BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 5, 1998

Pete Gillen

Jamel Thomas

COACH GILLEN: Very proud of our team. We played as hard as we could. Gave it everything we had. Made mistakes, didn't make jump shots tonight. This afternoon, rather, just couldn't knock down the perimeter shots. But the effort was there. The courage was there. The heart was there. They were just a little bit too good. I take my hat off to them. They were a better team. But I am very proud of our guys for playing a 6th ranked team in the country, down 2 with about 3 to go. I can't ask them to give anymore than they gave. El-Amin made the big shot. We missed a couple of shots and they pulled away. I give them the credit. They are a great team. And I am very proud of our guys because we -- I can't ask them to give anymore than they gave.

COACH GILLEN: We just couldn't run with them. They have got too many players, too many horses, too big, too quick. So we wanted to run when we could, but then try to be -- you know, play at a medium tempo, yeah.

COACH GILLEN: Once again, not get the game in 80s or 90s, because that is to their advantage. We averaged about 65 a game. I don't know what they average, about 80, 81, something like that. So, we wanted to attack their press, run our fast break, but play the game at a moderate tempo. So we thought we had a chance to win if the game was in a decent tempo. And it was like a 7-minute game, 7-and-a-half to go, tie score, whatever. And that is a good position to be in for our team playing against, you know, the top 6 team in the country.

COACH GILLEN: Jamel had to do so much. Once again, I made the analogy, he is like Atlas. He has got to carry us. And Freeman did a good job, very physical double-teaming him, switching, you know. We just don't have as many offensive options to help him. And I think he got tired. They played good defense. He had to earn his 17 points, but to get 17 against UCONN when the defense is geared to stopping him, there's not five better players in the league in my opinion than him, in my opinion. He was second choice selection, but I don't believe it.

COACH GILLEN: Good question. I really don't know. You know, anything can happen in a game. We thought we had a chance to win. We know we had to play a great game. We played a very good game. Not a great game, but we tried as hard as we can try. It is a new season, nobody picked us to win. They are a big favorite, as they always are. But the game is played on the court, and our kids just had to knock down a few more perimeter shots that didn't go in, you know. And that just didn't happen. Head off and enjoy the season and open up a Carvel stand, I will be a lot richer and smarter.

COACH GILLEN: He got tired. He has trouble with his knees and Ben hasn't been playing well. Freshman, we put T.J. in. It was a good, young player, wasn't ready. And Ben hasn't been playing well. So in that type of intensity, we just didn't think he would be ready.

COACH GILLEN: This team, we didn't have a winning record - 13 and 16, I think our final record. But I thought our kids were winners. We only got blown out a couple of times. We played, I thought, a tremendous schedule. 5 teams in the top 10. We played Colorado and UCONN three times and 7 teams in the top 25 roughly, Rhode Island and West Virginia, Syracuse twice. So, like I said, it is about 9 games. They gave it all they could. I can live with being 13 and 16. I don't like it. But when you do the best you can or give it your best effort, what can I say? I can't say be any bigger or quicker or coach, we made a mistake. Players and coaches, when you give it your best, you walk up with your head up like a king and, hey, you are a great team, great players. Jim Calhoun is a tremendous coach. When they are better, they are better. Now our job is try to recruit a couple more guys, get better with the guys we have, and try to bring in 5 new guys for next year, and hopefully we will improve. Last year, UCONN, as you know, was in the NIT, last in the Big East, 5th or 6th, and they get El-Amin, maybe the best freshman in the country. Great players. I am not saying we will be that way, but basketball can change quickly.

COACH GILLEN: Just -- Frank Sinatra starts singing in tune, not much you can do, you know what I mean? I am tone deaf. You just -- we had attacked them, they were doing a good job taking away our set plays, so we had to go at them a little bit. It is a damned if you do -- we got tired, run down. We were afraid to play our freshmen because they are not ready. If you play them, they make a mistake. If you don't, they get tired. It is a lose, lose. So just got to keep trying to work with the guys we got. All I can say is we gave it everything we could do. And got beat. I don't feel bad about losing. I don't like losing. All you can do is the best you can do.

COACH GILLEN: They did a good job defending us. They switched on everything. They have got great athletes. They know our plays. They've seen us play last night against Notre Dame. We played them twice -- so they can take us out of what we do.

COACH GILLEN: Second half we were. But we like the tempo, Kevin, but just we couldn't get shots off because of their defense. Our set plays, they did a good job denying us and taking us out of some stuff.

COACH GILLEN: Not really the time to talk about it. Just got to get stronger, work on their perimeter shooting. Got to get stronger.

JAMEL THOMAS: The difference is we lost 4 starters and a key player, 5 players. So you can't really compare this year's team to last year's team. We couldn't have an inside presence. Last year we were awesome. I don't think you can compare that.

JAMEL THOMAS: Well, I didn't expect anything. I just wanted to go out and play hard, just get used to the new guys, have fun with them, really show them what the Big East is all about. That is what I expected for this season.

COACH GILLEN: I think -- if I could interject briefly, I think it made Jamel a better player, ironically. He went through hell. He is moving the ball better than he ever did. He learned to handle that. I think he grew as a player and person through this adversity, and helped us have a very competitive team.

JAMEL THOMAS: I felt I had to try to be in control of everything besides trying to run a team, get the guys ready to play, make them feel comfortable playing, don't be scared, tell them that we can beat anybody, who we play, and our schedule, we had a lot of tough games this season. It was kind of scary, you know, playing Notre Dame yesterday because we just played them like three days before. So I think this year, our team, it will be good because we are just looking forward for next year.

COACH GILLEN: Very optimistic. I am very optimistic about next year. Coach is going to get some big guys for us to help us rebound. We got two guards coming in. I am very optimistic about next year. We have this team here playing together next year.