Feb. 27, 2008

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Penn State Coach Ed DeChellis

Can you talk about Jamelle Cornley's play in the second half?
"I think his play speaks for itself. He's a tremendous player. I told him he's like a prize fighter-he needs to take a couple hits before he finally gets going. He had unbelievable effort. In the second half, I thought he played great. He plays so hard and he plays with passion and he wasn't going to be denied. In timeouts he was saying, 'We're going to win!' and we tried to get him the basketball so he could score with it down there and he did a good job of scoring the balls. I though he was outstanding. I thought his effort was outstanding. That kid has been through a lot and he keeps coming back and keeps playing. He's giving us all he's got."

This was the second straight home game with a freshman making some huge shots. What does that say about how far they have come?
"I think they are coming along. We didn't play great, so obviously, I'm disappointed in that, but I'm happy for our freshmen. They are freshmen making plays. We had three of them out there for most of the game tonight and that's just kind of who we are. Those kids have made some plays down the stretch to help us win some games."

Can you talk about the start of the second half?
"That was disappointing. That second half we came out of the locker room and I was trying to be Happy the Clown at halftime with them and we didn't play great. We gave them open shots at the start of the second half so we have to look at that and try to figure that out and go from there. But, we were resilient. The kids kept playing and making plays. With two minutes to go we were down 4, 5, 6 points and they kept making plays."

What does a win like this mean for the team?
"We have talked about trying to move up in the conference standings. We have talked about trying to improve our seed going into the Big Ten Tournament. We have talked about trying to have some momentum going into the Big Ten Tournament and these are the games where you have to win at home. You have to win your close games. We are 5 and 2 now in these close games in the Big Ten which is good. Our kids are growing up and that sets the stage for Saturday night's game (vs. Michigan, 8:00 p.m.). We have to come and bring it so that we head into the Big Ten Tournament with some momentum. That's what it has been about this week."

Penn State Jamelle Cornley

D.J. said you were like a beast out there. Would you agree?
"There are a couple times when you get into the grove. You just feel like no one can guard you. I felt like I did at the Minnesota game when I knew we were down and being an upperclassmen, I knew that we needed some buckets and that I had to step up for the team and do whatever I needed to do. Tonight, it was some scoring."

What did you say to D.J. after he made that shot?
"To be honest, I don't even remember. He's a big time player. He's the player of the game. He makes tough plays and he can score the ball and it's just good to see that he goes for the offensive glass hard every time-those are the types of things he can do. He had a break out game in the last game against Minnesota. He makes tough plays and we are going to need players like that throughout this year and into next year."

Can you talk about what you see in the younger guys?
"They are growing up and it's been good to see in these last couple of games that they are still playing hard. A lot of times when you are a freshman your legs get up under you and feel like bricks but they are playing as hard as they can. We're just making big-time plays. Unfortunately our record doesn't show it but they are stepping up. I'm proud of them. I hope that they can continue to do these things until the end of the season-it's something to build on for the beginning of next year."

Do you think you guys are learning how to win in stretches?
"Learning how to win is very difficult--in the non-conferences it's not easier, but you can get away with certain things whereas in the Big Ten you have to take every possession like it's the last and I think that our freshmen are doing a very good job of understanding that there are sometimes you may not get the ball back. So taking advantage of every possession is something that we have to take pride in-making sure we get good shots and that we execute our plays."

What are you going to take from this game and try to carry over into Saturday?
"Any momentum. I'm glad that we have another home game here on Saturday in front of our student section and our fans here. You always want to try to put on a great performance in front of them. We also want to build on what we have in the rankings in the Big Ten. We have a good chance of finishing sixth so we are going to go ahead and try to take care of that. Hopefully we end up playing whoever for the Big Ten Conference (Tournament)."

After everything you guys have been through this year, why do you think you have continued to fight when other teams may have packed it in?
"I think it has to do with the coaching. When you have a coach that takes pride in his players playing as hard as they can, I think the end result is what we had today. The whole entire coaching staff is making sure that we play with as much energy and as much passion as we can. They come to practice with a lot of enthusiasm and I think it shows."

You only had four points at half time. What did you do different the second half?
"I was pretty disappointed with myself during halftime because I had three turnovers so in the first half I was pretty down because I knew that was too many turnovers as a junior. I came out in the second half and just said, 'Forget it.' We got down early and I just wanted to make sure we won the game and I just did whatever necessary."

Penn State freshman David Jackson

What was going on in your mind when you went for that free throw (with :18.3 to play)?
"Just that I had to knock it down for the team. It's no different then if I had to hit a free throw in the first couple minutes of the game. It was going in. I had the ball and was doing my routine and I made the shot."

Can you describe that last play there? Was Danny supposed to make that shot coming out of the time-out?
"We were at a play where we had a couple of different options. The first option was Jamelle Cornley coming to the block. We couldn't get him the ball. The second option was Danny Morrissey coming off a screen by me and he took the shot. Those were the two main options and if they had broken down we would have needed to get some dribble penetration to get the score."

You made the shot and then Jamelle was talking to you. What did he have to say?
"He was just yelling and getting hyped-being Jamelle. He was trying to yell out the match ups, trying to get us all squared away."

Can you talk about Jamelle's play in the second half?
"He was a beast. He pretty much did what he wanted to do out there. He played with heart and effort today. That's how he is on a regular basis. He did a really good job of leading us down the stretch."

You were the tallest player on the court most of the second half. How was that different for you than usual?
"Not much different. When Geary was playing we ran a three forward line-up of myself, Geary, and Jamelle so it's nothing new. It's not about how tall you are it's about how you play."

Have you ever hit a shot like that in your career before-to give the team the lead?
"I don't think I've ever hit a game-winner. This was my first one so it's a new experience. To my recollection I've never hit a game winner so this was pretty special."

Do you want to hit more now that you've gotten a taste of it?
"Definitely, I wouldn't mind. As long as we are winning games, I don't care who hits the game winner."

What do you take out of this game that you can bring to the next game?
"How hard we played and how well we played in the second half. Just going out and competing. We also know that we have a couple things to work on in practice. We struggled a little coming out of the second half and we can't do that against the upper level Big Ten teams. You're not going to win very many games coming out and giving up a 12-0 lead (to start) the second half."

Do the freshman see a bright future for the team?
"Definitely. We talk about it all the time-who's going to make plays. In our locker room it's, 'Who's going to make plays? Who's going to hit the game winner? Who's going to come out big?' We have a lot of competitors now and we're going to be a special team."

Earlier in the season did you think about game-winners? Were you guys ready to make those types of plays? "We were ready. Everyone always talks about game winners whether it be making the last shot in the drill or hitting the game winner in practice scrimmages. Everyone wanted to make that shot. Everyone talked about hitting the game winner."

How much of a momentum boost was it for you when (Cyrus) Tate fouled out?
"It was pretty big-he was the Big Ten Player of the Week last week. He is a big strong guy so getting him out of the game probably changed some of the things that Iowa wanted to do."

Did you guys do anything in particular to try to adjust when they were hitting all of those 3's at the beginning of the half? "Yes, we actually tried to switch up the way we were defending the ball screens, but that didn't work well for us in the beginning because they hit a few threes, but throughout the second half it go better."

Were you expecting them to cool off a little bit?
"To a certain extent, yes, but when you give them open shots, they are good players, they are going to make it. So we had to contest the jump shots and not give them any open looks because if you give them open looks then they would have shot the same percentage in the second half as they did the first."