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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 10, 2006

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

THE MODERATOR: Darryl Watkins, Demetris Nichols and Gerry McNamara with Coach Jim Boeheim.
COACH JIM BOEHEIM: The difference in the second half is our defense. We just got to their shooters better. When they got it inside, Mooky just did a great job of being a presence and making them miss some shots.
I would think we'd be tired, but, you know, they helped us. I don't know whether they were tired missing those free throws or what, but our guys never give up. They never give up. Even this year when we were down early, we were down 20, 30 against Connecticut and 20 at Villanova, we never had given up. We end up losing those games, but we kept coming back and trying to come back. This game was -- we were in bad position at half time, probably as bad as you can be against a team that controls the tempo like Georgetown does. You're not going to get back in it quick.
We said, "Let's cut it to ten in the first six minutes," and we got it to nine in five minutes. We wanted to cut it again by the 10-minute mark. We did a little better than we thought. Then when we got it down close, we made a couple mistakes, freshmen mistakes. He's not here (laughter).
But, you know, Matty came in, gave us a huge lift. He got Gerry open a couple times. If Gerry gets a look, you know, he's gonna make it. We put him off the ball in the second half. He got some looks. It's harder for him to take the ball right now, but coming off the screen it's a little easier for him. When he gets those looks, he makes them. He's a big-game player, he's a big shot-maker. I knew when we made the three, we were gonna press, it was two. But, I just felt they had been very, you know, tentative on offense. I thought if we made a good defensive stand that we could get a transition basket, and just sometimes things - once in a great while things work out the way you'd like them to.
Then we got back and played good defense. Mooky made a good play. This was a heck of a comeback from that kind of a deficit against a controlled team. Georgetown's coming in here, I thought they played great in both their games. You just can't give anybody that kind of lead, I don't think, and expect to come back. But these guys don't -- they just keep plugging away. As long as we get Gerry some looks, he's gonna make his share, I think.
We keep playing all these teams, we're going to find that assistant coach that said he was "overrated" pretty soon.
Q. Build a monument?
COACH JIM BOEHEIM: We're either gonna find the assistant coach, or that guy's already home. One or the other (smiling).
Q. (Inaudible).
COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Well, Derek (ph) gave everybody a pep talk at half time. I should have let him come in the locker room, I could have saved some of the stuff I had coming in. He's a lot tougher than I am, he threatens them physically. I've never done that.
It was great seeing him and Pearl (ph) there and Lawrence (ph). That was great. Derek has been as good a supporter as anybody. I've always said he's the most misunderstood guy in athletics. He's got a big heart and he really, you know -- if he's on your side, you'll never have to worry about having a friend, a guy that you can count on.
Nobody that ever played with him or even played against him ever didn't like him. Just a few of you guys don't like him - maybe for good reason, too.
Q. Can you talk about Gerry's minutes?
COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Trainer said he was at 50% and I looked at him and said, "Yeah, but he'll be there." He's gonna be there. He got tired quick early, then he got going. You know, he's a gamer. He's going to play. That's all. He's going to play. I don't worry about him.
Q. Coach, have you ever had a kid have three straight games like this for you in all your years of coaching? Can you speak about the contribution of Gorman.
COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Gorman, Matt was tremendous. I should have brought him in here, too. He's tremendous. He's been trying that three all year. I told him, I said, "Some day you're gonna make one of those things." Just came up at the right time. But he is a good shooter. He was good. He did some really good things on offense and some really good things on defense. Mooky was tremendous on defense, really did just a great job for us.
Q. Last year you were talking about how you played here (inaudible)?
COACH JIM BOEHEIM: I hate to be right like that, Pete (smiling).
Q. Does it feel better this year?
COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Well, you know, I mean, I just don't think there's any relationship to what you necessarily do here and, you know, what you do -- these tournaments are so underdog oriented now anyway. You see games, these teams that have to win, they're playing their hearts out. I mean, Wake Forest is just killing people down there. And South Carolina beat Tennessee, they probably didn't, you know -- I mean, you know, when you're fighting for your life, you're going to beat teams that maybe are better. The real truth of the matter is the teams that are better aren't that much better; they really aren't. I mean, it's what's scary in college basketball. If we would have come here and had -- and this is the truth - - if Gerry doesn't make the hardest shot he had to make here, we're home and we're not going anywhere. The scary thing is we could win two, three, four games, five, six, who knows, in the NCAA tournament. We're good enough. But if he doesn't make that shot, we're not in the tournament - and rightfully so.
But that's college basketball. It's really, it's crazy. It's a crazy game.
Q. Gerry, can you talk about the first half versus the second. First half, you were kind of quiet. How were you feeling? Second half, it was different.
GERRY MCNAMARA: Well, the first half, like Coach said, we were just trying to monitor my minutes and, you know, take it minute by minute and see how I felt. Second half, there was really no question what was going to happen because I saw the scoreboard at half time. We went down 15 at the buzzer. So whether how I was feeling or not, it didn't matter, it was time to play. You know, it was our time. We didn't want to come down here just to win two games and go home. We wanted to come down here and try to win it, you know. That's why you come here. That's the purpose of coming here. We didn't want to just say, "Oh, we beat UCONN, hopefully we're in the tournament, let's go home." We didn't want it to be like that. That's not how this team is. I'm just proud. I'm proud of these guys for the way they're fighting. It could have been easy for us to quit tonight, especially late in the game, especially at halftime, too. We played two tough games, and it's easy to lay over on this third one. But I'm proud that we battled back. First two games we blew a lead. This time we had to come back from a lead, and that's pretty impressive.
