Men's Basketball

Villanova/Butler Post Game Quotes

Feb. 23, 2017

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Villanova, Pa. -

Head CoachJay Wright

Opening Statement:

Great tough game. They just played better than us at every phase. We turned the ball over from time to time and a lot of it was just their physicality. They did a great job defensively. They out rebounded us and sometimes we just have to give credit to the team who plays better. We didn't try anything new, our guys competed to the very end. We just ran into a team who played better than us tonight.

On Butler's style of play throughout the night:They do a great job of playing every possession. They don't get down, they don't do anything different. They just keep grinding and we did the same thing, except they just did a better job of that tonight than we did. Usually we're pretty good at that, but when they got down, they didn't crash at all. They just kept executing. We didn't crack either, we just couldn't execute against them. They got buckets where we couldn't. They played great defense and you have to give them credit. They were just a better team than us tonight. They have a lot of good three point shooters, but we didn't do a good job executing that defensively. It only takes a couple plays, it's the little things. We made more mistakes than they did. They just played better.

On the six man rotation without Darryl:We've been in these games before, we've done this before. We're in great shape. We played really well offensively against Seton Hall, while we played great defensively. We've been teetering on this, but Butler just came in and really executed. Great job to their defensive game plan and then offensively, finding their shooters.

OnJalen Brunsonbeing a key player in the last few games:I think teams are really trying to stop Kris and Josh. They are really extending on them and Jalen is recognizing that during our offense. He can get to the rim at times, because people are too focused on being on Josh and Kris and he's done a great job recognizing that. He's got a great feel for how people are playing us and what we need to do in our offense.

Butler Head Coach Chris Holtmann

Obviously a tremendous win for our group. I've said it going into this game; I can't tell you how much respect I have for Villanova and for Jay. It's so special what this program has continued to do. I'm sure it's appreciated but, it's so special. To come here and win when they were 48-0 at the Pavilion is a great testament to our guys. We played with composure and made plays dows the stretch. Players win games, we have said that all year. They did that tonight.

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Players Mentioned

Jalen Brunson

#1 Jalen Brunson

Guard
62' 5"
Freshman

Players Mentioned

Jalen Brunson

#1 Jalen Brunson

62' 5"
Freshman
Guard