Marquette University Athletics
MU Basketball Coach Tom Crean's Weekly Press Conferece
1/18/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 18, 2000
"First of all, on behalf of our team, I would like to congratulate Brian Wardle on being named Conference USA Co-Player of the Week, along with Tremaine Gardner of UNC-Charlotte. I think it's great that he was rewarded for the week he had. He was obviously a big part of the success we had last week. The most telling statistic for me were his rebounding numbers and the fact that he had 11 assists and two turnovers. So, outside of the fact that we know he can score, he is also doing a lot of other things for us and I thought it was great to see him win that award. Since we last met, we had two really nice wins that have given the players confidence in what they are doing. They keep getting better."
(on UNC-Charlotte, Marquette's Next Opponent) "We have a major battle on our hands Wednesday night with UNC-Charlotte. I think Charlotte executes its half-court offense as well as anyone we have faced to this point and that is not to discredit anybody else we have played. They are just extremely good at it. Jobey Thomas is as good as a shooter as there is in the conference when he is on. Diego Guevara runs the team extremely well and is a very good shooter. Tremaine Gardner, obviously being the conference's Co-player of the Week, is playing very well and the fact that he is coming back home gives him extra added incentive. Half-court wise, in the sets that they run and the scheme that they have, they are very good. They are a tremendous three-point team. They are a very good defensive team because they can mix defenses well and will throw different things at us to keep us off balance. They are just very, very sound. I look at that team and do not see very many weaknesses. Their big men run the floor extremely well which is something that we have to prepare for. It is going to be a major game for us and we hope that we can continue to get the support of the fans. Now the students are back and I hope that they will continue to come out in droves to support the team and we will go from there."
(On the play of Jon Harris) "If he can get his aggressiveness back up, you will see him back where his rebounding numbers need to be. We need that from him. He is going to get emphasis from his opponents as well because of the fact that he is a very solid player. He needs to continue to be aggressive. I like the fact that we can bring Jon in and give us a lift defensively and with his rebounding. When he gains more confidence in his game, hopefully he'll score more for us. He is playing within himself now and is doing a great job defensively."
(On the play of the team this season) "I think that their improvement is very solid but college basketball at the highest level like Conference USA shows that if you don't continue to improve, you can be humbled very fast. We have got to continue to try to improve and keep taking steps up. How many steps is that going to take, we have no idea but we have to take it step by step. If our team can do that and keep getting better individually and collectively then we have got a chance
