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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 15, 2014Avery DingmanGreg McDermottNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Providence - 65 COACH GREG McDERMOTT: First off, congratulations to Coach Cooley and his team on the championship. Obviously, they've overcome a tremendous amount of adversity this season, and to their credit, they continue to forge forward. So although I hate to lose in a game like this, if I have to lose, losing to someone like Ed Cooley is as good as it could possibly be. Having said that, obviously, we're disappointed with our play in the first half. I didn't think our ball movement, our spacing against their zone wasn't where it needed to be. I thought there was a little bit of a sense of panic at times with a few of our turnovers and maybe a couple of rushed shots. I was very proud of the way our guys competed in the second half. I thought Avery Dingman gave us a huge lift off the bench. Obviously, Doug was really good the second half in trying to get us back into the game. But it turned out that the start of the game was too much to overcome with a team that was controlling tempo. I think it was a 56‑possession game, which is maybe the lowest possession game we've played all year. We anticipated that, and if a team's going to play like that, it's important you play from in front. When we had to play from behind all night, it really was to their advantage, especially when you consider the number of free throws they shot compared to us. It made it pretty difficult for us. Q. Doug, did they give you a lot of defensive looks that maybe even overwhelmed or threw you guys off, or was it a situation where sometimes shots simply don't fall? I know you guys tried to get Ethan going, and it wasn't falling toward the end there. Could you explain what their defensive looks were towards you throughout the game. DOUG McDERMOTT: They did a good job. That zone is tough. I don't think we were really expecting zone. I thought we were kind of panicking almost to start the game, and rushing stuff and not making the extra passes. Then in the second half, we really did a good job of getting our pace going and transition, and that allowed us to get some open shots. Got to give them credit. That zone kind of threw us off to start the game. We definitely started to get comfortable with it more in the second half. Q. If all three of you can chime in on this: As much as this hurts right now, obviously, the season's not over. Talk about your goals that you still have out there to go forward. DOUG McDERMOTT: As we talked in the locker room after the game, I think the highlight of our season is yet to come. As much as it stings right now, the best is yet to come for us. This is where we wanted to be, to be able to celebrate on Selection Sunday, and we're in a position where we can do that now. So got to give credit to Providence. They deserved this, and they played tough. We've just got to move on and focus on our next opponent. AVERY DINGMAN: Yeah, I think this one stung a little bit worse than the rest. We obviously didn't win the regular season championship like we would have, and we came up a little short tonight. But there are a lot of teams in the country that would like to be in our position, so we can't really dwell on this. We need to have a few good days of practice next week before we head to the tournament. Like Doug said, our best is yet to come. Q. For Doug and Avery: You guys heard going into this conference and going into this tournament that this style of play was going to be difficult for you, the physicality of this league. Did that game feel different? Did the physicality out there, did it feel like a different type of game than you guys have played? DOUG McDERMOTT:  A little bit, but we knew coming into the game Providence is definitely one of the most physical teams in this league. Batts and Henton, Desrosiers, they all come flying at you on the glass. We knew that coming in. Just a couple of balls bounced and didn't go our way. Got to give them credit. They're physical. But I think we handled ourselves pretty well all the way throughout league play on the physicality, and I think that's really going to help us going into the tournament. Q. Greg, for a while, it looked like the Big East might get only two or three teams. Now it looks like maybe 40% of the league, four teams will get in. Can you say something about that, people sleeping on the strength of the Big East a little. COACH GREG McDERMOTT: It would have been ridiculous if only a couple of teams got in. Having played in the Valley that has a team that's going to be a Number 1 seed and knowing‑‑ Wichita's had a great year. They've got a very good team. But they're in a different league. It's different playing 18 games against teams that we're playing against night in and night out. As I mentioned, we've played teams from other leagues in the nonconference portion of our schedule that are being heavily considered for the tournament that, in my opinion, aren't as good as some of the teams in our league that aren't going to get into the tournament. So I think