BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 9, 2000

Tommy Amaker

Shaheen Holloway

COACH AMAKER: It was certainly a disappointing loss for us. I mean any time you get an opportunity to make a run and try to get back into a game after being down by a lot of points in the first half, it can be very disappointing and disheartening. You have to give them a lot of credit. I thought El-Amin was tremendous. He played a great ball game. We didn't have any answers for him in the first half. I was proud of our team for showing a lot of heart to battle back, especially Shaheen's effort in the second half. I thought he put our team on his shoulders and carried us back to where we cut it to three. Mouring's big three cut it and I thought took a lot of wind out of us.

COACH AMAKER: I thought there should have been a foul called and I said so.

COACH AMAKER: It's difficult for us when our leading scorer doesn't get many good looks or it's not -- doesn't get many opportunities to score points. I thought he had some opportunities early in the game at the very beginning of the game and we didn't cash in. He had an opportunity to finish on a break with a dunk and a few more shorter shots and early in the first half. Certainly I thought they did a great job of defending him. Freeman is a very tough player, very physical, has great size and athletic ability.

COACH AMAKER: Yeah, I think a combination of both. When we've played against Connecticut they've done a tremendous job defensively against us. You have to give them a lot of credit. I think they're an experienced team, as I've said all along, they're very strong. They lock in on us pretty well. It's difficult at times, with their experience knowing how to defend different teams. That's one way that they've chosen to guard us and certainly it's been successful. Nonetheless, we didn't execute as well as we should have. I thought we played into their hands somewhat by forced shots and being rushed. That's a lot to do with how hard they play defensively.

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: No, I just wanted to come out in the second half and try to contain him. He did a great job in the second half of reading screens and reading our defense. I just wanted to come out in the second half and be more aggressive on both ends and try to get my team back in it.

COACH AMAKER: Same.

COACH AMAKER: Certainly having 20 wins for us, I mean we just mentioned that to our team, so it's not a great time to think about anything positive after losing a game in the Big East tournament. We're proud of the achievement of getting to the plateau of 20 wins. That's always a significant thing in college basketball. I'm hoping that's something that will be taken into consideration come Sunday.

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: No, we weren't concerned about the 20 wins. We were trying to come out and get a victory today, get as many wins as possible this week here. But you still got -- you got to give our guys credit for fighting, come back in the second half and fighting the whole season. I'm proud of the effort we put into this. We didn't come out with a victory today, but hopefully we still got some more basketball to play.

COACH AMAKER: Certainly we have a lot of respect for all the teams in our league. We anticipated coming in there were going to be some upsets and we were hoping we could participate in that on the victory side. We didn't think about the next game or anything like that. We knew the challenge in front of us was with a team that is one of the teams we think is a top team in the country.

COACH AMAKER: He's certainly one of the better guards we faced all year. Going to be considered one of the best guards, point guards in the country. I thought he had a tremendous first half. I think he played a very heady game, he picked his spots and he made his shots and he made his free-throws that's what you have to do. I thought Shaheen certainly did that in the second half. I thought he showed a lot of character, pride, digging in and carrying us back to the game. You saw a display of two outstanding point guards, certainly El-Amin played an outstanding first half and I thought Holloway an outstanding second half.

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: I just try to tell him kind of get to the baskets more because they was cutting down on his three-pointers. You have to give Connecticut a lot of credit. They did a good job of shutting him down. They played the passing lanes, got physical with him. But Darius just gonna learn from this, this is going to be a learning experience for next year. Hopefully we have more basketball to play, so next week. Definitely something we can learn from.

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: Our team still has a lot of confidence. It was a tough loss today but we showed a lot of character in the second half by coming and fighting back. Right there it showed we could play with anybody. We just have to bring it for the whole 40 minutes, not just 20 minutes.

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