BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2000

Malik Allen

Steve Lappas

Jermaine Medley

STEVE LAPPAS: I was extremely happy with the way our guys -- we challenged our big guys for this game and I thought they came up extremely big, Malik and Brooks, what they did rebounding-wise and interior defense. I thought Jermaine played a tremendous floor game tonight.

STEVE LAPPAS: I thought they started driving it a little bit too much and it was a tough decision because they go and make six threes in the first half out of eight or nine shots and they made four in a row. So it was one of those things, all right, let's try it for a couple of possessions and see how it goes. It helped us especially because we had foul problems at the same time. Gary got his third and Aaron and Brian Lynch and Andrew. It helped us a little bit.

STEVE LAPPAS: I thought it was more they played great defense. You have to give them credit. I thought defensively they were very tough tonight. In that, like, ten minutes, the last eight minutes whatever the first half, we weren't scoring, but it was really their defense was tremendous I thought at that point.

STEVE LAPPAS: First thing is that, yes, we did play them tough the first time around. Tomorrow's a whole different day, a whole new thing. We played tonight a pretty hard-fought game. They're home resting right now. So that's another factor. But our guys know they can win. We were down one, 30 seconds to go in that game and they got an offensive rebound which ended up being the deciding thing in that game with three seconds to go, took the ball out of bounds and we still had a shot with the ball down three. Yeah, we were in it. I don't know what that honestly has to do with tomorrow. Tomorrow's a whole new day.

STEVE LAPPAS: He's kind of been for two years really, you know. He's been tremendous for us. That's Malik. That's what I've come to expect. So he raises the bar with me because he spoils me, so when he's not like this, I'm like what's going on here? You know what I'm saying? Which is good and bad. It's good and bad for him because he's got me on his neck a little bit more when he's only playing good and not playing great.

STEVE LAPPAS: Tomorrow?

STEVE LAPPAS: I don't know, maybe we're in today. I mean... We won 19 -- I think, and so I don't know how our schedule gets looked at. We're 33rd, toughest schedule in the country. Our schedule doesn't get talked about, playing the people that we play, playing Georgia, scheduling Georgia, playing Temple, playing Penn State, playing -- beating Wake Forest when they were 19th in the country. Nobody says anything about our schedule. If you look in the computer, I don't make it up, it had us 32 or 33 today. We got 19 wins, the 33rd toughest schedule in the country and there's some question as to whether we have 20 wins or not by some people. So... Why -- maybe we're in. Maybe we're not. But we're going to play tomorrow. We're in the Big East tournament and our goal is to win the Big East tournament. That's a whole other ball game.

MALIK ALLEN: The last two days, you know, we didn't know -- we didn't play well in BC. A big part of that was us, the big guys. And, you know, I knew that. I think Coach knew that. But I mean he still really challenged us. And, you know, I think that we responded to that. I mean today's just one day. We have -- tomorrow's a new day. We're playing against a real tough team. But, you know, I think -- I mean the last two days, like I said, I mean he really put it to us, and, you know, see how we were going to respond, if we were going to put our heads down or if we were going to come and play today. I think we came to play today. I think those first few minutes, I think we really tried to make a statement of how the game was going to go. We tried to carry that the rest of the game.

MALIK ALLEN: I think so. I got in a groove. My teammates got me the ball in positions where I'm comfortable. I just started feeling good. You know, hopefully I can carry that over to tomorrow. But I mean just because they don't have a big man -- they play hard. Every game they play, they play hard for 40 minutes. I got to give it to them, they leave everything out on the court every game I watch. We got to match that. We got to match that intensity. That's what this tournament is about. The level -- you try to raise your level of play in a tournament like this. That's what we want to do. We want to match their intensity plus ten. That's what we're here for.

STEVE LAPPAS: They hung in there. Ben has done a great job with that team, I think. They were just very tough defensively. That's all a coach can ask for. Offensively, some days you have it. Some days you don't. I was happy with our defensive efforts and rebounding. Offensively I know we missed some shots, we can play better. When you coach, you want to see rebounds and defense. That's what you want to say.

JERMAINE MEDLEY: I thought I told you in Philadelphia, I have no-- (inaudible.) I wanted to open it up. It was about time we put on a run at that time of the game and I just wanted to be the person to start it off.

JERMAINE MEDLEY: The track wasn't the big problem. I think it was just us on defense. I don't think I contested them as hard as I could have. The pressure wasn't the thing that really bothered us.

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