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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2007Mike CookJamie DixonAntonio GravesNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK JAMIE DIXON: Well, I was very excited about the win and happy for our guys and happy for the way we responded especially in the second half. Obviously being in an 11-point deficit, shows the character of our guys, especially the two guys here, impressed. I'm proud of Antonio and Mike, especially Antonio for knocking down and playing so well the last two days. Proud of him, he's practiced hard and worked hard and is going to the gym late at night the last couple of weeks. And hard work pays off. And Mark is rebounding like we've been bugging him all year, so I'm proud of them for really stepping up. Thank you. Q. Did you guys do anything different offensively in the first half to the second half? JAMIE DIXON: You know, I think -- it was a close game. Obviously it looked a little worse than it was because they got the 8 points at the end there. It was a three-point game and we were actually ahead most of the first half and it turned so quickly in that last minute, minute and a half. I thought our patience, we ran more set plays against the zone in the second half which may have had something to do with it. But you know, I think we're a little bit more patient. We had Aaron in there, as well. But you know I think we just ran into a little stretch late in the first half where things didn't go well -- actually Aaron was in there at that point, too, where they got those two 3s at the end. So patience was good. And the passing, as always was good. We had 17 assists and 16 turnovers, so you know, you can't fault that. Q. Antonio, did you feel like you were ready to break out of your slump when you came here to New York, and what was the difference tonight? ANTONIO GRAVES: First of all, I'd just like to thank God, my coach definitely, and my teammates for believing in me. They have been a big help for me during the six or seven games where I wasn't shooting as well. But it was just basically, you know, like I said, my teammates just believing in me, my coach believing in me, and I was getting in extra shots before and after practice. You know, I was just waiting for my opportunity, trying to stay patient. Our offense is great. We've got a lot of guys that can help me get open looks which we are seeing now until the tournament. You know, all of our guys are stepping up big right now, and I still feel I could do better things just besides scoring. I feel I can get more rebounds and help out on the boards more and get in and take more charges like Coach wants us to do and make other plays that make a difference in the game. I'd definitely like to give a lot of credit to God, my coach and my teammates. Q. Games are often won and lost at the free throw line, you guys got to the lane 31 times, Louisville only got there four times; how key was that to winning this ballgame? JAMIE DIXON: Well, I mean, obviously that's a goal of ours always. I did look at theirs and I was interested in their stats. I looked before the game and saw that they were pretty much even as far as free throw attempts compared to their opponents so that was an interesting stat. Usually teams with us, we like to get to the free throw line a lot more than our opponents and usually a lot of teams do. That's a goal of ours. We went inside, a lot of it probably had to do with the zone, as well that we played and we were fortunate that the second half, they didn't really hit some shots. I think they had some good looks at times that they probably feel that normally they can make. Obviously that was a big part of it. Again, we're going inside and I thought we were really attacking the basket throughout the game and I think that often time -- we got a lot of good penetration out of it. We thought at times that our zone, going into the game, may give them -- may keep them from getting to the free throw line, not a lot of penetration, not getting a lot of touches and getting fouls on Aaron early, that had something to do with it. Q. When you get a prominent player like Aaron in foul trouble, how much of it is gut and figuring whether to put him in or take him out? JAMIE DIXON: We've always gone with a rule of two fouls and staying out. But I've kind of gone away from that a little bit more from that lately with Aaron being a veteran and just going with it. But as the game was going on, we kept him out in the first half and then it was close and put him in there the last couple of minutes and that's kind of when the lead went a little bit, got away from us. You know, it's interesting how it works out, how we -- but I thought if we stayed close, we would be in good shape with it, and so, you know, it's a feel. I guess it worked out the way we did it even though you probably don't want to be down 11 at halftime. Q. You got hammered -- inaudible -- the bench. How important is that tomorrow and for the tournament to keep him out of foul trouble? JAMIE DIXON: We are usually a good rebounding team and that's pretty much what we talked about at halftime, most enthusiastically at halftime. But you know, I mean, obviously Aaron's a big part -- if you told me he was going to get zero rebounds and we were going to win, I think a lot of people might have been surprised. We'll probably do some rebounding drills with him tonight and get him out there. You know, it's just one of those days. The foul trouble obviously affected him and that's just how you have to play. But second half was even off the boards. We were down 13 at half so I guess we out-rebounded by one in the second half, so that was a big part of it, big key. Q. Antonio, with the big man in foul trouble, did you feel pressure to step it up and maybe do a little bit more, and how did you feel about it? ANTONIO GRAVES: Absolutely not. I don't think I felt pressure. I think we got a lot of guys that are willing to, you know, step up at any given moment. We just knew, the halftime speech, we knew we had to be more assertive and definitely had to get the rebounds and our defense is what helped us change the game around. You know, the two-three zone helped us cause a lot of turnovers and we got a lot of fast break points and our set plays opened up their two-three so that helped a lot. It was open and I was fortunate to