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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2012Jamie DixonAshton GibbsNasir RobinsonNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK PITTSBURGH – 73 COACH DIXON: We defended well and did enough rebounding wise, and I thought we were patient offensively, took pretty good shots, shot a good percentage against a good defensive team. Obviously St. John's with a match‑up zone bothers a lot of teams. We played pretty well in both games against them and took good shots for the most part and today we cut down on the turnovers and gave us another good opportunity. Another good win. I think we had a lot of guys give us good performances. We had ten guys out there giving us good minutes and that's something we're going to need. So I'm proud of how our guys played, I'm proud of how our seniors played, and we're trying to get better every day. I think we've gotten better the last couple weeks and it's a good sign as we go forward here. We've got to defend defensively, and I think we did that today and we'll continue to do that here as we go forward tomorrow. Q. Is it kind of weird you guys have never won a Big East Tournament, now it's your senior year. How much do you want this? ASHTON GIBBS: Yeah, it's definitely a little weird, especially the past three years we had a lot more success during the regular season. But it was a good win for us today. I think it started on the defensive end, and we let it carry on to offense. We did a good job of moving the ball, and it's something we've just got to continue to do throughout the tournament. Q. (No microphone.) ASHTON GIBBS: Yeah, I think it's definitely possible. We're just going to take one game at a time and worry about our next game and keep going. Q. Nasir, this is the second straight game that you've had to defend Moe Harkless. What is it like covering a guy that size? NASIR ROBINSON: He's a good player, real skilled. I wanted to make him shoot tough shots. He hit some real tough ones, and I just wanted to make him make tough shots. Q. You guys had a pretty tough Big East season. Do you feel like you're peaking at the right time during the tournament? COACH DIXON: Well, I think we're a little bit‑‑ about as healthy as we've been. We've had a number of guys miss practices last week, but we have everybody available. We didn't have John last game, John Johnson, but he gave us good minutes today, so that was valuable. But I do believe that we are, and I tell our guys that I believe our best basketball is in our next game here, so I told them that going into this tournament. We did some good things today. I think we can be a better team tomorrow, and I believe that that's what you want to be. We've obviously had some injuries and had to battle through some things, but we're still around and we're getting better in some areas that we've focused on. I think we are playing our best basketball here going forward. And we've got some guys healthy right now, so I feel pretty good about where we're going. We've got a good team to play tomorrow, so we'll see what we can do. Q. There was a play late in the first half where the ball seemed to go after the back of the backboard. Did you sense them getting frustrated? ASHTON GIBBS: Yeah, I heard them arguing, a couple players arguing going back and forth on the court. We just wanted to keep our team together. When it hit the backboard, we wanted to keep playing until we heard the whistles, and we just wanted to keep playing and stay together. NASIR ROBINSON: Yeah, same thing. That's one thing we've been stressing in practice really is just to keep playing, whether the ref blew the whistle or not. That's what we did. It got a little frustrating, that part of the game, but at the end of the day we played together as a team from beginning to end and got the win. Q. How about having to play back to back games like that? NASIR ROBINSON: Yeah, I feel good. Throughout the season I've been struggling with it, just been fighting through it, trying to do what I can for my team. Towards the end of the year I've been feeling good. I've been doing what I do with my trainer, and it's feeling good. Q. How about the way you guys played against the press in the second half? COACH DIXON: They're going to force some things. I think we can do a better job of getting‑‑ advancing it and maybe attacking on the backside of it. It's something that we've looked at and tried to do. But hopefully it'll get us better and help us down the road, but 13 turnovers is still a little bit too high, but against a pressing team, and looking at what they were doing, I think it's not a horrible number. Better than we had in our last game against them. We took good shots. That was the most important thing. I think at the end of it, we took a good shot at the end of the press, and we didn't get rushed into shots, and I think that's the most important thing, too. Q. Given what Ashton has meant to this program, is this the time to let him do his thing? COACH DIXON: Well, we're just playing like we're trying to play. We've encouraged him to take open jump shots and more threes than he's been taking, and that was a good thing about today, I think he took nine of his fourteen shots were threes and off the catch, and four for nine is a good percentage from three. That's what we want to do. They did a good job on the defensive end, too, and that's what we need and that's what we've been stressing from our guards is they need to get our defense going. They need to be the big‑‑ they need to be the energy, the charge, the direct and get us where we need to be defensively. So I thought he did a good job in that area. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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