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March 25, 2006
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA
THE MODERATOR: We have Villanova head coach Jay Wright, Kyle Lowry, Randy Foye, Mike Nardi, Allan Ray, Will Sheridan. Coach, if you could start with an opening statement and we will take questions for anybody up here.
JAY WRIGHT: Well, we are a little bit rested after a very intense, physical and emotional game last night. We had a light work-out, and I think the biggest thing we have to do, besides prepare for Florida, is just get off our feet and lay-up and save every bit of energy we have for tomorrow.
I think that we will be able to do that. I think the guys are really psyched about how well, and how tough we played against BC and we are going to have to do it again.
Florida is the same kind of team, tough team, athletic, and they have a lot of answers offensively. This should be a great game.
Q. Coach, compare these two teams from a year ago. You are returning four of your five starters, Florida almost completely different.
JAY WRIGHT: I think that we are a little bit more experienced, probably a little bit -- I mean, a little bit more experienced than we were last year and probably a little more similar to what we were last year, especially now we have Jason Fraser coming on a little bit now.
They are kind of tougher, too. Florida knows everything we do, we are very similar, but they are a lot different, you know, they are big guys, leading scorers, even though Lee was. Noah is incredible. He is just a completely different kind of player, but he does a lot of the same things Lee did.
I think he can beat you on the perimeter, off the dribble, scores inside. If their guards shoot the ball like their other guards did, different people, but still a great offensive team. I think their size and athleticism makes them a better defensive team this year.
Q. Randy, both of your teams like to get up and down the floor, obviously, and both of you had to slug it out last night in tough wins. Do you see tomorrow's game maybe opening up a little bit more and getting up and down, a little more high tempo?
RANDY FOYE: We always try to play our game and our game is up and down, shooting 3s and just playing defense and rebounds. I think tomorrow is going to be up and down because both teams are a little smaller, a lot quicker.
Q. Jay, this Florida team lost a lot of its scoring, as you know, from last year and wasn't expected to be this deep in the tournament. Since your North Carolina game last year there has been a buzz about your team, Top 5. What is it like to go through a season that way, with that on your back and getting to this point?
JAY WRIGHT: That's interesting. I think our roles are reversed this year. I think Florida went through that last year. Billy has done an incredible job getting this group together. I think what we all see in them this year is an outstanding team. They just really play off each other, five guys, double figures, and for us it's been a different kind of challenge, you know. We realize we are getting everybody's best game every night.
People talk about our toughness. We are probably not -- we take pride in our toughness, but everybody that plays against us is just as tough. When you give good athletes a challenge of toughness, that's what they hear when they play against us, they are going to step it up.
That was what that game was last night. Those guys, same with Arizona game, same way. Those guys really physically came after us and I am sure Florida is going to do the same thing.
Q. Coach, I was wondering, you just talked about the intense game you guys played last night and all the emotion that went into that. With that said, how much preparation goes into this game in terms of how much information you feed the guys and that sort of thing?
JAY WRIGHT: You have to be careful about that, you really do, because you don't want to give the guys too much information and we lose our aggressiveness. You know, for us at this time of the year, we can play a lot of different ways. We usually start games playing our way, as Randy said, and then we just adjust during the game.
Our assistants have done a lot of preparation on Florida, and we give the guys what we think is important, but we try to keep it simple, and we still have to take our BC game and see what we can do better, you know. We probably spend 50 percent of the time talking about us and what we need to do better, and 50 percent just picking some specifics about Florida we need to concentrate on.
Q. Randy, can you talk about last night's game. How tired were you at the end, and was there - with other guys not getting their shots necessarily, was there any way you were going to let your team lose?
RANDY FOYE: Last night towards the end I was tired because I played the whole game, 45 minutes. I just had my teammates, I told them I was tired. They are like come on, we have to keep on pushing and keep on pushing. Allan said there is no coming back, so we just have to keep pushing.
With Allan, like he didn't hit his shots last night, but tomorrow against Florida he will get open and will be knocking down shots.
Q. Jay, you mentioned Jason Fraser, you say he is coming on more and he has played more minutes last night than he has in a long time. Why was that the game for him to be in and what was the difference?
JAY WRIGHT: Well, as everyone knows, he went through two knee surgeries. When he first came back, he was healthy, but -- and I think early in the season his adrenaline carried him.
