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Villanova Head Coach Jay Wright
Opening Statement

I would say two things. The first is that the first half is what I think you are going to see from St. John's, healthy, in the BIG EAST Tournament. I think they are a very good team and when Obepka and Branch, everyone is healthy and you run into that tea in the BIG EAST Tournament it's going to be a tough match up. I think the first half is what that would like for an entire game. The second half they got into foul trouble ... It was more that they just couldn't foul and let us score. It was easy for us to be aggressive with our depth and just attack the rim and go inside. I think that was really the difference.

On if the first half was a `wake up call' for Villanova going into the tournament...
Our game at the Garden was the same way and if you watched them against Marquette they were the same way St. John's can just light teams up with the way they play. We were not surprised we were scoring we just had trouble stopping them ... If they can keep guys healthy that is how it is going to be.

On the guards ability to put 105 points on the board with only three turnovers...
I think that those numbers are a little bit skewed because they had to let us score because they couldn't foul. If we would have been unintelligent and just `jacked' threes ... But I give credit to the players they played smart and went inside. We have an offense where our guys make the decisions I am not calling it. Our guys make great decisions driving the ball and finding Ochefu and Pinkston inside.

On Villanova playing like one of the top teams in the country...
I think we can beat anyone in the country and I think we can be beat by a lot of teams in the country. I mean, we almost just lost to Creighton. We have a really good team but not so good that if we don't play our best we can get beat.

On winning the BIG EAST Regular Season back-to-back...
For our coaching staff that is the most important thing we do. For the players, they want much more than that so we want it for them. As a coach who gets to be there for a number of years, players only get to be around for three or four years, what you do over an 18 game schedule against your league competition really shows a lot about your program.

On this year's approach to the BE Tournament...
I did not think that we played well in the conference tournament last year. We are trying to get better defensively. Like today in the first half we were not bad they were just really good and then in the second half we got really good defensively. We have to get that consistency and that is what we are going to work on.

St. John's Head Coach Steve Lavin

Opening Statement...
Villanova played lights out. There's a reason they're 29-2 and a No. 1 seed all but locked up. We had a great run here down the stretch, winning 7 of 8 games and positioning ourselves for postseason. Now we have to get ready, really we have to get healthy then get ready for Providence on Thursday. But hats off to Villanova, who have had a lights-out season, really back-to-back seasons now. As impressive back-to-back regular seasons that I can remember. Maybe Turk's group or Duke, what was it, 90-91 and 91-92 when Vegas had great runs and then Duke; that is the kind of level Villanova is playing at. We usually only go 7 deep, sometimes only six deep, which we were able to do against Marquette on the road to win. But not having Jamal [Branch] or [Chris] Obekpa was tough. I thought our kids fought really well in the first half, they were opportunistic, we made some 3s, but Villanova wore us down and played really well both ends of the floor. Second half they were able to pound it inside; went to work on the boards for second shots. They're playing at a very high level; the best basketball of any team in the country and we saw that on display in the Big East regular-season finale.

On if Jamal Branch and Chris Obekpa would have played if St. John's was on the bubble...
It had nothing to do with bubbles. It was just that both of them were injured and always, as a coach, taking the conservative, cautious approach to not jeopardizing the long-range future of my players. So I just get the feedback from the trainers, doctors and players, and if they're injured, it doesn't make sense to put them in harm's way and potentially do long-term damage. I have confidence with a full week now, because you know we played on Wednesday, and so for Jamal to be on a ten-day stretch, where he can start to recover from his groin injury. And Chris, it'll be a good seven-day stretch, from Thursday to Thursday, where we at least position our kids to have the opportunity to be full strength and to give our team the chance to have a full complement of players, because when we have that, I think we're 18-2 this season when we've been at full strength or had a full complement of players, we've been a good team. But when we've had injuries or players out, we are obviously not as effective as a team.

On if he is worried about the team rebounding form a lopsided loss...
No. Unfortunately I was just telling my team that I've lost to Stanford by 48 points at Stanford; they call it the Maples Massacre at Maples Pavilion and we end up coming back to win the league and went to the Elite 8 and we're going on the weekend to play in the Final Four. And my second year we lost by 41 in what they call the Alaskan Avalanche to North Carolina and we came back to go to the Sweet 16 to play on the weekend to go to the Final Four. So coaches know that if you're in this thing long enough and you're down two of your best players and you're playing the best team in the country, or at least in the handful of best teams in the country on their home floor, you're going to take it on the chin. And obviously down the stretch we didn't want D'Angelo [Harrison] to get injured or other guys to get banged up, so it was good to play our bench, get our reserves and walk-ons in there. Those guys work hard every day and they don't get the fanfare, publicity or glamor but they work really hard. For them to get some minutes, even in a blowout for the older guys like Khadim [Ndiaye], David Lipscomb and those guys. But our team knows, going 0-3 to start in league and on a tear here late after that 1-4 start, you just have to keep playing. It's a really good league; we played the best team in the country on their home floor and we were down one the leading shot blockers in the country and Jamal Branch, two kids that have started for us throughout their careers. We gave an admirable effort but Villanova's a really good team and we have to tip our hat to them and get ready for Providence because it's a great opportunity for us and we want to send our seniors out on a high note in Thursday's game.