knock down shots? Q. For both players, this makes six trips to the title game in seven years, is there a feeling for the people in the Pitt program that playing Saturday night for the title is like a right of yours now? ANTONIO GRAVES: Yeah, I've been here for I think three of them. I've been here for three of them. You know, this is like a second home for us. We treat it that way. The crowd is behind us. I think we've got more fans here than we ever have lately. I definitely believe that, you know, Madison Square Garden, the BIG EAST tournament, is destined for us and we've been able to take advantage of treating it as our home court? Q. What do you think, Mike? MIKE COOK: You know, this is my first one, so you know, I'm just real excited about coming out here and competing in the BIG EAST championship. I mean, we've got the home crowd behind us. Like you said, we've been here six out of seven years. We always expect to win and expecting to forward in this tournament. I guess this is the feeling that we have and the feeling our program has. It's a great feeling to be here and be here for the first time for me. Q. In the past your guys have almost not wanted to play zone because they take so much pride in their man-to-man defense, why in this tournament you're switching a lot and it seems to be working well? JAMIE DIXON: You know what, we've worked on it, we've talked all year long about how we were going to play zone and we've worked on it every single day and it's not a surprise to our guys. I think it's something that as coaches we kind of expect it. I thought it was going to happen. So it's something that we've kind of -- I think our players have been waiting for us to use it more to be honest. I think there's been that feeling, we've continued to talk about it and at times they are probably saying, yeah, yeah, you're just talking about, we're going to be using the zone. Foul trouble had something to do with it, too, that had a big part of it, too, as well. You know, we play a lot of man, too, as well, and at the end of the game, it was the man-to-man defense that got the stops, the key stops when it was a one-point game. So again, that was a big part of it. Q. You seemed to handle the full-court pressure pretty well tonight, that's something that they troubled you a lot with in the regular season matchup; how did you improve upon that? JAMIE DIXON: Levance, looking at the stats here, had six rebounds, seven assists, no turnovers. He was as good as you can be as far as running the team, and three steals as well. You know we went back and watched the film a lot, as bad as we played in that game, we were surprised -- not surprised but we didn't turn it over that much against the press. It was not the turnovers against the press, it was just the halfcourt. We threw balls through the legs, we made plays you could not imagine in that game. That game was far back in our memory, a long time ago, similar to the Marquette. It was about today, not yesterday, and our practices the last three days before coming in, that was what we were focused on. I think we did a little bit of adjustment as far as having our three man and a different guy take it out, but again, it wasn't quite the -- our bad play wasn't as much by that press that they did the first time. Again, that's what they do every day, every game. That was nothing unexpected at all by that. I think there was maybe a bit of overplay to that by some. If you went back and looked at it, and really examined it, you probably would have seen that, or as coaches as we went back and watched it. Q. For both players, I think Aaron picked up his third foul within two minutes of the second half and you guys just started getting it going; did you think for that one second, what's he going to do? Is he going to pull him, is he not going to pull him, and when he didn't pull him, what was your reaction? MIKE COOK: I mean, we have a great team. We have nine players that can play basketball. So whether Coach pulled him or not, that was the coach's decision. If he did pull him, we had to pick up the slack and grab rebounds and get some points in the lane. Since he didn't pull him, we had a 7-footer out there, great 7-footer out there that can contribute to our team. We just look to give him the ball while he was out there. Didn't know how long he was going to be out there, didn't know how long it would be until he got his 4th foul. Aaron is a great passer and great scorer. ANTONIO GRAVES: I honestly think that one of the game-changing performances because I think the other team expected him to go out, you know, expecting to get more rebounds. He's a great presence for our team in the post and down making rebounds. He was very effective, and I think that him staying out there just showed how much we wanted it. Q. In the past two games you avenged losses to teams that had beaten you earlier and you lost to Georgetown and that cost you the BIG EAST regular season crown. How important has it been to build off those losses and going into tomorrow facing Georgetown, what chance to avenging that one, too? JAMIE DIXON: We've had a great year, and I don't think it was too much of a focus of ours. Nobody goes undefeated and again it was about the three practices this week and what we focused on and where we were. During those, Aaron had not played, he had not practiced all week going into the Georgetown game, same with the Marquette game, he didn't practice the whole week and we had guys out. It's just different times. But I thought we had three great practices, we had a great practice on the Monday after, and you just knew we were coming and we had everybody out there and again, when you've got everybody out there, I think we got back into a rhythm and I think we're seeing that with our passing and our shooting here in these games here. 17 assists, six turnovers against a team that's pressing for 40 minutes kind of speaks volumes. Q. Can you just talk about the, matchup with Georgetown? JAMIE DIXON: Yeah, familiar with them and we've played them twice. We had two great games. We beat them at our place and they beat us at their place. Haven't really thought about it. We go one game at a time here. I'll have film to watch as soon as I get back to the thing. I know our guys are excited but we'll be ready to go. End of FastScripts |
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