BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 9, 2001

Tommy Amaker

COACH TOMMY AMAKER: I'd like to congratulate Boston College. They are an outstanding basketball team. I thought we really battled for a good 20 minutes and probably about 10 minutes into the second half. You could just see where their strength, their experience, their ability to take away everything we do offensively just put us in a deep hole. They were tough around the basket. I'm just very impressed with their team. Obviously, it's the first time we've faced them, we had a chance to watch them on tape. But seeing them up close, I'm just disappointed for our kids. We gave a tremendous run and effort to try to do the unthinkable here this weekend. We certainly gave it a gallant effort for three days. So now it's just kind of tough to see how it comes to a close.

COACH TOMMY AMAKER: I think it's a fair assessment. I certainly thought that we, when things get a little tougher and, you know, sometimes, you know, they helped us run out of steam. They did a phenomenal job of putting us in tight spots and you have to give them credit. But as you mentioned, it's been a tough journey. We were excited about the opportunity to do something very special, but we ran into, what we think are the best team in our league.

COACH TOMMY AMAKER: That's something I'm sure when we get a chance to evaluate things in the off season to look back at this game, you can just see how physical and how strong -- I thought their team is very much together. They know one another very well in terms of what they're trying to do out there on the court. It takes a lot of discipline, as you mentioned, to get to that point. I think they're the first ones to tell you they went through a lot to get to this point right now. That is a model we can use and certainly something I'm sure our kids can point to in the future.

COACH TOMMY AMAKER: Well, you know what, we're in a wait-and-see mode right now. You don't know what's going to happen. I know a lot of things are going to happen on Sunday, Sunday evening and Sunday night. It's tough to think about all those things right now after you lose 75-48.

COACH TOMMY AMAKER: I think so. We told our kids after the game that we've come a long way in two weeks. Sometimes, you know, it takes a while for things to gel and to mix and match, and -- but we think we've done a lot of good things. And sometimes when you're in the middle of it it's hard to look at it as a whole. I'm sure as we get away from it for a couple days, look back, we'll recognize a lot of the lessons we've learned here in the Big East tournament. I'm proud of our kids. We battled and we represented our university very well.

COACH TOMMY AMAKER: Yeah, he's outstanding. I mean, everyone's always talked about how quietly he gets his points and things that he does on the floor. I understand that. He's explosive. He's very quick. He's deadly from anywhere on the floor. Any time he's open he's a threat. He makes every free throw so when he gets fouled -- he's just an outstanding player. You look at his line, you can see why now everyone has voted him co-Player-of-the-Year.

COACH TOMMY AMAKER: They are a tough matchup for us. We tried to use -- try to play who we are off the bat and did a decent job of that. As the game kind of got away from us late, trying to match up with their players and their forwards and they're undersized, but they don't play undersized, it made it tough for us to stick with a big line-up. We had to try to go smaller. Obviously, that didn't work either.