DePaul 71, Georgetown 67
THE MODERATOR: Coach Ed Cooley from Georgetown.
ED COOLEY: First of all, I want to thank you for your service to the Big East. You have seen a lot of games in this building. We've served on some trips together with USA Basketball. I just want to thank you for your time and your energy and all your love to the Big East.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
ED COOLEY: As far as the game, this is the third game we played them. Three games in a row it all played out the same exact way, right? There's no excuse of what players we didn't have. The players we had out there, I thought our emotional discipline, our physical discipline was null and void in all three of the games that we played against them.
I tell our guys all the time, dumb will get you beat every night. Dumb will get you beat, right? You have to have some emotional intelligence. You have to have some physical toughness. Benson, to me, was an X factor in today's game. I thought their guards physically just ISO'd us and kind of bullied us.
Again, it's a lesson for us. It was a really tough matchup for them. For them to beat us three times, it just was a bad matchup for us. Credit Chris and his group, right? He's done a great job. He's going to do a great job at DePaul.
Obviously I'm very, very disappointed in losing three times to them this year, but at the same time it goes to tell you how far we still have to go. Very, very disappointed in our emotional and just physical presence, toughness. Toughness is just not physical. It's an emotional attachment to winning. Just an emotional attachment.
I thought the biggest play of the game was a simple ball screen. Late in the game I think it was a two-point game. All we had to do was just switch, and that didn't happen. Then you are trying to get lucky down at the end.
I thought we got back into the game with our pressure. I thought foul trouble hurt us a little bit in the first half, but overall, I thought the physicality of the game, you know, not just this game, all three games, not having some of our players that we're accustomed to playing heavy minutes, not having them in there really, really showed.
I think we definitely have improved as a program, as an organization. It just was a tough matchup for us against them. He's done a great job with his group.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. You went up by seven early in the second half. They hit the two threes. Then they started jamming it inside. Where was the disconnection on defense in that run that they kind of punched back at you?
ED COOLEY: We were trying to double, and we didn't rotate quick enough. It was either I forgot or it just was miscommunication. ELO, Early, Loud, and Often, when you are giving commands with a crowd. We just didn't adjust to that.
I thought their physicality, I would say, for the last seven or eight games, I think team physicality really wore us down. When your front court is 210, 220, in the Big East that's not going to work. Our guards are not the longest guards, so we have our work to do.
Q. What were they able to do the start of that second half, middle of the second half, to sort of counteract the pressure you guys were able to generate?
ED COOLEY: I didn't think we picked up enough pressure. I thought we were a little tired. I thought we kind of backed it off and tried to put it back on. When you have seven guys you are trying to play, again, it got us back into the game. That's why we try to sit in the zone a little bit. They did a good job just throwing it inside, which we tried to do early. We just couldn't finish. We definitely tried to get Fielder the ball, but we missed three or four, five layups.
At some point, I'm not going to give you the ball if you are throwing up some B.S. in there and just missing. I think I'm a little bit brighter than that to try to look at a different option.
You know, they made some really, really good plays. They made some timely shots. Really timely shots. The tip-in baseline out of bounds with three seconds left, that was a big play. I still say the biggest play of the game, when you look at when they played us at Georgetown, it was a one-possession game with 54 seconds left. Three on a missed switch. We're at their place. I think it's 55 seconds left. Down two. Corner three. Four seconds on the shot clock.
Here today, down two, eight seconds left on the shot clock. It all played identical under a minute. You got to give them credit because they made the shot, they made the play. So he did a really good job coaching that.
Q. Eight more wins this season than last season. Would you say that the program is improving at a pace that you're comfortable with? Do you wish that it was going potentially a little bit faster? Where do you see things right now?
ED COOLEY: Building an organization is a process. I'm never trying to get anywhere fast, right? The faster you rise, the quicker you fall.
I'm really proud of where we've come. We've had more injuries this year that we've gone through as an organization than any of my 19 years as a head coach. I thought we dealt with it as best we can. When you lose someone who, in my humble opinion, should have, at the bare minimum, been the Rookie of the Year, bare minimum should have been the Rookie of the Year in this league.
His impact for us takes nothing away from McNeeley. Nothing at all. His impact, the fact that these coaches didn't recognize that, I pray that that kid comes back. I pray he comes back. He will be the Big East Player of the Year. He will be a First Team All-American. He will be a lottery pick, and we will be cutting nets down next year in this building at this time come Saturday. That's exactly the way I feel.
I'm pleased with the process we're making. Really disappointed that the right thing wasn't done for a kid who more than earned it. If a kid is the Big East Rookie of the Week seven times and the other kid is the Big East Rookie of the Week seven times, and they played about the same amount of games, one person had just as much production if not more, but had a major impact, not in the Big East, nationally -- nationally -- and he's not recognized like that. Shame on our coaches for not recognizing that. Seriously, shame on the coaches because that kid more than earned it, more than deserved it.
Again, I'm praying my big boy comes back because if he does, this room will look blue and gray.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports