Creighton 71, UConn 62
GREG McDERMOTT: I couldn't be more proud of our team. UConn's offense is very complex. There's a lot to it. A lot of movement, a lot of screening. With an overnight prep, it was more about concepts and when we were going to switch and when we weren't.
You know, a 56-possession game with UConn tells you that they're not scoring on their first options, that we're making them go to multiple things. I thought our guys were really locked in defensively. For us to shoot 30% the second half and still find a way to win, we had to defend. We talked about the necessity to keep them off the free-throw line. We were able to do what we do without fouling. We've done that all year, so that's not a surprise.
Jamiya got us off to a great start, made some huge plays. We thought we had some mismatch opportunities with Jasen in the post. He was absolutely terrific. Then gets a huge rebound on a missed free-throw at a critical juncture of the game.
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Jamiya Neal and Jasen Greene.
Questions, please.
Q. You guys talked about coming to Madison Square Garden to cut down the nets, and now that you are one win away and you are back into the Big East title game, what's that mean to you?
GREG McDERMOTT: It's just -- like I said, this team, our strength is in our togetherness. We've had a lot of adversity this year. I've heard coaches talk all year long that we lost because we didn't have this player or that player. We lost our second leading scorer eight games in, and here we are in the Big East championship game and finished second in the league.
So we had to retool things. Guys had to take on new roles, and they embraced that. We could have hung our heads and felt sorry for ourselves, but instead this group went to work.
Selfishly, I get to coach them one more game, and this has been a very rewarding season and an unbelievable team to coach. This will be our fifth trip to the final. Hopefully five is our lucky number.
Q. Coach, you actually had Big East Championship victories in the past. How meaningful will it be to get this one, especially going against a rising St. John's team?
GREG McDERMOTT: Obviously we have great respect for St. John's. They were able to take us out of a lot of what we wanted to do when we were here a month or so ago. They just come at you in waves, and they wear into you with their tenacity and their physical nature of their play.
I told our guys to go to sleep thinking about ball security and box-outs because that's the game.
Q. Jamiya, do you regret that dunk, and what happened there with Diarra?
JAMIYA NEAL: Definitely. I got caught up in the emotions of the game. Just a lot of emotions going on. So I would like to apologize for that. I respect Coach Hurley and those guys over there. They have a great, great program. Obviously a two-time national champs.
Yeah, I apologize. Just got caught up in the moment, and I shouldn't have did it.
Q. Coach, Liam McNeeley went for 37 the last time in Omaha. And then tonight you bottled him up pretty well, 6 for 20 from the floor. Did you guys do anything different on him specifically?
GREG McDERMOTT: The second half at our place, he stepped into four threes because we made mistakes. We miscommunicated a couple of switches and lost him in transition. That was the film we watched this morning is we can't make mistakes. We have to make him shoot it on the move. If he wants to go in and challenge Kalkbrenner, let him go in and challenge Kalkbrenner, and we'll take our chances with the results. He's a terrific player.
Jamiya was really locked in from the jump guarding him, and I thought he did an outstanding job.
Q. Jasen and everybody, congratulations. You have a career high. It's at Madison Square Garden. It's in New York City. What are your feelings about having this game? I know you are smiling right now just hearing that. How much of a better player are you now compared to the beginning of the season, and how much have you had to grow given everything your team has had to go to with injuries.
JASEN GREENE: It's definitely a great feeling getting a career high in the first place, and especially at a place like Madison Square Garden. But my growth throughout the season has been pretty large.
I started the season with a bit of an injury, so I wasn't able to play in our exhibition game, and I slowly worked my way back from that. I mean, it hasn't just been like one game I was great, like, the game before I was bad. It's been a gradual thing. Being an everyday guy, being ready when your name is called, and just eventually I was able to get to the point where I am now, and my confidence just kept building.
Yeah, I was able to show it tonight.
Q. For whoever wants to pick this one up. Halftime I was going to get a cup of coffee, and I heard Coach Hurley screaming at the top of his lungs, 75%, 75%. I looked at the halftime box, and that's what you guys shot in the first half, 75%. So he got you to shoot 30% in the second half. But what I saw was when he put that press on you at the end trying to come back -- he did everything he could to get back in this game -- you guys hung in there, hung in there tough. You're going to have to do that tomorrow with St. John's. I just want to hear your comments on all of that that I just said.
GREG McDERMOTT: Yeah, I mean, we were extremely efficient the first half. I thought we got the ball to the spots we wanted to. They did a really good job to rally around Kalkbrenner and make those catches tough. So we went some different places, and guys took the right shots. If we take the right shots, chances are we're going to make some.
Our defense is a little different. You've got teams like UConn and St. John's, a lot of pressure, a lot of physicality, force a lot of turnovers. For some reason they think the way we do it is soft. And I got news for you. I got some tough dudes in my locker room.
It takes toughness to execute the defense the way we execute it. But we're trying to win the analytic game at the free-throw line, and that takes mental toughness as well to understand and be disciplined. You don't beat UConn a couple of times in a season if you don't have tough dudes.
No, we don't force a bunch of turnovers. No, we don't get up under you, but there's a method to our madness and what we're doing, and this group of guys has executed it extremely well all season long.
Q. Jamiya, 87 minutes in two games for you. How much credit goes to Jeremy and your strength and conditioning staff over there?
JAMIYA NEAL: Yeah, a lot of credit goes to them, obviously the coaching staff and my teammates. Obviously we're just a together group. We do everything together. Ben too, our athletic trainer, they do a good job of getting us well-hydrated and making sure everything is cool and getting us drips and stuff to keep our legs going and just getting sleep. Shout-out to those guys.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports