BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2001

Erron Maxey

Tim Welsh

COACH TIM WELSH: I congratulate Syracuse. They've obviously had just a tremendous season. I watched a lot of their games this year. You've seen them pull it out at the end, they've got such composure down the stretch making big plays. They're a team that certainly will make a long run this weekend and in the NCAA tournament. Our guys showed a lot on the heart after just, you know, it was just like an iceberg session the first half where we just weren't even close on our shots. I think we were just rushing, took a little time to get used to the zone, playing against it. We haven't played against a zone all year. Basically no one zones us because we shoot it. Then we just couldn't hit anything. We dug a big hole, but obviously we came back and did a great job. You know, showed a lot of heart, a lot of character, as usual from these guys. But at the end, a few missed free throws, a couple bounces here and there, a ball bounces up, hits the side of the board, gets tipped by four hands and they end up laying it up on the other side of the rim. Those things happen at tournament time. It's who makes the plays at the end. Tonight they did. I'm proud of our guys. We're disappointed we lost the first round but I told them we could still do a lot of things this month. And, you know, hopefully we'll get through this weekend and just get this -- clear our head from this and Sunday we'll be back up on the big board and be ready for hopefully a run next week.

COACH TIM WELSH: We changed our attack a little bit. We went from our basic zone offense, we ran our man-to-man offense against it to get some more movement in the second half. I felt like we were standing around. They knew where our shooters were and they were getting to our shooters. Even though we had some open looks in the first half, we didn't have that many. Even the shots that were open we rushed them because of the fact that they were running at us. They do a good job of knowing where you are out there. So we ran kind of our free-lance motion and tried to get a lot of cutting going. Our guys made some shots. Once we made a couple, I think we started getting a little confidence. It wasn't really so much the attack, it was just making a couple gave us some confidence and it kind of broke the ice, you know. I was waiting for one to go down. We were 0-for 10-at the half. We needed one, then everybody else kind of felt it after that. Got us right back in the game I think, we were 8-11 to start the second half after being 0-10.

COACH TIM WELSH: We were shuttling guys in, trying to find the right line-ups against the zone. We put some guys in, obviously our best three-point shooters. But there might have been a little bit of just getting used to the whole environment, the tournament, the -- playing out there, a lot of young kids on this basketball team, and they haven't been here before and hopefully this experience will help them in the next tournament. But, you know... Once we hit a couple, I could just see we were much looser in the second half. You know, I told the guys at half time, "Why are we so tense when we're taking our shots," even the shots that were open we were missing them. Not even close, like shanks in golf, not even close. Barely hitting the rim. So that, I knew, we don't do ever. So... I had to try to loosen them up at half time. Tell them to play a little freer out there, not worry about, you know, playing, just playing basketball.

ERRON MAXEY: Personally, you're very disappointed. As far as being a senior myself, Chris Rogers, Shabazz and I were disappointed. We have to forget about this and move forward. We have more games coming up. We have to just prepare, forget about this game and keep our focus, stay positive and know we can make something happen as far as getting into the tournament.

ERRON MAXEY: As far as ourselves, we knew we couldn't have played any worse than we did in the first half, just not being able to hit any shots and allowing Syracuse to be able to get out and get a couple fast break points. We just knew we had to just go out and play our game and just try and loosen up, like what Coach was saying, that's what we ended up doing, came out, were able to get a couple steals, put the ball in the hoop right away. We were able to get a decent flow going into the second part of the half.

ERRON MAXEY: Their team happens to be very long. Whenever you're playing a long and athletic team and they're playing the zone, you really have to be careful with your passes and you really have to use your ball fakes. Coach was telling us we had to get the ball inside to myself and Kareem as well as Marcus and Maris, and we ended up getting the ball inside and were able to pitch the ball out and get a few open shots. That's what was allowing us to get a rhythm and get a flow going in the second half. I think that's what really got us back into the game. We were down by I think it was 15 and in a matter of a couple minutes we were able to get back into it and make it a ball game again.

COACH TIM WELSH: Yeah, I mean I don't know, I haven't really gone back in history to know what the bye means. But sometimes playing on the first day can help you the second day. I don't know if it helps you for four days. But getting a little confidence getting through that, you know, over-the-hump game, survive-and-advance game, where now you can taste a little something going into the quarterfinals, sometimes that helps. Certainly I think it helps Seton Hall today, watching them. They played very loose and free out there and confidently. Syracuse just played normal. That's the way they play all the time, very confident. And they've been playing well the last couple of weeks.