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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2013Mark FrattoPhil Greene, IVSteve LavinJaKarr SampsonNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK VILLANOVA – 66 COACH LAVIN: From what I could tell, the stats were very equal, 17 turnovers each. I think they had one more field goal than us. One more three‑pointer than us. The other team shot the ball well from the three‑point line. They had ten more free throws. So their team point disparity, one three‑pointer and ten free throws, that was the difference. But getting to the foul line more was the result of their physicality around the basket area. Finished well, some point blank shots they put down. We held them to 40 in the game, which is 39% is our goal in games. But I think the physicality allowed them to get into the bonus and to get to the foul line and convert from there. Thought our kids regained their composure, got back in the game, tied it at half, and we were pleased considering we weren't playing very well but we were hanging around and doing enough good things to stay in the game. Then they separated themselves with the ability to finish and to convert from the foul line and get enough stops defensively to put the game away. Q. For both players, please, how difficult is it going to be between now and Sunday night trying to find out whether you're playing again this year. JAKARR SAMPSON: Very difficult. Just sit around a lot just waiting. We don't want to be in this position. We wish we could have advanced to the next round and win this game, but it happened like that. So it's a lot of sitting around just waiting to see what we're going to do. PHIL GREENE: The same thing, piggy‑back off JaKarr. It's going to be very difficult. Nobody likes to lose. We're just going to see and wait until Sunday and see what happens. Q. After the final buzzer, you seemed pretty ticked. What was going through your mind? I saw you with your fists. I mean, what are you thinking right there while you're experiencing that? PHIL GREENE: After the Big East Tournament, like I said, nobody likes to lose. Nobody on our team. We hate losing. We wanted to advance and play the next day. It was just hard. Q. For JaKarr, can you describe the pressure on your game without being able to play off D'Angelo. JAKARR SAMPSON: I felt like I had a lot of heat on me. My shots wasn't falling that I normally made. Really, I felt like it was just myself. I just wasn't hitting shots that I normally make. I went 5 for 18, and I normally don't do that. I normally shoot the ball pretty well. Q. Coach Lavin, second half, 11 of 35 from the field. Did Villanova, their two‑three zone give you guys some more problems, more problems in the first half? It just seemed like you guys weren't penetrating enough, just settling for perimeter shots. What happened in the second half in terms of Villanova's defense? COACH LAVIN: Villanova is an excellent basketball team. I think they're capable of making a run here in the NCAA Tournament. Obviously, very strong, physical style of basketball that's allowed them to beat Syracuse and Louisville and Marquette and Georgetown most recently. So they are a very top team. More than any schemes, I think we didn't finish. Kind of what JaKarr said, we just didn't finish shots that we expect to finish. We had some point blank‑‑ and, again, I think Villanova is an excellent basketball team. I think they've got the chance to make a deep run in the tournament, but I feel we didn't finish or take care of the basketball. Some were unforced turnovers. It wasn't as though‑‑ we didn't turn it over against their press. It was more just we'd have the ball and get it stripped or dribble the ball in a crowd, and they'd take it from us. Or it looked like we had an offensive rebound, and they would pull it away from us. In particular, early it seemed like that happened. Then we came back and found a way to tie the game at half. But I thought Villanova's ability to convert some high percentage shots, inability to convert at the rim and in the paint. And, again, it always takes two to tango. So some of that is Villanova's defense, or physicality, the thing that makes them so effective. But a little like JaKarr, I agree. I also think we also didn't convert or finish in the basket area, and even open looks, 10, 12‑footers, wide open, no one around us, just didn't put it in the hole. Q. Two kind of business questions. You're already going without D'Angelo, and yet you put Lipscomb in before Felix. Can you explain that? COACH LAVIN: Guard play.  