BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 9, 2005

Mike Brey

Torin Francis

Chris Thomas

COACH MIKE BREY: I take my hat off to Rutgers. I thought they played great, shot it great. Certainly they got started with a lot of momentum out of the gate. We're disappointed. I give our guys a lot of credit; we fought our way back, gave ourselves a chance to win it. But, you know, we couldn't defend at some key times when we had the lead. But, again, I think you have to give Rutgers credit. They made big shots at key times.

CHRIS THOMAS: I think tournament questions are directed towards Coach.

COACH MIKE BREY: Yeah, I don't want to talk about the tournament with them. We'll await our fate on Sunday, and whatever they send us, we'll be honored to play.

COACH MIKE BREY: They did a good job taking Colin away. We're in a little bit different rhythm when Quinn's not in there. It's a little different rhythm. I think it makes him probably do, Chris Thomas, try and do a little too much. But he had to do that tonight with Quinn out of there. Even Falls, I think you're able to isolate on two guys on the perimeter better than three. Carter, I thought, did a great job considering the situation he was put in. But I think they defended better than a week ago on the perimeter; they really did.

COACH MIKE BREY: No, and it's -- we feel the early diagnosis is a bruised clavicle. There is not a fracture. There was an X-ray taken. There's no way he was going to be able to be effective for us in the second half or maybe the rest of this week. I believe he will be healthy to play basketball next week. It's a big blow to us. You know, two games in a row we've really not had him. Quite frankly, if we're going to beat anybody, we need him.

COACH MIKE BREY: I think we're a little bit tired. I think there's some fatigue, you know, and these guys can certainly answer that. I think we're a little worn down. We've certainly run the gauntlet of this league's schedule. I think it's probably worn us down a little bit. We played three games in a week last week, and television pretty much dictated that. It takes its toll. We obviously have a chance to get some rest before we play basketball again. I think that's probably the most important thing right now - and to get Quinn healthy.

CHRIS THOMAS: I tell you, I'm a 40-minute guy, so, I mean, I'm going to play as long as Coach keeps me in. But, I mean, mentally, it's difficult to cope with. I mean, losing has never just been engrained with basketball to me. It's just, especially when you lose like this, you get so close, we were up, game situations, that's what we're good at. You know, the big fella gave us a heck of a chance to win the game, if it really comes down to it. Just two stops at the end, I think that's what Coach told us in the locker room, we just needed two stops. The one charge I take all season, I felt like was pretty good defensive play. But I thought that could have got us a stop. Unfortunately, it didn't. They made the basket, went up, and we really couldn't get back over.

CHRIS THOMAS: I don't know about that. Maybe they played confident because they're right around the corner. They just, man, their shots were going in from everywhere. It's hard to play when they're shooting like that. Both of them threw in three deep threes. That gives their team a lot of confidence. We only allowed them to make three threes last game. I think that's what was the difference tonight.

CHRIS THOMAS: I don't think it was a breakdown. They shoot totally different threes. They shoot in-your-face, contested threes. Our guys were up on them. Maybe we didn't get the perfect challenge, but I felt like we had a hand up on most of the shots. Three-point plays killed us. Getting back in transition killed us. I don't think the three-pointer has been the difference-maker per se. I think it's been a big importance and a killer against us, but I think it was the three-point plays, the things around the basket, that kind of got us.