Marquette 57, #17/17 Georgetown 51

Feb. 16, 2006

Marquette head coach, Tom Crean

"I thought our team has learned something over the last two games. They have learned to be honest when they don't play up tho their standards. Our three seniors really stepped up. Joe Chapman made some great plays, that three in the corner and key ffree throwns. There was so much energy in this building which makes it so much fun."

"This game was our best avenue to play aggressive, communicate, play in passing lanes and play possession by possession. We had to play defense for long periods of time. You can't focus on any one player with Georgetown. We had our rules inside of the game, and of what we wanted to take away. Our guys followed the game plan and even turned it up a notch."

"It is very hard to close teams out in a close game. The more you do it after you don't do it is when you get better. It is another great win that helps get another step closer to New York and helps us build confidence for what we want to do as we close out the season."

"Steve is not going to take many bad shots. Our guys did a great job of finding him we are pretty confident when he has the ball. He epitomizes our team."

Georgetown head coach, John Thompson III

"We did not play well tonight. Marquette and their poise had a lot to do with it. There is a lot of things we could have done to correct that but we didn't. We made a run, but they fought back. We made plays and they responded. Their defense is good. They made plays more than any negligence on our part."

"We have gone on the road enough and played in tough venues in the preseason to play in games like this. We prepared for this, but I think it is the hometeam's energy and the fact that our guys didn't play well tonight."

"Steve makes shots, more contested shots than anyone I have seen in a long time. It is a gift and he has worked on it, clearly. We knew where he was and we had guys on him, but he makes shot and has a enough on him to make space to get those shots off."

"That is a very good team that has had some tough losses, they have lost games where they have led for most of the game."

"They did a good job of taking it away and pressuring our passers so they couldn't throw it down. This is probably the worst game Jeff Green has played in his career. He had eight turnovers he was in a funk and couldn't get out of it. It was also a night where we couldn't make our shots and not letting us get inside. We regrouped made an effort to try to get it in (inside) in the second half, but they limited us in that."

Marquette forward Steve Novak

"We said if we are going to win like we want to win, we have to close out game.s We kept reminding each other through the game. We had a lead and kind of gave it back, but we just kept focused on closing a game out."

"Joe Chapman's stepped up all year. There's no question on the team that everyone on the team has faith in him. When he hit that shot at 49-48, it was a huge boost for us."

"There's no talk in our locker room that we're going back to the NIT. There's no telling what everyone else is thinking, but we know what we think in the locker room. It will take care of it in time if we keep playing Marquette basketball."

Marquette guard Dominic James

"We feel like we had to get Steve open in a lot of different ways tonight. Sometimes its hard to get Steve open in a set play. We had to try to find him in transition. If we could push the ball to collapse the defense, we could get him the ball."

"They are so patient on offense. They try to confuse you. We tried to confuse them to, changing defenses."