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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2007Herbert HillTim WelshNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK TIM WELSH: You know, obviously, we had a game plan of -- to get to their shooters with our two-three zone and it worked particularly well in Providence. You're concerned obviously when a team does shoot that many and they are a three-point shooting team and it's a pick your poison with them. Tonight we stayed in the zone for a while, but it got to a point where they were in such a rhythm that we had to change and go to pressure man-to-man. I thought our man-to-man was good, it got us back in the game and cut the deficit from 15 to 3. But then we had a couple defense misassignments and they got a couple threes. It's just tough to overcome. It's deflating to have them come at you at the pace they came today. Our guys, I thought they did a great job of fighting back and playing with a lot of heart and grit. We had some obvious mistakes out there, but it was not because of the lack of effort. It was just lack of cohesiveness at times on both ends of the floor. Some turnovers hurt us. First half I thought pretty significant that we gave them 18 second-chance points, and if we had eliminated some of that, then we would have had a better feeling at half-time and they would not have had as good a feeling as they had coming out of the locker room. Our kids got it back to where it was within reach but every time that happened, the threes just kind of put it out of reach. Obviously the numbers are overwhelming when you look at their numbers. You know, it's tough to shoot 51 percent from the floor and out-rebound a team and lose. That's happened today. But they got 50-plus points on 3-pointers, and that's tough to overcome. Q. What was the difference with your zone? Did they push out and make deeper shoots? TIM WELSH: Well, they got into the gaps a little bit and they got in and sucked us in and they got the ball to the corners. They overloaded and they drove it in and got it past our basic set defense, and then got our defense out of alignment on the weak side. Sometimes we weren't there on time and other times I thought we made good efforts to get there and the ball just went in. I have to watch the tape but my general feeling, the contests were pretty much there. They did a good job of attacking. It's a tough thing when they spot five, they have five three-point shooters and you are always chasing and so when we break you down rather than have you that spread out, then the zone can collapse and they can drive and kick the shooters. I saw that happening, I saw them in a rhythm and that's why we did go to the man-to-man and with a smaller lineup to try to pressure them a little bit. Q. You got it to three like you said, they call a time-out, they get a three and things seemed to unravel; can you talk about that? TIM WELSH: Yeah, I mean, it's deflating, all of the threes, you add them all up. But you come all the way back and you make it a game. But I don't think that particular one crushed us. After that we had a couple of turnovers that were key and they turned them into easy run-outs and then that added, went from six, back up to ten. Then that, you know, when you push it all the way back to three, you're hoping you can keep it to a basket-for-basket game towards the end of the game. When it goes back to ten, I think I saw our shoulders droop a little bit where we lost a bit of our spark that we needed. But we did keep fighting but they kept making the threes. Q. Inaudible? TIM WELSH: He's playing like one of the best players in the country, not just our team. We told them that -- I feel bad for him that he couldn't make a run in this tournament in his senior year because he's given us so much. But I hope that the season is not over, and he can keep playing because he's just a wonderful guy to coach, he's a great teammate, he's a great guy in the locker room and a great player. Just, you know, think one of the best players, not only in the league, but in the country in college basketball. Q. Can you talk about the -- (inaudible) to get you back in the game as well? TIM WELSH: I wanted to press up a little bit and I wanted to go with four-round and spread the four a little bit and place them man-to-man. It gave us some life. We've got four guys that can shoot threes. We've got guys that can break the defense down and you've got a great big man in the middle, a great guy who can finish. It was really good offensively. We got hurt a little bit defensively because now you're looking at match-ups, you've got Williams guarding Akex Ruoff; he's six foot six; so their size hurt us a little bit. But they did battle and it got us back in the game. It was a good look for what we needed at the time. Q. Can you expand on Williams' performance tonight? TIM WELSH: Oh, it's terrific. He's got ice in his veins and he kept us in the game and he got us back in the game, as well. He made a lot of good plays. He's played terrific out there. He didn't play in the first West Virginia game so we thought that he was another weapon we could use against the 1-3-1. Offensively tonight there's not a lot I can complain about. We had too many turnovers, a little bit too aggressive, a little bit too -- when you get behind, I think we started pressing and started trying to make plays on our own too much. But Dwain did a super job keeping his head and his composure, a super effort for a freshman. Q. Going back to the three-point shooting, when they played you at Providence a few weeks ago, they were 9-for-41 and tonight they have 17 in the game, a BIG EAST tournament record. What was so different between that game there that ended up being a victory and tonight? TIM WELSH: Some of their looks in Providence were open, too, and they missed them. They are an extremely difficult team to guard. You've got to kind of match up with them well, and if you don't, you've got to try to mix and match your defenses. Tonight we started in a zone, we played it the same way we did in Providence and tried to make a couple of adjustments to what they were adjusting to. They tried to drive it in a few times in the first half and threw that shuttle pass out to the forward and thought that was a nice adjustment and we readjusted to that. They tried to screen us a little bit more, but they made a lot of shots, a lot of shots with hands in their face. You guys were there in the game; it's not like they were standing on the line all night long wide open. They made efforts, some of them we were open, but I thought our guys pretty much got to the shooters when they needed to, and sometimes they couldn't because I thought they had our us spread out too far and they had good dribble penetration, which is why I think in the first half they beat us a little bit. Q. Can you talk about closing out the threes, did they just go so far out and sometimes you think you're there but you're not really there? HERBERT HILL: They did a great job of spacing us out and moving the ball. We tried to get there but it seemed like everything they threw up just went in. Q. Are there any injury issues that you have to be monitoring if NIT is in the future? TIM WELSH: I think it's been well documented that Jeff has been playing what -- you know, partially sprained meniscus. He's got a little tear in there. You can see his production. He's playing like a warrior, though. He's trying to play through it. You can see his offensive game is not what it was because of that, but he's going to continue to play through it. That's something that we are going to have to do. Nothing we can do about that now. And hopefully Sharaud's finger will be healed enough where he can look for his offense a little bit more. I think you saw today where he hesitated with his offense, but other than that I think we'll be okay. Q. A few times you were running four to six points down, that's when you made your last run, there were two key turnovers that turned it to six points; that was the difference in the game, that 30-second stretch, because by that time you were down ten and that was it. TIM WELSH: Right. Correct. (Laughter.) I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be funny, was that a question? Was that a synopsis? Q. It's in between -- TIM WELSH: As I said before, that was -- it's deflating when you get back to three points and you turn it over and give them easy baskets. If they are going to work for their buckets, it's fine. You can keep battling. But you turn it over and then into runouts and it goes from six up to then ten. The three was important, but it went to ten quickly on two turnovers and that was probably the key point. End of FastScripts |
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