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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: TAMPA

March 22, 2008

TAMPA, FLORIDA

THE MODERATOR: We have Villanova, our student-athletes are Dwayne Anderson, Dante Cunningham, and Scottie Reynolds. Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Scottie, you mentioned last night that your feet were burning. Wanted to know how you felt today, and how do you think the guys are doing today after a tough game last night? What was your overnight like? Did you get any sleep or were you just too keyed up?
SCOTTIE REYNOLDS: You know, we just went right back to the hotel, got something to eat, and tried to get as much fluids in before we went to bed. This morning everybody's doing real well. We're just trying to get as much fluids in as much as possible so we can be ready to go tomorrow.

Q. And your feet?
SCOTTIE REYNOLDS: My feet, my feet are good right now. They say I don't have no problems, so.

Q. For any of you guys who feel you want to answer it, how well do you guys know Ronald from like playing with them during the summers on Siena's team? Ronald Moore? Any of you guys play with Ronald in the summer with Siena?
DWAYNE ANDERSON: We know he's from Philly, right? Correct?

Q. Played with Whitemarsh, yeah.
DWAYNE ANDERSON: We know that he's quick, he gets into the lane. You know, that's really all we know about him right now.

Q. Last night I guess after the injury to your leg you went to the bench. A few minutes later you got behind the bench and went down. Describe what happened and how important was it for you to get back to the bench and support your team?
DWAYNE ANDERSON: What happened was I started to cramp in my left calf, and then both my legs started to cramp, so Scottie and a couple of other guys helped me off the floor. Then when I went to the sideline, Jeff gave me a lot of liquids, lot of Powerades. He told me to get up and see if I could walk. So as I did that I was stretching on the sideline, and I just said, Jeff, I'm not feeling well. And I ran to the trash can. It was all the Powerade that I drank came out. It was just my whole body had spasms and I was cramping. I never had this feeling before. I went back and they gave me the IV and I felt much better. But that process of trying to get to the training room, I was just out of it.
But I remember I was laying back on the training table, and I couldn't see the score, but I could see what was going on. So I'm trying to, like, be calm and cool and collected, but I just wanted to get back out there so the fellas know I'm supporting them. Even though I went down, I was still fired up about the game. Scottie was yelling at me from on the sidelines, telling me to, "keep your head straight." And he pulled off a great win.

Q. You guys held Mays and Booker last night to five shots combined. What did you do defensively in the post? And talk about the way the defense buckled down in the second half, please.
DANTE CUNNINGHAM: Defensively in the post, I mean, it was definitely a team effort. The guards pressured the ball really well. Our forwards are me, Tone, and Casiem, we all have different ways of guarding the post. You know, Cas is a little more bigger, so he likes to bang them a little bit more. I'm a little quicker than Cas, so I can move around them a little bit. High side, low side type of thing. It was definitely a big part of the guards protecting us, not letting them make such easy passes into the post.
You know, we just kept fighting over screens and not letting the guards get off as many threes as they did in the first half.

Q. This is for Scottie and Dwayne: Given what happened last night, who are the underdogs now that are left? And might you guys be seen as the marquis team given the fact you're from the Big East?
SCOTTIE REYNOLDS: You know on the outside I think everybody says we're the marquis team, the Big East team. The team that's been on television and everything like that. But I think now you've seen in this tournament, it doesn't matter what your ranking is. Doesn't matter what league you play in, you just have to go out there and compete night in and night out. Just be together with your teammates and just concentrate on what you do best.
I think whoever stays with the game plan and not fall out of place in what they're doing is going to overcome a lot of things.
DWAYNE ANDERSON: There's a lot of confusion because of the number that's in front of your ranking. That means like you're just -- you're basically a better team which is not true, as you can see from the scores and a lot of the upsets. Siena and ourselves we were both underdogs coming into the tournament, and we're still going to have the same approach on tomorrow's game. We're going to be underdogs for the rest of the tournament.

