BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2001

Jim Boeheim

Allen Griffen

Preston Shumpert

COACH JIM BOHEIM: I thought the first half, I thought I did a really good job of coaching. (Laughter.) It was a game that they, you know, obviously they just couldn't make anything in the first half and I thought we had every opportunity. We handled their pressure pretty well. Their pressure defense was great. Linehan's a great defender, one of the best one-on-one defenders I've seen in this league. Ricky Moore and him are the two best I've seen. We had a lot of opportunities in the first half that we didn't capitalize on when they were missing everything. You know they're going to shoot better. I didn't necessarily think they were going to come out and go 8 for 11. The one thing with this team that's amazing to me, this has happened to us before a couple of times where we had a lead, somebody would come back, take the lead late. I know we're tired, and somehow we just find a way, all we could do at the end, only thing we could do was try to get some dribble thing going to the basket because we couldn't get anything out of our offense, they were pressing so hard. And we just got something going to the basket and made a couple of baskets and our defense was good, even at the end. We didn't let them get a good look at that three. This team has found a way to win games like this all year, and I can't say enough about the heart and character of this team. They've been unbelievable. Late in a game, behind in tough situations where they've had to make some kind of play, they've been just absolutely unbelievable.

COACH JIM BOHEIM: Linehan's a great defender, he did a great job with Allen. Allen's been playing great. I'm sure he'll tell you he's about as tired as he's ever been in his life, but he made the play. We had to get something going to the basket. They had a quick guy. They were all over the stuff we were trying to run, and we just couldn't get anybody open for good looks and it all had to come down to penetration. I thought DeShaun finally, you know, got something going to the basket a couple of times and, you know, but it was a struggle for us to score in the second half. I guarantee you that. It was an absolute struggle. Our defense was good down the stretch when we had to have it, but it was tough getting the basket in the second half.

COACH JIM BOHEIM: Well, when you miss 7, 13 shots, then you're going to get some rebounds, you know. So... He's done a great job all year for us on the boards. Tonight he had a lot of opportunities really. I think he rushed his offense just a little bit because he had some easy opportunities and, you know, but he's been there all year for us on the boards. And, you know, we've asked him to play center in a lot of situations because we have some advantages in that situation that we like to try to use, and it kept Shabazz out of there for a while because they had to try to match down with us. But he's been there all year for us.

COACH JIM BOHEIM: The zone was good. When they went inside, we were getting hurt by early guard penetration. Our guards were much better, we've been letting people get in the lane on us. We didn't let that happen. When they did kick it out, they couldn't make anything. When we can stop that dribble penetration, and they're not going to make any threes, it's going to be hard for them to score against us.

ALLEN GRIFFEN: I was kind of tired, I was really tired. But, you know, I just try to, you know, lead by example and show that this team has a lot of heart and I didn't want to give up. I knew he was going to be a pesky defender all day and I wanted to try to control the ball all I could. I got some help from my teammates. We did a great job, they did a great job of helping me bring the ball up, help setting the screen. He was a pesky defender. I never played against nobody like that.

ALLEN GRIFFEN: I just try to help the team win, you know. If, you know, our play, it was a broken play, I forced the shot. Just didn't give up on the board. I was out of bounds, Billy happened to be in the right place at the right time, I threw it to him. The play that I made the layup, it was all credit to DeShaun Williams. His dribble penetration forced my man to go to him. I went back door and I just got the layup.

PRESTON SHUMPERT: I think it came down to their defense again. I think they were pressuring so hard that any type of kickout, from the dribble that we had, I just couldn't get anything off. I wasn't trying to force anything. I think early on in the season at times I would force some shots and get out of a rhythm. I knew me, trying to force some shots, would be out of line, you know, for myself and for the team. I'm just trying to play within the team concept and just, you know, take shots when they weren't there.

PRESTON SHUMPERT: Just moving on defense. We kept guys out of the middle. Tried to box out as much as possible, get loose balls. We were getting our hands on a lot of loose balls, dishing them into the big guys, we were getting our hands on loose balls knocking them away.

PRESTON SHUMPERT: I think it was kickout. In the first half, they were getting shots. We sort of, you know, sagged off a little bit and played to the inside a little bit more. In the second half they started kicking them out, knocking shots. You have to give credit to them. They were knocking down some big shots. We thought eventually they would miss but I think throughout that whole second half they were making them. We tried to challenge them in any way possible.

COACH JIM BOHEIM: They not only made them, they hit a couple others that were right on the line. They -- we got up on them a little better at the end but they missed a couple for us. We have to clear one thing up, my good friend Vicki Weiss, I love Preston and I think he shoots the ball better than any forward that's ever played in this league, not any guard. I just want to make that clear. I had to regain some credibility, because there was a couple of guys that shot it pretty good in this league. So... I'll just make that point and we'll go. Thank you.