BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 12, 2004

Randy Foye

Jason Fraser

Jay Wright

COACH JAY WRIGHT: We give Connecticut a lot of credit. They really played like a hungry team, and to play without Emeka like that was very impressive. Josh Boone really, really stepped up and just controlled the glass. Obviously, Ben Gordon was outstanding, just incredible. It takes three games, you got to beat three great teams to win this tournament. Either Pitt or Connecticut is going to have to do that. We weren't able to do that. We beat two outstanding teams, and I think tonight we just didn't have enough to beat a third outstanding team.

COACH JAY WRIGHT: Well, you don't really have, when you get yourself -- we got down 13, then we got -- we got 13 in the half, then down 18 in the second half. We got it back to 5 and we got a stop. Will Sheridan had the rebound, Josh Boone ripped it out of his hands and scored and we fouled. It was a three-point play. They got it to 8. You can't do that that many times in a row, even if it's not three nights in a row, against a team as good as Connecticut. I don't want to use fatigue as an excuse. I think it was more we dug a hole twice, got out of it, couldn't do it a third time against a team that good.

COACH JAY WRIGHT: Exactly. We scored early. We couldn't stop them early. We were scoring, we were going to Jason Fraser. I thought we got off to a good start offensively. We could not stop Gordon. There was a couple times early, we got offensive rebounds, the balls got knocked loose, Brown laid it back in. All those little things against a team as good as Connecticut, who's playing with great purpose, you've got to make them go your way. We had a tough time getting Allan Ray going, too. They did a great job on Allan Ray.

COACH JAY WRIGHT: That's the positive. We came here with two goals: Number one, to get to postseason play, get to this game tonight. Then we really thought we had a chance to win this thing, we really did. We played Connecticut a great game last time. I just give them a lot of credit. As I said, we didn't have the composure to keep a game like this close. The point I was talking about when it was 5, if we get that stop and score, it's a three-point game. It's a lot different with 10 minutes to go, even for them, when they're playing in a big game like this that close. We just couldn't keep it close long enough.

COACH JAY WRIGHT: I hope so. I do think that. I think if we had Jason healthier... But that's part of growing as a team and as a program. Connecticut's been doing this a long time. We want to stay here a long time and keep doing it, keep getting better, to be able to consistently play at that level every night.

COACH JAY WRIGHT: This was a great three days for Jason and for our team, but in particular, Jason. Allan Ray, Randy, Mike Nardi have had big games before. It was great for Jason to get going. The next step for him is to learn how to translate that into wins every night and he will. He's that kind of kid; I know he will. But it was great for him. I'm sure it gave him great confidence. It gave the teammates great confidence in him.

JASON FRASER: First and foremost, I thank God for giving us the opportunity to play another game of basketball. But like Coach said, it comes from working together as a team and working hard in practice and also having great guards which allow one-on-ones in the post. Those results are what you see.

JASON FRASER: It was more focus as a team, we had our mind on the goal and we were going to achieve it.

RANDY FOYE: We're just happy we get to go into postseason play a couple more games, then we're just going to try to win the NIT.