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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2010Austin FreemanGreg MonroeJohn Thompson IIIChris WrightNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Georgetown – 80 THE MODERATOR: Greg Monroe, Austin Freeman, Chris Wright, Coach Thompson. Q. Coach, when Greg comes out as aggressively as he did in the first half, you know, what kind of tone does that set for you, and does everybody sort of play off him? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: Yes, and no. You know, I think the same thing happens when Austin comes out aggressively, when Chris comes out aggressively. When we come out aggressively and focus, it sets the tone in general. Q. Have you noticed over the past three games you seem to have come out to very strong starts. Has that been a point of emphasis coming out aggressive from the opening tip? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: Yes, of course. Absolutely. It's a coaching change we made. We always when -- we want to have good starts, good middle, and good ends. I think the guys have -- you are correct, the last couple of games we have had good starts and we were able to -- we hit a little lull there. I shouldn't say we hit a little lull. They got the rhythm of the game after we went on a spurt and they settled in into the rhythm of the game. And then we just were able to slowly and methodically as the second half went on, to pull away from them. I think that our attention to detail at the defensive end was very, very good. Q. Coach, you guys have been saying that fatigue wasn't going to be an issue, and it hasn't. You guys seem to be getting stronger. What do you attribute that to? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: We're in shape, we're ready to play, we want to win. Fatigue is not an issue. Q. This is for John and then Greg can follow it: John, there are positions in college sports that have the highest team level, linebacker Notre Dame, center in Georgetown. How has he graced taking that mantle? And then Greg if you can talk about being the next in line of great centers in Georgetown. COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: I think it's too early to give him that label. But he's played well. I don't think Greg Monroe is Greg Monroe. And I don't think that he went into this, has gone into this, thinks about how he relates or compares or contrasts to the people of that played the position here at Georgetown before him. I think that's something that once your time here is over you can sit back and make all those analyzations and comparisons. Right now, I think he's just focused on playing as hard as he can to win games and help his teammates out. GREG MONROE: I'm honored to follow people of that -- people that were so good here. But I don't compare myself to them. I just come out and try to do things for my team. The things they accomplished and did and went on to do great things at a high level. Me just being here two years, I can't put myself in the same category as those players. Q. Coach and for Greg: Greg showcased all of his skills tonight, his varied skills. How much of a big part of the game plan was he attacking Marquette and their lack of height? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: I think that they have not had height all year. And they've done a very good job of not letting people expose that or take advantage of that. They know where their deficiencies are. Maybe "deficiency" is a wrong word. They know that's a point of emphasis. So they do a very good job of not letting you just take advantage of them in the paint. We were able to do that today. There's no doubt about that. And I think we just got on a roll. I think Greg and Julian and Austin got down in the post. We tried to post up Chris and he threw it away. But I think he did a good job of knowing when there was a time to score and when there was a time to kick it out. Q. Chris, in the second half, you guys got on a 22-5 roll. You scored 8 of the first 10 points. What happened there to break it open for you? CHRIS WRIGHT: Well, it was just the flow of the game. You know, it was nothing that, you know -- we had some guys that were rolling early. Jason hit some big shots in the start of the second half. Greg was being dominant the whole game. Austin was rolling. I just think it was time for me to make a play. And I just read the defense and made the correct plays. I wasn't trying to be selfish or anything. It was just there was just openings, and we were capitalizing on it. Q. Coach, it seems like after last yesterday's win against Syracuse, your team might have been entitled to feel very self-satisfied and maybe take breath. Did you give any thought, any concern that they would not be this ready to go after that? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: No. It's March. And there's no time to take a breath and pat yourself on the back in March. Your next opponent is very good. Your next opponent is well coached. Your next opponent is trying to kick your behind. So no, we weren't satisfied at all. Yes, we're satisfied with yesterday's win. But I think Chris said it, we didn't come here to just say we would beat Syracuse. Q. Coach, can you expand on what challenges you see from either Notre Dame or West Virginia? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: We have a lot of challenges. Both of them have beaten us already. And I mean can I wait until we see and just talk about -- catch me in a couple of hours and I can talk about who we're playing. Q. For Austin and Chris: You seen men come into this league and score points and grab rebounds. When you see Greg run the floor, are you impressed? What's your reaction when you see that part of his game? CHRIS WRIGHT: I would say that when he first got here, we were amazed at what he could do. Especially the way he passes. He has a very -- he sees the court very well. I mean, it's nothing new. We all know Greg is a phenomenal player. It's nothing that we -- it's not like he just started doing this in the BIG EAST Tournament. So we know he's a great player. We know he can pass, he can score. And one thing that we really, you know, have come to notice is that he rebounds like anybody. And he's getting all the rebounds. There's not a lot of second shots or third shots for anybody. So Greg is doing what he has to do. He's playing his role. He's a major part of our team. AUSTIN FREEMAN: Chris said it best. Q. The three teams you just played and whoever you face tomorrow are all teams that beat you during the regular season. Is that providing any extra motivation to kind of get back at those teams? GREG MONROE: Yes. CHRIS WRIGHT: Yes. AUSTIN FREEMAN: Yes. GREG MONROE: For the record, yes. Q. What's it like playing obviously in New York City, but now you're in the final of the BIG EAST Tournament. Can you feed off the crowd? Can you feel it out there? GREG MONROE: Yes. It's Madison Square Garden and it's the BIG EAST Tournament. Our fans have showed up in a big way for us. We're very grateful for them. At the end of the day, now it's the championship game. It's at Madison Square Garden. I know as a team we came here to win this tournament, and I mean tomorrow the lights are going to be on. We have to be prepared to play. COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: A good friend of mine after yesterday's game said, I'm looking for him, I don't see him, there's nothing better than Friday night in New York City, other than Saturday night in New York City. So we're going to show up in New York City on Saturday night. Q. For Greg, there was two-minute stretch where you had a drive, a jam, a three-pointer, an assist and a break and a blocked shot. Did you decide to take this game over and say, this is my game? GREG MONROE: No. I was trying to make plays. The shot was an overshot. The drive was there. They were all kind of high. Blocking that's just playing defense. It wasn't anything. It was opportunities that I took. It wasn't anything trying to take over. We had control of the game as a team. And I was just trying to make winning plays to close out the game. Q. It's for Austin: I hope you don't mind a question about your health. But could you just sort of bring us up to date on how these last three days have gone for you? How are you feeling? AUSTIN FREEMAN: These three days have been great. I'm feeling good. Nothing is wrong with me right now. I'm happy right now. We're winning. So it makes it a little bit better too. I'm good. THE MODERATOR: Georgetown, thank you. End of FastScripts |
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