BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 9, 2005

Quincy Douby

Ricky Shields

Gary Waters

COACH GARY WATERS: Many of you know me, I give honor to God before I ever speak at any place, so this is important to me. But also, I got to give Him the credit because I thought He was there every minute of the way for us. But also our kids I thought did an outstanding job of competing today. They followed the game plan, and the game plan was to defend, not let them get a lot of open looks from the outside. The last time we played them, they scored 42 points from the guards, and we made a commitment to shut that down this game and I thought our kids did a great job of doing that. We gave up some offensive rebounds and some put-backs, but I couldn't complain because I thought our guys worked hard. Some individual performances, I got to give Ricky -- I thought Ricky played an outstanding game, both on the offensive end and even more importantly on the defensive end. He was the one guarding Falls. He made that commitment that throughout this entire game he wasn't going to let him score. That's what he did. I thought he did a good job. Quincy, I give Quincy credit. He had some bigger guys he was playing against. They were pushing him around in there, trying to get to the basket. He stood his ground and didn't let that happen. Just a great team effort. I still think we struggle, and if you've followed us at all, there's games where we're right there with an opportunity to win, but one person has not been on the floor. This was the first game that he has not been on the floor, and we have won the game, and that's Byron Jones. He's fouled out every time. It's been five of those games in the BIG EAST that we led in the last minutes, that he's been -- he has fouled out of the game and we haven't been able to use him. I thought our kids, especially our young kids, fought back and didn't let anything happen to that game.

COACH GARY WATERS: Well, we made a commitment on certain people, like Falls. We told them to face-guard them. Normally we may switch or trailing, but we said, "You face-guard him and make him go away from the screen as much as possible." I thought our guys did a great job in following that game plan. The other thing, I thought Marquis, I know Marquis was tired because he worked extremely hard throughout that game. I thought he made it difficult for Thomas to score. Thomas still scored 17, and we knew he could do that. At the same time we wanted to make it difficult for him. Should be a lot of questions out there. Was a question to me, all this stuff.

COACH GARY WATERS: That's why you have team. You bring in another guy. We knew that. To be honest with you, I think he got hurt about two games ago, three games ago. We knew that could be a question mark.

COACH GARY WATERS: See, they told me he was okay. I didn't know exactly what occurred there. But, you know, that helps. In a season like this, we need as much as we can get from that. Any little thing will help us in this process.

COACH GARY WATERS: First five minutes of the second half. It's the last five minutes of the first half and the first five minutes of the second half. I thought we did a good job of that. We talked about that at half time. We said when we go out this first five minutes - that's the same thing that occurred at their place - you got to bear with me, I can barely talk, my throat is killing me. At Notre Dame, we went there and it was a one-point game at half time. They came out and scored the first seven points of the second half. I thought that was the ballgame. We cut it to two, played them hard. We did all that. But I thought we had to continually fight back. In this game, we made a commitment that going out at the half, we were up by three, we weren't going to let them get into this game at that time.

RICKY SHIELDS: It was one of the goals that I wanted to achieve before I left here. I just, you know, dedicated myself to come out here and play as hard as I could. This could very possibly be my last college game. I didn't want it to be. It feels great to go on, and keep our season going. We are going up against a good team in Syracuse. They got us at our place, the game we felt we should have got. But now we get a chance to match up with them again. I'm sure it's going to be a great game.

RICKY SHIELDS: I would say very much so. I think our team is playing a lot more freer, especially me and Quincy. I have to give credit to Coach, he's been the one helping me get through all my slumps and down periods I've been having this season. You know, it feels good to have all five guys out there on the floor clicking like we were earlier in the year. And hopefully we can keep it clicking for as many games as we can possibly make it happen.

RICKY SHIELDS: Well, I would just say composure. I think our composure was just supreme today. We knew what we wanted to do with the ball. We saw where we had our advantages at. Coach opened up the lane for us to drive and make plays for ourselves and other guys. We knew where we wanted to get the ball. I think in other games we were kind of second-guessing ourselves, not sure of where to go and what to do. But I think today, you know, guys knew that they need to get the ball to me and Quincy, and just let us create for other guys out there. I think if we can continue to be aggressive like that on the offensive end and take pride in shutting people down, I think we'll be all right.

RICKY SHIELDS: During that play, I was on the sideline, I wanted to be in the game because I felt like I was shutting them down. When I got the ball on the wing, I just wanted to try to make a play, the last play down I think I settled for a terrible three-pointer. I just wanted to get in the lane and make something happen. The floater went down for me. That Carter three-pointer was deja vu. It shouldn't have happened.

COACH GARY WATERS: It shouldn't have happened. We ended up being in a switch situation, and instead two people ended up going with the ball. Literally, I think that was the only time we broke down on defense in our game preparation. It didn't happen that often, be honest with you. I think maybe once or twice. And at that particular time - it usually happens in a game. You're playing a great game, then all of a sudden something happens. That's what happened at that moment.

COACH GARY WATERS: Well, when you go back and look at it, you would think that something happened there, because after that game, we really struggled. I thought our team played a great game until they pressed us at a particular time. I think it just turned the entire game around. However, I still felt our kids fought back in that game and we had an opportunity even to win it. The thing I think we're doing different now that we didn't do then is, you know, we really struggled on the defensive glass. I think we're fighting now on the defensive glass. It's taken this long to get to this point. I think the reason why that's happening is because they were so young inside. Every player in our inside, our interior, are freshman or sophomores. They're fighting. I'm going to tell you this, this is the toughest league, in my estimation, in the interior. You can look at all the other leagues, they talk about who's 1, who's 2. I don't think any league has the interior the way our league has it. It's a tough, tough league.

QUINCY DOUBY: In the course of the game?

QUINCY DOUBY: We were just excited. Madison Square Garden is our second home. We were just happy to be here. We knew we had a good game plan. We played them tight the first time. We knew we had a good chance of winning this game.

QUINCY DOUBY: I think we were a little hungrier. You know, we kind of struggled in the Big East this year. We wasn't just gonna lay down and let them get into the NCAA. We just played hard and then came out with the victory.