Dec. 10, 2008

Recap | Box Score

Madison Square Garden Jimmy V Classic December 9, 2008 Villanova vs. Texas

Villanova Head Coach Jay Wright On tonight's game: "I was very impressed with Texas. I liked their overall team defensive toughness and aggressiveness on the glass. That's something that we take pride in and I think they're ahead of us, obviously, in that area at this point in the season. They really did a great job of coming up with big offensive rebounds, big stops defensively. They really pressured our guards really well. They did as good of a job guarding our guards as anyone I can remember. And they did it with depth. They used (Dogus) Balbay, (Varez) Ward, (Justin) Mason, (A.J.) Abrams, they all did it. They're good. I was very impressed. We didn't take care of the basketball and we allowed their pressure to force us into playing too fast. They did a great job of it."

On what his team learned from tonight's game: "We've got a lot of work to do. We need to play in these games and we will now. We need to play against this type of physical defense and be able to take care of the basketball and still make plays. I think that's what we learned. I also think we have to rebound better as a team. But we can be a good team."

On play of Dante Cunningham: "Dante has really developed into a confident scorer. We need to find more ways of getting him the ball."

On Texas' defense: "We played a tough game against Niagara and Rhode Island. I think it was more Texas. Texas has a physical defense and good discipline. I think you have to give Rick Barnes credit for that. (They have) real good discipline defensively that we just haven't seen yet. We haven't faced that. They remind me of some of the top teams in the BIG EAST, defensively. I think that's where we're going to be able to learn from this game."

On Villanova's defense: "I thought it was inconsistent. I thought there were times when we made substitutions that we just lost our intensity. I thought sometimes we played too small; we didn't play with enough toughness. And we didn't rebound well enough against a team that's just very good at that. Against some teams you can get away with that, but this team is just relentless on the glass. I give them a lot of credit for some of the things that we're talking about that are our weaknesses."

Guard Scottie Reynolds On Texas' defense: "I think it was more of their team defense, not just one person. They do a good job of playing team defense. There were times when they put two or three guys on me to try to get the ball out of my hands and try to frustrate me. But we go through this everyday in practice. Coach creates these tough situations. We just have to fight through it without getting frustrated. I never got frustrated. I thought that if we got the ball to Dante it would relieve pressure and he did a good job of relieving that pressure."

Forward Dante Cunningham On his improvement since last season: "Over the summer it was just lots of shooting, understanding coach's offense and trying to be a student of the game. (I had to) understand where my shot is going to come from and (learn) where I'm most comfortable taking shots."

On what Villanova needs to improve upon: "We just need to rebound. We need to hit the boards a lot harder. They're a tough rebounding team; their guards were getting six or seven rebounds also. As a team we just need to hit the boards a lot harder."