Q. With that all said, how surprised are you that it's Siena you're playing and not Vanderbilt tomorrow?
SCOTTIE REYNOLDS: I think you can't be surprised in this tournament. I think that everybody knows that anybody can beat anybody at any given time. You know, with us, I think that, you know, we've been in a lot of situations where we've been underdogs and came back. We've won some, we've lost some. I think any team in this tournament when they get down, you know, they feel like they have to go out with a bang.
It doesn't matter, you know. Each and every time you step on that court, man, you have to play for 40 minutes. If you're not doing that, you're doing your team a disservice.

Q. You're going against a front line that is certainly undersized. Though in the course of the season they've been able to be somewhat effective at least against bigger front lines. How is it an advantage or disadvantage to go against a small front line?
DANTE CUNNINGHAM: You never have to look at their size. They're obviously here for a reason. They have a great all-around game as a team. You know, you just have to take it as if they may be 7-feet tall. You have to keep battling with them. Got to keep fighting and do what you do on a 7-footer as you would with them if you think they're undersized.

Q. Andrew Francis said a little while ago that he'd be rooting for you guys except for the fact that he's coaching against you guys tomorrow. Talk a little about the reaction, maybe, Scottie, about going up against a coach that you were with last year?
SCOTTIE REYNOLDS: Well, it's just unbelievable how this worked out. When we first saw that we were in the tournament, I think the next name was Siena. And everybody was pointing up at the screen and saying "Siena." You know, if we were lucky enough to win we'd be going up against our former assistant.
It's just funny how things work out. We have great respect for Siena, and obviously Coach Francis and what he's done. You know, it's going to be interesting to see what his game plan is. It's going to be good. I just want to see what he had. I told him after the game, "I'm going to be waiting for what you have, waiting to see what you have for us." So it's going to be an interesting twist to the game.

Q. As a follow-up to that, that does kind of give Siena a little advantage having a guy on the staff who was there and is very, very familiar with you, probably as familiar as anybody. Do you think that that does give an advantage? Otherwise they wouldn't have?
DWAYNE ANDERSON: It's like playing in the Big East. We play every team twice, basically. So it's the same thing. All the coaches know each of the players, and the schemes and how they play. So it's basically the same thing.

Q. You've played against Onuaku and Hibbert and now against Mays and Booker last night. What's been the key? You've shut them all down pretty good, how much improvement have you shown since earlier in the season?
DANTE CUNNINGHAM: Like I said before, the biggest key is just team defense. Our guards pressuring the ball. They get deflections and make it so that offensive guards can't just drop it in there and make easy passes. You know, we have three great big men inside working defense, throwing different bodies at them and different styles of post defense.

Q. Curious as to their three-point shooting and whether or not that's a key that you try to shut that down based upon what they did last night to Vanderbilt?
SCOTTIE REYNOLDS: It seems like the last couple of games with Georgetown and Clemson, it's just, if you play us, you're going to get some threes off us. So, I mean, they shot the heck out of the ball yesterday. They have great offensive players. Not just running through the offensive cuts, but, you know, going one-on-one. You know, driving, kicking. You know, you have a guy like Fisher who can come off the bench and just hit six threes at any given time. So that's something that we're looking at, and, you know, it's going to be interesting how that plays out.

Q. There was so much talk whether tournament experience really matters or not, and no Clemson player obviously had ever played in a NCAA Tournament game. When you stepped on that court last night, having that Kentucky-Villanova game last year under your belt under the bright lights of an NCAA Tournament game, did it give you a significant more comfort level? Or is it overrated and it doesn't affect how much players feel on the court having played in this big dance before?
SCOTTIE REYNOLDS: It's interesting, because I thought about that just hearing some things. You know, we have guys like Dante, Dwayne, Shane Clark, and Frank Tchuisi, guys that have experienced top-notch games. When I stepped on the court it was a different feeling from other times. A lot of times I'd be anxious, nervous or have butterflies, but yesterday was a different feeling. It felt ready to go. Ready to get the game started. I felt good about what we were going to accomplish that night.
You know, experience-wise, I think Clemson just plays so hard. For 40 minutes they're just going to play the same way and play all out. And for us to keep up with them was a good look for us.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Coach Jay Wright from Villanova. Questions for coach.

Q. In the last four years, you have been all over the map in terms of a tournament seed. As a 12, you've been a 5, a 9, a 1. Is this different, the experience, being a 12 seed?
COACH JAY WRIGHT: Yeah, yeah, it is.

