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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2009Dwayne AndersonJay WrightNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Villanova 76 COACH JAY WRIGHT: Number one, I'd rather be lucky than good so we will definitely take that. We've been on the other side of this in this tournament and this side feels great. I also want to say I think Buzz Williams has done a great job with that team. They've gotten to a point they know how to play without James. They've learned it, Cubillan and Acker, now, they've got it figured out. They're really good, really good, and I just -- I want to give Buzz a lot of credit. Number one what he did this season but then to lose James and get them playing like they are now is incredible. And then, you know, Scottie Reynolds has been great for us. His whole career. He's always made big plays and, you know, at the end of that game some rebounds and dives, loose balls besides the shots he makes. He's a leader for us and of course Reggie Redding made a great play. I'm really proud of Reggie. Q. Coach, at 40 seconds you called that timeout. What were you discussing? COACH JAY WRIGHT: You know, there was about a five, six second differential in the shot clock so I didn't -- we didn't want to be confused with are we fouling, not fouling, what are we going to do when we get the ball, going to timeout afterwards and we wanted to get a bigger team on the floor, we wanted to play bigger defensively. So might have been -- turned out okay, might have been a bad move not having a timeout left. We had to make that decision there. Q. Jay, how difficult is that? You have absolutely no control. You created control in that game. COACH JAY WRIGHT: That's the key. We had a real small group out there for offense. We went offense/defense and I wanted to get the subs in. And I made sure we knew what we were doing. I did have more confidence with this group. It's Scottie and Reggie, both of them making a play and Dante (Cunningham), and we have older guys on the floor. I really do have confidence. They did a great job even after the miss, they face-guarded Scottie. We couldn't get Scottie the ball. They did a great job on that and then that's why Reggie was trying to get it to Scottie and they wouldn't let us get it to them. Reggie made the play. Q. Jay, being you didn't have any timeouts. If you had a timeout, what was the play going to be. Would it have been a pass from Reggie? COACH JAY WRIGHT: No. That's definitely -- it might have ended up that way but that wouldn't have been the plan. It usually never works out like the plan is, but we wouldn't have -- we would have got Dante and Corey (Fisher) involved if we had a time out. Q. What do you feel about what the guys did without a timeout doing it on their own? COACH JAY WRIGHT: You know, Reggie Redding is a guy that, you know, he had 11 assists and no turnovers in our last game. He's a guy that we all know can make plays and that's why we keep him in there. A lot of times we actually want him at the point, Scottie at the 2. He threw the lob to Dante Cunningham. We have great confidence in Reggie there that's the guy we want the ball in his hands if not Scottie. Q. Dwayne, could you run through the last play? How you were able to get open and the basket it is? DWAYNE ANDERSON: We were on defense. I think it was Shane Clark got the rebound. He kicked it up to Reggie Redding. As coach always says, we have to run offensive score and that's what we did. We tried to get the ball to Scottie. They face-guarded like Coach said and they did a good job, Reggie, as a player, so he tried to make a play and I guess he saw me cutting at the last second, game winning shot. Q. Can you talk about Dante's play when (Jerel) McNeal drives, if he gets fouled or scores there. COACH JAY WRIGHT: Dante struggled today. I don't know why. They did a really good job on him but, you know, that's what stars do. McNeal had a lane to the rim and Dante went straight up and really went up and contested without really bringing his arms down and challenged the shot. That was a big time play. They had run that ball screen before. We got beat on it. So that was huge right there. Q. Jay, how much of an adjustment did you have to make early in the first half when Dante and Dwayne picked up two quick fouls? COACH JAY WRIGHT: We actually played better which is crazy. I got to go back and think about this again. We played better without our best players today. But I told the young guys, Corey Fisher, Corey Stokes and Antonio Pena carried us in the first half. That's where depth pays off especially at this time of year. Those three were great, they really were. You go with your older guys down the stretch but I'm gaining a lot more confidence in those three. Q. Coach, this team was comfortably ahead most game. Is there a concern that the team would make a comeback at the end? COACH JAY WRIGHT: Not at this time of the year. You know, at this time of the year-in tournament play, crazy things happen. There was a series there where it just seemed like every loose ball we went after we fouled. We did. I'm not complaining. We just fouled, you know, and they had 50 percent free throw shooters making every free throw. Those things happen this time of year. Dante is getting good looks, missing them. You've got to battle through that. That's what this season is all about. Q. Dwayne and Jay, what's going through your guys' head in the last second when that ball is rolling around the rim the last few seconds? DWAYNE ANDERSON: I'm nervous, but it's a great feeling at the end of the day. We actually go back and watch film, there's plenty of plays that we could have avoided being in that situation but that last second, it was nerve-wracking and then it felt good afterwards. COACH JAY WRIGHT: That seemed like it rolled forever, man. I can picture that in my mind. I wasn't sure it went in. They were all sure. I brought them all together. They were all saying, "it's good, it's good." I think I'll always remember that one. Q. Jay, you talked about your three younger players a second ago. Can you talk about Corey Fisher? COACH JAY WRIGHT: Corey Fisher has been great. Believe it or not, we have to get Corey Fisher to look, to score more, believe it or not. The last play he made it, a wide open jumper, tried to get it to Shane Clark and turned into a turnover and, you know, we took him out and explained to it him. We need him to be more of a scorer. So it was incredible today. He played great defense and hit big time shots. I love the play he made at the end of the game. If they're going to call it a travel, it's a travel. I'll take that every time from Corey Stokes. I love that play. Q. Coach, talk about the overall defensive effort, the top scorers in the Big East are 5-for-22; talk about the defensive effort you guys put forward. COACH JAY WRIGHT: Until you said that, that's pretty good. Those two have, over their careers, killed us, they really have. I love those two. I had them on the USA team and Dominic (James), too. I just have so much respect for them and our guys know how much I love those three. So, they know to do that kind job on them, that's quite an accomplishment because they can score a lot of ways and they make their teammates better. Q. Dwayne, talk about how good it feels to make your career almost come full circle. Great article about you in the paper today talking about your struggles early on and you hit the game-winning shot and what would have been your final game in Madison Square Garden as a senior. I grant you that. COACH JAY WRIGHT: Mike "Curry" is a prophet. DWAYNE ANDERSON: It definitely means a lot. I've been though a lot. Highs and lows, we've struggled and we're not quite there but we're getting close to it and just hitting that game-winning shot after having a lack of performance on myself so I'm hard on myself. I don't think I played well but that shot kind of saved me. Next time we'll have to pick it up. JOHN PAQUETTE: Villanova, thank you. End of FastScripts |
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