Head Coach Jay Wright

Opening Statement:

“It was a good step for us. We had a long week after getting out butts kicked last week. We made a step in the right direction as bad as that may have looked defensively. They are hard to guard; trying to prevent their threes is really difficult. Holding them to 11 threes is actually pretty good. They had seven at half time and only had four in the second half; they’re really hard to guard.”

 

On what they had to give up by guarding the three point line:

“We gave up some twos and they drove the ball well to get to the foul line. Something that we didn’t have to give up, but we did, was offensive rebounds. That was just poor execution on our end. Where we did a poor job was on the drive, we didn’t rotate well to get into position to rebound.”

 

On the early production from Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree: 

“Dahmir was awesome. I am so happy for him. He works really hard and he’s a great kid. It’s really hard to come into this program as a freshman big man. We needed him and he did a great job. Defensively he was good; offensively, he has great hands. I’m just overall really proud of him. He had a big steal in the first half and a big charge in the second half, both times while Marquette was making a run.”

 

On what they learned as a team having a whole week off before this game: 

“We learned how hard it is to have a week off after getting your butt kicked. No one is in a good mood, you want to play another game. It was overall just a rough week. We talked about how we have to get better defensively and you don’t do that over four days of practice. We have a lot of work to do, but we took a little step ahead today.”

 

On not losing back to back games for five years now:

“I always forget about it and every time someone says it to me I think that it’s really cool. I like it a lot. I’m proud of our guys and I think it says a lot about their character.”

 

On what changes when they lose a game:

“We try to learn from our wins and losses. We don’t really judge ourselves on whether we won or lost, we judge ourselves on how well we played Villanova Basketball. Sometimes we win and we still didn’t play great Villanova Basketball. When you lose, that’s when it’s really obvious. The team just refocuses themselves and recommits themselves.”

 

On game-planning for a player like Markus Howard:

“(Andrew) Rowsey and (Sam) Hauser are both explosive offensively. I thought we did a good job with them. Howard was able to get it going, and once he gets it going there’s nothing you can really do. If you trap him, those other guys can really make plays. If you play him one-on-one he creates contact, draws fouls, shoots from the outside, he’s just really tough.”

 

On the takeaway from tonight going against Xavier Wednesday:

“We need to keep improving defensively. We gave up 90 points and I know it doesn’t look like it but we did make improvements tonight and I know we’re going to keep improving upon it.”
 

#4 Junior Forward Eric Paschall

On what it did for his confidence level after hitting two early three-pointers:

“It’s honestly the last thing I’m thinking about on the court. Coach has been telling me to keep working at it my whole time here and I’m going to continue to work on it. When I go out there, I don’t even think about it, I just shoot the ball.”

#1 Junior Guard Jalen Brunson

On the steps the team has to take defensively:

“I think most importantly it’s our communication. Whatever we do we just have to communicate and that’s something we’ll continue to work at.”

 

On the difference of practice coming off of a loss:

“I think the biggest difference, win or lose, is no matter what the next practice we are coming back to get better. If we lose a game we obviously refocus ourselves, but we’re always trying to improve no matter what.”

Marquette Head Coach Steve Wojciechowski

Opening Statement:

"We knew coming into the game that we were going to see the best Villanova basketball as they came off a loss and having a week to prepare. I thought they started the game well and in attack mode from the beginning. They had some good shots from behind the three --point line and I thought they were in supreme attack mode which knocked us back. We weren't able to get out footing until it was way too late."

On the Marquette zone defense in the first half:

"We have been mixing up defenses the last few games and they had a rhythm offensively that you try to do something to disrupt that rhythm but we couldn't cut the flow offensively in the first half. That's to be expected coming off a week of preparation."

When asked about the precise play by Villanova:

"They have a high-level precision offense and that's why they have been highly ranked. Those guys really it well. When you have someone like Brunson who is unselfish they know that if they cut, they will get the ball. One of the reasons they have a good cutting team is because their players know they will get the ball. We gave up a lot of lay-ups and we also gave up live ball turnovers which also ended in lay-ups. When prepping for Villanova we knew if we turned the ball over we would pay."