Big East Conference Men's Tournament Saturday, March 12, 2016

Jay Wright your offensive rebounders on the glass.

It just didn't work out for us. Again, they got the Kris Jenkins . They did a great closeout on Kris Jenkins. They flew at Kris Jenkins. They got up on the air and Ryan Arcidiacono contested his shot tough. Villanova Q. This for Ryan: Arch, you've talked about some Seton Hall - 69, Villanova - 67 of the scrappy games you guys have been in and the grind. Was it just too much just constantly : Great college basketball game. Just feeling like you had to keep coming back and keep awesome to be a part of it. The Garden was rocking. coming back and keep coming back this one? You know, we just got beat by a team that played better RYAN ARCIDIACONO: We definitely dug ourselves in than us tonight. They played a great first half. We the hole in the first half. They played really well. We played a great second half, and then down the stretch, didn't execute our game plan. You have give them they made the plays, and we didn't. Some of the credit for the way they played. We grinded. We had a reasons we didn't is because they made some great shot to win. We were up two. They called it a defensive plays. and and-one.

Q. Jay, can you talk about some of the adjustments We still executed to the very end what we wanted to you made to make that huge comeback? do. When he missed the , I got a decent JAY WRIGHT: We played a little bit bigger. We blitzed. look, but we still executed until the very end. We trapped Whitehead a little bit. We tried to get some minutes out of Daniel going inside to him some. Little Q. Jay, this doesn't look like the same team Seton things. Nothing major. They were outstanding first Hall you saw in January. It looks like they've come half. We didn't have an answer for anything they did. night and day since then. Do you think it's experience, they start such a young team, or is it Q. Jay, can you just run by what the plan was after just the season has gone that way for them? they went up with one with 18 seconds what you JAY WRIGHT: I really think it's coaching. I really do. wanted to do, and you what saw in that whole We played our second game against them early. So sequence? after we played them, we won by one at their place, JAY WRIGHT: After they went up one? and they really played well. And when we watched films of other teams when we were preparing for Seton Q. Yes. Hall, we kept saying these guys are getting better and JAY WRIGHT: When we had the last shot, the shot that better and better and better. Kris took? And he has had those guys for two years. Kevin has Q. And Josh had the offensive rebound. done a great job with them. And they have a bunch of JAY WRIGHT: We wanted to get it to Kris, give Kris a sophomores out there. They played down the stretch. chance to shoot it or drive it. And then we wanted to They executed, man. They got the right guy the ball attack the offensive glass. When you're down, you and made the right plays, they defend, they got know you want to get to the glass and Josh got a great rebounds. That's a very good basketball team. A well- look, you know, and it didn't go. coached basketball team. I think Kevin has done a great job with them. We did a good job there. They're a great defensive team. It's hard to just come down and get exactly what Q. You played Georgetown, Providence and Seton you want. But you want to get your best scorer with a Hall, three traditional Big East teams. What does shot or a chance to drive, and then you want to get this run mean for the conference moving forward as far as tradition and kind of building itself in the

Rev #1 by #222 at 2016-03-13 01:10:00 GMT page 1 of 2 national spotlight? points there. Can you talk a little bit about him and JAY WRIGHT: That's a great question. I think this that kind of play down in a crucial situation like whole tournament, especially the last two nights; last this? night sold-out Garden, four great basketball programs. JAY WRIGHT: Yeah. What makes him a great player That's what's beautiful about this tournament, whoever is, there's one thing to make plays at the end of the is left out of the four is going to be traditionally great game, but when the other team is specifically trying to basketball programs. That's the beauty of this prevent you from making plays and actually giving conference. Then sold-out two local teams. other people -- we were loading to him, trying to double him and leaving other people open and he still made We got a lot of alumni in New York. Just a great the plays. That's what makes him great. Garden crowd for the final. Great tough physical game. This is what Big East basketball is, you know? And if Q. I know you say it's out of your hands, but do you you're a basketball purist, there's nowhere you would feel like you should still be a No. 1 seed when the rather coach or play than in this conference or you brackets are revealed tomorrow? would rather play your tournament than in Madison JAY WRIGHT: I don't know enough about it. I don't Square Garden. You just saw tonight that's what it is. know what the criteria is with the other teams. I haven't followed it closely enough. I know we're in the running. If you're a basketball person, there's no conference that I'm sure what -- did Virginia play yet? matches it anywhere. I'm not saying we're the best. For just basketball, everything we do is basketball. We Q. They're playing now. play in the Mecca. Madison Square Garden. Great JAY WRIGHT: That's going to be a big factor in it. We traditional basketball schools. All the alumni from really don't care about that. I know we have a chance these schools this is what they live for. No football to play in the east. We would love to play in the east. weekends. No homecoming football games. This is But if we don't we're so happy to be playing in the what they live for. This was awesome. NCAA Tournament. We'll take whatever we get.

Q. Two questions, can you describe how you saw Thank you, guys. your last offensive drive when you took the three? And the one before that, when Whitehead made the drive and it looked like you got in his way and could have been either way, I guess. KRIS JENKINS: Yeah, I just saw him attacking the basket. He had a clear path. I tried to step over and make the play on defense at the end. On offense Ryan did a good job of getting into the paint, and he kicked it out, and he gave us a chance. And it just didn't drop.

Q. Jay, you've obviously had a lot of different experience in this tournament over the years. As far as it with regards to what you're going to do the next week or multiple weeks, what do you see in the past few days that gives you any indicator that you guys might be ready to make a run? JAY WRIGHT: I think we're going to learn a lot from this game. This was a tough, physical, athletic team that that really got into us in the first half and took us out of our offense. And I think they're the kind of teams you meet in the Tournament. So it's great to have that experience. We made a lot of mistakes because of what they did. You know, our 12 turnovers, it was their defense.

We'll learn from this. And we'll go into the Tournament knowing that we still have to get a lot better.

Q. Coach, you talked about down the stretch they executed. Whitehead I think scored six straight

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