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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2014D'Vauntes Smith-RiveraJohn Thompson IIIJabril TrawickNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK DePaul - 60 Q. What did you tell your team in the locker room? And thoughts going forward and what do you have in mind for the postseason? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: I just told them when we're leaving in the morning. Postseason, the tournament, we'll see. Our body of work, you've seen and heard what we're doing. It's kind of hard to sit and talk about that following this loss. This is hard to not think about this loss. We'll see. We'll see. I don't know how things look after today. Our strength of schedule is ninth in the country. We went through a very rough stretch. We had a starter out when Jabril was out. From the time he got hurt until the time he came back, we were 1‑5 during that stretch. They say they'd take injuries into consideration. Tonight's loss is disappointing. Next question. Q. John, was the energy there that you wanted tonight, that you wanted to see your team in a game, I guess, you felt you had to win to get to Saturday? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: I didn't think it was lack of energy. I thought our guys played hard. Q. Do you think you guys got caught looking ahead to tomorrow night's matchup and looked past today? COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: I don't. Q. John, last time against DePaul, you were able to get to the line 41 times, tonight only 16. Anything change in your mind? Also the turnovers last time. You had 7 against them last time; tonight you had 11. COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: No. I'll just say maybe they didn't foul as much this game as they did in Chicago. Q. Coach, was there more of an emphasis put on attacking the basket coming out in the second half there? You hit a lot of jump shots in the first half. You seemed to get more in the paint to start off the second. COACH JOHN THOMPSON III: Yes and no. This is disappointing to us, but you've got to give a whole heck of a lot of credit to Oliver and his team and his staff. They played a very good game, a very, very good game. They were poised when they had to be poised, and they made the plays when they had to make the plays. Sometimes it's hard not to think about us, but they did a terrific job tonight. Back to your question, yeah, we did want to. Even though in the first half we were getting open shots, they just weren't going in. We were getting exactly what we wanted, I felt. But we did make‑‑ okay, they're not going in, so now let's get it into the paint. We tried to get a few post‑ups early from Jabril for Nate. We wanted our guys to attack, and it didn't work. Q. Did you feel at all the team was tight at any point during the game? D'VAUNTES SMITH‑RIVERA: There was a few minor errors defensively. They had a few offensive rebounds consecutive, and it hurt us down the stretch. You could see those baskets at the end were what separated us for a while. So I think it was mainly just the rebounds, and transition defense also affected us. Q. Jabril, just your thoughts on what your body of work and if it's worthy of the NCAA Tournament, even after this loss? JABRIL TRAWICK: I mean, I hope so. I think that we beat a lot of good teams this year. I mean, we played a lot of good teams this year. I mean, we've been through a lot with the program this year. I think, like Coach said, it's hard to look at it tonight. I think it's disappointing we didn't come out with the win, but at the end of the day, I think that we're a tournament team. I mean, we'll see. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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