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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2011Anthony CraterStan HeathShaun NoriegaNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK USF – 70 COACH HEATH: Wow, it was a great, great game, and I'm really proud of our team, what a gutsy performance in the second half, struggled in the first half, didn't seem like we were guarding anything and I thought our guys in the second half came out and showed some resolve and some toughness and defended a lot better, came up with more loose balls, and, you know, Shaun's start and Anthony Crater's finish was an incredible way to cap this win off for us. Q. Stan, did you call up for Crater to go the? COACH HEATH: Yeah, we wanted to do that. I felt like it would be better to freeze them a little bit and at the same time try to get the ball out and go right into something quickly. He had options. If somebody helped, we were looking at Gus and Shaun in the corner. So we had options but he had a lane to the rim and did the right thing. Q. Can you talk about how quickly you were able to start the game and did it impress you how effective he was from beyond the arc? COACH HEATH: He was amazing. I've seen it before. He's done that before in practices, and he's had a few games. We played Pittsburgh one game and he lit it up in that game, too. So we've seen it before. He's a dead-eye guy and he gets it going and he's got a quick release and you better be on him very close. It was an amazing start, especially on this stage. You wouldn't expect that, a sophomore, and his first experience here, he just played a little bit last year. For him to be on this kind of stage and play like that shows what kind of a guy he is. Q. How much of a conscious decision was it to try to work the ball inside in the second half once Yarou left the game? COACH HEATH: We want to go inside anyway. The pressure was keeping us away from the basket but as the game wore on, it seemed like the pressure wasn't quite the same to get the ball reversed. We wanted to go inside. Gilchrist is our go-to guy. We feel like even with -- Famous didn't have a great game but Anderson, those guys can still be effective around the basket. We wanted to go inside and we thought that, especially when Yarou left the game, we really felt they were a little bit thin there and outside of Pena we felt we could score or get fouled. Q. Anthony, did you have a game like that before? ANTHONY CRATER: Yeah, once or twice back in high school. Definitely not in college. Q. How many in high school did you have or were they for state championships or anything like that? ANTHONY CRATER: Two or three. Q. Was there something you did to get them out of their rhythm in the second half? COACH HEATH: We were constantly changing our defense. They caught fire and our "man" was nonexistent in the first half but the second half we tried two or three things against the ball screens. That was the big thing. The other thing we did is stop go for fakes and stayed on our feet and make them shoot over our length and I think we did a much better job of keeping them out of the lane and shrinking the court in the half-court defense to see more bodies when they were trying to penetrate. Q. Shaun, you guys have been in close games all year but they've never seemed to go your way, this is coming albeit a little bit late but can you talk about how nice it is? SHAUN NORIEGA: It's really nice. The way our season went, to get this win is just, you know, it's -- ANTHONY CRATER: It's phenomenal. SHAUN NORIEGA: It's been a long season and to come out here and get this win and upset Villanova, feel really good about that. Q. Coach, what are you looking to do tomorrow to be offensively effective against them? COACH HEATH: Cincinnati has not only athletes on those wings, but they have that size. They've got Yancy Gates and Ibrahima Thomas and to be honest with you, I haven't lifted a finger on Cincinnati. We were focused on Villanova but in the next hour or so I'll break out film and look at them more closely. I know they're good. They've had a great season, we played 'em very well down at their place and probably in the last 5 minutes it got away a little bit. If our team can learn to close and finish and not have drouts we can compete against anybody. Q. As was alluded to, you've been very tough all year but maybe without the "W" to show it, how do you guys think of yourselves given this is such a tough conference to say you've been able to hang in so many games in the Big East that's a testament as to how good you are? COACH HEATH: We took this game that the season, 2010, 2011, is over, we're in a new season, we're not going to look backwards, we're going to look forward. That stunk. It was a miserable feeling because we gave a lot of effort and we always came up short. We're going to put that behind us, we're 1-0 now and we're going to get ready to go 2-0. Q. Anthony, what did you see in the last two plays? Run us through those last two baskets, how you remember them. ANTHONY CRATER: The play where I stole it, I seen I had a step on Pena and he jumped too early so I made the steal and made a layup and the last play the screen was designed for me to come off the screen but the rim was open and I took it. Q. Were you surprised? ANTHONY CRATER: Yes, sir, yes. