|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2007Jim BoeheimDemetris NicholsTerrence RobertsNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK JIM BOEHEIM: I thought the difference in the game, the second half, we just got better shots. We moved the ball better. We tightened up a little bit on defense. We did an outstanding job on the boards. The first time we played, they out-rebounded us by I think 16, and the last two we've done a better job on the boards and I thought that was the difference. I thought Terrence and Mookie were much more aggressive in the second half. But the difference was we got good shots. D got some really good looks in the second half and he knocked them down. Connecticut is a very difficult team to play in the first round of this tournament. Q. A little different feeling this year than last year, a little easier the first game, instead of waiting to come down to the end? JIM BOEHEIM: This may have looked easy but it certainly wasn't. We didn't need a miracle at the end of it, but we played better. We played really well. The first 15 minutes of the second half, we played, you know, just like we've been playing. We played well at the end of the year. We played really well at Villanova the other day. The games we've won, we've played well. We've really played good basketball the last part of the year. Q. Did you feel there was a sense of urgency to win this first round game to get into the NCAA Tournament? JIM BOEHEIM: We want to win every game we play. The same urgency is there every night we play. The NCAA Tournament isn't about winning one game. It never is, never has been. It's what you do on the whole season. Shouldn't be about one game. We're playing well. We finished 10-6 in the BIG EAST; no 10-6 team in the BIG EAST has ever not got into the tournament. We are in fifth place, fifth place in the league. How many teams are going to go from our league? Q. But non-conference? JIM BOEHEIM: Who cares? We're fifth place if the BIG EAST. We had the second or third toughest schedule in the BIG EAST. Q. But -- JIM BOEHEIM: But what? (Laughter). Q. You know the second half, the tendency, you guys went up by 11 points, but there's a tendency to kind of slow your guards down, did you want to match their intensity to just keep pulling ahead? JIM BOEHEIM: We did just what we wanted to do in the second half. We moved the ball, we were patient, we set good screens, we got some inside and we got Demetris open from the perimeter. Q. Talking about Demetris, at times during games, do you wait for him to get on one of those runs? JIM BOEHEIM: Well, we have to get him open. In the first half he was pressing, he just was taking hard shots. The second half, I don't know what he shot in the second half, but the first half, he was what, two for eight? DEMETRIS NICHOLS: Terrible. JIM BOEHEIM: 2 for 7 (laughter). I was trying to help you out. 6 for 10 in the second half. DEMETRIS NICHOLS: Yeah. Q. You were able to hold Jeff Adrian and Hasheem Thabeet to fairly poor shooting nights. How confident are you now that the zone is starting to really come back after the first couple of times? JIM BOEHEIM: Well, I think we've played -- we're first in the league in field goal percentage defense for the 16 games we just played. That's pretty good. Q. How important is experience? JIM BOEHEIM: I really don't know. I really don't know the answer to that. I think experience always helps. But if it was going to bother them, it would have bothered them in the first half; it didn't seem to bother them. Q. It looked like Andy played a little tight; do you think he'll settle down, do you think he'll be a little looser tomorrow against Notre Dame? JIM BOEHEIM: The end? Q. Andy. JIM BOEHEIM: Andy. Oh, Andy. (Laughter). I don't know. I think he rushed a couple shots. You know, he's coming off a bad shooting game. He's lost a little bit of confidence probably. I think we've got to work harder to get him better looks I think, you know, but Notre Dame kicked our butts at Syracuse. They are the only team -- I'm proud of this team. We've been in every game we've played this year. We've had chances to win every single game this year, late in the game, every single game. Notre Dame is the only game -- and even that game we were 28 down and got it back to ten. But they played extremely well against us in the first half in Syracuse, and they were very impressive. I've been impressed with their team all year long, and it's going to be a tremendous challenge for us to come back tomorrow and play Notre Dame. Q. Eric's play in the first half when really nothing else was going offensively? JIM BOEHEIM: Eric saved us in the first half. He's the only guy. But we created -- these guys created some great openings for him by screening him and getting him where he can get in the lane, and he's very good in the lane. He was very good. I thought he was very good tonight the whole game. You know, he didn't make, you know, bad turnovers. He usually throws in a couple of those. But he was, I thought, very good tonight. Q. You mentioned early on the last time you played them they really handled you guys on the boards. JIM BOEHEIM: The first time they did. Q. Did you have anything specific to say to them about that? Did you have one of your guys put together some type of montage -- JIM BOEHEIM: No, they knew. I don't believe in that stuff. We were much better tonight and we also forced them into playing a small team because we're so good getting perimeter guys open, they ended up playing a smaller team to try to defend our three perimeter guys. The first game we were not playing the three perimeter guys as much together. That forces the other team to go a little bit smaller to guard -- you know when they hit a bigger guy in Demetris, that's when he was coming off and getting the good looks. Forces them to be a little smaller. You know, again, the first time we played in Connecticut, Mookie played eight minutes and he hit five fouls in eight minutes. Without him in there, we're a different team. Q. Demetris, this game kind of had almost a semi-final or final-type atmosphere to it. Were you guys playing out there with the intensity of it being more than just a first-round game? DEMETRIS NICHOLS: Oh, yeah, you know, we don't want to lose. We know how important this game was to us and we were the champ and we wanted to defend our title. Q. Coming off the Villanova game, a rough shooting night, talk about how you rebounded today? DEMETRIS NICHOLS: Just shows I can bounce back from a bad game. Guys have bad games, you know, but it's -- I think it's how you react to it. I think we all played well as a team. Q. Terrence, you've been watching this guy for four years now, when he has a bad game as Villanova, are you just waiting for the run to come? TERRENCE ROBERTS: I'm pretty much waiting for it, but I know if he's not getting off like he should be, you can either look at two things: It's either him taking bad shots or me and Mookie not screening well to get him open. I think we did a much better job in the second half of getting him wide open looks and getting Andy wide open looks. Q. The makeup of this team, this is the first year that you really are the go-to guy, so when did you develop the shooter's mentality, if you have a bad first half, you're going to keep shooting, and Jim, how much did you have to keep -- JIM BOEHEIM: He knew right away that this year it had to be his team and he had to take the shots and he's done it all year long. He has not hesitated. He's tried to make the big plays in all of the games all year long. The Oklahoma State game was unbelievable. He made plays in that game that were incredible I thought. But he's been there all year for us. The big guys are doing a tremendous job. It's not that pretty to just screen and try to get people open. It's not, you know, there's no stat line for that. These big guys, Terrence and Mookie and Matt have done a great job of getting those guys open. DEMETRIS NICHOLS: I think Coach answered that question. (Laughter). Q. What about the shooting - inaudible? DEMETRIS NICHOLS: I think I work on my game enough that, you know, guys are not going to make all their shots. But I think if you have the confidence in yourself, the next shot would go down, and that's what I continue to do. Q. I'm sure this isn't high on your list of priorities, but what did you think of these new uniforms? (Laughter) JIM BOEHEIM: You know, I don't pay much attention to the uniforms. DEMETRIS NICHOLS: He doesn't care. He's been wearing the same thing for 30 years, he doesn't care. (Laughter). JIM BOEHEIM: I think I've actually seen this style once before a long time ago. The players like them. They look good, I think. But I'm not really involved with worrying about the uniforms too much. (Laughing) End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|