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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 14, 2014Chris MackIsaiah PhilmoreNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Creighton - 86 COACH CHRIS MACK: First off, unbelievable atmosphere, environment. What a great tournament. Wish we would be a part of it tomorrow night, but Creighton was obviously much better. Hats off to them. They've got a terrific team. I said it before. I'll say it again: They're extremely difficult to guard. I thought our guys gave great effort. We never quit. We get down 19 points with eight minutes left, cut it to 5. Our kids had the heart of a lion, but we just didn't have enough in the tank to be able to close the gap all the way. We started off offensively really sluggish. That hurt us. And, again, Doug McDermott is the best player in the country. And when Wragge shoots the ball like he does from three at the five position, they're one of a kind. They're very, very difficult. Our hats are off to them. They're going to be a tough out not only tomorrow but the rest of the way. Q. Chris, Justin and Jalen seemed to give you good energy, good defense at the beginning of the game. When they got in foul trouble, how difficult was that? COACH CHRIS MACK: It hurt because those guys are playing really well. Justin had a great Big East Tournament. He's played really well for us all year. He really relishes the challenge of trying to guard Doug McDermott. You know, when those guys went out, it wasn't like it was a one‑point game. They inflicted some damage early on. We just felt like we were playing from behind virtually the entire game. It's a tough team to catch up on because the more you want to get into their ball handlers and pressure them, the more the floor gets spaced. Again, the shooting ability on the floor is like none I've ever seen before at the college level. Q. Coach McDermott said they really came into this game wanting to focus on the perimeter and not as much the post with you guys. How much do you think that changed the complexion of the game, from your perspective? COACH CHRIS MACK: Well, I thought in the second half, we ended up getting 42 points in paint, and probably a large majority of those from the second half. We should have done a better job of asserting ourselves in the low post in the first half, and then maybe it would have been a different game. You know, we've played through Matt all year. Matt goes with a sprained or strained MCL back‑to‑back nights; not the easiest thing in the world. But he's a guy that we play through, and we weren't able to do that maybe as much. I think Jalen's come a long way, but Jalen's not Matt yet. We learned that in the second half and still punched it in, both to Isaiah and Jalen and a little bit to Matt, but probably should have done that a little bit better than we did in the first half, and it would have been a different game. Q. Did Matt hurt himself again tonight or just lingering‑‑ COACH CHRIS MACK: No, but it's not like you can snap your fingers, and he's going to be 100 percent. There weren't too many kids in the country to play on what he played on last night, and to turn it around and play 21 hours later‑‑ he tried to gut it out. You could tell his gait was different. He was moving a little bit gingerly. We've got more postseason to play, and I want to make sure we can do the best for Matt here over the next four or five days, so he can be even more effective than he was in the Big East Tournament. Q. Isaiah, when you guys got down 19 with eight minutes left, was there anything you or the other seniors said in the huddle to get you going and cut it back to 5? ISAIAH PHILMORE: To be honest, we were talking about how we need to stick together. We've been sticking together all year. And we were saying, even though we're playing in Madison Square Garden, it can't have us in oohs and aahs. We've got to stick together and try to fight back. You can't come back with a home run. You've got to come back and get defensive stops and then turn it into offense. Q. Chris, you've played Creighton now three times. Is there a way to defend them, you think, or just hope that they miss shots? COACH CHRIS MACK: Yeah, I think there is a way. I think you have to be, very honestly, probably a little more athletic than we are at the five position. It's a little bit tough for us. When we start to get into ball screen situations, switching them is probably the easiest solution because you don't have to get as spread out. Then you're asking five men to be able to contain guards, and you're asking your points and your twos to be able to play a guy like McDermott in the post. We were very successful with doing that at Xavier. On a zero‑day turnaround, these guys got to bed at 2:00 in the morning after the game last night. You can't really rep a whole lot of stuff you want to do. They sort of had to do that off muscle memory, and a very toxic team to do that against. Q. As you head home and await Selection Sunday, what are your thoughts on the team and your confidence with what they've done so far for their profile? COACH CHRIS MACK: I told these guys in the locker room, I couldn't be a prouder coach. My high school coach used to always say, "Hey, no matter the result, the sun's going to shine tomorrow." And it's going to shine tomorrow, and we're going to live to fight another day. I'm proud of our guys. Not this past time we were in New York City, but the time before, I was with Isaiah, and I was with Semaj, and we walked around wherever they held media day, and on every posterboard, it said "Xavier seventh". We finished third in the Big East our first year in a very, very tough league. We're going to be in the NCAA Tournament, and nobody outside our locker room walls felt that way when the season started. So I'm very proud of our team. Just disappointed tonight that we couldn't be playing tomorrow night. Q. Coach, just curious to get your thoughts overall after your first year in the league and especially going forward, with the recruiting class that you have coming in and some of the other schools in the league have top 20 classes? Where do you see the league a couple years from now? COACH CHRIS MACK: I think it's only going to grow stronger. You know, you've got teams that are learning about one another. You have rivalries that are going to build and form, and that happens when teams get to play each other twice. I mean, you go to the conference tournament, everybody's playing everybody for the third time. There's no, oh well, they get to play Providence at their place. It's an equal schedule, which is awesome. We're one of the few conferences in the country that have that. So, again, it's going to be an amazing ride for the ten schools that are in it. Again, more on this year, I'm really proud of our seniors. I'm proud of Isaiah. Just everything that went into this season, and we still have some more basketball to play. Q. Isaiah, you talked about the guys trying to stick together to come back, but you personally had a great second half, scored 17 of your points. Talk about, from your perspective, what you were trying to do there and how important it was for you to do well in the second half? ISAIAH PHILMORE: Well, like Coach said, Matt's out, so somebody has to come and step in, and that's basically what I tried to do in the second half. Probably should have tried that a little bit more in the first, and we might have different results. You know, you can't ask Jalen to do everything. He's going out there. He's playing his butt off, and he's just a freshman. So I just stepped in and did what I had to do. My teammates fed me the ball at the right time. Just wish we had a different result at the end. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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