justice is served that we're going to get four teams in. It would have been very disappointing had that not happened because this is a great league with really, really good coaches and some great fan bases. I think we'll represent ourselves well in the NCAA Tournament. Q. Doug, when you guys get that back down to two points, you were getting stops on the defensive end. Are you thinking you've got the momentum that's going to carry you over the top? DOUG McDERMOTT: I did. I really thought we were going to win that game. Things just felt right up there. We were being real aggressive on the defensive end. Just got to give them credit. They kind of melted the clock. It was hard to get more possessions there late in the game. I felt like we were going to win it. But we had the best effort of the season down the final stretch, and that's really good to see as a leader, just seeing everyone fight for each other with so much on the line. Q. Coach and Doug: You guys used the word "panic" about the first half. Can you elaborate at all about that kind of sense or what was going on. COACH GREG McDERMOTT: Well, we didn't‑‑ we missed some shots that maybe we normally make, but I believe in the first 17 possessions we scored on four of those possessions and had five turnovers. Now, we only had eight turnovers for the game. So I just thought we were‑‑ because they were trying to slow us down when they had the ball and make us defend for 30 seconds, we wanted to dictate the tempo so much that we probably were in a little bit too much of a hurry. We wanted to get it there quick, and our message in the locker room was we have to be quick but not in a hurry. Once we get there, we have to make good decisions. I think the guys were trying to do a little too much. It's a big stage. There's a lot on the line. I think part of that's human nature. But once we settled in, I thought we were better. Again, the credit goes to Providence. Their plan was solid. We didn't hit shots early, so they were able to stay with that defense. Q. Same question to you guys: How do you think you all handled this stage? You've been very successful in tournaments in your years at Creighton, but how do you all think you came out on this stage? COACH GREG McDERMOTT: I think it's pretty evident. I think there's a whole city that didn't know much about Creighton that knows a lot about Creighton now. Q. Coach, Bryce Cotton was pretty steady, not just tonight, but in all three meetings you had with Providence this year. What makes him so effective against you? COACH GREG McDERMOTT: He's got a great pace to his game. He's not the biggest guy.  I don't think he's the most athletic guard in the league, but number one, he's a winner, and, number two, he just changes speeds, and he's got a knack of making big shots. I was scared to death of the fact that he didn't shoot it good the first two games because, in my mind, I'm saying, there's no way Bryce Cotton's having three bad games shooting the basketball in a row, and that proved to be the case. To play the minutes that he's played this season and have the responsibility on his shoulders that he has, not only needing to score, but to also run the team, it's a real credit to him. He's done a terrific job, and it's fitting that he's going to end his career in the NCAA Tournament. Q. Coach, earlier this week you said, after the win over DePaul, you said the key is to push it. The key for you guys is that tempo, dictating it. What do you think the biggest thing is looking forward? Coach or Doug, if you guys want to answer this, what is the biggest thing rolling forward in the NCAA Tournament to dictate that tempo? COACH GREG McDERMOTT: I think we've got to have a great week. We'll celebrate tomorrow because you should celebrate on Selection Sunday when your name's called because it's hard to do, and there's a lot of teams in the country that aren't going to get the opportunity. So you have to celebrate. Once our name's called, it's time to get to work. We need to use maybe some of the problems we had today as motivation to make sure we're a better team on Thursday or Friday than we are today. I'm confident this group will do that. We need some rest first. We rode some guys pretty hard. We'll get some rest, get healthy, and get back to work. Q. Do you care what you'll be tomorrow? You'd have been a 2 seed, if you'd won this, but you may be a 3 or 4. Do you care? COACH GREG McDERMOTT: I joke with my boss, who's on the committee, that all I want is a good seed against a bad team in warm weather (laughter). I didn't think that's too much to ask. I think we've done enough. We have eight wins over the top 50 in the RPI, which is fourth in the country. We've played a challenging nonconference schedule; our schedule is top 20. So I think that deserves to be rewarded with a high seed. NCAA Tournament is‑‑ the hard part is to get in. The second thing that you hope for is that your matchups are favorable. We're going to celebrate tomorrow. We're going to have some fun with it, and then we'll get back to work on Monday. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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