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Villanova Head Coach Jay Wright

Wright's opening statementââ'¬Â¦

Tonight was a really good defensive effort for us. We have been slipping a little bit defensively, nothing major but just getting a little loose and not paying attention to detail. I think Georgetown exposed that so that is what we really focused on this week. We have our leaders, our captains, we talked to them and they took care of it.

Wright on getting an early lead...

Usually when we do that we are coming out and just banging threes, and tonight we didn't do that we just got them stopped. We played really well defensively. Darrun Hilliard got a steal early and Daniel was protecting the rim and blocking shots. The early defensive stop in this game was probably one of our best yet this season.

Wright on the team's energy against Creighton after a long week and after the loss to Georgetown...

It (Georgetown) was tough on all of us. It would have been better to play a game in two days. We tried to break it up so we didn't see each other that much during all that time (off). We gave them Tuesday off and then had a really short practice on Wednesday morning and spent some time away from each other. Thursday we had the sophomores and freshman practice so we spent Friday and Saturday preparing for Creighton and really working on what we didn't do well against Georgetown. It was a long time after a loss like that so it was good to finally play a game.

Wright on the improvement of some players in the off-season...

Some times that is not appreciated enough in college basketball. When a junior becomes a senior and a sophomore becomes a junior, especially those age groups, when you have juniors who have started for three years that makes a big difference. You can have the same guys starting, and then they are a year older and that makes a huge difference. In the pros when a guy gets a year older, he is just getting old and that is looked down upon a little bit. In college it can be really valuable.

Wright on Daniel Ochefu's play and how other teams approach Villanova now because of it...

He is just a force in every aspect of the game. He has room for improvement in every area but he impacts the game in the low post, offensively on the perimeter, he can pass it, defensively on the low post. Today he blocked a three-point shot and at one point in time he got switched onto Chapman and tested his shot. He had three steals tonight as well. He is just a basketball player. When you have a basketball player that size you can really make an impact on the game. It is really valuable to us and I think it makes us that more of a threat.

Villanova Student-Athletes

Daniel Ochefu on learning from the Georgetown gameââ'¬Â¦

It was definitely a learning experience for me and the whole team. The big thing is that why just try to get better every day all week to prepare for Creighton and learn from what we did wrong in the Georgetown game.

Creighton Head Coach Greg McDermott

McDermott's opening statementââ'¬Â¦

Obviously, the start of the game is everything. We turned it over 6 out of 8 possessions; a lot of those turnovers were going to be layups at the rim. We allowed [Villanova's Darrun] Hilliard to get started. So you're down 14-0 to a team that is so good. You put yourself in an almost impossible situation. I was proud that we continued to defend. I think we got it to 19-11 and we had a couple of possessions where we had a good look at a three, to maybe cut it to five, but missed them. And then obviously, they went on the run to end the half; that created some separation. Villanova's a really good team. There is really no weakness in that lineup. For a team like us, we haven't won much but we haven't turned the ball over a lot until these last two road games at Butler and tonight. You cannot turn the ball over 14 more times at Villanova and expect to be in the game. That's about as simple as it gets.

McDermott on motivating a young squadââ'¬Â¦

I've got good kids on my team and we've got a good culture in our locker room. And I think that's allowed us to stay relatively together through some challenging times. I certainly didn't anticipate that we'd be in this situation. I knew we had some rebuilding to do; new guys in new places for us this year and not a lot of BIG EAST experience in starting roles outside of Austin [Chatman]. But I wouldn't have predicted this. To their credit, they have continued to practice hard. We're limited in some ways and I think that relatively obvious. But they continue to fight.

McDermott on Creighton's shootingââ'¬Â¦

Austin Chatman is a career 40% three-point shooter and I think he's shooting 10% in league play. Over three years you wouldn't think that was going to happen. We have other guys that are much better shooters than what they are shooting. We were a pretty good shooting team in the beginning of the season. And then everybody has gone bad right at the same time. I thought we should have been able to score.

McDermott on rebuilding the teamââ'¬Â¦

It's a unique situation. We are not young; we have five seniors. But except for Austin, they are all playing a different role than they've ever played. [Will] Artino and [Avery] DIngman have been backups and they've been great in those roles. [Rick] Kreklow is new, coming from Cal. And Devin Brooks is playing a much more prominent role that he did a year ago. We have some guys learning new roles and it has not gone as well as I hoped.