BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 3, 1999

Ruben Boumtje Boumtje

Craig Esherick

CRAIG ESHERICK: I thought that in the first half, we did a great job in terms of the effort that we put forth against them. We just were not making our shots, and both Ruben and Jameel had gotten in foul trouble, and they did not play a large portion of the first half; so, we could not go inside as much as we would have liked. I thought the difference in the game in the second half was -- to play good defense, which I thought we did in the first half, but we got the ball inside to Ruben -- did a great job of getting the ball inside to Ruben, and Ruben did a great job of finishing the play. I thought Kevin Braswell made a couple of nice passes, and that's why we caught up was the job giving the ball inside to Ruben. I thought Jameel Watkins made a great play at the end and also Burton. We thought Jamel Thomas was going to take the shot and both Jameel and Nat did a good job of preventing him from getting the shot off.

CRAIG ESHERICK: Who are you telling?

CRAIG ESHERICK: It's very gratifying, particularly because this is the Big East tournament. I thought we needed this victory for a lot of reasons, and it's very gratifying, and the way we came back, we were down seven in the first half. The way we came back, the way we gutted it in the second half on defense. The job Ruben did in the second half on offense, we had a lot of guys that were tired. Kevin Braswell was tired in the second half, and he did a good job of playing through that.

CRAIG ESHERICK: Well, I'm going to try and answer that question two ways. Probably what I am thinking about, 95 percent of my brain right now is Miami. But 5 percent of my brain cannot help but think of the 24 consecutive postseason tournaments that the Georgetown program has participated in. If, in fact, we do get a bid, which I think this team is playing well enough to get some form of postseason bid, I will be very proud of the fact that we've been able to do that. But, believe me, what I'm worried about right now is Tim James and Johnny Helmsley, Vernon Hamilton. They weren't ranked in the Top-10 when we lost to them before. They are ranked in the Top-10 now.

CRAIG ESHERICK: I was in the game.

CRAIG ESHERICK: Ruben is 7 feet tall. They are not going to be able to deny a pass to Ruben because their tallest player on the floor is 6'6. Unless they put Brisport in the game Brisport is not going to be able to deny Ruben from catching the lob pass and most of the passes we threw to Ruben were lob passes.

Q. (Inaudible) how are you going to counter that against Miami?

CRAIG ESHERICK: Well, I certainly hope that we shoot a lot better and a lot of how poorly we shot was attributed to Miami's defense. Miami has a very good defense, one of the best defenses in the league if not in the country and there's a lot of people that did not shoot well against Miami. We certainly are going to get the ball inside to Ruben as much as we can and we've tried to do that the entire season. If we can keep Ruben out of foul trouble, if we can keep Jameel out of foul trouble -- we're going to do everything we can to keep the ball inside. One reason Anthony shot poorly was he could not get the ball inside -- with people on them. If we get the ball inside to Ruben and Jameel, Anthony and Kevin and Nat will all three have open shots and that's what we're attempting to do.

CRAIG ESHERICK: I did not see what happened. All I saw was Trez walk up to him at the end of whatever happened before. And I didn't really say anything to him. I just took him out. I put Nat Burton in for him. I didn't think I needed to say anything to him after that.

CRAIG ESHERICK: There were no problems when he came back in the game.

RUBEN BOUMTJE BOUMTJE: Can I see your press credential first, please? Well, I was already nervous and it was too important to not make them; so, I was trying to focus and concentrate. Unfortunately, the second one didn't go in, but hopefully we won.

RUBEN BOUMTJE BOUMTJE: Well, there was a lane violation. I was trying to test the shot and hopefully and have a better one for the second one.

Q. Why do you think Miami is one of the tougher teams in the conference now?

RUBEN BOUMTJE BOUMTJE: I think just like Craig said, they play good defense. They play with a lot of intensity and you they just play well, different -- just very tough to play against.

RUBEN BOUMTJE BOUMTJE: Only we needed this game and we just have to play 100 percent or 200 percent trying to win this game and just stay alive for the rest of the season.