BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 6, 2002

Kevin Braswell

Craig Esherick

Drew Hall

COACH CRAIG ESHERICK: I'm obviously pretty happy after winning that game, particularly the way we won that game. We've had so many games this year where we've been close, and through sometimes no fault of our own, because the other team made good plays down the stretch, we've lost. I thought when we got down 59-52, I felt the guys made a great series of offensive and defensive plays to get us back in the ball game. Then Tony Bethel hit the three. Drew made a drive to the basket which forced Providence to foul him. He made both free throws, put us up one. Then when they scored, Drew made a great play. A perfect play against their defense, pushed the ball as hard as he could up the floor. Then Wesley made the dunk. I thought we closed the game like we knew what we were doing. I cannot be happier for this guy next to me because he deserves for us to advance in this tournament based on how hard he has worked during the four years he's been at Georgetown.

COACH CRAIG ESHERICK: Well, I think we were trying to just get the ball across half court at -- by the end of the day. I thought they did a great job of taking away -- taking the ball out of our good ball handlers and letting some of the big people handle the ball. We wanted to hit the open man, and then cut out of the trap. And I felt Providence did a great job of preventing us from really getting the ball in the hands of good defenders. I'm not certain it was anything that we did as much as it was great defense by Providence, and particularly when you have the defensive Player-of-the-Year in the conference, Linehan has caused problems for a whole lot of people. There's two things we did today we normally don't do. First thing, we're one of the best free throw shooting teams in the league and we did not shoot free throws well. The other thing is pressure has not bothered us all year. It bothered us today. I think it was more an anomaly and they have someone like Linehan, who can cause so much problems. We have a very good ball handling team.

COACH CRAIG ESHERICK: (Laughing. ) I don't know. I don't know. It wasn't very good. It wasn't very good. I mean, I don't know what the problem was. We didn't shoot. I was really thinking was, we didn't come over here and shoot. We didn't play St. John's this year. We haven't played at Madison square Garden. We did not use our shooting time at all. We didn't have time to come over here and shoot so that could be it; I don't know. But, again, I don't think we're going to shoot free throws this bad again. We have a very good free throw shooting team.

KEVIN BRASWELL: All year we've been, I mean we watched a lot of TV and we see how the media was saying that they're looking at all these teams on the bubble. I'm looking at the teams and I'm thinking, "We should be one of those teams." If they say we got to come in here and win this tournament, everybody knows we got to focus on winning this tournament. We just had a tough game. I told the guys at the beginning of the game, Providence is a hard team to play against, no matter what their record shows. They come to compete every time they play against us. I don't know why it's like that, but they do. We got a tough game against Miami tomorrow. I think what showed today is we got a lot of players that can step up when they need to. I mean, Drew and Wesley made one of the biggest plays. I mean, I know in Georgetown history. I remember one time I hit a tree-point shot that end the game that put us in the second round. We played good the next game. Our emotions are going to be very high, but we got to also know that we got to come down. We got a tough game. We lost to Miami early in the year. I know they are going to focus on beating us. They had a day off. They're going to be relaxed and everything. We got to come to play. I think Drew, Wesley, Tony, I mean all of them, and Harvey Thomas all came in and played a good role. Courtland Freeman, I was thinking about, I had something on my mind. I was like, "If a lot of guys help on the team and help us get through these first two games, second two games, hopefully everybody can come around and play."

DREW HALL: Coach Esherick all year has been stressing, you know, at the end of the year -- first of all we didn't have any timeouts. At the end of the game when a team scores, it's better to push the ball because if we call timeout, they get time to set up their defense and it gives them time to focus on us more. When I got the ball, I just pushed it. It was one-on-one. I think Kotti stepped up and it made it two-on-one. I passed it to Wesley and Wes finished it.

COACH CRAIG ESHERICK: I have some eligibility left, too. I tell you what I was thinking about when I was running across the floor. I was thinking about practicing long. I've got to get out of this business. We had too many close games this season and I was thinking I need to find another profession. I thought Drew and Wesley made two great plays down the stretch. And (laughing) that's what happens when you win a game like that. You do some crazy things like that. I'd like to see it on film to see exactly how quick. I've been telling Drew and Kevin, I'm quick enough to guard the two of them. They saw it. They saw how quick I was.

DREW HALL: Yeah, I was on Linehan. He pushed it, and I was just pack pedaling hoping not to touch him. He took a shot, it came off, we won the game. So, it's nothing really else to that.

KEVIN BRASWELL: It was crazy. Because, I mean, the whole game, it was like an ugly game, I swear. From getting all kind of technical fouls, fouls, and I mean, shots not falling.

COACH CRAIG ESHERICK: Turnovers.

KEVIN BRASWELL: Turnovers, free throws. I looked at the board one time, checking to see how many team fouls each team had. I saw 52 percent from the free throw line. I was like, "Man, there's no way we can shoot free throws like that again." I don't know if we're in the top team, but we're in the top three in percentage free throws for the Big East Conference. It was a frustrating game. They're pressuring you the whole time. We usually handle the ball well. Providence is one of those teams, they probably stress defense as much as we do in practice. It's hard to play against those guys. They got Linehan running everywhere. It's a tough game. But those last 34 seconds, I was hopes, man, one of them got to go away. We lost two games in overtime, three games in overtime. Two by one point. We were losing close games the whole season, we got to get a break at one point. Today must have been that day.