BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2000

Kevin Braswell

Craig Esherick

Demetrius Hunter

COACH ESHERICK: I'm not going to talk about Kevin yet, but I thought of all the guys on the team, the guy that I thought really gave us a lift today was a football player here in Heston. Haven't played Gharun that much this year and Victor Samnick had been hurt and wasn't able to play today. I put Gharun in there, thought he gave us a lift. Got some rebounds, did a good job on defense. I cannot be more proud of the job that Kevin did today. Kevin and I had a conversation in my room last night, and I thought Kevin came out and did everything and more that I had asked of him when we talked last night. It's been difficult. Kevin is our best shooter on the team. It's difficult for somebody that can shoot the ball as well as Kevin can to also be able to blend in with the rest of the guys on the team. I thought he did a great job today. I thought Demetrius Hunter did a great job of stepping up. Demetrius got over the nervousness of playing in Madison Square Garden the last time he was up here, so he ended up playing a very good game. I thought Courtland Freeman came in and did a good job for us. I wanted the ball in Kevin's hand at the end of the game. I was definitely surprised that, you know, he ended up being so open near the end of that play. But, you know, got the kid from West Virginia, hit a big shot and tied the game. That game we would have lost last year. We would have lost that game last year. We won several tight games. We beat Miami, it was close. Boston College, Kevin hit a big shot against Boston College and we beat Louisville at the end. We're learning how to win the close games. I can't say enough about the job that Kevin did. Obviously I was worried going into the game that we were going to play without Ruben, but I thought our inside guys did a good job.

COACH ESHERICK: Don't know. Don't know.

COACH ESHERICK: Yeah, Kevin did a great job. Did a great job.

COACH ESHERICK: He claimed us by far. By far. By far. I thought West Virginia did a good job of changing defenses. It wasn't because they were in a zone, they went a (inaudible) 1-2-2, 2-3, they strapped us some, so I thought Kevin did a very good job.

COACH ESHERICK: He rolled his foot. The last game that we played, Notre Dame. And he has swelling in his foot. Two practices before we came here, had swelling again yesterday, and he just didn't feel comfortable at all being able to play. You know, he said he felt a lot better today but he didn't feel well enough to be able to play. And, you know, obviously we weren't saving him for anything. We could have been out of this thing if we lost today. So hopefully Ruben will be ready. You know, against Syracuse, you need as many big kids as you can put out on the floor. But I'm not going to know until tomorrow, till the game time.

COACH ESHERICK: Well, we were trying to get all the way out with shooters and extend the defense because they had several shooters in the game at the time. You're talking about with .2 seconds to go? The one prior to that. We were trying to get all the way out on the shooters, we winded up playing a zone. At first I was going to Gharun. My point guard suggested we go to Gharun. Then we ended up talking Kevin out of it after we started talking about the number of screens they set. But we wanted to stay all the way out on the shooters and tell Jameel at the center to cover up the middle. They had about three shooters in the game at the time and we didn't want them to have an open three like they did before when they tied the game.

COACH ESHERICK: Victor didn't even feel comfortable to warm up today. So I doubt it. I doubt it. And he's going to be -- obviously he was in uniform today, so he tested it during warm-ups. He came out the first time the whole team came out and he said he couldn't warm up after he tested it.

COACH ESHERICK: Well, we talked about the role of the point guard and we talked about the way he's played during the course of the season, the games where I thought he's played well. The games where I thought he did not play well. We talked about the role of the point guard in relation to (fix) what kind of effect he has on his teammates also when he takes shots, when he talks to his teammates, all of those things. And some other things. It was a pleasant conversation. I had a nice time. I don't know if Kevin did. Kevin doesn't like coming to my room. I'm going to invite him over my house next time.

KEVIN BRASWELL: No. West Virginia, I mean they did a good job trying to keep it out of my hands in the first. I thought they were going to be denying me the ball. When I got the ball, it seemed like Marcus Goree -- (inaudible) -- when Marcus Goree stepped back to the point and he didn't step up, I mean it was wide open.

KEVIN BRASWELL: We played -- I remember I was thinking about when we was in the huddle. Villanova we played. Last time I had the ball in my hand at the last second, went to shoot and I was too close to the three-point line and Malik ended up blocking my shot. I knew I had enough range, so I could step back and still get a good shot off. That's why I took a shot.

COACH ESHERICK: You should ask Kevin what he thinks his range is right now. That will be an interesting answer. Ask him what his range is.

KEVIN BRASWELL: I hit one at the half mark against St. John's, so I really don't know.

COACH ESHERICK: About NBA, right.

DEMETRIUS HUNTER: I think the freshmen on our team was contributing pretty good, and that's about it. That's about it.

DEMETRIUS HUNTER: No. I think I got over the nervousness now. At first I was nervous at the Garden, but I got over it now.

COACH ESHERICK: Let's hope so.

COACH ESHERICK: I thought the last time we played Syracuse we did a good job keeping the ball out of Etan Thomas's hands. I don't know what we're going to do in relation to strategy. We're going to look at some tape. And make a decision after that. I thought Jason Hart did a real good job against us in the second half, so we're going to have to do a good job of keeping him from hurting us. You know we'll mix men, we'll play some zone, we'll see what press we may be able to use. I'm not certain yet exactly what we're going to try to do. The three most important players for Syracuse are their three seniors; Blackwell, Thomas and Hart. You have to do a good job on those three kids, if you do, you can win the game. I think so, their scouting report should be fresh in everybody's mind. It should help. It will help Syracuse, too, because their scouting report on us should be fresh in their mind, too. They had a day off. You could say that will help them. The fact that they're the best team in the league or they won the championship is going to help them more than anything I think. They're playing well. They have a really good team and they play well together.

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