BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 12, 2005

Jim Boeheim

Hakim Warrick

COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Our defense both nights was the difference. Rebounding has improved, obviously, over the last -- since we changed to the bigger lineup. I think the players are more comfortable with it. But, you know, Pittsnogle has played great through this stretch they've had. We really wanted to find him and not let him get set. I thought just defensively we were really good. Offensively we did the things we had to. They trapped us a little bit during that one stretch, and, you know, we needed Josh to make plays and he made big plays, getting in the lane, getting the ball to Hak and finishing. West Virginia has played as well in this tournament as, you know, anybody's played, I think in a long time, beating Boston College the way they did and Villanova. I looked at the stats sheet, Villanova had five turnovers and shot 55%. You know, still lost the game. So this was a great tournament win for us and especially for our seniors, to be able to win this thing was a tremendous accomplishment. I'm real happy for them.

COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Well, we've been pressing a little bit. You know, we didn't get a lot out of it but we did get one or two plays. I was really proud of Demetris, he looked at that first look, made it, then he got the second one and made it. We know he can shoot the ball. I think that will do a lot for his confidence going on ahead in the tournament and for next year, you know. But, you know, we got a couple steals and Demetris hit those two big shots, made a couple real good plays to get the lead.

COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Well, I think, you know, next week I think the game we play will start out 0-0, so... I don't put much stock in coming off this, you know. I mean, we want to come to New York and play well and, you know, that's what we accomplished. If you can win, you know, I think that's a good thing. But you just want to come out of New York playing well and getting everybody the opportunity. I think the most significant thing coming out of here is that we were able to rebound better than we had, and that our defense has really picked up. West Virginia is scoring a lot of points coming into this game and shooting, you know, very high percentages. You know, we hold them to, what, 35% from the field. So I think we take that out of this, this tournament.

COACH JIM BOEHEIM: I don't know. I think that I look at this tournament, I'm really happy to win it. But, you know, it's unfortunate. My mindset has probably changed, and maybe it shouldn't change, but my mindset is the only thing that matters is next week, starting next week. You know, maybe that's not a good mindset; I don't know. It doesn't mean we don't come here and try to win because we've always come here and try to win, been to the finals - I don't know - a lot of times. It is nice to win; I feel good about it. But the reality is, and I think it helps us psychologically, I think the players know this is good, it will be good for them and it will help us forward, but the reality of college basketball, if you're a good team, is that it all starts next week.

COACH JIM BOEHEIM: When he gets in there, we win. When he gets in there, gets that up there... What happens now, which is something I think we haven't taken full advantage of yet, is when he gets in there and they come to him, we got two big guys on the block now and we still got Hak to come in there when he decides to. He's got a limit on how many rebounds. Once he gets to 10, he stops rebounding.

COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Our seniors, Josh and Hakim, were ready from the beginning. You know, they were ready to go. Craig has been great for us, you know, but Josh and Hakim have, you know, there's just no better seniors, you know, than those guys. They just really have been good all the way through, and I'm really happy for them to win this championship for those guys. You know, they're just terrific kids, terrific class, and I'm real happy for them.

COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Yeah, I think a week ago, two weeks ago I said we needed -- we weren't there. I realize sometimes that somebody might think that's kind of late, "When you gonna get there?" I think we got there, we just got to stay there now.

COACH JIM BOEHEIM: I think he played like the best player in the league.

HAKIM WARRICK: It means a lot. It's something I realize, coming back, that we've never even made it to the championship, and to win one is even bigger, especially for this class - me, Josh and Craig - to go out our last year and get a BIG EAST tournament is really important to us.

HAKIM WARRICK: Yeah, definitely. We're definitely going to put it behind us right now. We'll get right back at it tomorrow and see where we're going and just go out there and try to get back to this Final Four and hopefully win another national championship.

COACH JIM BOEHEIM: It's great to win, you know. I mean, we want to come to New York every year and play well. We have a lot of fans down here. When we lose early, they're not very happy with me. So, you know, we definitely -- we really like to win that first game, for sure, then get to the semifinals. Then if we can go past that, that's good, too. But, you know, it's great to come down here and play well and, you know, get ready for next week.

HAKIM WARRICK: It's really important. I think they show, when they produce the way they did in this tournament, it's tough for teams to beat us. We beat three teams, three different -- they played three different ways. That's what the tournament is all about. If they can come with that same intensity, we have a really good shot at going all the way.