Q. How?
COACH JAY WRIGHT: Well, first of all you're a team. It's not as much the seed as your team. We're just a team that's scrapped and scrambled to get into this thing, you know. When you get into it, you're convincing the players as a 12 seed don't be happy to be here. This is an opportunity of a lifetime. You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
Back home in Philly a lot of people would say to us, hey, this whole team's coming back next year. This is going to be good experience for next year's team. We really have to fight that, that it's about this year's team. We've got to finish this. The other years like when you're a 1 seed, you know it's got to be now. This is the team. Last year, even last year when we had four seniors, we thought it's now. Whereas this year people didn't really say that to us. They were talking about next year. So that was probably the biggest difference.

Q. Given what happened last night, can you be viewed as the marquis team left standing since you're from the Big East? And who are the underdogs left tomorrow among the four teams?
COACH JAY WRIGHT: You know, the way our team has been all year to hear us called the marquis team right now is funny (smiling). I think that was -- you know in this tournament now, seriously, you can't say favorites. It's incredible. What went on here in this first round is just the beauty of the NCAA Tournament. It's difficult to say. We don't feel like favorites tomorrow. We're going to wear a white jersey, and I have to apologize to our equipment manager. I questioned whether we would bring our white jerseys or not. He was very upset with me yesterday. I just don't think about that stuff, I just trust them.
But we've got to play a great team tomorrow. We watched them play last night. We're not thinking that we're marquis, we're thinking that we're a great team.

Q. A lot was made of the Big East getting eight teams and you guys were the 8th team, and the Big East went 7-1 the first two days and West Virginia is now up by 11 on Duke. Do you think this is any sort of validation for the league for the year?
COACH JAY WRIGHT: I hope so. I do. We're proud of our league, and everyone is. Everyone's proud of their league. When you play in a league night in, night out, you think it's the best because you know how difficult it is.
I do think one of the things about the Big East that makes it difficult, and I think it prepares you for the tournament is there are so many different styles of play, and so many different great coaches. You're going against Bobby Huggins, you're going against Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun, Jim Boeheim, and Tom Crean, Jamie Dixon. I don't want to leave anybody out, John Thompson. I should have never started with names there are so many. But each one of them has their unique style. They don't come into the league and say, now I'm in the Big East I'm going to play Big East style. They have their style. I think each one of these teams in the Big East that's playing is prepared for what type of team they face. You can still get beat, but I think you feel comfortable in being prepared and playing against the best all year.

Q. Fran spoke thoughtfully about Andrew and Mitch and his friendship with you and Ronald Moore and the Philadelphia connections. Because of that how much more special, if at all, is a game like this to you?
COACH JAY WRIGHT: It's really surreal. It really is. I just walked in here and I see Andrew and he's talking to the Philadelphia media and talking to our guys. I think we've got Moore's brother or his uncle, I think we got him tickets. I didn't think about Siena being here. But he came to our game, and I recruited him out of high school. So there is a lot of Philly connection here.
And Fran is somebody that through our coaching careers we've always been friends. You know, he started at Lehigh, and I'm a Bucknell guy. His brother's our beat writer.
When Fran took this team to the NCAA Tournament I texted him and said, I don't know how many guys have taken three teams to the NCAA Tournament. I'm so impressed with what Fran does. It's almost too comfortable being around everybody, and you know you've got to go to battle tomorrow. It's really surreal.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about how far Dante has come? He's one of those links to that tournament run in '06?
COACH JAY WRIGHT: He really has been the catalyst for our team this season. One of our challenges this year was for Dante to become a go-to guy. You know, our team that went to the final 8 and last year's team, he was kind of a role player. Last year when he would have big games, we would play well. But he didn't do it consistently. This year I think he plays as hard as anybody in the country, night in and night out. He does whatever it takes. Sometimes it's defensively, sometimes it's on the glass. He's won games for us on tip-ins. He's won games for us on free throws. Getting stops. Getting big rebounds. I thought last night the drive he made, the left-hand drive was a huge play in the game because Scottie was getting worn down by their intense pressure. We kind of took it out of Scottie's hands and gave it to Dante, and Dante went and made a big play. He's a guy that's got to continue to carry us.

