BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 9, 2005

Tim Welsh

COACH WELSH: The game really started out in the wrong direction tonight when they just had a hop in the step, and we just for some reason didn't answer their intensity early. They attacked us in a lot of different directions. We tried a lot of -- we threw the whole soup kitchen at them tonight as far as man-to-man, zone, half-court traps, full-court traps. We haven't been that successful stop in both games this year, but the one thing we did do is we scored on them. In the first half, we didn't score. We didn't have a very good presence out there against their zone pressure. We just telegraphed our passes, we didn't get Ryan enough touches. Second half, we made a couple of adjustments. We started scoring. But, you know, when they shoot the ball like that and they jump you early and they stay in their rhythm, they're a very difficult team. They've shown it all year long. It's a shame that they just jumped us early. I thought once we found our rhythm the second half, we were matching them. But when they make threes like that, they're very, very difficult to play against because they've got a lot -- they can spread the court on you. They've got a lot of guys that make threes. Usually the only guy that doesn't make threes is Collins and he made threes tonight. I think he's made ten on the year and he made two tonight. So when I saw that, I thought maybe it wasn't our night; we were in trouble. Pittsnogle is a really hard guard for us. Hanke has been playing well, but to ask him to go out and chase a guy 6'11 on the perimeter is something he's not used to. We tried to do it, but he struggled with it. Even our smaller guys struggled with him because he shoots over the top. Pittsnogle has really given them that extra push down the stretch. I saw it both games against Pittsburgh. They're going to be very difficult to beat in the NCAA tournament because people aren't going to be used to playing against that style, especially with a guy who can step out. When John's teams get into a rhythm, they're very difficult to defend. They had a great rhythm tonight. They defended well. We had too many turnovers in the first half and, you know, that's it.

COACH WELSH: They spread us out. That's one thing they do, they go four-one. When they stick the five man in the corner in the zone, it's a tough match for us. When that happens our five man has to go out all the way out and chase. We were a step behind them. We were trying to trap them. We were trying to extend and make them go inside and then cover their shooters. But they were going around -- even when they threw it into the foul-line area, they had Sally go right around our big guys a couple of times. We didn't have an answer for anything they threw at us in the first half.

COACH WELSH: It had nothing to do with the bearing of the game. 82 to 59, whistles mean nothing. I look at their three-point shooting and their execution, their offense, their ability to turn us over, that's what won the game. You know, I got mad, but that happens. Coaches do that. But that's not going to affect the basketball game. I mean, I thought when we got close or started to make a little run, what happened is that they made threes. That's what did happen. Pittsnogle had that two- or three-minute stretch where he knocked down two or three, and that stretched the game so... Wasn't about that, but thanks for supporting me (smiling).

COACH WELSH: I think that they're both NCAA tournament teams. When that happens, it's going to be a good game. BC has had a great, great season. West Virginia has had an almost great, pretty darn good, NCAA tournament-worthy. When you get into this tournament and you have -- match up two teams in the tournament, it's going to be a close game, there's no question about it. And the preparation time like John has probably won't affect them because their kids are smart, tough kids. They've been through it. They've been through this tournament, they played in the NIT last year. I'm sure it will be a great game.

COACH WELSH: You know, I just basically told him, you know, "Thanks for everything." I wish it could have ended better for him. I wanted to do this tournament for him. Because not only has he meant so much to our program basketball-wise, but to me personally he's just been an unbelievable person to be around and a great kid. You know, he cares about team and doesn't have any ego. For all of the accolades that he's received, he's just special. When you have those special kids, you like them to end on a better note. The whole season's been kind of a, you know, tough one for him, obviously, but he's held his head high. He's never blamed anybody or the other players or anything else. He's always held his head high and said, "Okay, Coach, let's go try to win the next one." When you have a kid like that, you know that's special, especially in today's day and age of "me, me, me." For God's sakes, guys get traded and five minutes later they're complaining about their minutes in the NBA. When you have a guy like that, he's going to make somebody very, very happy in the NBA. Some coach is going to call me up next November and say, Thanks, thanks for sending me a great kid, but they should call his mother because they raised a perfect person. I just felt bad that we couldn't go farther. I just said, "I'm sorry it didn't happen for you."

COACH WELSH: It's both. I think that we felt good about ourselves over the last month, you know. I mean, we're 4-4 down the stretch, we won three out of our last four, and then three out of those four that we lost, out of the four we had the ball in our possession to win the game. So, you know, this hasn't happened all season to us, pretty much, only twice in the league - Pittsburgh and Syracuse - where the game was over at the end with five minutes to go. So that part was deflating in the fact that I thought that we would, you know -- we played two games against them; one was four points, one was two points, so you figure you're going to be in a match-up with them again. But they blitzed us from the get-go and we couldn't get back in it.