March 11, 2008

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Fran McCaffery, Siena Head Coach

Statement:
I said from the beginning of the season what I thought this league was; the most balanced. I predicted 12 or 13 wins would win the league because of the talent level and the level of coaching. We just beat a very good basketball team that's phenomenally coached. They played with great character all year long and I think that's what makes this accomplishment all the more special. And knowing what we had to do to get here: we had to beat Loyola and Rider and also the way Manhattan came around towards the end of the season, when they beat us. Three great games, I can't say enough about this league and these guys on my right and left (Tay Fisher, Edwin Ubiles, Kenny Hasbrouck) and especially this guy on my right (Tay Fisher). He stuck it out. Everybody else bailed on us. But he believed, and he stayed. Kenny Hasbrouck knew me for two weeks. I told him `if you come here, something special's going to happen.' He believed me. Then they helped recruit Edwin Ubiles, and he believed. There's no way you could assemble this kind of talent with out individuals being confident enough in themselves to recruit other good players to make the program better. You can't do it without character and this team, the senior leadership, it's been the best I've ever encountered.

On defending Rider:
I would say this game and the Boise State game were the best defensive games we've had, in terms of collective efforts for 40 minutes. We reffered to it as an `up game.' Everybody's up. We're up full-court, we're up in the passing lanes, we're up pressuring shooters, we're up in front of Jason Thompson. And if we're going to get beat, they're going to have to go through us. We're not going play underneath and let them run their stuff because if you do, the numbers say 49% from the field and 40% from three. So we wanted to take them out of that. Then the question is, `can we rebound with them, against a guy (Thompson) who last night got 17 defensive rebounds. I thought Josh Duell did a phenomenal job against Thompson. Thompson went for 22 points and 12 rebounds and we think we did a great job on him.

On Rider being worthy of an NIT bid:
Absolutely. I just told Tommy Dempsey, `you're getting a bid.' I don't know what you have to do. They had the same record as us in the regular season, the Conference Player of the Year, the Coach of the Year, an All-Rookie guy, a Third Team guy. It's a program that I think deserves postseason recognition. Should they not be invited to the NIT, I would think they'd be a virtual lock for the new CBI.