The best teams in this league have depth. The best teams are not putting players out there to hold their own. They're putting players out there who make their teams better. We had a lot of good players in Conference USA, but there wasn't nearly the depth in that league that there is in the Big East. |
The Big East season was just incredible. Comparing the games to NCAA Tournament games is about right. |
The biggest key was to defend Quinn and Falls at the three-point line. |
The biggest thing was, to us, he was a priority to us from the first time we saw him play. We knew he fit us as a player and person. We tried to get that across to him and to his mother. We treated him as a priority from the summer of his junior year on. And I think he became very comfortable with the university and the program. |
The foul wasn't the issue. The foul was just a foul. It was what happened after the foul that I had an issue with. I'm just going to leave that alone and watch the film and go from there. |
The key thing is these guys are getting to play early. They've gotten to go through a lot of different situations. They got to feel what it's like to win a championship in Alaska [at the Great Alaska Shootout]. They've gotten to go on the road and feel what it's like not to play well. Those things are important for young players. |
The main thing about tonight was putting guys in different spots, where we had to adjust. The communication on the floor needs to continue to improve. |
The most special calls are when the former players call and they respect the way the current players are playing. |
The one area where they really beat us was on the boards. When you lose the battle by 15, it's very hard to win the game. |
There are going to be times when your shots aren't falling. |
There can't be many teams that are tougher physically than St. John's. We knew we had to play aggressively. We knew we had to be physical. I was proud of the way our guys never backed down. St. John's certainly wasn't going to back down. |
There was a triangle of teams in this area when I was growing up: Marquette, Notre Dame and DePaul. They were basketball, |
There's a lot of room for improvement with us. Winning the game is a great feeling, but you want to play the full 40 minutes. That's always the goal. |
There's been no diagnosis on (James). The X-ray will happen here and we'll see what happened. The foul wasn't the issue. What happened after the foul was the issue. |
There's no taking the foot off the gas when we're in the fast break situation. That's a tribute to (DePaul) and the way they got back in the second half. |