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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2010Keno DavisBilal DixonNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Seton Hall - 109 COACH KENO DAVIS: I think during the last month of the season, it's been a difficult stretch for us where every game we've played has either been against a top-ten team in the country or against a bubble team for the NCAA Tournament. And so I think that in part with the success of our younger players, I think Bilal Dixon who is up here with me right now, but Jamine Peterson who sets a school record for points in a BIG EAST Tournament game. For Vincent Council who is getting an IV but is on the All-Freshman Team. I really enjoyed being able to coach this group and see them improve. Even if we haven't seen it on the scoreboard, we've been very competitive this year. I think that you have to learn how to win, you have to learn how to get better. But I think we've got a good nucleus of players and I think we're going to be a team that a lot of people are going to watch next year. Q. Talk about adjustments in the last ten minutes. COACH KENO DAVIS: Adjustments over the last ten minutes, quite honestly, we're down -- I look up at the scoreboard and we're down 30. What adjustments really can you make at that point? We were just trying to motivate our guys to not end the season like this. We had played so hard the last month. Come on, just play hard. Just take it to the basket. Don't rely on the jumpshot. Everything has to be hard. Defense, rebounding, going to the basket. Let's get some buckets. And so we weren't talking about that the game is over, let's play it out. Let's see what we can do if we can get some stops. And we did. So when we cut the lead to a manageable number, which was like 12 or 14, then I felt, ok, now let's use some of our pressure, some of our three-quarter court pressure. Then we got a couple of turnovers over and we used our full-court pressure and your team starts believing and you have all the momentum. You know, I think the way we've been able to score, we know we're always in games. If we can shore up some of the things on the defensive end, we can be a very competitive team. Q. What has to happen between today and first game next year to allow your offense to win these games and your defense to give up so many points? COACH KENO DAVIS: Well, I think for us from this point to next year, we have to add some players, we have to improve our talent level, because we've got some nice talent, but we don't have guys that are first, second or third team. Although I think you could make a big case for Jamine Peterson. You know we've seen him put up numbers all year and maybe without us winning as much, he didn't get as much recognition. So adding talent but also we need some improvement from our younger players. When you look at BIG EAST and you look at freshmen or sophomores in the BIG EAST that are putting up statistics, there's just hardly are any. And so I think with our young guys, they have a chance to make big jumps. They have to be able on the defensive end to learn. And I think you see that most on our offensive rebounding. How are we such a good offensive rebounding team in the BIG EAST with being as young with Bilal Dixon, with Jamine Peterson as freshmen and sophomores? How are we the number one offensive rebounding team in the BIG EAST? Because it's about effort. It's about just go get the ball. Now, we're not as good on the defensive end. We're not as good on the defensive rebounding end. And because those things you have to learn. You have to learn positioning, you have to learn your reverse pivot on the rebound, you have to learn your weak-side help. Those things take time. And usually freshmen and sophomores in the BIG EAST they learn from practice. They learn from watching the veterans do it. And they wait their time until they're a junior or senior. The great thing for our young men is right now we're at the program they've been able to jump right in and get first-hand experience. And I think if anything motivates players going in to an off-season, it's getting a little bit of taste of success. A little bit of taste of the BIG EAST Tournament of Madison Square Garden, about going up against the nation's best and seeing what they can do to become one of the nation's best. Q. Coach, on that last possession, did Mondy think he had less time than he had and rushed it? COACH KENO DAVIS: Well, there's about three minutes left. I was wishing I had a time-out left. But we kind of felt like we had to use those to try to get back in the game. But I mean, I told them as much as I could down at the other end. If he had missed both free-throws, I wanted the three. That I just felt with six, seven seconds left to get the two with six or seven seconds left wouldn't be enough. You would score with a couple of seconds left. They would foul and the game is over. And so to be able to get such a good look, whether he rushed it or not, I don't know. But I mean to get an open three-point look, when you're down three with six, seven seconds to go, you can't ask for much more. Q. You said before down 29, you couldn't make the adjustments at that point. Could you have imagined that you would have had a shot to tie the game as the buzzer went off? Was that even conceivable at that point? COACH KENO DAVIS: It is. It is. I think it's a long shot. But I think as a coach when you're in the huddles, you don't want to say the game is over. Let's play it out. Let's try to do this or that and work for next time. Here's what we have to do. We need stops, we need a run-out. We can't run offense. We don't have time to run offense. We need to take it to the basket. And everything we have to do is aggressive. Then our pressure. We get a few buckets. You know how quickly you can get 10 or 12 points and get it to a manageable number. And so I knew there was that possibility. I wouldn't have bet on it, but these guys, I told them at halftime there would be nothing better for us to end our season or to make it go another year. Everything we've been through with the top teams, with tough shots that have gone in against us, than to come back when there's no pressure on us. Just play as hard as we can. And I think we did that. Q. Have you ever been in a game like that or even remotely close? Not necessarily the score, but the deficit-wise on either end? COACH KENO DAVIS: You know, I have. But maybe not with the amount of time left. I don't know with that 30-point lead how much time there was left. It couldn't have been much. Q. 13 minutes. COACH KENO DAVIS: 13 minutes with 30 points. No, I don't. I've seen it on TV, though. I can remember a couple of games that you think of as your biggest comebacks. And usually those are teams on home courts where they are able to get it going. But I think that it says a lot about our team going forward and why a lot of the Providence fans have been so optimistic about our future, even though we've lost a string of games. THE MODERATOR: Any questions for Bilal? Q. What was it like the last couple of minutes on the floor? Two and a half to go, you cut the deficit to 10. What was it like the last couple of minutes? BILAL DIXON: It was kind of weird because we came back and we showed that we have lot of effort. We showed we had a lot of heart. We cut it down, there was two minutes left. We knew we had to play hard and foul. Coach told us to foul certain people because we know they can't shoot free throws. We cut the lead to three and seven seconds left. We didn't expect Eugene Harvey to miss the free throw. So he missed, I grabbed the rebound and I threw the ball to Duke Mondy. He took a shot. He's a freshman. A lot of pressure on him. It was a good shot. It came up short and fell off. Q. You say "we came back," were you surprised you guys were able to come back? BILAL DIXON: No, I wasn't surprised. I always knew we could play. I always knew we had to play with effort. I just knew -- I didn't know we were going to show it. It took us a long time to show -- to start playing hard. But when we did, look what happened. We cut a 30-point lead to three. We had to keep playing like that. Q. You faced a lot of adversity this year, especially the last month. Also tonight being down so much. What have you learned about how to face adversity and how do you take that into your workouts next year? BILAL DIXON: I'm going to use it to motivate me. There was a lot of adversity this year, about people were saying how we're not a good team, how we don't really have good defense. So this year my goal is work hard, use that negativity and make it positive and push us so next year we can overcome our past and become a better team. THE MODERATOR: Providence, thank you. COACH KENO DAVIS: Good answer. BILAL DIXON: I learn from the best. End of FastScripts |
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