Louisville vs. Temple Post-Game Quotes
March 19, 2002 | Men's Basketball
March 19, 2002
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
"It was a terrific season that came to an end. There's not a program in the country that can sell out the NIT. It's nothing against the NIT, it's a wonderful tournament. It was a terrific game in the second half by Temple and it was a great season."
"The referees told us that if someone else slips, they're not calling a travel. We lost because we didn't block out correctly. And then it was not a smart play to foul their best shooter while he was going out of bounds. And it looked like Ellis (Myles) called a time out while falling out of bounds. It's a bad rule but it looked like he called it."
(on Lynn Greer) "We got beat by a great basketball player. It was a fabulous performance by a gutty player. He made some great shots and played great in the second half. You have to give the praise to him because he made some tough shots."
"They give you a lot of threes and we took pretty good ones. We just didn't get into the up tempo because we weren't stopping them in the second half. That's a credit to their defense."
"Our guys were very disappointed but basketball is a game of two halves. Carlos (Hurt) was a little tired and it was to be expected since he just had back surgery. It was one of the best seasons I've had as a coach. They wanted to win so badly, that's a greatest thing a coach can witness. This was a tremendous season. Our fans are the best I've seen. You can't find 19,000 fans at the NIT. This program is going to take off but it's going to take time. We will be better next year but it's not going to happen overnight."
Temple Head Coach John Chaney
(on Lynn Greer) "He's one hell of a shooter. He's tough inside, stubborn. He makes big shots all the time. He will be good on the next level."
"When the officials told us it was slippery, anytime the guy slips, they won't take the ball away if it's a legitimate slip. That's what happened. I then called my team over and told them not to run players over to my side (the right side) of the floor. Lynn had no business going in that direction. But he did that to try and make a play."
(on the first half) "We found ourselves in big trouble without our big rebounder in Lyde and we put Ron Rollerson in there and no one is afraid of his presence. Then we changed our defense to a regular 2-3, then a box and one and they found themselves screening and hitting shots from way out. (In the second half) Lynn hit a few shots to make it close and I think it tightened them up."
