Villanova University

Jan. 17, 2010

Villanova head coach Jay Wright...

Opening statement: We've probably played as well as we can play in the first half and then in the second- we've played worse- but we did not play well in the second half. Monroe is just awesome. I love his game. He is going to another level in terms of his ability to take over a game. He would make great plays, but now he just takes over the game. We didn't have an answer for him. We played three different guys on him. It turns out that the guy who did the best job for us was freshman Isaiah Armwood at the end of the game. He was great. Freeman- we talked at halftime about him taking over like he did in the second half of the UConn game and we couldn't stop him. Scottie has made big plays, Reggie made a big shot. This is Big East basketball.

On Scottie's play: Scottie has a great knack of making a lot of his plays that aren't called plays he just knows we need him to make a play. Reggie did the same thing tonight. Sometime we get caught in the game going to Scottie too much. I thought Reggie hit a big shot tonight when we got a little stagnant going to Scottie too much.

On Georgetown's defense switch in the second half: I think in the second half they scored a lot more so they got in their set defense. They always have great half court defense. In the first half we were turning them over and they were missing shots so we were getting a lot of points in transition. In the second half when they're scoring- it's like us when we score and can get into our press we're good- when they score and get set up in their half court defense they're great. I thought that was a big difference in the second half.

Senior guard Scottie Reynolds...

On his play and effort- what has changed in his game: Like coach said, in the off season we talked about what I needed to work on. As a senior and as a guy that wants to improve individually and wants his team to get to the highest level we can get to, you have to look at yourself first. You look back at plays that you made as a freshman or sophomore and wonder who that guy is playing. You want to be efficient and be able to play the right way. Coach Wright has helped me a lot and especially Coach West, he has helped tremendously. He won't say anything about it, but he's done a great job.

On change to shoot better in second half: In the first half we got some shots, I don't know the exact numbers, but I feel like we had four, five or six lay-ups that didn't go in. They went to jump defense- I call it the jump defense- where they were just running and jumping. They were extremely effective with that because it allowed us not to run any pattern, which was fine. I told our guys to just play. We had a few too many turnovers. There was a stretch where we had turnovers, which led to transition baskets for them. And then we followed up with poor decisions at the offensive end for us. I think that was the main thing in the first half.

Was first half instructions get the ball to the rim? For the second half I can't remember what the instructions were. I just knew we were taking too many three's. We wanted to get into the paint either off of our cuts or off of our penetration or throwing it down.

Physicality of the game and young players responding: It's the Big East. Every night is going to be just like that, no matter who. It is Big East basketball. I don't necessarily think today was any more physical than any other night.

On containing Scottie Reynolds: Scottie can't be contained. I don't say that in jest, he's just too good of an offensive player and they do too good of a job at making sure he gets in where he needs it and getting him and edge with the ball screens that they have. He's been doing it for four years now. He's been doing the same thing. Like you said though he's a senior now when they need a basket it ends up in his hands and good things happen.

Sophomore center Greg Monroe...

On what makes Villanova so difficult to stop and contain: All of them are good with the ball in their hands. Everybody can get the break off of the dribble and it's kind of hard to contain them with so many options.