Q. What got him that consistency? Is it just being a year older, or did something just click for him?
COACH JAY WRIGHT: I think it was a gradual progression from last year and this year. I think if you looked at his high school career, his entire career, he was always a complementary player. Always willing to do the dirty work. I think it took almost a year and a half to get that out of his system, that I can have the confidence to do that. Both of his parents are military officers. I thought when we got him, this was going to make him a great leader. What I found out was it made him a great soldier. He listened. He did what he was told all the time, but he didn't want to tell anybody else. It's taken time. It's taken three years for him to be a great leader where he takes control and tells people what to do. He's really doing that now.

Q. During the downtimes this year, the losing streak and whatnot, you continued to say, I think this team might have something special in them down the line, talking about this group, this year. Did you really think not only making the tournament, but actually advancing and knocking off an ACC school, back then do you really think that they had that in them now?
COACH JAY WRIGHT: Believe it or not, I did. Remember I used to say to you guys we're going to be a really good team, I don't know when, but I know we're going to be really good. Because when you play in the Big East you have a way to test yourself every night. You know, for instance, the Georgetown game we went down there and lost that game in a last-second play. We were upset we lost. But as a staff, we go back and say we just went down here and battled one of the top teams in the country on the road, and that was a game they needed because they had just lost to Louisville. So we knew we were close. Again, that doesn't mean you're going to get there right away.
So if you play in the Big East, you know if you get here, you've got a chance to advance. The hardest thing is getting here. So I really did. I really did believe it.

Q. Fran said that you had called to recommend Andrew for someone he might want to take a look at for his staff. Was that the only phone call you made about Andrew or why did you pick out Fran? In what ways do you guys go back where you said, this would also be a good place for Andrew to get his shot?
COACH JAY WRIGHT: You know, I think that was the only call I made. I think other people had called me about Andrew. But I think that was the one I made because Andrew Francis is a really special guy. He's a guy that at like 30 years old quit a full-time job in business to come and be a video coach for $10 an hour, and basically he was paying us to work at Villanova. He was so loyal and worked so hard. I really wanted it to work for him.
When I saw Fran had a spot and I knew Andrew could be really good in this business, I thought I know what Andrew's like. He's about loyalty. He's about good people and good programs. He didn't want to leave. He would have stayed another year. But what I saw was Fran, and I have so much respect for Fran and that program, and Mitch Buonoguro was there also. I was kind of asking Fran. I said, look, I'm telling you this guy's going to be great, but it would be the best thing for him in his career if he could work for you.
I really appreciate Fran taking the chance on him. I think he's really happy with him. I know going into this game he's really happy with him right now because he knows everything we do. But it's one of those great things in coaching when you can get one of your assistants with a guy that you know is going to teach him a lot, and he's going to learn a lot and be part of something special.

Q. Following up on the Dante question, Mays and Booker combined for five shots last night. Could you talk about the way your post defense has improved, not only Dante's role, but the role of your other bigs?
COACH JAY WRIGHT: As you know that's been something we've done a great job of all year. You just said that, how many shots they had. I wouldn't have known that. We kind of take it for granted, and I shouldn't. I shouldn't take that for granted. None of us should.
Shane Clark in the second half defensively was incredible. It enabled us to play smaller so we could handle the pressure, but still contest them in the post. Dante does it all the time. Antonio Peña did a great job in the post defense. I just think we have guys that are tough and really take pride in it. And Casiem Drummond gave us good minutes in there. It's important.
Those guys, Mays and Booker, they're really talented players inside. If we couldn't have guarded them one-on-one, and we would have had to help more from the perimeter we would have gotten killed from the three. So that was a big part of our second half.

