Men's Basketball

Villanova/Creighton Post-Game Quotes

Feb. 1, 2018

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Villanova Head Coach Jay Wright

Opening Statement:

"It was a great effort for our team tonight against an explosive offense in Creighton as they shot 49%. Our conference is so good offensively. You look at a team that shots 49% from the field, 39% from three and you think they did a really great job but it's just how good they really are. We need to keep getting better defensively as I thought we rebounded well. Every game we have to play without Phil Booth and the three freshmen that play is going to help us down the road, so I was pleased with our three freshmen."

On the 10 threes to start the game:

"10 straight was not the plan. I'm not against but I would rather not start a game that way. We have good shooters, we want our guys to shoot and I don't think they took shots, but we do have to mix it up."

When asked about Collin Gillespie:

"Against a team like Creighton you need more perimeter guys, so his play tonight was going to be really important going into the game and I thought when he came in the first half I thought he sparked us. They are intelligent offensively as they get the mismatches that they want, and I thought he defended his man really well. That really inspired our guys tonight."

On holding Creighton's two best shooters to minimal points:

"It was specific on any one player, even Marcus Foster. A strength they have is their balance, so you can't double team Foster because they are such great passers and other guys can shoot the ball. You have to try to and minimize all of them."

On Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree:

"They next guys that sparked us tonight I thought was Dhamir. He got a big offensive rebound early in the game when the score was tight, and it got us an extra possession. Defensively, he has an ability to guard the perimeter and it's becoming an asset for us. He gets better every game and I'm proud of how he is playing."



Creighton Head Coach Greg McDermontt

Opening Statement

"They were as good as I thought they were. Watching them on film you get caught up as a basketball old school purist in the way they play the game and the simplicity of what they do but how perfect the execution is. We decided to try some zone to attempt to take away the three but against man to man they go to the free throw line, make layups, they put you in rotations, they keep making the same three-point shots that you get against the zone anyway. So, we tried to prevent some of that from occurring, which we did but they kept making jump shots and it was hard to stop. It is hard to imagine that they could be more of perfect offensive team than they were a year ago, but they are. Its like a video game with they're offence. Its fun to watch, hard to prepare for and its difficult plan to stop."

On the decision to play zone defense instead of man to man

"They are average 1.28 points per possession and most teams are playing them man to man. My math is not great so they're numbers weren't as great against the zone. We thought that maybe with the matchup we could get to some of their shooters in which they took a couple tough shots and a couple quick shots which we wanted them to do but to their credit they made them. It didn't matter that much since we couldn't guard them man to man anyway and were not alone."

On the play of #1 Guard Jalen Brunson and #2 Guard Collin Gillespie

"Both those guys came in and just did their jobs. I think with Jay Wrights teams, that's their trademark. Each one of their guys has a role and each one plays that role at a high level. Jalen Brunson, I think is getting more national attention and if I was in the NBA I would certainly want him on my team. He impacts winning in so many ways. If you need him to score he scores, if you need him to distribute he distributes, he's got toughness, he's got moxie and his leadership skills are just off the charts. That offense with the ball in his hands is truly hard to guard."

On what the team needs to improve on to make an appearance in March

"We have seven games left in the league. We go to DePaul on Wednesday which is a huge game for us. Then we have four or five games left at home. Villanova comes back, Xavier comes back to our place, so we have tough games at home. But in this league, you need to grind out wins to succeed. If you are not Villanova or Xavier the rest of us are fighting for our lives. We just need to keep on plugging, its one game. We did some good things offensively but defensively we need to work on a little bit. We've got six weeks to fix what we need to fix before the Big East Tournament and we'll see where are go from there."

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Players Mentioned

Jalen Brunson

#1 Jalen Brunson

Guard
6' 3"
Junior
Collin Gillespie

#2 Collin Gillespie

Guard
6' 3"
Freshman
Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree

#21 Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree

Forward
6' 9"
Freshman
Phil Booth

#5 Phil Booth

Guard
6' 3"
Freshman

Players Mentioned

Jalen Brunson

#1 Jalen Brunson

6' 3"
Junior
Guard
Collin Gillespie

#2 Collin Gillespie

6' 3"
Freshman
Guard
Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree

#21 Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree

6' 9"
Freshman
Forward
Phil Booth

#5 Phil Booth

6' 3"
Freshman
Guard