No. 10 Villanova vs. No. 15 Seton Hall
Game 3 – First Round, March 2, 2012
XL Center – Hartford, Conn.
Villanova Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Harry Perretta
Opening Statement:
“I told the kids yesterday that it was going to be a tough game for us in terms of scoring the ball because Seton Hall is very quick on the perimeter, they were going to pressure us and give us a hard time getting shots and they did. Luckily in the second half we ran our offense a little better, made quicker passes, made better decisions and were able to get up seven. We did not shoot free throws very well down the stretch but we got up seven which was good. Some games you just shoot free throws poorly. I think the problem is that our kids get nervous when they are in a situation where we are favored and we are supposed to win. Now we are on the foul line and we miss foul shots. I think we did the right thing with the strategy on defense; we made a mistake with one three but the other ones we really didn’t make a mistake on. Hopefully there wasn’t enough time for them to catch us but we made just enough free throws in the end. Sometimes you need to be lucky.”
What does it say to you about the conference when a team like Seton Hall has a terrible season and gives you such a dog fight?
“I have been saying this all year and I have said this to everyone that I have talked to. What makes the BIG EAST conference great; it’s not Connecticut or Notre Dame, it’s is your three through 16 teams. A lot of these teams may not win games but they are not winning games because the league is really tough. If you look at the games throughout the course of the year, how many times was Pittsburgh and Seton Hall taken out of games? Not many. That is makes our conference so strong, the fact that there isn’t an easy game on any night. We have two of the best teams in the country and then after that we have eight teams that are better than other leagues teams. The bottom teams can beat teams in the middle, even though they have not done it, they are in the games. We were life and death with Villanova beating Seton Hall. That is what I try to tell people. For example we had six wins in the BIG EAST and we beat the top teams in other conferences.”
Louisville is up next. Last time you played them tight. What the biggest factor you are honing in on?
“They have a lot of talented players and they press you the whole game. We have to be able to handle the pressure, which we did not handle very well in the first half today. I think we turned it over eight times today. They also hurt you on the offensive rebounds, which we got hurt today as well. Those are the two things that we are going to focus on. We really can’t practice now. You have to just show up and play. Those are the two factors in the game, you cannot turn it over and you have to rebound the ball. We were in the game at Louisville for a while because we were able to rebound and we did not give them second shots. We started to get out of it when we were giving them second shots.”
Junior Forward Laura Sweeney
Can you tell us how difficult it is to learn Coach Perretta’s system, especially when you are new?
“It is not hard or difficult but there is a lot. There are a lot of different numbers, cuts and things like that. I think redshirting really helped me get used to the offense and his style of play. It helps when you finally get it after being there and you can help the girls coming in next with it.”
After getting your fourth foul you had to sit and then when you came on you got another quick foul. Can you talk about how difficult that was?
“It is tough, sometimes you get tough calls but you cannot blame the refs. They have a job to do and it was two tough teams competing. Hats off to them because their defense was tremendous and they were not giving up anything easy.”
Seton Hall Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Anne Donovan
Opening Statement:
“I really felt confident coming in against Villanova. I thought we needed to defend them, which we had done in the regular season. If we could just score a few more points, hit some outside shots, we would have had a chance today.”
What are your thoughts headed into next year?
“We competed this year, so the future is bright. We’ve got some help coming in terms of our recruits. The fact that it was one more game that we were in, if one more play would have gone our way we would have been talking quarterfinals.”
What things did you learn from this year?
“Our program is a process. It’s a frustrating process at times, but yet when I take a step back I can see that we are still making the strides we need to in order to compete in this conference.”
Senior Guard Jasmine Crew
What are your thoughts following the loss?
“I’m just thinking about all of the missed opportunities that we had in the game; some of the shots that we gave up, some of the shots that I missed that might have changed the game.”