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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2011Dwight HardySteve LavinNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK St. John's: 65 COACH LAVIN: For starters, I just have to give Rutgers credit for -- for demonstrating great fight and competitive spirit. They're opportunistic and very close to beating us. So I think it really begins with just giving our opponent tip of the cap for a really valiant effort. I just talked to Coach Rice in the hallway and told him as much and I told the team when you step into the postseason it's a different animal. It's thinner air and teams are galvanized and playing with a purpose because they have an opportunity to go to the NCAA Tournament. Also teams that are well coached like Rutgers are getting better with each practice and game experience so they're a better team than they were the first time we faced them and obviously better than they were earlier this year because none of their players let go of the rope. On the flip side, I'm proud of our players to have the composure and the poise to find a way to win a game and that's what you have to do at this stage of the season is try and advance. Q. Coach, how about that play by Justin Brownlee there at the end? COACH LAVIN: You know, I'll have to go back and watch. It was kind of a chaotic, you know, flurry of sequences, so to be honest I was trying to patch it together from the players and coaches in the locker room. So until I actually see the -- can actually review the game and the closing moments I wouldn't be informed enough to speak about it. Q. Steve, the guys on the stage with you are very important to what you guys want to do in the next couple of weeks but specific to D.J. Kennedy, how important do you think he is in terms of maybe making the difference between you guys being a first weekend or second-week end, maybe a third-week end team? COACH LAVIN: The strength of D.J. is his versatility. He can help us at both ends of the floor, influence a game both offensively and defensively, so it gives our coaching staff some flexibility or versatility to take advantage of, to try and put our team in a competitive advantage. For instance, when he rebounds the ball for us, you know, he has the skills to push it in transition so he's a point forward who can see over the top of defenses and finish at the rim and take it coast-to-coast with three dribbles and long strides so that puts pressure on opposing defenses and the strength of this team is the players are complimentary to one another. 4. D.J. would be an example of that with his skill and versatility and size. That gives our team a chance to continue to win games. Q. Dwight, can you explain how difficult it was for you to persevere against that defense today? They were knocking you around pretty good and can you explain what happened on the inbounds pass? DWIGHT HARDY: I want to give them credit. They switched players on me every time I came off a screen or I was moving around the court so I think they did a good job of contesting my shots and making me take tough shots and they get all the credit tore that but it's a learning experience for me and next game I have to switch it up and find another way to score. As far as the last play, the ball went through my hands it hit my shoulder and we want out of bounds. I take total blame for that, it was an accurate pass, I just didn't catch the pass. Q. Coach, can you talk about the theory of following with 17 seconds left? COACH LAVIN: We played Rutgers earlier on our home floor this year and we didn't foul, 30 seconds to go we tried to get one stop and they buried a 3 on us with 8 seconds to go in the game 37. So we weren't going to allow them to do that because they'd done it to us once this year and we've actually had other teams that have done that so us as well and it probably has cost us. So I had confidence that we would be able to execute offensively and be able to solve the game away. One of the strengths of this team is making free-throws in late situations, obviously it didn't work out as we planned. That's the beauty of sport. Q. Hey, Steve, you mentioned obviously teams being galvanized in the postseason and you've talked about different break-throughs that this team has had. How to you use your experiences at UCLA to help this team enter a new phase that they haven't dealt with, the postseason? COACH LAVIN: I think it's more in simple terms, just trying to draw on the experiences in terms of how to navigate the postseason. I just think, you know, familiarity with tournament conditions helps. I was fortunate to be part of 13 connective NCAA tournaments as an assistant and a head coach, so just the conditions that come with getting through a first weekend getting to the second weekend. I think, you know, being aware that at this time of the year I like to see the haze in the barn, an old phrase Pete Newel used, and less is more and having a team that is mentally fresh is more important than making dramatic changes or adjustments at this stage of the game. It's doing what you do well and being focused on your execution and having fresh minds and fresh bodies on the floor for game time. I think the biggest mistake at this time of the year is sometimes people overcoach or wear their team out and they don't have a fresh team mentally and physically and if there is one thing I learned from Duke, Coach Mike Krzyzewski, he is good about that, making sure they do more mental preparation and walk-throughs and goal sessions, film, using the conference room in our hotel so we got 'em off their legs in particular when you have to play back-to-back games in tournament conditions like that. Q. Can you talk about excuse this year, you're 7-1 in the garden this year, you're only loss to them, can you talk about that? DWIGHT HARDY: They got a terrific zone, they're long, they're big, we got to find ways to get the ball in the middle and space 'em out and for driving lanes and short corner passes to our bigs. I mean, we feel that we've been playing better against zones down the stretch so we feel like we can come into the game with a great mind-set and be ready to play them. Q. (No microphone.) COACH LAVIN: They give us our only loss here. We are excited to play them at the same time we don't want to get overexcited and not come ready to play, just come and play St. John's basketball. Q. Steve, we were trying to make sense of that crazy ending. Were you aware that it appeared that Justin Brownlee stepped out-of-bounds with about a second and a half and did you get any explanations? COACH LAVIN: No. When I was interviewed after the game it was mentioned to me but I hadn't seen it and then the players in the locker room were discussing it a little bit and some of the staff and I thought maybe he threw it in the air. I don't know if he threw it in the air before he stepped out of bounds or if he stepped out-of-bounds and then threw it in the air. I'm not sure what the sequence was. It was chaotic. I heard the horn and I felt I seen a ghost in the Garden so I was fortunate that we were going to be able to go to the locker room and get to the next round. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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