COACH JIM BOEHEIM: I didn't even think about it, tell you the truth. I don't know if we've ever cut down the nets here. I mean, I honestly can't remember. But I didn't think about it. I don't know if Hak did or not; I don't know. I wouldn't have wanted to, if I would have thought about it (smiling).

HAKIM WARRICK: No, no. That's something I think you want to save that for the Final Four, national championship. This is a really big thing, a big win, but we definitely want to be cutting down the nets down in St. Louis.

COACH JIM BOEHEIM: I must have given him -- he must feel sorry or feel I've done something for him. Nobody ever had to do anything for Johnny; he's always been a great coach from LeMoine to Canisius, obviously at Richmond and now at West Virginia. I did talk to the people at West Virginia and Richmond, I think, too, but he only got the LeMoine job because of his uncle (laughter). But I told the guy at West Virginia, I said, "You got lucky." He said, "What do you mean?" I says, "Well, you ended up getting the right coach." But John is a tremendous coach. We just had better players, that's all.

HAKIM WARRICK: We definitely are more active, much more active and aggressive getting out to the shooters, attacking the defense and offensive glass. When we're active like that in the zone, it's tough for teams to get shots. When we're rebounding the way we did these last couple games, it's tough to beat us. We definitely got to keep that up going into the tournament.

HAKIM WARRICK: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. When I came back, this is something, BIG EAST Player-of-the-Year, BIG EAST tournament, champion, MVP, couldn't end my career any better, couldn't script it any better. It's just a great way to go out.

HAKIM WARRICK: I like to win. We've won over 100 games, we've won preseason tournaments, regular season BIG EAST, pretty much did everything except for winning the BIG EAST tournament. That's something that we had a chance to do and that's something we wanted to do as a team and as a group. It's always a big thing, especially in a conference like this. I think it's the best conference in the nation. If we can go out there and win against some of the best teams in the nation, I think we can go in there and play against anybody.

COACH JIM BOEHEIM: No, I really don't. The committee has a difficult decision, a lot of difficult decisions this year with the upsets, things that have happened, how some teams have lost quickly and other teams have gone on. Boy, it's just, you know, we've gotten to a point where we've got so much balance and so many good teams that, you know, used to be maybe three or four teams get left out that you'd think, "Wow, you know..." But it didn't happen, but a team like West Virginia could have got knocked off here, you know, and somehow not got into the tournament, and you could see that they could win games in the tournament. My fear would be that a team that can win two, three games in a tournament might not get in. That's really what can happen now. Nobody's talking about expanding it, everybody seems to be set. I'm one of the few people that's talked about it. There's just too many good teams, you're always going to leave somebody out even if you expand the field. But I think we're, what, it went from 24 to 32 or whatever, 45, 60, you know, to get to 64, 65, and there's so many more good teams now than there used to be. There's so much -- so many teams have a chance to do something real significant. I believe there will be teams left out this year that could easily win a couple games and be a factor in the tournament. The tournament fits in a nice package right now, but I think it's much more important to -- we have the best thing going. If it has to be expanded a little bit as we look at how many good teams really get left out, I think we have to look at ways to at least think about that, because we've got -- just there's going to be a lot of teams left out this year. The seeding is going to be impossible. How do you seed us? How do you seed people? You know, I mean, somehow you've got to take into consideration everything, but the committee is already seeding everybody right now. Now they look and say, "What do we do with Syracuse? Where do they go? What does this mean? What does winning the BIG EAST tournament mean?" I mean, I don't know. They've got a lot of -- the seeding will be very hard. You could be anywhere from a 3 to a 5 seed or 3 to 6, whatever, and you really say, I guess that could happen. You really can't tell. It's going to be very difficult. The committee has a lot of tough decisions to make. It will be people -- just like everybody dismisses Notre Dame, but they went 9 and 7 in our league - 9-7. They had the toughest schedule in our league. That's supposed to count for something. Everybody says, "Well, they lost these four games." It's not supposed to be what you did in the last four games, it's supposed to be what you did in the year, that's supposed to get you in or out of the year. They went 9-7 in our league, it's arguably one of the two, three best leagues in the country. So why play the hard schedule if you're not going to get credit for it?