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports USF – 70 COACH HEATH: Wow, it was a great, great game, and I'm really proud of our team, what a gutsy performance in the second half, struggled in the first half, didn't seem like we were guarding anything and I thought our guys in the second half came out and showed some resolve and some toughness and defended a lot better, came up with more loose balls, and, you know, Shaun's start and Anthony Crater's finish was an incredible way to cap this win off for us. Q. Stan, did you call up for Crater to go the? COACH HEATH: Yeah, we wanted to do that. I felt like it would be better to freeze them a little bit and at the same time try to get the ball out and go right into something quickly. He had options. If somebody helped, we were looking at Gus and Shaun in the corner. So we had options but he had a lane to the rim and did the right thing. Q. Can you talk about how quickly you were able to start the game and did it impress you how effective he was from beyond the arc? COACH HEATH: He was amazing. I've seen it before. He's done that before in practices, and he's had a few games. We played Pittsburgh one game and he lit it up in that game, too. So we've seen it before. He's a dead-eye guy and he gets it going and he's got a quick release and you better be on him very close. It was an amazing start, especially on this stage. You wouldn't expect that, a sophomore, and his first experience here, he just played a little bit last year. For him to be on this kind of stage and play like that shows what kind of a guy he is. Q. How much of a conscious decision was it to try to work the ball inside in the second half once Yarou left the game? COACH HEATH: We want to go inside anyway. The pressure was keeping us away from the basket but as the game wore on, it seemed like the pressure wasn't quite the same to get the ball reversed. We wanted to go inside. Gilchrist is our go-to guy. We feel like even with -- Famous didn't have a great game but Anderson, those guys can still be effective around the basket. We wanted to go inside and we thought that, especially when Yarou left the game, we really felt they were a little bit thin there and outside of Pena we felt we could score or get fouled. Q. Anthony, did you have a game like that before? ANTHONY CRATER: Yeah, once or twice back in high school. Definitely not in college. Q. How many in high school did you have or were they for state championships or anything like that? ANTHONY CRATER: Two or three. Q. Was there something you did to get them out of their rhythm in the second half? COACH HEATH: We were constantly changing our defense. They caught fire and our "man" was nonexistent in the first half but the second half we tried two or three things against the ball screens. That was the big thing. The other thing we did is stop go for fakes and stayed on our feet and make them shoot over our length and I think we did a much better job of keeping them out of the lane and shrinking the court in the half-court defense to see more bodies when they were trying to penetrate. Q. Shaun, you guys have been in close games all year but they've never seemed to go your way, this is coming albeit a little bit late but can you talk about how nice it is? SHAUN NORIEGA: It's really nice. The way our season went, to get this win is just, you know, it's -- ANTHONY CRATER: It's phenomenal. SHAUN NORIEGA: It's been a long season and to come out here and get this win and upset Villanova, feel really good about that. Q. Coach, what are you looking to do tomorrow to be offensively effective against them? COACH HEATH: Cincinnati has not only athletes on those wings, but they have that size. They've got Yancy Gates and Ibrahima Thomas and to be honest with you, I haven't lifted a finger on Cincinnati. We were focused on Villanova but in the next hour or so I'll break out film and look at them more closely. I know they're good. They've had a great season, we played 'em very well down at their place and probably in the last 5 minutes it got away a little bit. If our team can learn to close and finish and not have drouts we can compete against anybody. Q. As was alluded to, you've been very tough all year but maybe without the "W" to show it, how do you guys think of yourselves given this is such a tough conference to say you've been able to hang in so many games in the Big East that's a testament as to how good you are? COACH HEATH: We took this game that the season, 2010, 2011, is over, we're in a new season, we're not going to look backwards, we're going to look forward. That stunk. It was a miserable feeling because we gave a lot of effort and we always came up short. We're going to put that behind us, we're 1-0 now and we're going to get ready to go 2-0. Q. Anthony, what did you see in the last two plays? Run us through those last two baskets, how you remember them. ANTHONY CRATER: The play where I stole it, I seen I had a step on Pena and he jumped too early so I made the steal and made a layup and the last play the screen was designed for me to come off the screen but the rim was open and I took it. Q. Were you surprised? ANTHONY CRATER: Yes, sir, yes. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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