mean, it just happened, you know. Like, I could say we're a good team and we just adjusted to it, you know. We just came out second half and just played more aggressively. Q. This is kind of a follow-up of that question. First half they have a hot shooter, kind of keeping them in the game. You come out in the second half. How are you able to get the separation from them? It happened really quickly. COACH JAY WRIGHT: Well, I think like Allan said, we were getting stops and finally keeping it out of Quincy's hands a little bit. He was missing some shots. Then, those shots turned into fast break opportunities for us. If the first half we didn't get many because they were scoring and we were trading baskets. We went on a little run there, we got some stops. Then he made two or three plays in the row, tight game, now we were walking the ball up. I think it was off our defense. Q. (Inaudible)? ALLAN RAY: Yeah, we watched the game. We was in the hotel room laying up watching the game. Q. So the game ends, did you think what? WILL SHERIDAN: Thought we had a game coming up. I mean, can't put too much thought into it. We had to prepare for our own game. We really had to come out and be focused against Rutgers. I mean, Rutgers is a great team. This is the BIG EAST tournament, best conference in the country. We have to come out and play our own game. We couldn't really worry about Connecticut. Q. Do you spend extra time working on your own shots during this particular run? WILL SHERIDAN: I'm a ballplayer. I mean I put as much time into my game as everyone else on the team. I mean, I work with all the coaches and, you know, I do all the workouts. As a team, we work hard. I work just as hard as everybody else on the team. I put a lot of team into my game. Q. What happened on the technical foul? COACH JAY WRIGHT: I don't want to talk about it. Just great official, competitive guy, competitive coach, that's all. That's all. Q. Jay, you keep talking continually about taking it one guy at a time. How do you keep your guys focused? COACH JAY WRIGHT: We really talk to them a lot about it. We really do. I think it's the biggest challenge. All this media, everything around them, number two in the country, it's a tough challenge. The most important thing is that Allan, Randy, Bump (ph), our seniors, upper classmen, have been through this before. They really control it from within. I'm always talking to these guys, the captains, Allan and Randy all the time. Q. When you see Connecticut lose, did you need anyone to tell you to focus? WILL SHERIDAN: No, I mean, like I said, we were focused for our game. We didn't have -- Connecticut had, I would say, no effect on our game. We wanted to come out and play our game and do what we wanted to do. COACH JAY WRIGHT: Will is one of the ones I don't have to worry about. He's one of the ones, this is a whole other world over here. That's why I never talk about him. What he says is true. The rest of them, I got to worry about. Q. Allan? COACH JAY WRIGHT: Answer this guy. He'll torment me. Answer him. ALLAN RAY: Only thing I can say -- COACH JAY WRIGHT: He wants to know, did I need to tell you about it or was it enough you watching? ALLAN RAY: I mean, we watched the game. We saw what happened. We were just like, "Man, listen, the No. 1 team is out, you know. It could easily happen to us. We got to go out there and play hard. We don't want to be the ones that's going home." We worked too hard for it. WILL SHERIDAN: Just being honest. Q. Do you have any preference? Stupid question, has to be asked. You haven't played Pitt yet, West Virginia beat you, you might want to get revenge. Anything? COACH JAY WRIGHT: Not at all. Not at all.
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