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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2009Da'Sean ButlerBob HigginsAlex RuoffNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK West Virginia 74 JOHN PAQUETTE: Questions, please. Questions for West Virginia? Q. Bobby, do you feel like you guys were taking things away from Notre Dame in the first half or with a combo of them, missing shots? COACH BOB HUGGINS: I thought we did a pretty good job defensively. I think the whole tone of the thing was we were very aggressive the first half. We were very aggressively defensively and trying to rebound the ball and then in the second half, we got native and they became the aggressor. Q. Coach, can you talk about Alex's performance tonight after not scoring against Louisville? COACH BOB HUGGINS: He threw three out of bounds in the second half. He waited four, five possessions before he threw the next one out of bounds. He makes a great cut and the 3 point play I think when they're starting to really get -- make the thing interesting and, you know, that's a strong shot and these two guys have been just -- they've been terrific for us all year. You try to make some adjustments and it's hard to do it when they're not on the floor because they know what's happening and they know what I want done and they do a great job of coaching our younger guys through it. Q. Alex, your last game going scoreless, how much did you think about that between that last game ending and tonight? ALEX RUOFF: You know, the advice I got from my coach was put it behind me. It happens. Of course, it hurt me because I care a lot about winning and our team, but that's one thing you have to put behind you so I wasn't trying to think too much about it, just come in tonight. Q. Alex, the first half you guys really seemed to kind of be able to get to the middle. Was that something you saw before the game; is that something you recognized? ALEX RUOFF: It's the 1-2-2 zone, put the perimeter shooters out and kind of spread the shooters. We knew the foul line was going to be open and we did a good job of taking advantage of it. JOHN PAQUETTE: Are there any other questions for West Virginia? Q. Da'Sean, did you talk with "Truck" (Darryl Bryant) performance tonight. Seems like -- DA'SEAN BUTLER: He stayed in the game a lot longer as far as the past games because he was doing a lot of things right today and he was -- yeah, he scored very well. He just did all the things, basic, correctly and stayed good. That's all I can say. Q. In the second half of the game, Notre Dame really sort of pulled within 7, 8 points. What did you guys say in the huddle, during any timeouts to really get yourself going and close out the game? COACH BOB HUGGINS: That's why I keep the cameras out of there (laughter. ) No. I think we needed to stop. I think that's what we said. We were -- we had kind of slowed them down and I think they had an out of bounds with whatever it was, ten seconds to go or whatever and I said we just need to stop and we went down and got a stop there and then we got a pretty good look at the other end. In fact it was a two-footer that didn't go in but, you know, I think it was -- at that time, they were -- they were kind of on a roll in terms of scoring the ball so I thought that was a critical stop for us. Q. You guys got Pitt up next. You guys lost to them twice this season. What do you guys have to do differently to beat them this third time? ALEX RUOFF: We got to man-up. They're a physical team. We got a lot of foul trouble at their place and kind of opened the game up. We got to match their physical play. We made a few mistakes down the stretch. That opened up the game at our place. Limit our mental mistakes and match their physical play. JOHN PAQUETTE: Do we have any other questions? Q. Coach, people look at the box score of this game and see it was a great game by Alex and Da'Sean. Wasn't this game actually more about defense, you guys played than the shots that your guys were making on offense? COACH BOB HUGGINS: I think it certainly was in the first half and then I thought we made -- we made critical stops in the second half. You know, they're good. You're talking about a team that was, I think, in the top 10 in the country early in the year. They're talented. And they shot it well today. When they make perimeter shots it's so hard because they spread you so much and Luke is so good down there as we talked about all year, we're so small in there that it's hard for us to guard somebody big and strong like him, you know, in a 1-on-1 basis. We're pretty good when we help. They spread you so much because they have so many guys that make shots. Q. Did they not make a conscious effort to get him the ball in the post like they did in the second half or was it the pressure you guys were putting out front, they couldn't enter it? COACH BOB HUGGINS: You have to ask Mike that. I don't know. I have a hard enough time coaching these guys. JOHN PAQUETTE: Anything else, please? West Virginia, thank you. End of FastScripts |
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