He's a point guard. Felix is a forward, and David is a point guard. We had a point guard and two fouls, put another point guard. We've got to get guard play in there. I'm proud of the kid. He didn't turn it over. Gave us what we asked him. Didn't embarrass himself. I think he'll be a scholarship player down the line. He's one of those kids that keeps working hard. Maybe a redshirt year in there. He's a kid from a coach's family. I'm proud of him, definitely proud of him. It had nothing to do with Felix wasn't in trouble or didn't do anything wrong. We just needed a guard in there. This whole week we played him at point guard. As we were alternating Phil and Jamal. Q. Do you have an update on Felix? MARK FRATTO: Left ankle sprain. Not a high sprain, but just a regular left ankle sprain. Obviously, he didn't return in the second half. Dr. Osric King examined him with Ron Lynnfont, our assistant athletic director for sports medicine, in his 32nd season as athletic trainer. Q. Coach, despite the kind of disappointing end to the season, what signs did you see early in the Big East play that kind of give you optimism for next season? COACH LAVIN: I just shared with the kids after the game some of the things we put on the board that I knew and the guys that cover us on a regular basis right from the outset, I was very open about the fact this would be the most challenging season of my coaching career because it's unprecedented, in my experience, as an assistant coach at Purdue and UCLA, as a head coach at UCLA and St. John's, and even as an analyst in the seven years in television, it's the youngest team I've ever been a part of or covered. I don't know if there has been a younger team, but just very unusual. And the one upper classmen, Marc‑Antoine Bourgault from junior college, it's all first and second year players. Some of the good young teams that have had success, there's the one or two seniors or couple of juniors or some upper classmen. So I'm proud, given the fact that this young group, youngest in school history, youngest in the country, had to come of age in the toughest league in America. As I've said, kind of the school of hard knocks, and I think that will pay off for us after whatever happens next week, spring, summer, our foreign tour, and coming back next year. I told you Villanova went the last two years without making the NCAA Tournament. Is that right? So I said, yes, we're playing a team tonight that's going to be in the same situation we are next year, a hungry group of players that last two years didn't get to the winner's circle, didn't get to experience the NCAA Tournament. So you have a physical basketball team that's determined to have a run in the NCAA Tournament. That will be us next fall. Like them, when you have a resolve because you've been knocked down or beat down as we have, that's when you move forward. We have to have that resolve in this off‑season. Probably bring 98 to 100 percent of our team back. So that's unusual too. Usually, there's a senior who left. But we have gift, who redshirted, and all of these kids that are playing here tonight. The future is bright. Like I said earlier this week, as a coach, you always have a four or five‑year plan. While I wish this year we were 11‑7 or 10‑8, I think we were a whisker from being 10‑8, 11‑7 in this league. We weren't. We were 8‑10, and that's where we were. And we got knocked out here in our first game in the Big East Tournament. We just have to move forward and learn from it and get better. There are a number of areas, both individually and collectively as a group. I told them I'm proud of them, and we'll get better. Q. For Phil and JaKarr, big stage here because it's the conference tournament. The arena is more packed than it's been during the season for you guys. And you take 18, you take 19 shots, and the next highest guy takes only 6. Is that because you guys are used to being the scorers, or did it seem like more people were deferring to the two of you? JAKARR SAMPSON: I didn't even know I took that many shots until the end of this game. I was just playing basketball, playing the game I love, and just doing what I do. I wasn't really thinking about the shots I was putting up or anything like that, like it was just a normal game for me. I just didn't make most of my shots that I normally make. PHIL GREENE: The same thing JaKarr said, just being aggressive. Just taking what the defense gives you. It just happened that way. I didn't pay attention to it like JaKarr said. Q. Question about the conference. What do you think college basketball loses with the minds of the Big East as you knew it? COACH LAVIN: Wow, the minds. I think, and I said this earlier this week, but as a coach, you're just so‑‑ and it sounds like coach speak, but it's the truth. I've been so locked in‑‑ and especially this month because it's been such a unique situation for me personally and with the team and really just a hard month on all fronts. But I think I'll be better equipped to speak in an informed manner, in an intelligent manner probably either the middle of the summer, or maybe it will be a couple of years before I can really put it all in perspective. You're just so focused on your own kids and their development and leading a basketball program at this level and then recruiting and all the things that come with that. I'm not at a point where I can really speak in an informed, intelligent manner about what this means, in an existential way, in a historical way. I'm just so focused on what's going to happen next