Notes and quotes from Jay Wright's Wednesday press availability.
On simply getting to the NCAA tournament in a crazy year...
“I think it’s an accomplishment in itself for our players, for the NCAA and for the Big East to have gotten through a season this year. I’m proud of our conference and I’m proud of our players.”
On getting the offense on track...
“We are getting there defensively. Offensively we lost our leading scorer and our most dynamic player, the guy that creates shots for everybody else. So we’ve been adjusting offensively to try to find other ways to create high percentage shots. I thought we did a better job in the Georgetown game than we did against Providence playing without Collin, but obviously not good enough. That’s the area we’ve been working on and we gotta improve going into this Winthrop game.”
On any potential advantages of a short Big East tournament...
“I definitely like it the other way. I like winning the tournament, that’s much more fun and I think it’s more advantageous heading into a big tournament like this. I don’t know if we can really take advantages going into this. Because of Collin’s injury and Justin’s injury we thought we needed the practice time, that was a positive, but at this point in the season, you don’t want to practice too much and wear guys out so that was a balance we had to strike. I know our guys are hungry and I know obviously humbled by our last couple games so I hope that will be an advantage for us going into the Winthrop game.”
On the importance of Justin Moore and the other guards stepping up...
“Justin is gonna be a very integral part of our offense and our defense, our leadership. As is Chris Arcidiacono. Chris Arcidiacono gets a lot of responsibility now, as does Caleb Daniels. Those guys gotta really step up. Collin was so adept at creating shots when we needed for himself and making everybody else better in the process. Justin’s gotta do all of that now, as Chris Arcidiacono does. Both of them are gonna have to play much bigger roles now in our game against Winthrop.”
On the difference in NCAA tourney preparation this year...
“It’s completely different. Usually, we come back on Sunday and we know the guys are worn out. We probably do less practice in preparing for the NCAA tournament than most teams because we wanted to give them off Monday and Tuesday, we wanted to get fresh legs for the tournament. Whereas this year we needed to practice because we had to kind of recreate how we play without Collin and we needed to get Justin Moore a couple days off after the Georgetown game and then get him in practice to get him acclimated to a new role. So it’s been completely different than anything we’ve done before because of losing in the first round and because of the injuries to Collin and Justin.”
On potential takeaways from the Georgetown game...
“I thought we played better offensively than we did in the Providence game. We looked a lot more comfortable without Collin. I thought in the Providence game we looked out of sync. I thought in the Georgetown game, we didn’t play that poorly, Georgetown was playing great basketball, we had a chance to win that game in the end. I think we took a little bit of confidence of playing without Collin out of that and learned from some things we did in that game. Got Chris Arch some time, obviously Brandon Slater more time, Eric Dixon some time, so I think that’s something that will benefit us in our first round NCAA game.”
On Big East opponents that compare to Winthrop...
“I think they’re a combination of Butler and Creighton. They play really fast like Creighton and really disciplined defensively like Butler.”
On Justin Moore's health/availability...
“Justin’s good. I think he’ll be good to go. I don’t know if he’s 100% but he’ll be good to go. He’ll practice and be good to go.”
On simply getting to the NCAA tournament in a crazy year...
“I think it’s an accomplishment in itself for our players, for the NCAA and for the Big East to have gotten through a season this year. I’m proud of our conference and I’m proud of our players.”
On getting the offense on track...
“We are getting there defensively. Offensively we lost our leading scorer and our most dynamic player, the guy that creates shots for everybody else. So we’ve been adjusting offensively to try to find other ways to create high percentage shots. I thought we did a better job in the Georgetown game than we did against Providence playing without Collin, but obviously not good enough. That’s the area we’ve been working on and we gotta improve going into this Winthrop game.”
On any potential advantages of a short Big East tournament...
“I definitely like it the other way. I like winning the tournament, that’s much more fun and I think it’s more advantageous heading into a big tournament like this. I don’t know if we can really take advantages going into this. Because of Collin’s injury and Justin’s injury we thought we needed the practice time, that was a positive, but at this point in the season, you don’t want to practice too much and wear guys out so that was a balance we had to strike. I know our guys are hungry and I know obviously humbled by our last couple games so I hope that will be an advantage for us going into the Winthrop game.”
On the importance of Justin Moore and the other guards stepping up...
“Justin is gonna be a very integral part of our offense and our defense, our leadership. As is Chris Arcidiacono. Chris Arcidiacono gets a lot of responsibility now, as does Caleb Daniels. Those guys gotta really step up. Collin was so adept at creating shots when we needed for himself and making everybody else better in the process. Justin’s gotta do all of that now, as Chris Arcidiacono does. Both of them are gonna have to play much bigger roles now in our game against Winthrop.”
On the difference in NCAA tourney preparation this year...
“It’s completely different. Usually, we come back on Sunday and we know the guys are worn out. We probably do less practice in preparing for the NCAA tournament than most teams because we wanted to give them off Monday and Tuesday, we wanted to get fresh legs for the tournament. Whereas this year we needed to practice because we had to kind of recreate how we play without Collin and we needed to get Justin Moore a couple days off after the Georgetown game and then get him in practice to get him acclimated to a new role. So it’s been completely different than anything we’ve done before because of losing in the first round and because of the injuries to Collin and Justin.”
On potential takeaways from the Georgetown game...
“I thought we played better offensively than we did in the Providence game. We looked a lot more comfortable without Collin. I thought in the Providence game we looked out of sync. I thought in the Georgetown game, we didn’t play that poorly, Georgetown was playing great basketball, we had a chance to win that game in the end. I think we took a little bit of confidence of playing without Collin out of that and learned from some things we did in that game. Got Chris Arch some time, obviously Brandon Slater more time, Eric Dixon some time, so I think that’s something that will benefit us in our first round NCAA game.”
On Big East opponents that compare to Winthrop...
“I think they’re a combination of Butler and Creighton. They play really fast like Creighton and really disciplined defensively like Butler.”
On Justin Moore's health/availability...
“Justin’s good. I think he’ll be good to go. I don’t know if he’s 100% but he’ll be good to go. He’ll practice and be good to go.”