As the season went on, he didn't get to rehab the muscles in his legs. He was weak. As the season went on, he was tiring in terms of muscle fatigue. So we took a break, about a two-and-a-half to three-week break where we just said let's spend the time on rehabbing your muscles and building the strength in your legs again. We will see if we can get you, for the end of the season, healthy.
If we don't, you are at least working your way back to being strong, camps in the spring, and it worked. The way it was going, he just -- he just had nothing left in his legs. He is not in pain. He is healthy. He had nothing left. He worked really hard.
We have been seeing in practice the last week or so that he is starting to get his balance back again. That's why we started to go to him. He did a great job last night.
Q. I know you have been through this, but we are catching up with you. When Allan had that eye injury -- and this is for the coach and any players that want to comment on this -- I am sure it was terrifying, but then you talk about that, and then maybe the emotional lift you guys got when you found out he was okay. This is for Jay and any of the players that want to chip in on this.
JAY WRIGHT: Go ahead, guys.
RANDY FOYE: You saw the injury happen. We couldn't see it during the game, but when you watched the replay, like you see his eye come out the socket, and we watched it like in a room. Both of us was like, our stomachs was turning.
That night at the hotel, like, we found out that he was okay and everything was all right, and then we saw Allan the next morning, he is back to himself, joking, and it was a ton of pressure off our shoulders.
JAY WRIGHT: I think that, from a coaching perspective, we went, again, the whole gamut of emotions, just first we were all crushed for the possibility of how catastrophic it could have been, because none of us really knew during the game because they rushed him out to the hospital. We just knew he was in the hospital. We never thought it could be as bad as we found out later it was. So then we were concerned with that.
Then we started to think, okay, now we have to -- here we go again. Last year Curtis and Jason, now we have to get everybody fired up, play without them. We started making our plans. We know how close he is to all these guys. We knew it was going to take time for them to handle it. We went through all that. Then we found out he was going to be okay, and then it was, all right, he is going to be okay, but when is he going to be able to play. About Monday or Tuesday we finally confirmed, this guy is playing on Friday.
I think that gave -- none of us talked about it, but I think all of us, we kind of felt like we got a new player because we were all ready to play without him and we got a new great player.
Q. Anybody else want to jump in? Jay, nationally, if you bring up Villanova basketball, the perception is still 1985. Number one, would you accept that premise; and two, is it important at all, or does it mean anything to you to kind of create an identity now beyond that?
JAY WRIGHT: That's interesting, Steve, because I think you are right that nationally if you talk about Villanova basketball, I think what people would say right now would be Rollie Massimino, '85, and Kerri Kittles, Kerri Kittles era, Alvin Williams, that is probably the feeling. I am okay with that. I am very proud of that.
For us it's more important to -- I think when you talk about that '85 game, I think it was so prominent, such a big part of sports history, I don't think that will ever be erased from the identity of Villanova basketball. I think that's a great thing. I don't ever want it to be forgotten.
When you talk about guys like Kerri Kittles and Alvin Williams, you are talking about two great young men, great players, beautiful people. So I like that.
I think now it's just important to us that we maintain the tradition that that '85 team, the Kerri and Alvin and those guys, the way they carried themselves, I think that's important to us.
No one here really cares about making a name for themselves. Coach Massimino, he gave us a line that tradition never graduates, and I think that's what these guys -- I think they really take great pride in just maintaining that tradition. I don't think they want to ever distinguish themselves from what happened, just keep it going.
Q. Jay, let's talk about Noah for a minute. Could you expound a little bit about him as a time at 6'11", Praying Mantis athletic type, A; and B, when you heard he was going to Florida, did you automatically think he had picked a perfect place or one of the style of schools that would fit him perfectly?
JAY WRIGHT: Let me answer your second question. When he went to -- when he picked Florida, it was bittersweet because we were recruiting him. We were one of the finalists in recruiting him. He was at Lawrence Villanova prep, which is 40 minutes from Villanova. He grew up in New York City playing for a guy named Tyrone Green, who is a good friend of mine.
We thought we were going to get him. I was crushed when he picked Florida, but I was happy because I thought he is not in the Big East, I will not have to play against him. That didn't work out too well this year.