for this group. I think down the line, where I decompress and get away from things, or even a couple of years where I can look back on it, I think I'm really encouraged about the group of schools we have. I think the future of the league is very strong. I'm glad we got the name because the brand is very important in anything, Coca‑cola, Hershey's, can't go wrong with a Hershey bar logo. We've got the right branding. We've got good leadership. There's still some things in play that we need to take care of. But that's to be expected when you go through a transition on this. So I'm bold on the future of the Big East, and yet I know that we lost some Titans. We lost some great rivalries and some great coaches and great institutions, and unfortunately, that's kind of the world we live in and the beat goes on. You reinvent yourself and do the best with the group we have, and I still think we're going to be one of the preeminent groups in the country. Q. Coach, you mention a five‑year plan a lot. This is really your third year, well, really the second. Is this where you've seen‑‑ is this where you saw your program, or is this where you think your program should be when you took the job? COACH LAVIN: Yeah, I mean, I knew‑‑ coaches are always‑‑ our goal is always to win the Big East championship and then win the tournament championship. But you look back, and there's a reason we were picked 12th in the league. We're seeded 10, and Connecticut's in there. So we wanted to get to the NCAA Tournament, and we realize a couple of box‑outs, couple of free throws, a couple less turnovers, a couple bounce of the ball, officials call, made or missed jump shots, and your season is 11‑7 or 10‑8. But it's going to be like that in this league everywhere. When you consider that we are as young as we are, I'm pleased with the direction of the program. We have back to back top ten recruiting classes, and being around this group, they're just an enjoyable group of players to work with. What I shared with them is the areas we have to improve upon. We have to get physically stronger. We're naturally going to get emotionally stronger. When you get beat down, beat up, go to the school of hard knocks like we do in the Big East, younger players grow up. That's what resistance is about. And we'll be a team as we've proved this year we can take punches and come back. We did that against Marquette the other day in overtime. Now we want to take punches, punch back, get over the hump, and finish with a record that will put us in the NCAA Tournament on an annual basis. I'm bold on the future and the fact the whole team is coming back, the group of people, the character, the work ethic, their talent, and we're moving in the right direction. We're never satisfied with where we are, and we've got a lot of work ahead of us. I definitely like our core that we're building or moving forward with. Q. Steve, after the Connecticut win, you guys were in a really good place, and then it was a 1‑7 finish. This were personal obstacles to overcome, professional upheaval. How do you evaluate that finish? What did this team get out of it? COACH LAVIN: You know, it's interesting. This league for starters with the losses, I think Syracuse came in today losing 4 out of 5. I wish that we went 6‑3 the first half of the league and 6‑3 the second half of the league, obviously. At the end of it, you'd love to have 10, 11, or 12 wins in this conference, but it's very difficult to do. And there's some things that were beyond these kids' control, and I told them that's why I'm proud of the way they dealt with things. I found out February 3rd my father was going to die. I went home February 4th for the Super Bowl to be with him, and he died February 10th on the Syracuse‑‑ the day that we played Syracuse. It's not their fault. But from that point, obviously, I had to be with my family. So the losing streak started the day I found out my dad was going to die. But we can't‑‑ we still wanted to box out and make free throws and beat people and take care of the basketball and finish at the rim. So things happen, but I share a major part of the responsibility in the fact that we didn't finish as well as we would have liked to. But there are sometimes takeaways and lessons even in that because there is no coaching manual on having a father die, and I've never navigated through something like that in my career, and I don't think they've ever had a situation where their head coach's father died in the middle of a season. It was unusual. From February 3rd forward, it's been really tough. That's probably were I feel as close to this team as any in my coaching career and why I'm so grateful to work with them and looking forward to brighter days ahead, to the future with these kids because they deserve it. They're a good group, and they're going to do special things before their careers are over, both here and beyond in basketball and the like. JOHN PAQUETTE: St. John's, thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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