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Louisville vs. Seton Hall Postgame Quotes
December 10, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 10, 2003
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(on Francisco Garcia) "I don't think there are too many young men that could play tonight. He's very close to his brother and his family. Not too many have that emotional strength. I'm very proud of him. This is a big win for us because Seton Hall is a very good team. When we pass, we are good. When we don't, we are not a good team. In the second half, we focused on passing and staying away from challenged shots. When we don't pass the ball, we are tough to watch."
(on Francisco Garcia) "He was doing the best he could. He didn't have a good game tonight but I don't know how he put his uniform on. This is a tremendous crime against his family. We admire his strength and he's a special young man. I've had lots of conversations with him and his mom was thinking about moving about back to the Dominican Republic to get out of the city and he wanted to make it to the next level and help them move."
"It is difficult because in times like this, more than anything else what I try to tell him is that there are no answers. You are gong to hurt and you are supposed to. You have to stay close with your family, girlfriend and his teammates will get him through this."
"He (Garcia) missed a wide open layup at the beginning but he makes big plays. We rebounded down the stretch but they made 10 threes and they're not known for that. Barrett is a heck of a player. We tried to wear him out. He hurt his ankle and still came back and played well. He's one of the best point guards in the country."
"The key to our game was offensive rebounding. We made some good plays down the stretch. I wasn't concerned about looking ahead to Florida because we know how good they (Seton Hall) were. We started Reece Gaines, Marvin Stone and Erik Brown and they played us tough last year. I am exited about this victory and I am impressed with Seton Hall."
(on Taquan Dean's three-pointer with 1:10 left) "It's the movement that sets that up. When we hunted shots and forced shots, we shot poorly. You can't do that. We did some good things defensively down the stretch and had a tough time with Barrett. We wanted to shut out the threes. Their offensive spacing is to pound it inside but some of their threes were difficult but they went in. Barrett has improved his shooting a lot and on top of his already great game has made him very tough."
Seton Hall Head Coach Louis Orr
"It's one of those games we knew it would have runs. We started out slow offensively. Our guys showed great courage but we knew if he hung there, we could get back in the game. I'm proud of our guys and how they handled the pressure defense. Andre (Barrett) played great and he put us on his back in the second half. It's tied at 71 and, as I said, it was a game of runs, and they had one late. Our guys didn't quit and this is a tough place to play."
"John Allen doesn't have to score a point to be a hero. He's a tough guy and warrior and played pretty good defense."
"Louisville did a good job pressuring us, We got some looks but to me our defense is what we hang our hat on. We have to be able to get stops at crucial times. Dean hit a big three and they made the shots at the end."
