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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2013Fuquan EdwinKyle SmythKevin WillardNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK SYRACUSE- 75 Q. Kevin, what can you say about the way your team played today after playing overtime last night. COACH WILLARD: They played the same way they played all year. They played with a lot of heart, a lot of pride. The turnaround time really hurt us because we didn't come out of last night's game very healthy, which we weren't healthy to start. These guys did what they did all year long. It's tough to explain, as a coach, to normal people how proud I am of these guys because no one's been in our locker room. No one's been in our practices, and these guys all year long gave unbelievable effort, unbelievable attitude, and we're playing like we did tonight, usually with six guys all year. So tonight doesn't shock me because they've done this for me all year. Q. What did you tell them afterward in the locker room? COACH WILLARD: Pretty much what I just said. I usually don't get emotional at the end of the year but this one hurts because it was such a frustrating year. I think I kind of knew how we could have been all year if we'd been healthy, and I feel bad for these guys because they really had to deal with a lot of negativity and a lot of frustration from the fact that it's hard to explain that you go into this league or any league with six guys, 5 1/2 healthy guys. We took a vote who wasn't hurt this year, and I think Tommy was the only guy that didn't get hurt, and he was coming off ACL surgery. So just proud of them. I really am. I hate losing, but I love these guys. Q. You basically didn't play five guys. When you play five guys against a team like Syracuse on a stage like this, is this pretty much all you can ask guys to do. COACH WILLARD: To be honest with you, I think, if we didn't have to play at 2:00 p.m., I think we would have played a little bit better defensively. I don't know why you'd play a night game and then a day game. We watched a little film last night, but they were spent. This morning we woke up, had breakfast, and kind of just went through the ballroom. You play a very well‑‑ probably as good a coached team as there is in the country and as talented team as there is, we probably could have used a couple of extra hours, not only rest but just preparation. Q. Kyle, it seemed like a pretty emotional scene obviously when you came out. Can you just sum up what this year's been like for you personally and what this game was like. KYLE SMYTH: I think any collegiate athlete, when it comes to the end, it's very emotional, and just all the emotions you run through five years in your head, everything that went on. Ending it with the guy I started off with, that really meant a lot. Q. Coach, you talked yesterday about the excitement, about the future of your program as far as the league, but do you have a lot of things going on on campus? A lot of construction. Talk about how that will advance your program. COACH WILLARD: Yeah, obviously, the new league is really exciting. I think again it's going to be a basketball league, not a football league trying to play basketball. So I think all the schools are really excited about the fact the focus will be on basketball, about these great guys who play the game. And what's going on campus, any time you make improvements to facilities, that helps you. I'm actually just‑‑ I'm more excited the fact we're going to take some time off and get guys healthy and regroup a little bit and get guys‑‑ get their bodies‑‑ these guys have been beat up, and just kind of get everybody healthy again. Q. Fuquan, I was wondering how it feels to play a game with such a quick turnover. Do you feel really tired out there? FUQUAN EDWIN: No, I didn't feel tired for the most part. Just growing up, you get used to that, just playing AA basketball and things like that, you might play three games in one day. So you get pretty used to it. KYLE SMYTH: You come out in a game like that, and you're ready to go. You're all juiced up, the whole team. We were. I think, like the coach mentioned, a couple more hours preparation, different things, get certain things down defensively. I think that would have helped. Q. Coach, I'm curious, from your perspective, you talk about going into a new league, but at the same time, knowing you're coming back here for a conference tournament next year. Does it feel to you like you're going and doing something different, or does it feel there's a certain continuity? COACH WILLARD: No, I think that's what everyone's excited about. It's really not a new league. It's kind of just like a restart. From that standpoint, being able to come back here and play in the Garden, I think it's a great treat. That's why I put Connor in in the end. Not only to get Smyth out, but to give him an opportunity. Still one of my best memories is playing in the Big East Tournament. I think that's going to be really special. For my guys, I have four seniors next year. For these guys to play their last tournament here, I think will be really exciting. Q. Kevin, talk about how proud you are of your team and how difficult this season has been, but is it nice knowing you're pretty much having the entire team back and you can actually show everybody what you thought you had this year? COACH WILLARD: Yes. I'm looking forward to being with these guys again and not having to deal with what we've had to deal with all year long. They're looking forward to not going into every game and wondering who's going to play power forward, who's going to play small forward now. Do we have seven guys, or do we have six guys? What offense do we run? That's why I feel most bad about Smyth is the fact he's got to play power forward, you're playing small forward. We put a new defense in under 15‑minute time‑out. We tried to. Just because once I started seeing Brian breaking down, I didn't want to hurt him anymore, trying to play two bigs. I'm just looking forward‑‑ we stopped practicing in January. I'm looking forward to being able to work all year long and be cohesive all year long going into it. I think more than that, I don't feel like this group has to prove anything. I think, if anything, people should be proud of the effort they've given all year under the circumstances we've had. Q. Kevin, do you think the injuries from this year was kind of a cause and effect? That you're playing with so few guys and not a lot of guys practicing and all that kind of stuff. How do you prevent that next‑‑ what steps do you take next year so that doesn't happen? COACH WILLARD: That's the tough thing about it. Aaron Cosby tore his MCL in October on really layup lines. Brian Oliver blew his ankle out just going up and coming down on someone's ankle. Brandon Mobley popped his shoulder out on a defensive closeout. Patrik broke his foot when he got shoved. I don't think we were worn down. We just kind of had injuries that were like kind of freak injuries. Brandon was‑‑ his shoulder was a big one, and Patrik's was a big one. I think, once those two guys went down, big Kevin tore his meniscus. I don't know if it was‑‑ it was tough injuries. It wasn't like guys were pulling ham strings or‑‑ we didn't have any pulled groins, we had major disasters. We had guys break their foot. We had guys tear their shoulder out. We had guys blow out every ankle, every ligament in their ankle when guys tear their MCL. I think that was maybe my frustration. I didn't handle that overly well this year. I put it on those guys a little bit sometimes. It wasn't like, hey, you know what, maybe we're practicing too long or lifting too much. It was things we really couldn't control. JOHN PAQUETTE: Seton Hall, thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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