Louisville vs. Virginia Tech Postgame Quotes

Louisville Head Coach David Padgett

(Opening statement) "For whatever reason, the last couple of years whenever we've played this team, we just had to beat them with offense. They're an incredibly potent offensive team because they can drive and score, but they can also shoot the heck out of the ball, so you've kind of got to pick your poison on what you're going to give up. We did a good job. Our goal was to hold them under double-figure threes, which we did, they just scored 40 points in the paint. That's how they play, that's why they're tough. We did a great job on offense, shared the ball, shot the ball well, and did a good job offensively being aggressive and withstanding a little bit of run they had there in the second half. Great win, and we'll enjoy it here for a couple hours and then get ready to go to a place that we've never won before."

(About Deng Adel's 27 points and 11 boards, being the game you want from him?) "He played really well. He played very, very well. I thought offensively, all of our guys played well. We built on Florida State, we didn't settle for good shots when we could get great shots. Ryan McMahon, once again, it's almost like he just lives for those moments. It's funny, I told Kenny (Klein) when he fouled that kid at half court when we were up four I think it was, or six, I said, 'Watch, he's going to hit a three to make up for it,' and sure enough. It was a great team win. Offensively, we played very well. Defensively, we need to get a little bit better, but you've got to give them a lot of credit. That's the way they play, and you guys saw it last year. They made 17 threes and scored 90 on us. So, very happy with the win."

(On Ryan's three-point shot selection) "That's just who he is. I'm not going to say anything. If he misses it, how could you say something because he's made so many of them? He lives for the moments. It really didn't come down to just one shot. Obviously, that was a big one, but most importantly we made our free throws down the stretch, which was good to see too."

(About what enabled Louisville to shoot so well) "We just stayed patient. We probably had a handful of possessions where we came down and just shot it quick, but when we stayed patient and put the ball in the paint, kicked it out, drove again and then kicked it out, that's where we got good looks. We're sharing the ball really well right now. I think that one play when Ryan McMahon threw it over his shoulder to Anas Mahmoud, it's kind of indicative of the rhythm we have on offense right now. We have to continue to build on it, and continue to do better in other areas as well."

(What made Deng Adel so effective?) "Just letting the game come to him, not trying to force things. We tried to get them in some post-up situations tonight against smaller guards, and we did a good job with that. He's playing how you would expect a junior of his caliber to play. I thought VJ King played really well tonight, Ray's (Spalding) foul trouble wasn't one of his best nights, but none the less he came in and hit a couple big free throws on his stretch. Deng (Adel) played well but overall, most importantly, a great win.

(Is it progress to play that well with Ray in foul trouble) "Yeah, there's no question. Anas (Mahmoud) played ok, rebounded the ball well, he's been under the weather a little bit the last couple days, so he didn't have a lot of energy. Yeah, foul trouble is part of the game, for us to be able to overcome it there when Ray's sitting on the bench is definitely a positive sign."

(What enabled your defense to keep from VT getting threes) "Well it's a little deceiving because you know they scored 40 points in the paint almost half of their points coming in the paint so, but again you got to pick your poison. I mean do you protect the paint and see if they can just miss threes? Or do you kind of take away the threes and just see if they can beat you by making twos, and that's why they're such a good offensive team. They're top five I think it is in the country in field goal percentage so you just got to pick your spots, but you know we did a good job of challenging three's, they hit a couple tough ones, we got lost on a couple, but I thought we did a pretty good job in that area."

(About seeing the block that Deng Adel had on after Ryan turned the ball) "You know it was just a big -- not momentum changing -- but momentum saving play, just to chase it down like that. Otherwise that's an easy basket and they got all the momentum, so it was probably the defensive play of the game if I had to pick one."

(On how much has the confidence in your team changed in the last three or four games) "Yeah, I mean the other night was huge, there's no question just because, you know I'm not going to say we lacked confidence that we could get a great win, a road win, but we hadn't gotten one yet, so just for us to get that to kind of turn the corner I guess per say, we just got to build on it and, like I said, we can enjoy this one here for a couple of hours, but then we got to go up to a place, you know it's funny, I didn't think our first road game versus an unranked team would be at Notre Dame, so it doesn't get any easier, but we'll enjoy it and get ready for the next one."

Virginia Tech Head Coach Buzz Williams

(On the Louisville offense) "I would say a portion of that would be 25 percent of the time we turned it over and they scored 20 points off our turnovers. They rebounded 29 percent of their misses and scored 15 points. So, I would say on those 35 points, they shot somewhere between 82 and 92 percent. So, that's always going to help anybody's field goal percentage."

(Was there anything Louisville was doing to cause the turnovers?) "Really good coaches. Really good players. And I'm doing a really bad job."

(On last year's game at Louisville) "I think their style of play is similar, but I think they have distinct differences. I think [Ray Spalding] probably gets more touches. I think [Anas Mahmoud] gets more touches than they would have last year. Maybe, specific to our game, what number was Donovan Mitchell? 45? He got a lot of touches last year. But, I think their team is similar in regards to a lot of what they do. But I do think there are distinct differences, specific to Coach Padgett and Coach Johnson and what they're trying to do with those big guys."

