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DICK'S SPORTING GOODS NIT SEASON TIP-OFFNovember 26, 2010Antonio PenaCorey StokesJay WrightNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK VILLANOVA – 68 THE MODERATOR: Question for the players, please. Q. Corey, how much did their defensive pressure bother you guys out high tonight? COREY STOKES: They played really aggressive. The Coach told us they were going to come out and play and that's what they did. They came out and played really aggressive. We missed some shots and they didn't quit during the whole game. We continued to play Villanova basketball the 40 minutes. We didn't quit. Tennessee did a great job on the defensive end though. Q. What was it like battling their big guys inside? Was that the best front court you've seen this year? ANTONIO PENA: Yes, so far, yeah. It was real good. Williams is real big and athletic. He can move his feet down there. Tobias is a great player. Going to continue along the way. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for the players? Q. Corey, when you guys came back and took that lead, did you feel the flow going your way for a change, and what happened that stopped it? COREY STOKES: When we got the lead, Coach just told us to keep a great attitude. That's all he kept saying, "Attitude. Keep pounding at the rock." We continued to play hard. Q. Has their length changed what you guys want to do offensively? COREY STOKES: Nothing changes for us. We're going to play the same no matter who we play against. JAY WRIGHT: I was waiting for questions. They played great. They played great defense, obviously, the best defensive team we've played against so far. Yeah, and we couldn't get any easy baskets. Even in transition a couple of times we got out, and their length changed some of our lay-ups and, you know, sometimes you play against a team like that that's really good half court defense, I think they're great in their half-court defense, but you can create some turnovers with the press or get out on the break and get some easy baskets. We didn't get any of those. We got very few turnovers out of our press. And in transition, we really didn't get anything. They got back, we couldn't get to the rim. They just played a complete game. Give them a lot of credit. Q. Can you talk about Corey Fisher, had 26 the other night. Only has three tonight. What's going on with him? JAY WRIGHT: I think Goins was -- I don't know, I think they list him at 180. He looked like a defensive back of a football team to me. He is broad-shouldered. He is strong and gets real low. He was very, very physical. And even McBee, McBee did a good job on him. I just think it was one of those nights -- ball screens. The bigs help. Williams can get out there and move his feet. Very good defensive team. They didn't give Fish many one-on-one opportunities. They soft blitzed him. Early he got some looks. He got good looks and missed them. Q. He's fine physically and mentally? JAY WRIGHT: Yeah. Q. Two years ago against Texas you lost a similar game in this juncture of the season. How does a coach, when they play quality competition three or four weeks in the season, how do you evaluate the team? JAY WRIGHT: That's a good comparison. We kind of got manhandled here by Texas the same way. You know, I've tried to explain to the guys today, you don't have to learn that way. You could be smart about it and win and learn that way too. But it seems like with us, we got to get beat up one time to -- we have guys that have great confidence, and they want to challenge everybody. I love that about them. But when you play a team like this, I thought we could have made some extra passes. Because challenging them, they were up to the challenge. Then you have to be smarter. We didn't play that way. But you have to give them credit for that. Q. What are your feelings about losing -- what Corey called a street fight? Was it disappointing to lose a street fight, because I know you guys pride yourself on toughness. JAY WRIGHT: Yeah. I did say that. I mean that in a complimentary way. I think they play -- I love how they play. So I just think they were better at that tonight. You have to be smart in a street fight also. And I thought they were a little tougher and a little smarter. When they drove the ball and we helped, they made extra passes. We kind of tried to challenge the big guys every time, you know? They had six blocked shots. So I just think they were a little bit better at it tonight. We have to get better at it. Q. You guys are known as a guard-oriented team. So when Maalik and Corey are struggling like they were tonight, how were you able to -- how in the future can you overcome that and still win a big game? JAY WRIGHT: Well, that's something that's going to be -- we have to deal with that this year. Like in the first half we had Stokes, Fisher and Maalik Wayns all had two fouls. We kind of lost -- we were lucky to be down at five at the half. We're going to have to figure out ways to play bigger when we don't have those guys in the lineup and play effectively. Q. Jay, I know last year you guys got off to a hot start and almost kind of wished you hadn't; how did tonight help you in the long run? JAY WRIGHT: I would much rather win this and we can learn. I think we learned enough last year. I would much rather win this. This will be a tape we're going to look at. You're going to see we weren't tough enough and we weren't smart enough. So it's going to help us. It's definitely going to help us. Q. Villanova fans were out giving Bruce Pearl a pretty tough time? Can you imagine what it's like to coach in this situation? What does it say he's able to win this tournament with everything going on? JAY WRIGHT: I have a lot of respect for him. I know he's a good guy. I do know it. I know he has integrity. And this business is tough. It can get to you. He might have slipped, but I admire the way he's handled it. I respect the way he's handling all of it. His team, man, he's doing a great job coaching. For this point in the season, they know their personnel really well; I think a little better than us. When we got the three guards in foul trouble, we weren't in sync. We weren't prepared for that. We have to do a better job of having the lineup, a big lineup that can play efficiently. Q. Jay, your teams have always had interchangeable parts off the bench the last couple of years. Specifically on your list of priorities and things you pontificate about. How much more meticulous do you have to be with your substitution patterns at this juncture of the season with your depth? JAY WRIGHT: I think -- our substitution patterns are actually pretty easy job. Because we're not interchangeable. We know who subs for who. Our problem is going to be a situation like tonight when guards are in foul trouble and we have to play three forwards. How are we going to play efficiently? In our other games we got away with it. Against a them like this, that can really score and really defend, and then when you have three forwards, they know you're going to war with those two guards, they did a great job of stopping us. We have to get better at playing the three forwards. Q. Is it a little weird to think of a Villanova team with three forwards? JAY WRIGHT: It is. We got two of our guards are out, so we might hopefully get somebody back. Thanks a lot, guys. We enjoyed this tournament. This was extremely well-run. This was awesome. End of FastScripts |
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