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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2014Billy Garrett, Jr.Oliver PurnellBrandon YoungNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK DePaul - 60 COACH OLIVER PURNELL: Obviously, that was a heck of a win for our ball club, but I think our guys earned it every step of the way but their approach. The last several days in practice, after the Butler game where we probably played as bad as we could, these guys came in with a proper attitude and really worked at it. We've been talking about March and what opportunities lie in March for a couple weeks now, and I think our guys internalized that. But certainly that could have gotten washed away when we didn't play so well in our last game. But I think that speaks to the character of this group. We talked about pride in our team, pride in ourselves, but pride in our school. We talked about "We Are DePaul", and we want to prove that we're better than that, we want to prove that we can play. We want to prove that we can win. So we had that opportunity, and certainly the guys took advantage of it tonight by just being mentally into the game the entire game, up, down, whatever, they stayed with it. I'm proud of them, but we want to stay longer. We want to stay longer. Q. Oliver, obviously, the last game against Butler was a tale of two games pretty much. How did you get your team up for this game? COACH OLIVER PURNELL: Again, they just listened. We talked about gaining perspective. It is now March, the most important time of the year, the most important game. Every year, every March there are a few teams that make some noise. We have an opportunity to do that by being consistent in some of the ways that we play this year. So we just kind of brought out old film, and we played well particularly well against Georgetown, saying we've got to do it for 40 minutes. We've got to be all in. We've got absolutely nothing to lose. They embraced that approach and attitude. And, again, playing for pride, pride for our school and ourself and our team. Q. Oliver, with everything that's happened with Cleveland (Melvin) leaving, how gratifying is this win tonight and the way you guys ended the season on such a down note with all the losses? COACH OLIVER PURNELL: Well, it would be gratifying either way. This is that time of year where you're trying to win the championship. So to get a first‑round win, particularly, it's an upset. That's going to be gratifying either way. I can't quantify it in terms of that because this is what you play for this time of year, and you want to be playing your best. Obviously, this was one of, if not our best game of the year. Q. Brandon, you finally got here to return. What does it mean for you? And how hard was it watching it from the bench? BRANDON YOUNG: It means a lot to me. Watching it from the bench, it was tough, but you know, I knew it was guys out there who was capable of getting the job done, like Billy. Forrest stepped up big for us today. Like I said, Billy had a great game today. I played horrible, but that's why I got teammates. They were picking me up and being positive, and we came out with the win. Q. Oliver, you guys have Creighton tomorrow night. How do you guys go about defending a player of Doug McDermott's caliber? COACH OLIVER PURNELL: That's difficult. We played them tough the last time we played them out at Creighton. In fact, I think it was a one‑point game with six to play. McDermott kind of went to work and kind of took over there. So I don't think we're going to reveal exactly the way we're going to play them, but play them a little bit differently coming down the stretch. We'd love to be in that same spot tomorrow night and see if we can do some things to slow him down. It is very difficult to stop him. I got tremendous respect for his ability. He's got some pretty good teammates, but you got to kind of pick your poison. Do you let him beat you, or do you force one of his teammates or a couple of his teammates to beat you? Q. Billy, can you talk about the way you closed the game out, you guys, especially on the free‑throw line? BILLY GARRETT, JR.: Yeah, in shootaround and practice, the coach preached free throws. He said every one counts, and it's going to come down to free throws, and it did. So we listened to that, and we paid attention to it in practice, and we worked on it. When it came down the stretch, it really did come to free throws, and we were able to knock them down. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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