Dec. 9, 2009

Recap | Box Score

Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III

On Greg Monroe:
"I think if you look at the stat sheet, I guess you are asking that question because of the numbers Greg put up, I thought it was a total team effort. It is easy to talk about what Greg did, or what Austin (Freeman) did. The two to three minutes Vee (Sanford) gave us was huge. The minutes Jerrelle (Benimon) gave was huge. It was a team effort against a team that put you in difficult situations. I said this several times leading up to this, people talk about their (Butler) system and how they play, and their system is terrific, their system is great but they have very good players. They have guys that can play anywhere in any league and be one of the better players on any team in any conference. You combine that with their system is what makes them so good. I thought we had an overall very good team effort and Greg was a part of that today."

On the game having runs:
"That is what happens when good teams play. Very seldom are you going to be able to take away what they do on a very consistent basis. I thought, for the most part we need to be more consistent...on the offensive end we weren't sharp. It feels like we went four or five possessions where we didn't get a good shot. I still felt like we had the discipline and focus to hold them on the other end of the court. When you play good teams it is always going to be a game of runs."

On playing two top-25 teams in one week:
"I don't know what it will mean. This week was put together by design, it wasn't by accident. This is a league (Big East) where once conference play starts you are going to play a good team on Tuesday (or) Wednesday and then you are going to play a good team on Saturday. I want our guys to be used to that emotional ride. If you lose today, you can't think you are the worst person in the world, you have to regroup and get ready for Saturday. If you win today, you are not the best person in the world, we still have a long way to go, we have to learn from it and get ready for Saturday."

On Jerrelle Benimon:
"We had a bunch of guys in foul trouble and I wanted to see how he would respond. He came back, had a big put back, got a couple of rebounds. He has not been able to practice 100% yet. As he gets healthy as he gets reps, he is going to be another option we have."

On Greg Monroe taking 20 shots:
"If it is there. Greg is an unselfish player. We have an unselfish team. We have a lot of people in that locker room that can score. The number of shots one takes is not important to this group. It is how we play and if it is the right shots and if we get victories. That is what important. The number of shots is not important to him or anybody else."

On Gordon Hayward drawing fouls:
"That is what he does. He is a terrific post player. Their team has a knack for drawing fouls. They have to be one of the top teams in the country getting to the line."

Greg Monroe

On tonight's game:
"Coming into the game, we knew the big man (Gordon Hayward) they had. It was more about trying to keep them out of the post."

On the season:
"Win the each game. That is how I try to see it. Winning the next game is the goal for the season."

Butler Head Coach Brad Stevens

On Georgetown's inside-out play:
"I thought it was toughest in the interior. I think we obviously missed a lot of shots around the basket and their wings obviously bothered us. And that would have helped us get into a better rhythm. We shot 31 percent, but clearly shot a higher percentage from 'three' than we did from 'two.' I think it was more from the interior."

On the play of Austin Freeman and Greg Monroe:
"I think the hard part tonight of defending Georgetown was Freeman's proficiency. He was very good. Monroe obviously attempted more field goals than he had in any other game this year. He was playing with a real authoritative spirit. He's a tough guy to guard. Now if you had told me he was 9-for-20, and he shot ten free throws and he ended up with 24 points, I would have said that's not all bad against us. We needed to do a better job against the perimeter guys and we didn't. And obviously Freeman was the guy for them."

On Butler's record so far:
"I look at every win as really meaningful and I know sometimes the media doesn't; they just count certain wins as meaningful and others as not. Out of nine games, we've played seven away from home. We've played terrific teams... We'll see what it all means at the end of the year. That's probably the best way to put it."

On his team's effort:
"I thought we fought. You're supposed to play for 40 minutes, right? Our guys played for 40 minutes."

On team's remaining schedule:
"You just have to do your best not to focus on those things. We live in a world that's always talking about March for basketball. And there are a lot of experiences and a lot of opportunities that you have to embrace and go after prior to that time. And we need to get better. We have to get better as a basketball team. That being said, we've played a tough schedule and it's not going to get any easier."