Q. When you came out last night as a team, you seemed tentative and unsettled. I'm wondering as a coach, when you fall behind 18, and we're asking about this last night, you go in the locker room down 12, what is the difference between blistering your team and scorching the walls, and knowing when to kind of help them?
COACH JAY WRIGHT: As a coach you know you do everything you can. Our staff does a great job preparing those guys, I'm watching the first couple minutes like the fans. I want to see, you don't know. They're 18-22, you don't know what they're going to do. We did look tentative, you're right. What you say to yourself is we have young kids. We had two freshmen out there in Antonio and Corey Stokes. They had a few turnovers early. You've got to say just let them play. You don't want to yank them. But after we let them play for a while, we got them both out and settled them down to get them back in.
At halftime, to answer your question, it always depends on where your team is, where your maturity level is. We just knew we had a young team. We couldn't panic. We had been there before. That game was eerily similar to our Georgetown game in the Big East Tournament. We got down big, cut it to 11 at halftime, and they hit 10 threes in the first half. These guys hit 7 threes in the first half. And we said to them at halftime. It's the same game. We came back and took the lead against Georgetown, so we're going to do it again. With this team we're going to be positive. Couple of years ago we had older guys, you could get into them because there wouldn't be a reason to be in that position.

Q. As a program that would have to be considered one of the big boys and one of the targets, could you talk about how we've seen the mid-majors or higher seed teams just have absolutely no fear of playing against teams like Villanova or Vanderbilt or UCONN now. And as a coach, you appreciate that. How do you get your players to realize it as well?
COACH JAY WRIGHT: I think you're dead on there. As a coach I do appreciate it. I coached at Hofstra University and some of the greatest years of my life. When we would play the big boys, we had no fear at all. It was a great feeling, because you have nothing to lose and you have no fear.
The situation is, and we're definitely susceptible to this, you get older, experienced, mid-major teams. When those guys are juniors and seniors and they're playing against freshmen and sophomores of whatever you call us, Big East, ACC, a lot of those guys are better players and they're better teams if they're real good juniors and seniors than freshmen and sophomores.
There's no question about that. I coached at that level. I remember going into those games thinking I know the names on this other team. But I know my guys have been in college for four and sometimes five years if somebody red shirts. I'm going in there with men. These guys have some kids. They're talented, but they're kids. I really think that's what it is in a mid-major is to have no fear anymore. None. It's happened so many times. That's why I say with the Siena team, I think now it's happening so much that the Big East and ACC teams have great respect for them. I don't really think that I have to -- our guys watched that game -- we don't have to tell our guys, hey, this is Siena, don't take them lightly. Drexel beat us at home last year. We got a taste of it. And we came ready to play, they just took it to us. So it's just a part of college basketball now.

Q. Last night Scottie hits the three, and I think it puts you up for the first time in the game. Behind you there is Dwayne who is ill and he's going down to the floor. Did you have any idea what was going on behind you? And if so, how did you maintain your focus?
COACH JAY WRIGHT: You know what, I didn't. I knew that Dwayne Anderson had cramps. But I didn't know that after he came off the floor it got worse and he was throwing up and passed out. I didn't know any of that. As we went to the game he came back on the bench. I went down to get him. He was shivering, and he was wrapped up. I said, can you play? And he just looked at me and he said no. And I know for him to say no, it had to be bad. So I didn't ask. He just said no, so I said, next play. I went on to the next play.
After the game everyone told me how bad he was. You know, as a coach like the players, we have so much confidence in all our guys that if somebody goes down, the next guy's going to step up. We really have confidence in them, we really do. That's really what happened.

Q. We spoke with Fran about turning a program around like he has done and you had a similar experience with Hofstra. Did you kind of follow what Fran was doing up there? I mean 6-24 to where they are now, and how difficult is it to do in two years in that short span of time?
COACH JAY WRIGHT: I definitely did follow up. I followed up Fran at Greensboro, also. Because as I said I consider Fran a friend and a great coach. He had Mitch Buonoguro on his staff who is a great Villanova coach. So we always followed them.
So when they went to Siena, as a matter of fact, I can't remember, but I know friends that I have up in Albany when that job opened and people asked me. I don't know if I spoke to their AD I can't remember. I doubt if he would ask me my opinion. But I know a lot of people up there. I said, This guy would be great for this job. So we followed him. Then he hired Andrew, we followed him a lot.
It's tough, man. It's really tough. Because especially that league. If you look at the coaches in that league and all the great programs in that league to get it going that quickly is amazing. You know, they beat Stanford this year. It wasn't like this is something they just started doing here at the end. This has been a great team all year. I'm not surprised but it's pretty cool to watch, man. It's pretty impressive.

End of FastScripts

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