	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 9, 2010

Mike Mercer

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

USF - 58
DePaul - 49

THE MODERATOR: We have Coach Stan Heath, Mike Mercer on the end and Dominique Jones in the middle. Coach, do you have an opening statement.
COACH STAN HEATH: Good win for our program. Our first BIG EAST (Tournament) win. So I'm really happy we were able to do that. I loved the way we started the game off. I thought we played defense at really high level and took away some really good players, Koshwal, with the double teams.
I thought that helped us get a nice lead. We were hoping we can stretch that out and maybe rest some guys towards the end. But DePaul, give them a lot of credit, they don't quit. They have a lot of fight in them. They kept coming at us. We had to just kind of weather the storm a little bit and hold on and get the win.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You didn't need it, does that concern you at all that you missed as many shots (inaudible).
COACH STAN HEATH: We won. So in this particular game, no. But I do feel we're going to be able to knock down some shots tomorrow. We will. We will be able to knock them down. It's not the strength of our team. We have some guys that can knock down some shots. We'll sort them out. Probably the advantage of getting that game underneath your belt. And I think our guys will be -- they'll be a little bit more relaxed, a little more confident. And some of those shots will fall that didn't fall today.

Q. Defensively, Koshwal had such a big game last time. 24 and 11. Is there something you did differently?
COACH STAN HEATH: We dealt post to post. We probably should have done that the first time around. Give him his due, he's a hard guy to stop. We need to give him some extra attention. I thought that was a big factor in the first half of helping us to get off to a nice lead and get some deflections and get some nice steals.

Q. (Inaudible) with the arena not really that full and the energy kind of lacking?
COACH STAN HEATH: I thought we brought a lot of energy the first 20 minutes. Maybe hit a little fatigue in the second half. I don't know. But I do think the advantage for us is we have time to maybe get back to the hotel, relax a little bit, prepare for our next opponent.
So I like that. We'll get a good night's rest as well.

Q. So only hitting one shot out of the paint the whole game, do you look at that as a positive? Do you think it might be a little different against (Greg) Monroe tomorrow?
COACH STAN HEATH: It will be totally different. We'll have to knock down some shots. We'll be able to do that. It didn't happen today. If we would have lost, it would be a big deal. Since we won, it's not a big deal.

Q. Dominique, you guys came out it obviously looked like a team on a mission there. What was the mind-set at the start of the game?
DOMINIQUE JONES: I mean, everybody wanted to get our first win at Madison Square (Garden) and start the BIG EAST Tournament. So we came out with a lot of energy. We know that and Mac Koshwal and (Will) Walker, both are good players. We know we had to buckle down on them and double team and stay disciplined on defense.

Q. Can you talk about tomorrow and the challenges of playing Georgetown, trying to beat them again.
COACH STAN HEATH: They're really good. Now that -- thankfully, (Austin) Freeman seems like he's back being able to play at the high level he's capable of playing at. They had a terrific season. They have a few of the best players I think in the league. Their starting five can compete with anybody. They've beaten the top teams in the country. And we were very fortunate. We played well at Georgetown. Especially in the second half. Dominique had a phenomenal game. I'm sure they'll make some adjustments against him.
But they'll be ready. We'll be ready as well. We've got to do a good job of taking away their back-door cuts and as well as Monroe. Monroe is a hard guy to deal with. Fortunately I think this time around we do have more bodies available to play with them inside. So hopefully that will help us, too.

Q. Dominique and Mike, last time you guys played Georgetown that got you on the map. Have you regained some of that confidence you had in that last game?
MIKE MERCER: Yeah, definitely. I feel like we've gained confidence since then. That was a time we had our chemistry flowing and we were hitting on all cylinders. We played a really good game. Georgetown was a tough environment. They're going to be pumped for us tomorrow. We're going to be pumped, also. We're going to be ready to play.

Q. Mike, having Gus (Gilchrist) as part of the lineup, you didn't have him for the first time.
MIKE MERCER: That's big. Gus demands a lot of attention on the offensive end. I'm a slasher, I like to cut in the lane. Every time my man looks to Gus to score, I can get in there and get my shots off. The same with Dominique Jones. They both demand so much attention. It makes it easier for players like me and Chris Howard to score.

Q. I think only three teams in the last 20-something years have gotten 20 victories in the BIG EAST and got an NCAA tournament bid. Do you think you guys have done enough?
COACH STAN HEATH: We need to win. We definitely need to win. We need to keep winning. My senior was in the locker room, Chris Howard, he said, "Make sure you bring five suits." So I did. We've got to win. We can't leave things to chance. We have had some other opportunities we've kind of let slip through our fingers, and we just can't leave anything to chance. And so the best thing you can do is win and control your own destiny.

Q. When you have a team on the bubble like that, what's the key of keeping them loose and focused and not getting stressed out about it?
COACH STAN HEATH: Well, we've never been here before. So in a lot of ways I think we've accomplished things we've never accomplished before. So I don't think there's a lot of pressure on us. It's just doing some things that we really want to do. We all want to go to the NCAA Tournament. We think we've done all the other things that are available for us. So we just need to go out and play and play at a high level.
Obviously our focus has to be on who we're playing, because if you're thinking about other things and you're worried and you're stressed, you're going to get beat.

Q. First Georgetown game, what did you guys do in that second half that allowed you to do what you guys did up there?
DOMINIQUE JONES: I mean, I think the team feeds off what I do positively and negatively. And I think that I turned it up and then when I turned it up, everybody else turned it up. I think that passed the message to us that we've got to play with high energy out there. We have to get steals, deflections. We have to get out in transition. You know, and that's something we're going to try to do tomorrow for sure.

Q. Stan, (Alex) Rivas didn't play. Is he all right?
COACH STAN HEATH: Rivas is fine. Stuck with that rotation. No particular reason. He's fine. Hopefully he'll be able to get out there and help us tomorrow.

Q. Dominique takes five shots in the second half, what does it say for your team where he gets in a situation where he gets everyone else involved and doesn't have to go out and take 10 or 12 shots?
COACH STAN HEATH: He's grown so much over the years. He has always been a great scorer from the day he set foot on campus. I think sometime last year especially, going into the season, his mindset has been on winning. Whether he's the second leading scorer or he gets 10 assists, I think he's going to be happy if he wins. He's not going to be happy if he loses. Very similar to me. He's miserable when he loses.
So, you know, they did some things, they went to a little bit more zone. They put more guys that had eyes on him when he had the ball. And he started making some nice plays. Made some nice feeds around the basket to our bigs. They were able to score a little bit. That's great when you have a great player like him who is willing to sacrifice scoring in order to win. That's what every coach wants.

Q. Toarlyn (Fitzpatrick) was real active and he had that nasty fall. Do you get a sense he's going to be okay?
COACH STAN HEATH: Yes. Our trainers are going to do a good job. I thought he did a great job defensively. I was proud of Toarlyn. We need him to be healthy. He's a very good defensive player, a good matchup for those tweener players.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297