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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2013Wally JudgeMike RiceNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK RUTGERS – 76 COACH RICE: I thought for 40 minutes the energy, intensity, and the ability to play for one another was there. First half just too careless. You shoot 60 percent, outrebound them. I think we doubled in rebounding, just too many points off the turnovers. Tremendous, probably one of our best execution games and balance. This young man beside me, this other young man beside me had tremendous balance tonight. It's what‑‑ when I looked at this team on paper, what I envisioned. Came a little later than I hoped, but, again, it's nice to have balance and nice to get a win against a very good DePaul team, well coached team. Q. Wally was 9 for 9, 20 and 10. What does his performance tell you about him? COACH RICE: Again, Wally and the whole team, no matter what happened this year, continued to work. It's not a doubt in my mind that he's improved every single day because of it. It allowed him to have a night like this, a record‑setting night like this. Again, shows you potential. It's a credit to him that he didn't hang his head. There were some rough times, and he just kept working. His response was tremendous. Q. When you see a game like this where Wally does what you want him to do or Myles does what you want him to do and the offense sort of did what you envisioned, do you think what could have been this season if this had happened? COACH RICE: No, I just won a game. Maybe in another two weeks. I thought we'd have more balance this year, and for some reason it didn't work out. Some days it did, it's just we didn't finish. Again, who knows the growth of a team? It may take some longer than others. I believe in this team, the talent we had. I believed in the pride in which we conducted ourselves. Again, it was a good night, a very good night, and we now have to carry it on until tomorrow. Q. Mike, in your opinion, why has Rutgers been so much better in closing out games in the last two in getting the lead and finishing strong? COACH RICE: Hopefully, we've learned from our mistakes. Again, understand this may be the teams that we've beaten in the last two aren't maybe the teams that had double byes. I'm well aware of it, but it feels good. It feels good to understand. Really, guys in the huddle from the 12‑minute mark yelling don't get happy. Don't get happy. Usually we went on a run like that, guys were too happy and lost focus. These guys really, they didn't need to police anybody in the huddle today. They were doing it themselves, and that was a good sign. Q. During the sprint to the second half, what was it like to see the game start being played at DePaul's pace, very back and forth? COACH RICE: I like that pace. When you have two small guards and you have bigs that can run like that, I thought our depth was good. It was Mike Poole again showing in Madison Square Garden. I don't mind playing at that pace. I know he doesn't. I know they all do. Something we're very comfortable with. Maybe at the three‑minute mark, I didn't necessarily need the alley‑oop pass to Dane, but, again, they were feeling very confident, and they were sharing the game. Q. Wally, this was your best game at Rutgers. What got into you tonight? Why don't you think that was there all season? Can you do it again tomorrow? WALLY JUDGE: I think two things came to a factor. One, we picked up the bigs. That's a personal shot. Whether it was me or A.J. or Kadeem, we all contribute, and we all played hard tonight. As far as it being my best game, coach also said that March don't care. Not in those words, but he said March don't care. COACH RICE: Yes, I did say in those words. WALLY JUDGE: Anything can happen. You seen Connecticut do it. You've seen George Mason do it. Anything can happen. That's how you've got to play every game, like 0‑0. Q. Mike, can you just talk about the effort that Jerome had to kind of fill the whole stat sheet up in the game. COACH RICE: He had tremendous energy. One time in the second half I forgot‑‑ it was the 11‑minute mark, and he hadn't been out. So he kind of did it all for us. Got a little carried away in the first half maybe with some mistakes, but, again, when we have that floor leader and now him and Myles are kind of sharing the duties of being that floor general. But he gives so much. You see his talent. You see the athleticism and the skill. Now the purpose is coming. It's taken him‑‑ believe me, we've had a lot of discussions about purpose and playing at your own tempo. Boy, he had a great tempo about him tonight. Q. Did you hear the pep band chanting your name as you walked off the court? COACH RICE: Myles or me? Q. You. COACH RICE: No. Again, I love the pep band and the cheerleaders. I really like their enthusiasm. Again, this is their team as well. Q. Just a followup on that, just given Tim's vote of confidence for you for next year, was it important for you personally to have this kind of game? COACH RICE: I'm glad he did, but, again, right now my focus completely is on this team, preparing them for DePaul, preparing them for Notre Dame. That was something that was needed maybe outside because the recruiting aspects and different aspects. But, no, I'm thrilled with this team. I think he sees the potential in this team. He sees the growth and development in this team. And, again, as I said time and time again, this is going to happen. Rutgers basketball is going to happen. It's just slower than some people like, and maybe their coach, but it's going to happen. Q. Mike, in preparing for Notre Dame, how do you kind of get ready for them on a short notice like this? COACH RICE: It will be difficult, but we'll have engaged individuals. Again, when you're playing back to back nights, you're going to go on a lot of things that we've already done. We've played them. We've dealt with a lot of situations that they may possess and just go out and have fun. The coaches will have a long night, but the guys will get good sleep. Again, we'll have all day to prepare. But it's exciting just to be there. Q. Mike, did you prepare differently for DePaul than the last time? What was different? COACH RICE: Different emphasis. Our bigs were so‑‑ they weren't bad. They just weren't in the game against DePaul the first time. Maybe they weren't‑‑ Wally, one of his answers was because he got the ball tonight. So that's developing our young guards, just having the trust in our bigs. So we really wanted to‑‑ we thought, if we had one advantage, that's where our one advantage was, was to go inside. It started from the first play and to almost the last play. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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