BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 6, 2002

Louis Orr

COACH LOUIS ORR: Thanking God for his blessings for keeping us through the year and giving him all the praise for his goodness. We've been in a lot of games this year. It seems like every game, you know, we're right there for 35 minutes. And we go through a stretch where we struggle making baskets, you know. If you look at the stats, statistically speaking, you know, field goal percentage, rebounds, you know, we did some good things. But the turnovers killed us. 24, that's a lot of field goal attempts that we missed out on. And I think that was the difference in the game, our turnovers. But I got to give St. John's credit. They know how to win ugly. They know how to win those games where you shoot 33 percent from the floor and they know how to win them. And big shot was the bank shot by Hatten. But, you know, those are things you can't control. We got to control our destiny, take better care of the ball, and if we do that, I think we have a better chance to win.

COACH LOUIS ORR: Well, we both went through a drought, in reality. You know, we didn't execute real well one stretch. And we couldn't really take advantage of them inside. They switched, and we tried to get the ball inside to Charles, to try to take advantage of some mismatched situations. But, you know, just like St. John's goes through droughts, we do too. I think that's our similarity. But I think - I know - they still have the confidence and I guess the belief they're going to win the game. Because they won games where, statistically, they lost the battle but on the court they won the game. And, you know, they went to the free throw line a few more times, and our turnovers, you know, they killed us. Our turnovers killed us. 24 turnovers is too many turnovers, especially in this kind of game.

COACH LOUIS ORR: It's disappointing. You know, when you take over a team, first year in a program, you set goals. That was one of our goals. But, you know... You work hard. And you got to do it on the court, you know. You put yourself in a position to win games, and, you know, if you want those goals and if you want to win, then you got to step up and do it on the court. And I think it's a learning experience for everyone. And, you know, it takes time to build a program, it takes time to build a chemistry on the court, it takes time to learn how to win. And no more, you know, hopefully this year we got a bad taste of losing, and that will motivate us even more for the future.

COACH LOUIS ORR: He was on the bench tonight. He's part of the program. He's part of the family.