If you talk about the style, I think he is -- he really is -- I think what's really unique about him, Bob, is that usually kids that are that big, even if they are that athletic, they don't have the ability to play every possession at the intensity level that he does.
If you are that big, it might be from his father's bloodlines, that tennis player has to play quick all the time, he is incredible that he can play that hard with that intensity for that long of a period of time. I don't know many guards that can do that. We take pride in that, but he does that at his size. That's what makes him unique.
Q. You were talking about maintaining tradition, but during the '90s Villanova had a reputation for underachieving NCAA, even though they had good NCAA records.
When you took over the program, what did you feel you had to do to kind of get Villanova over the hump and get them up? Talk a bit about bringing in alumni from the past teams, the importance of that and building tradition again.
JAY WRIGHT: Well, I am aware of that reputation from the mid '90s, however, and that probably, amongst the media, was the reputation, I think you are correct. Within our program we took great pride in the Big East Championship, the NIT Championship during that time.
I wasn't here, but -- I was at Hofstra, but you always maintain a close tie to this program, anybody that's a part of it. So we took pride in that. And the great players and everyone graduating, 100 percent graduation rate.
So we felt good about it, but we understood that people measure you by what you do in the NCAA Tournament. It wasn't that big of a concern when we took the job on, but I probably, as the head coach, got more credit for bringing the guys back. The guys were always there. They are always there except we just had some functions that the media saw.
We do a summer golf tournament, not tournament, all the guys come back and play golf, a Fan Jam where the season ticket holders come and have a carnival with the players.
So everybody in Philly, it is August, nothing is going on, it was quiet that week or something, all the TV came. It has always been that way at Villanova, it really has. It has always been that way. It is something we wanted to make sure we perpetuated.
Really, these guys, you know, they -- all those guys come back and spend time with these guys. The only thing we wanted to do is make sure if we don't explain to those guys who Howard Porter is, Wali Jones, Paul Arizin, high school kids, they look two or three years back, it's not too many they don't know. We explain to them, and they have a great respect for the history of basketball and Villanova basketball.
Q. Jay, I have been kind of struck hearing Billy and other coaches, not just here, but talk about how physical your team is, and that's not usually when you hear a team that's not very big, you don't hear them called physical very often. Have you used that to your advantage, the physical strength from guys that aren't huge by any means? Is that to your advantage?
JAY WRIGHT: I hope so. We really don't have a choice. We are going to play the way we play. We have great confidence. You know, I don't know if we can be that physical. From our perspective we watch, we were always undersized. It looks like toughness to me. It looks to me like we are getting beaten up, but it doesn't affect us mentally. That's the way it looks to me.
Other people calling that toughness, that we are physical, you know, it's fun. It's interesting to me. From our perspective, it just looks like they are banging us around, pushing us around, coming over our backs, but we are battling and battling. It never looks to me like we are initiating it. It looks like we are just taking it and keep on fighting.
Q. Coach, along those same lines of thought, you have a pretty good stat as far as rebound differential in the season, I think it is like you guys are positive 1.5 according to the media kit. Down the stretch and in the tournaments you have lost a few of those battles.
So my question is, first of all, are some of the teams, did you take some people by surprise earlier as far as your ability to rebound in a smaller line-up, and are teams catching on and approaching you differently? Do you need to win that battle in order to win the games?
JAY WRIGHT: I think we did catch people by surprise earlier. I think people just thought, because we were small, they would out-rebound us. I think it is obvious recently, Arizona, BC. We saw right at the start of the Arizona game, they sent four guys to the glass and they were pounding us. BC does that all the time, so I don't know if it was that much of a game-plan issue.
It is something that we have to contend with. We can't get beat. BC out-rebounded us by 3, which is not bad. I thought that, if we can equal that for us, that's pretty good. It is still important to us. Defensive rebounding is very important to us. We go big sometimes and we are getting out-rebounded, and give us some offense because it is important.
Q. Allan, you said before last game that you weren't really thinking about the North Carolina game from last year. Do you take the same approach with the Florida game, is that still out of your mind, and maybe more appropriate are Florida being so different this year?
ALLAN RAY: Definitely. That was last year, and we are two different teams now, you know. We are a whole year ahead and definitely learned a lot and much more experience. So you really can't look back at last year.
