Jay Wright Opening Statement:
“It was a good challenging game. They played tough. They did a great job of taking away threes. I loved the way we started defensively in the first half. I thought Daniel [Ochefu] was the key defensively. They couldn’t really get into their offense. In the second half, we tried to play a little of our zone because we want to be a better zone team. We didn’t do a great job. They did a great job attacking it. I thought they [Penn] did a good job defensively until the end.”
Jay Wright on his team’s defense:
“I wanted to see a good start defensively. I wanted to see us start the game really focused. I thought we did a great job of that. I was very pleased with our first half. In the second half, we want to play some zone defense and play it against a team that had shooters and skill. We had a chance to do it, but we just didn’t do a good job of it.”
Wright on his team scoring without the help of the three-pointer:
“That strategy that they employed was a smart strategy of no three-pointers. I thought we did a really good job in the first half with that. You must be smart about your twos and getting to the foul line. We didn’t shoot well from the foul line. I did like the way we attacked that.”
Wright on seeing teams taking away the three-pointers in the future:
“There are certain teams in our league that play us that way. We said that at halftime. This is a really good challenge for us when teams are taking away threes. If they’re going to do that you can’t run offense, but you need to drive the ball and get to the foul line. I think we’re a better free throw shooting team.”
Jalen Brunson on Penn’s defensive strategy:
“They were playing one-on-one and denying the outside three. They were playing us straight up. They were trying to take them away. We read them differently and got inside them.”
Brunson on driving the ball:
“Our mindset as a team is always being in attack mode anyway possible. We just read it differently tonight.”
Brunson on his second half play:
“Their defense was playing us one-on-one so I was just being aggressive. They were fouling me, and I was making my free throws.”
Daniel Ochefu on Penn being a test before BIG EAST play:
“Penn is a very discipline, well-coached team. They play tough. Xavier is the same way. They have a lot of experience, are disciplined, and play very hard. I thought it was a very good tune up before our first BIG EAST game.”
Ochefu on his two jumpers in the first half:
“I’m extremely comfortable taking that shot. I practice is every day in practice. In the game he gave me a lot of space so it was an easy decision to shoot.”
Ochefu on heading into conference play:
“We haven’t started yet. Tomorrow we have practice to start getting ready. Everybody knows the BIG EAST is whole different beast. We’re excited to start. We got to get ready for the battles we’ll be in.”
