BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 10, 2000

Craig Esherick

COACH ESHERICK: I thought we started off the game real well, and I think Connecticut did a great job of tightening their defense and making every shot that we took a tough shot. I thought that there was a stretch at the beginning of the game when we got tired when they had substituted, they put in three new people when we had the lead, and they ended up catching up after that, then going up ahead against us. I thought we really got tired. I ended up having to substitute myself. But I thought Connecticut, after that first spurt that we hit, I thought they played great defense the rest of the game. And Kevin Freeman is a coach's player. Kevin Freeman is really good. He can rebound, he does all the intangibles that coaches like. I thought every time we missed a shot and we needed to get the rebound, Freeman got it. He hit a lot of tough free-throws that they needed down the stretch, and I thought both Mouring and Robertson hit a couple big threes when we were in that zone to stretch the lead out to the point where we really didn't have a shot. Any questions?

COACH ESHERICK: He picked up three quick fouls. (Laughter.)

COACH ESHERICK: Once Lee got going, I think they thought they had to double. When they're doubling on Lee, I thought they did a good job of rotating also. Connecticut's got a very good defensive team. They really stepped it up defensively in this tournament. I thought all three games they played this tournament, I thought they played extremely well on defense.

COACH ESHERICK: He could have been. He didn't want me to take him out for one second. He could have been. He was one of the people that was tired during that stretch when we got the lead and they caught up. I thought he was tired, and I thought he played well. One of the reasons he did get tired is because Connecticut did a good job on him defensively. I wanted to set a lot of screens and every time they set a screen for the ball, it seemed like Kevin had two people on him. Every time Kevin looked to penetrate, there was another guy there. If he beat his man, there was another guy there. I thought that was a good strategy on Connecticut's part.

COACH ESHERICK: Do I have to talk about that?

COACH ESHERICK: I thought there were points in the game where we were setting the tone for jump shots. That probably was the part of the game that you're referring to. I thought we took too many threes and I think we took -- some of it was trying to catch up at the end. But I don't think we're that good of a three-point shooting team that we should be shooting 23 threes. Connecticut is a better shooting team than we are. They only took ten threes and we played zone. So I thought there were two stretches, I thought, during that game where we took too many deep, deep shots where we could have gotten some ball, maybe gotten the ball inside to Jameel or Ruben. That was Connecticut's fault. Connecticut did a good job forcing us to do that.

COACH ESHERICK: They're the reigning national champions, they're the reigning Big East champions, they're the reigning -- well, they're not the reigning Big East regular season champions anymore. But they have veteran leadership on their team. Mouring, Freeman, Khalid have been around a long time and they've played a lot of minutes. If anybody can do it, they can do it because of the people that they have.

COACH ESHERICK: We had a good run. We had a good run. Nobody thought we were going to beat Syracuse. A lot of people probably didn't think we were going to beat West Virginia when they found out Ruben wasn't going to play. Nobody gave us a chance to play Connecticut close. I think that's definitely positive for our team. I think -- we've won 18 games. I thought we finished the season -- we've gotten better. We finished the season strong, and we'll see what happens. I think there's a lot of positive things we can take out of this trip up here.

COACH ESHERICK: Of course I'm hoping for the tournament. I was hoping for the tournament before the Big East tournament started. Yes, whether or not that's realistic, I don't know. We'll see. I think we're playing well. I think we have a good team. I think we've proven that we have a good team. Whether or not we deserve to be in the tournament, that's up to the Tournament Selection Committee.

COACH ESHERICK: I think just like Kevin was tired, I think Ruben was tired, too. I think Ruben was tired for a different reason because he didn't practice for four or five days before he played against Syracuse. And so I think Ruben was a little tired. But, again, Connecticut has a very good defensive team. Voskuhl's a good defender, and Freeman is a good defender. They both are very good post defenders. Thank you.

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