Q. This is for Randy and Allan. I was wondering if maybe you could put into words, describe your coach's personality, and also how maybe the style of play you guys play reflects that style, that personality.
ALLAN RAY: He is like us, very determined, you know, to get us better, and just like us, you know, we want to get better. He is just one of those guys that will always push you no matter what. He wants to see you succeed and be the best person you can be on and off the court.
We just take that personality on the court, too. We just want to do whatever it takes to win, you know, we are determined to do anything, let's get a rebound, let's steal, contest a shot. We definitely take on coach's personality on the court.
RANDY FOYE: Coach is just like us. He jokes around sometimes, but he lets us know when we have to be serious and when fun time is over. Like I would say he is always -- he is not really talking about basketball most of the time. He is talking about the big picture and life in general, because basketball, he always tells us basketball only lasts for 12 years, and you have 50 more years to live after that. He is showing us the big picture. He is like a father figure to us.
Q. Coach, can you talk about what it is about Randy that allows him to persevere from the difficult circumstances he had, especially in his childhood?
JAY WRIGHT: Well, first, there is definitely something God-given in him that enabled him from a young age to pick the right people to listen to. It constantly amazes me.
My wife and I talk about it all the time. We have three kids, and we are on them all the time telling them what to do, who they should listen to. Throughout his life with the AU coaches, high school coaches, teachers, Lady Marie Contardo, family members, friend Z from the street, from all the guys on the street, the guy he picks is the guy who turned out to be a teacher and educator. He picked him at a young age. That's amazing.
Because, of all those people, he has got a great perspective on life and on -- just like he said, he looks at the big picture, you know. I was explaining to some of our young guys that watched him lead us last night in the game, I was explaining to some of our freshmen today, you have that confidence to lead like that when your mind is free of any guilt, of any worries. You are just free. You are out there free because he just does the right thing all the time.
I am not saying he is angel. There are kids probably on campus saying whoa. I am not saying he is an angel. He tries to do the right thing all the time academically, with his friends, with his family, with his teammates. He just is always trying to do the right thing. He is an incredible leader. He is going to be a great man when basketball is over. He is now.
THE MODERATOR: One more before the players leave us. Anything else? Okay. Players, thanks. You can head to the break-out rooms. Coach will stay with us.
Q. Jay, what was your pitch when you got the job for this class of seniors in recruiting? Is there some sort of now that they are seniors and one game away from the Final Four, is there some sort of validation or appreciation for those guys?
JAY WRIGHT: Well, I am really happy for these guys because if you talk about pitch, number one, it was help us get this started, you know, our attempt to maintain the tradition of Villanova basketball. We had some very good guys in the program, but those players that were there didn't fit our style of play. They did a great job of working at it while we were there.
Our first year we were 19-13. We had Brooks Sales was a senior, Ricky Wright, Gary Buchanan, really, they started it. But our first recruiting class was these guys. They took the brunt of us saying, look, this is going to be on you. You have to get this going because the guys were there. We were kind of saying to them, you know, I know we didn't recruit you, and I know this isn't easy for you, so we have to try to get through this together. Those guys did a great job, they really did. That's why I am so happy for these guys.
What's so crazy, the thing about the recruiting class, Jason doesn't get to play that much this year. Curtis is out, Chris Charles has done a great job behind the screens, Baker Dunleavy has done a great job behind the screens. They don't get any credit, but there is a lot more to this recruiting class than Allan, Randy, Curt and Jason. It is Baker Dunleavy and Chris Charles.
For that whole group they are all graduating on time. They have taken great pride in what they have built, and also in the young guys coming up behind them really look up to them, not as stars, but as guides they want to emulate, students athletes. For a coach, it's a dream to have guys like that, that build what you want to do and represent it.
Q. Jay, a little more specifically, how do you kind of measure the impact that Foye and Ray have had in helping to take the Villanova program over four years where it is now, one step away from the Final Four?
JAY WRIGHT: You know, we never talk about individual honors. Randy and Allan never do. When we sit down and talk about what we are working for, what we plan for, we never talk about -- at the end of the season, I want to show these guys all of the honors they have received, and you can tell the impact they have on people by alumni always tell me -- I know this is going to sound funny -- Villanova is a unique place. They always say it's not that we win or lose, but we just like how those guys conduct themselves. That really means a lot to me. That's how I measure them.
