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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2013Stan HeathZach LedayNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK SETON HALL – 46 COACH HEATH: It's a tough way to finish our season. We gave the game away. We certainly had an opportunity to close it out in regulation. I think the wrong guys had the ball, and some of the wrong decisions were being made. We definitely took way too many three‑point shots for the game but especially in overtime. We're not a great three‑point shooting team, so I don't know why we kind of went to that as our way to finish. We finished strong, and we didn't‑‑ we came up short in our last couple of games, but our last four games, we were playing hard. Any time you play somebody and you're getting 27 offensive rebounds, that means it's great effort out there. Maybe we didn't make the best choices, but we certainly gave great effort. We've just got to learn from this tough year. We've experienced both sides. We had a phenomenal success last year, and this year, obviously, we didn't have the season we wanted to have. But feel get it fixed, and we'll be back. Q. Stan, you guys haven't won your first game in the tournament four years in a row. How tough is it to go out and know that this is how you play your last Big East Tournament like that? COACH HEATH: Knowing what everybody knows, this is the probably the last time all of these teams‑‑ this great experience is going to be here. We certainly want to go out and make noise and have success. So not having that is disappointing. We certainly want to continue to play. I saw that in our guys who want to continue to play but just didn't get the job done. Q. Stan, 27 offensive rebounds, and then your transition game got off to a good start. 20 points off 14 turnovers. Your transition game had 27 offensive rebounds, a couple of positives on this night. What can you take away from that? COACH HEATH: Rebounding has been a weak spot for us all year long. To see us really get after it. Those are effort areas, just running the floor and going after rebounds. Those are the two positive takes from tonight, the shooting was just‑‑ we had some good looks too. We weren't all just bad shots. We had really good looking shots around the baskets. Several tip‑ins point blank that you would think would go down. So that was a little frustrating. I think the guys are a little frustrated too. It's like there was a lid on the rim, and we couldn't seem to throw it in there. Q. Were you surprised in the last three minutes of regulation you guys had to call two time‑outs? COACH HEATH: I was really surprised. Q. You made a lot of ill advised shots. Was it nerves? COACH HEATH: A.C. (Anthony Collins) had plays in a lot of minutes. We really wanted him to get the ball and get open. I don't know if he was fatigued. Just seemed like we didn't have the right guys getting the ball. Some simple plays. You run across the court, jump shot, get it to somebody, you get yourself open. We didn't execute well. So the execution down the stretch was not good. 30‑some games into the year, you've been in these situations before. I was a little surprised we had to take some time off. A little surprised we couldn't just simply get the ball to the right guys and get the floor spread and shoot some free throws and finish the game. Q. Coach, elaborate more and talk about how you played really hard through adversity, talk more about the character of your team during this tough season. COACH HEATH: Any time‑‑ this league is‑‑ it was ridiculously good this year. A lot of really good teams. As you look back to the course of the season, we had several games that it was an overtime at UConn or Rutgers game, we had several games we felt like we were right there to get them. And there were some other teams that we just didn't have maybe the manpower, especially on the front line, to match up. So we had a stretch of games where we lost, and it's tough. There's several other teams that went through that in this league too. It's tough. So when you get towards the end of the year, that's what it comes down to, what the character of your team is like. Are you going to just pack it in and go home? We literally in our last four games, won two in a row, went to overtime against Cincy, had that game leading late. Same thing in this game, leading late and went to overtime in this game. The stretch run certainly wasn't about the guys giving in. They show a lot of character. They show a lot of fight. They want to win. They want to continue to play. It was just a matter of us not getting the job done. We just came up short, especially in some of the areas that we need to get better. We need to be able to shoot the ball better. We have a better inside game. We're going to address that hard over the summer and get better in those areas. Q. Coach, at the end, it seemed Edwin was able to penetrate inside, which he hadn't been able to do most of the game. Was that a result of the three‑point shots leading to transition or just him stepping up his game? COACH HEATH: Fuquan, he's a great player. He's one of the underrated players in our league. I thought he did a great job for 36 minutes on him. That's what really good players do. They step up when it's time.  He did that. We really want to defend him on the three line. As the game went on, he started attacking a lot more and was able to finish some hard shots. Zach was chasing some of those shots. Looked like we tipped a couple of balls that still went in late, I think his and (Aaron) Cosby's as well. He's a really, really good player. Probably tonight he was the best player on the floor, and he took over and showed it. Q. Zach, just talk about your plight. It's easy for a freshman to be wide‑eyed in this business. Just talk about the confidence you played with. ZACH LEDAY: Coach has been playing me through a lot of hostile environments. When we went to Cincy, I played overtime there and gained some experience in that. I played in a lot of different environments this year. I had a good freshman year. I got to play a whole bunch of minutes and gain a whole bunch of experience. So I was basically experienced. I just went out there like it was another game, and I was prepared. I knew what my coach wanted me to do, and I knew what my teammates wanted and expected out of me. Q. Coach, the Big East as we know it is going to end after this tournament. What do you think the realignment means for your team going forward? COACH HEATH: I think we're going to have a bright future. I'm very confident in the leadership of our university. I think that going forward, we're going to have a great future. When everything, the dust settles and everything gets figured out, we're going to line up, and we're going to play. We're going to make the best out of any situation we're in. I'm excited about our team, our future. We've got a lot of young talented guys right now. Some of the areas I feel like we're weak in, we've addressed in recruiting, and we've got a good recruiting class coming in. It is what it is. You line it up, and you play. We'll do that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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