(On turnovers that cause the most frustration) "I guess a team with length, and that would be pretty much every team in our league other than us. You have to play off two feet and with two hands. I think any time you're playing with one foot and one hand in that…kind of like the NBA does, inside the charge circle is zero to three feet, and then, from the charge circle, five feet out is four to eight. And then, most coaches would say eight to inside the three is would-two, and then, outside the three. So, in those layers, we chart the effectiveness of our guys. And anytime you're in layer two, that eight feet, that means you couldn't get all the way to the rim and that probably means you got stuck somewhere or somebody rotated over and you got walled off. Inside that four-to-eight-foot range is where so many of our turnovers come, because we're playing off one foot with one hand, and so now, it's in essence, a live ball turnover. Those blocked shots are one foot, one hand…not all seven, but a lot them are. So, in essence, that's kind of, I know it's hidden within the numbers, but it's a live ball turnover. I would say those are the most maddening."

(Did Louisville do anything different to try to shut down Kerry Blackshear in the second half?) "I hate to try to coach anybody else's team, I don't know if they did anything strategically different or not. Obviously, they switch 1 through 5 for the most part, not necessarily every single time. I think if they can stay with their preferred matchup they do, but I'm not sure that they did anything different."

(Coach Padgett said one of their goals was to try to hold you to under 10 three-pointers, which they did. Were they giving you really looks from the three?) "If that's what coach said, obviously they accomplished their goal."

(On early second-half turnovers) "I've got to do better. The intent, the heart of our guys is 1000 percent in the right direction. As I've been saying, I know you don't come to all the games, but in the games that you come to, we always say the same thing. It's our turnover rate and it's the opponent's offensive rebounding percentage, those are our Achilles heels. Obviously when we get a shot, we're pretty good. We shot close to 50 percent. We made 18 free throws, that's really good. We didn't get completely hammered on the glass, but that's still an issue. I don't know. I need to do better. I need to do better. We're not an 11-to-19 assist-to-turnover team."

(On preparation for ACC games where every single game is against elite-level competition) "I'm just demented. That's why I tried really hard to get the Virginia Tech job. I think it's the best league in the world, other than the NBA. I don't think that there's a night off. Hall of Fame coaches, the most NBA prospects, incredible home courts - playing here- what a great atmosphere this is. I think the way we try to break it down, to answer your question more specifically, is kind of football-esque. We're going into our bye, so we'll be off tomorrow. We'll have individual workouts on Monday. Our kids go back to school Tuesday so we'll be off, and then Wednesday will be an 'us' day. We will not have an 'us' day the rest of the year. Thursday will be two days before game day prep. And there's things we do specific to that on and off the floor. Friday will be one day before, things that we do specific to that. And obviously Saturday is game day. If you look at the rest of the six weeks, we'll play 12 games. So, two days will be game days. Two days will be two days before. Two days will be one day before, and one day will be the day off. And that's what our schedule will be for six days. The thing that tweaks it, and that's why you hear all those NFL coaches and players screaming about the NFL Network is when they have to play a Thursday game or when they play a Monday night game. So coming out of the bye we play Saturday at noon. Then we play a Big Monday game. That tweaks it, right, because Sunday is two days before and one day before in the same day. And that's all TV specific. I've never wanted to complain about that, because I understand that because that's how we're all, at some level, getting to eat."

(The looks they had at the three, do you think you did a good job of contesting them?) "Yeah, I thought we did pretty good."

(Between the game at Kentucky and at Louisville – obviously two very frustrating games for you…) "I think we had the same number of turnovers, didn't we? Didn't we have 19 turnovers in Lexington and 19 turnovers in Louisville? We probably don't need to play in Kentucky anymore. That's why we got beat – well, we got beat for multiple reasons – but it was for sure a portion of why we got beat at Kentucky, we had 19 turnovers at Kentucky."

(Was David Padgett harder to coach against or play against as a player?) "I'm not old enough to remember Coach Padgett as a player. Obviously I know he was really, really good. I think he's done an incredible job. What a tough situation to be in. He'll get another job, because they're going to win 24, 26 games. They're going to advance in the NCAA tournament and this tough situation is going to be something, in my opinion, that will blossom in his career. But I don't really remember him much as a player. I was probably a little too young to know what was going to know what was going on."

(Watching film, getting ready for this game and seeing them in person, does it seem like Louisville has taken strides in the last couple of weeks?") "I would agree with that. I kind of have a rhythm to what I try to do relative to a game. Obviously I saw all three of their league games and studied them semi-in-depth. I think Tubby Smith is one of the best coaches ever in college basketball, so I watched their game. I watched Synergy clips against Grand Canyon and I watched Synergy clips against some other team that they played early on. The fluidity of what they're doing offensively – you can always tell if [Quentin Snider] is handing it off to the ball side guard, this is one of the three or four things they're going to do. If [Snider] is reversing it to the trail, this is one of three or four things they're going to do. I think the pace of that and the purpose in what they're trying to do is more distinct, which just means the team is continuing to improve."

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Deng Adel

Anas Mahmoud

Ryan McMahon

Quentin Snider

Ray Spalding

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