When we hear recruits say "I want to go to Villanova, I want to be the next Allan Ray, the next Randy Foye," that tells me, from that perspective, how young guys are looking at our program. That's the way I measure, what our alumni say, what recruits say, and then, finally, the students on campus, they love these guys. They don't look at them like pampered superstars, which sometimes that happens on a campus. They love these kids. They are humble, part of the student body. I look at alumni, students, and recruits, and that's how I measure them.
Q. I am wondering, I can't help but notice that Nardi is playing minutes have diminished. I am wondering how much that has to do with match-ups, teams you are playing against. Is the trend likely to continue, or was that maybe tonsillitis have something to do with it? What do you foresee from him coming forward and deeper into the tournament?
JAY WRIGHT: It's usually match-ups, Jack. Monmouth game, they are playing the match-up. We needed to play him a lot. He played a lot of minutes. Arizona was huge, and we were just trying to match their size. Now, if we could have gotten Allan on them and not been worried about not getting beat on the boards, but the other part of it is -- the same thing with BC in terms of size.
The other part of it is we talked about how the four guards, you know, we are just trying to hold us together. Dante Cunningham and Shane Clark have really stepped up and made us a little more conventional team. So it is just all those. Mike is handling it great. He is a great team player. I always want him to be ready because we could have him, he could have a 31-minute game tomorrow like that, and we are ready for that and he is ready for that.
Q. Jay, I was wondering, with the depth in college basketball, if you feel like the tournament field should expand?
JAY WRIGHT: I think that's a very, very good point. I am a coach, so immediately I think from a coach's perspective. You see coaches getting fired because they don't make the NCAA Tournament. It doesn't mean they didn't do a good job. It doesn't mean they don't have great teams. You can look at the NIT right now, and there is a lot of teams in the NIT that are as good as teams in this tournament, and you can also look at George Mason, and everyone questioned them, and they are in the Final 8.
It's the point you make, there are so many great teams, and I think coaches' jobs are being determined on whether they are picked in the 65 rather than are they doing a good job. If more teams got into the tournament, that's kind of what everyone uses to determine whether a coach is doing a good job or not.
If more teams got in, I think you could see coaches concentrate on what they all want to do, and that is teach and educate. I think graduation rates would go up that way. I think it would add a lot of positives, and it might only be one more weekend. You push for that? I love it. No, you say no. You are not going to do it.
Q. As you know, Jay, Florida has an assortment of big running athletes. Corey Brewer is probably the most valued one out of high school. Could you just talk about him and what match-up problems he presents.
JAY WRIGHT: You know, it's funny, we always talk about the match-up problems with us because it always is, but I think this is the first team that we have played, you know, they remind me in size and athleticism of Syracuse and U-Conn, the great size upfront.
They even played the zone like Syracuse, with their size. What these guys have that concerns me is that size has great quickness and speed, and also offensively a lot of skill. If you look at big guys like that, they usually have more turn-overs and assists. These kids have more assists than turnovers. It is good coaching on Billy's part. It is also very talented players. That's a unique entity that we are going to have to deal with.
Q. Jay, I hate to flog the horse about the four guard, there is no new story ideas at this time of year. When you decided to go that route, did you have any concerns about flouting, basically, basketball convention for the last 40-some years, and what alleviated those concerns, if you had any?
JAY WRIGHT: As a coach, everything I had, I stole from somebody. So when we did that -- actually, it was the Florida game. It was the Florida game, the NCAA Tournament. Curtis Sumpter went down. As I said, honestly, it was half time. We had no choice. We had a lead. We are in the NCAA Tournament. We said let's get through this second half and let's see if these guys can hold onto the ball, and we can make some plays and just try to rebound with them.
You know, even then the next game against Carolina, we just said, look, Carolina was huge. We are not going to play 40 minutes with four guards against Carolina. You just don't do that. So we started that way, but then we -- we were ready to adjust and play big, and then it just worked. So we were just hanging in there, you know, and I was always worried about, look, you don't put a 6'3" guard on a 6'9".
In that game we had Randy Foye guard Juwad Williams. It looked ridiculous. Honestly, I am sitting on the sideline saying we look like idiots. I really knew that. Especially when they would go up and get an offensive rebound, or Randy would pick up a foul guarding Juwad Williams.
