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Jay Wright, Villanova Head Coach

Opening Statement

"That was a great first half for us. We really played well on both ends of the court in the first half. It started with our defense and we really moved and shared the ball well. When you lead like that at halftime at home it is pretty tough for a team to come back from that. The first half was the key of the game for us. "

On ball movement around the perimeter when Pinkston was under pressure

"We are concentrating on getting good three's. Early, Josh Hart had a couple wide open ones and he decided to make the extra pass and the guy who ended up shooting it was covered. It is about recognizing the open shots. It sounds simple but it isn't easy to do. When you have good shooters, then they are going to shoot a good percentage. The problem is when they take bad shots."

On Villanova defensive effort in the first half

"The first half today was one of our defense's best efforts. When you have Daniel Ochefu and JayVaughn Pinkston, who are forwards, who can get out and guard on the perimeter. Then you have a guy like (Dylan) Ennis who can guard someone full court and really work them and wear out a point guard ââ'¬Â¦ I was very proud of the defensive effort today."

On DePaul's early lead in conference play

"I have been saying all along, the great thing about this league is that there are always five or six teams who could be playing in the tournament or right in the mix but the bottom four teams could wind up being the top four. When you play in big leagues, once you get stuck at the bottom you are in trouble. All of these schools in this league are basketball schools and have great tradition. It is not a shock to me. I saw their game against Stanford earlier in the year and I said 'These guys are going to be good.'

On Dylan Ennis' play off the ball

"In our program the players really respect that (type of play). What he does defensively, rebounding at the guard spot; he did it in the second half of the St. John's game by rebounding and guarding Harrison ââ'¬Â¦ The teammates, the coaches and the people in the program respect that type of (selfless) play.

On conference play so far

"I think that everybody in the conference is getting better and getting to know each other. Now we see everyone twice during the season and it is giving us an opportunity to get to know one another. That makes things scrappier and more competitive because you know what the other is doing and you have gone against each other before. You have some history. I see the intensity rising, the level of play rising and it is fun to be a part of.

On the players buying into the idea of a" defensive" program

"I really think it is the kind of guys we recruit. We have guys that come from winning programs so they are used to it. It is not difficult with the guys on our roster but we try to recruit guys who come from successful programs that we know will have an easy time buying in to the idea that we are about defense. There aren't any successful programs that can't play defense. "

Ryan Arcidiacono

On getting DePaul's confidence down

"It's not so much what the other team has done previously; it's more of how we want to start the game. We know that starting games has been a struggle for us; we practiced to try to start off like we did today. Practicing and setting the tone in practice really helped us start off fast today. We were getting really excited on plays where we dove for the ball. Those two plays were probably my plays of the game right there. That's just Villanova basketball. We just try to keep going after the other team."

On slow starts

"It's something we've noticed but we haven't changed it up in practice at all. We practice the same way we always do but we're starting with more energy."

On last second shot in first half

"It's just something that we work on every day in practice and it was great that we could actually do it in a game for once. Josh made a great pass and Daniel caught it and made a great pass to me and luckily I made it."

On improved offense

"I haven't done anything different; even though my shot wasn't falling in in the beginning of the year I just tried to make tough and defensive plays to impact the game in other ways. If I start making shots that'll be great but it won't change the way I play overall.

Darrun Hilliard

On three point shots

"Like coach said sometimes good players can take contested shots. We watched some film and saw where we could take some shots and I think it paid off today. Even if we didn't shoot the ball well today we still would've been happy with the way our defense played."