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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT


March 8, 2012


Jae Crowder

Darius Johnson-Odom

Buzz Williams


NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

LOUISVILLE – 84
MARQUETTE – 71


Q.  Any real positives that come out of tonight's game, or was tonight one of those games you've got to get rid of right away?
JAE CROWDER:  We got a chance to build on it going into the tournament.  Look at the mistakes we made and try to learn from it, so it's a lot of positives can come out of a loss, no matter what point of the year it is.  Of course it is for us.

Q.  Talk about all the turnovers.
DARIUS JOHNSON‑ODOM:  We work on our press like every day.  Wasn't disciplined enough to get to our spots.  I think they kind of forced us into turnovers with a lot of their pressure.  They kept hounding us.  They did a good job of forcing us into turnovers.

Q.  Were you surprised by the type of pressure and how they were able to sustain it throughout the game?
DARIUS JOHNSON‑ODOM:  I think we had an idea that they were going to pressure us.  I didn't think it was going to be at a high level like that.  That's why I think a lot of guys, including myself, we didn't get to spots like we were supposed to, and it caused a lot of tension on ourselves and a lot of stress on ourselves where we tried to make plays because of it, and we ended up turning the ball over.

Q.  Is there an adjustment factor play with Davante after playing with Jamil for all those games?
DARIUS JOHNSON‑ODOM:  Think everybody knows how Davante plays.  We know what he's going to bring us, so I don't think there is an adjustment level for us.  We're pretty close, and we pretty well understand our teammates.

Q.  Jae, you went into the second half with three fouls or you went into the half with three fouls.  What was your mindset coming into the second half?
JAE CROWDER:  Told them to pick up a quick one.  Wanted to try to get an easy basket, as well, but I picked up another one for my fourth foul.  I was trying to make a play, trying to get some momentum for our team, and they called me on one.  So I was just trying not to get one quick one, but it happened.

Q.  Darius, talk about the two‑day layoff coming into this.  Did you feel like you were a little bit rusty at all?
DARIUS JOHNSON‑ODOM:  Not at all.  We were here last year, the same spot against Louisville, and I thought everybody was mentally focused.  We were ready.  We didn't bring enough energy in the first half, and they just took us apart.  A lot of it is on ourselves.  We gave a lot of offensive rebounds, and 26 turnovers, just ain't going to do it.  We have to learn from what happened.

Q.  As far as the pressure goes, do you feel like it was their team speed that really kind of threw you off?
DARIUS JOHNSON‑ODOM:  I think we knew that their transition was the key.  We wanted to get them to score on half court D.  We are just as fast, but we didn't do a good job getting back, and when you give up 26 turnovers, then it makes it easier for them to get in transition and score easy points.

Q.  Did you think the last four minutes of the first half was key?
DARIUS JOHNSON‑ODOM:  Yeah, I do think it was key, but it was a lot of little things that we didn't do that were key, also.  We just have to learn from it.

Q.  The NCAA Tournament, what do you think are the adjustments you have to make, not just from this game but from past games?
COACH WILLIAMS:  I don't think we'll make any adjustments.  It's ground hog day every day with them what we do, so when you get to tournament play, just like here, if you lose, you go home.  We're fortunate that our body of work allows us to play another game, but from this point, you lose, you go home, and you don't get to play again until next November.

Q.  You had eight turnovers today.  Can you pinpoint that on anything?
COACH WILLIAMS:  I did a really bad job.  If your team has 26 turnovers, which is the most during my tenure as head coach, and if your team allows 26 offensive rebounds, which is the most it's allowed since I've been the head coach, it's on the head coach.  It wasn't just Junior.  Junior is our primary ball handler, but every player that played more than three minutes had a turnover.  So it's not just Junior.  Junior is going to have more because he handles it more, but if you play more than three minutes and you have a turnover, if every player has a turnover, then I've done a bad job.

Q.  How do you assess the defense first half, giving up 50 points?
COACH WILLIAMS:  Yeah, a lot of that, if you give up points off turnovers and if you give up points off offensive rebounds, and if you give up points off transition, I'm not sure how many points they scored in the half court.  And if you were to divide that up throughout the game, again, I don't know what the total would be.  Having said that, that's how they play.  That's why they won.  That's why they were playing us tonight.  That's what they feed off of is points from their pressure, points from transition, points off, offensive rebounds.  I'm not sure that they've had a better meal all year long than what we served them tonight.

Q.  Is this kind of like a worst case scenario for a team that plays your style?
COACH WILLIAMS:  I don't know.  I think if you study our 31 games prior to now, we probably are just as good playing against teams that are like us.  This is an aberration relative to how we typically play.  Entering tonight, we were averaging 12 turnovers, and tonight we had 26.  And entering tonight, 65 percent of our baskets through 31 games had been assisted.  That was fifth in the country.
Our assist to turnover ratio was 1.38, points per possession, 1.09.  If you look at all of our numbers, not being arrogant at all, they're pretty good.  And so the recipe that we have through 31 games and 25 wins is pretty specific, and I think we've honed that.  Our players understand that.  And we never cooked by the right recipe tonight.
Any team, no matter their size, somebody said they were faster than us.  I haven't heard that since I've been employed here.  But I guess you are fast if you have 26 turnovers and 26 offensive rebounds.  We probably did look slow, slow and poorly coached.

Q.  When Gorgui went out with a third foul with nine minutes left, did you feel that was a turning point in the game?
COACH WILLIAMS:  No, I thought we were playing from behind from the very beginning.  It never seemed to be in sync.  Seemed like we just kept passing the mic at a karaoke bar and I'm not sure of the words, you try.  We were kicking the ball everywhere.  They were taking it from us, just no good, never in rhythm, never in sync.  I thought Gorgui was outstanding, but collectively, like if you look at their numbers, Kuric had 20, Behanan 12 and 8, Gorgui 8 and 10, Siva 18 and 8, Russ Smith, 12 and 3; Jared Swopshire, that's a career high for him, 12 rebounds in 20 minutes.  They all played well.

Q.  You said 26 turnovers and 26 offensive rebounds is on you.  Is that not being prepared for it?
COACH WILLIAMS:  I would say that however you could deduct what would lead a team that's had the success that we've had to 26 turnovers and 26 offensive rebounds, I think it's a variety of things.  So you can Twitter, write, whatever you think it would be because that would be included.

Q.  How do you guys bounce back after this and get ready for the tournament?
JAE CROWDER:  You just clear your head, wait for the opponent that you're going to get matched up with come Sunday and find out what they like to do.  But at the same time work on what got us to this point.  I feel like we'll be fine once we get back to what we do and study the next opponent and get back to them, and we're looking forward to the challenge.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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