You have your best player on a 6'9" power forward getting fouls, but we didn't have a choice. There are some positives to this, it is creating problems for the other team, too. So we have hung with it. Again, it gets us by. I am not making any videos on it, I will tell you that.
Q. Coach Donovan was talking about how you never know who you are getting when you are recruiting, you don't know how they will mesh together or what chemistry they will develop. He seems to have guys who play unselfishly. They say we are like brothers. I know you guys talk about family all the time. It sounds warm and fuzzy to us, but does team chemistry, how important is it? Is it really like catching lightening in a bottle when you have something like that?
JAY WRIGHT: I really think it is, Jennifer. I think just all of us coaches would tell you the same thing, it is just not -- like you said, it sounds warm and fuzzy to the media because people want to hear individual stories, and we understand that. So we don't talk about it a lot because nobody really wants to hear about it anymore.
Any coach would tell you that when their teams are good, when they have great chemistry and guys want to play together, and take pride in their team, and the name on the front of their jersey -- or excuse me, the other way around, I think we would all tell you that. It hasn't changed in 100 years.
When we all get it, all us coaches know we have something special. You really enjoy it. Sometimes you get a team that it's not working, and you battle as a coach to get it that way, and you just do the best you can. But I definitely think Florida has that, and it's impressive to watch, and I think we have it, too.
Q. Jay, you spoke earlier about the national perception of Villanova. Locally in the Philadelphia region there is a stereotype about Villanova, about uppity and all those kinds of words. Maybe I am reaching too far here, but do you think the way your team plays and the kind of kids you have on the team have done anything to kind of change that perception at all?
JAY WRIGHT: No one at Villanova likes that perception, but we do understand that it's out there, and especially in Philadelphia. I think other schools put that on us, you know. It's advantageous to them. I think people at Villanova just love their school and we all take great pride in our school. We take pride in the strong academic tradition so other people turn that around, which is all right.
But I hope --
Q. I have done that, too.
JAY WRIGHT: I hope that -- I think that Philadelphia people respect tough, hard-working teams, all our Philly teams are like that, you know. If you are not like that, they let you know that in Philly. I hope they take pride in this team. They take pride in representing Philadelphia basketball.
When they come to Villanova, they get part of the Big 5, follow the Sixers and all the high school basketball in Philly. They take pride in it. I hope Philly fans do appreciate the way they play.
Q. Jay, was that the best that Jason Fraser has moved in the last couple of weeks and, if so, does that mean the strength in his legs are starting to come back?
JAY WRIGHT: I really think so, Terry. It is a strange situation, but after his two knee surgeries, he was cleared to participate in basketball on the first day of practice. He couldn't practice with us live, but there was never any time ever for him to get into a strength training program. I wanted him to red-shirt this year and build his strength, and then come back and play next year, but he wanted to play with this group. I won't bore you, you know the whole story. Those guys are so close, he wanted to play.
Early it looked like it was going to work out because he was just coming back, but over a season he didn't have the muscle endurance to keep it going. You could see him tearing down, tearing down. So we just shut him down for a while in terms of playing. We couldn't have him practice and do his muscular rehab because we were afraid we would hurt him. So we started going back to the muscular rehab and saying, look, we might not be able to use you, but you can get into NBA camps in the spring if you get your muscle back. He still does that, works the strength training. He even did it here. I think we are seeing it come back.
Q. Jay, you kind of touched on maybe having built a little more conventional, or having to against Arizona and Boston College. I am just wondering if you share those same concerns with Florida about their height and how important your bench is going to be, particularly with Jason kind of coming along and so forth.
JAY WRIGHT: It is definitely going to be important. It gives us a choice now, as we are talking about earlier, with the four guards, we didn't have a choice. Jason was struggling, a freshman, you know, just didn't come around, hadn't matured yet. Shane Clark joined us in late December so we didn't have the choices.
We have choices now. As we were talking about Mike Nardi earlier, Mike Nardi is playing great, he is doing everything we want him to do. We have other choices now. We would love to play with those four guards as long as we can, but if we have to adjust, we are ready.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.
JAY WRIGHT: Thanks, guys.
End of FastScripts...
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