Q. Gerry, can you tell us how you're feeling now. Is there anything you have to do to get ready for tomorrow?
GERRY MCNAMARA: I feel great right now.
COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Tomorrow morning!
GERRY MCNAMARA: Yeah, tomorrow morning is the tough thing. Our trainer did a great job with me. If it weren't for him, you know, I probably wouldn't have played.
Actually, I probably would have played, but he got me ready to play. A lot of ice bath, a lot of treatment. You know, I'm sure there's a lot of other people that have to do this. This is a long season. Back-to-back games, it's tough.
I'm just trying to take care of my body and just stay healthy. We still have another game.
Q. Darryl, can you talk about the difference in the first half and second half.
COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Lean close. Close. Close. He's rookie at this stuff.
DARRYL WATKINS: First half, I didn't really know, like, what they were gonna do. By the second half we started like learning from the first half like what they were more going to, like, try to break down our two-three zone or one-on-one. So that's it.
Q. For the players, have either one of you played with a guy who's as well-liked as Gerry? You see the end of games, he could win for Mayor of New York.
DARRYL WATKINS: No, this is my first experience (smiling).
DEMETRIS NICHOLS: It's my first experience, too. Gerry has been great the whole year. I think this is the way to go out, you know. He started off, you know, good and he's going out with a bang. That's the way to go out. I'm proud of him (smiling).
COACH JIM BOEHEIM: I think one thing, too, to mention, this is still Syracuse-Georgetown, this is still a big game, it always has been, always will be. John has done a tremendous job in a very short period of time to get them back where they are. We were just fortunate we made a couple plays at the end today and that was, you know -- that's what happens in these games.
Q. You guys were physically and emotionally exhausted going into half time down 15. What did you say to get ready for the second half?
COACH JIM BOEHEIM: I don't think we can go into everything that was said in the locker room. We just wanted to come back and be a little more physical on defense and get to their shooters a little bit better.
Offensively, we just put Gerry off the ball a little bit and let Eric bring it up. We got a couple good, quick baskets, and that kind of got us going, you know. We kind of got back in it quick. When you're 15 down and you can get a couple quick baskets, it's a 10-point game and you still have 16 minutes to go. It's not so much to overcome really.
When we got it back, the fouls were four to two, we had six straight fouls called against us. As it turned out, they started missing so I guess it was good strategy, that foul and stuff.
Q. (Inaudible)?
COACH JIM BOEHEIM: This is the best ever, by far. Even after yesterday. When you come to New York, unfortunately, we're not in that position a lot. But when you have to come to New York, not many teams come here and do it, you know, over the years, when you look back. Usually the favorites win here. I remember 'cause I was once in that position (smiling)... for a few years.
But we had to come to New York and there's no doubt in my mind we needed to win both games. I think we would have deserved to be in after one, but I think we had to win two. That's a lot of pressure when you're playing the best team in the country. The Connecticut game, even though we got ahead, they were tied, you know. They were ahead late. So it wasn't like we got -- they gave us the game early and they could never come back. They had the lead and they were playing then. So maybe they didn't play early, but whether that's true or not, I'm not going to even debate that.
But they had the lead, and they were playing. We had their attention, I think, at that time. It wasn't like we got up 20 and they never got the attention 'til it was too late, like last year. So we still had to win that game. That would have made this tournament the best I've ever been involved in. Tonight is just another, you know, step.
Again, we come here to win. We don't come down here to win a game or two; we come down here to win. It's a great tournament. If you need to win, it's nice to do it. But it's still a great -- I think it's still great preparation. Even the years that we've lost here, I think it's good preparation for us. We've learned some things about our team this week. On offense, we've picked up a couple things. Some guys showed some things they can do. That's really going to help us in the tournament, it's going to help us next year. The way Mooky and Demetris have stepped up, the way Matt did and Terrence until tonight has got us here, he had two huge games. Eric, this has been a great experience for him. This tournament is tremendous. We've been to the finals a lot and we want to get there and we want to play well tomorrow night. It will be a tough game. Whoever wins, these two teams are great teams, I think. Villanova is the No. 1 team in the country now. I think Pittsburgh is a top 10 team, I always have, all year.
That's a great challenge for us tomorrow night.
Q. Gerry, you've known Matt for a long time. He hasn't had moments like this much. Can you talk about the game he had tonight.
GERRY MCNAMARA: Well, Matty is such a great player, but, you know, for a few years it's tough when you play behind guys like Carmelo Anthony and Hakim Warrick, Terrence and Mook.
We've had some great forwards over the years, but Matt is probably one of the top scoring forwards we've had. He might be a better scorer than Hakim was, especially on the perimeter. It's tough for him to... well...
COACH JIM BOEHEIM: He is Gerry's roommate.
GERRY MCNAMARA: Yeah (smiling).
COACH JIM BOEHEIM: That sometimes clouds judgment.
GERRY MCNAMARA: I think what makes Matt really successful is he doesn't rely on athleticism. He relies on being intelligent and knowing where to be on the floor, how to get me shots, how to get himself a shot. I got him an open shot because he rolled off a screen that he set. When you're intelligent and you know what you're doing out there, it makes you that much more effective. I think Matty is as intelligent as it gets at knowing who needs the ball at certain times. He knows when he comes in he has to set screens for me. I know if he's on the three-point line, if he's open, I'm giving it to him because he can make it.
What he did, he hasn't played a ton. When he's played, he's produced. I'm proud, not just as a teammate, but as a friend, I'm proud that he's gotten his opportunity and when he's gotten in there, he's produced. That's the most important thing.

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