Louisville Men's Basketball Post-Game Quotes

Dec. 13, 2003

Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino

"It was a great win for our program. My brother-in-law (Billy Minardi) and Francisco's brother are smiling somewhere because we got a great victory and my brother-in-law loved Billy Donovan. We were playing so hard defensively but when you see teams miss free throws, they are fatigued. We wanted to press effectively without fouling. They are an excellent ball club."

"Tragedy can bring out the worst and the best in anyone. It's good to cry and get it out. Each day that goes by, you can celebrate his life. I wanted to honor Billy and have his name live on which is we have Billy Minardi Hall. He will do something one day to honor his brother and take care of his mother."

(on if Garcia thought about not playing against Florida) "When we played Seton Hall, we didn't know. When he travelled to New York, he didn't know there was going to be a wake and a funeral. The next day he couldn't come out for practice. I told him to sit out the next game. About 20 minutes later he said he wanted to play."

'It is very tough to double team a good shooting team. This is a very good offensive team that is good as any in the game."

(on guarding Matt Walsh) "We weren't going to let him breathe and when he put it on the floor, we were going to step up. That allowed (David) Lee to step up. You have to give somewhere which is OK. We were just trying to pressure and we pressed intelligently."

(on if he still think the team is rebuilding) "I think if we are humble and hungry, we'll be good. We are still rebuilding because it's an attitude. Last year, we had Reece Gaines, Marvin Stone, Erik Brown and Ellis Myles plus we had a couple of freshman step up. This is not the team that had the same success level as last season. The minute you start thinking you are good is when you can get in some trouble."

(on Francisco Garcia) "When he gets stronger and learns not to take bad shots, he's going to be a great player down the road. We have to spend a lot of time with his body and once he gets about 190 pounds, the sky is the limit."

Florida Head Coach Billy Donovan

"I think the difference today was the spurts. Their nine three's versus our five and the 18 turnovers in relationship to their 10 was the difference. They also got 24 points off turnovers. Defensively we did a fairly good job but a couple of threes by Dean early in the second half when we cut it to three, opened it up again. They did a good job on Matt Walsh. It was good to see David Lee bounce back. The turnovers and the threes were key."

"We are not a cohesive offensive team right now because we don't have good on-court chemistry right now. I don't want to make excuses but they haven't had much practice time. Our guys have been in a situation when you are going from one game to the next. There is no flow and continuity right now. It's not their fault, we just have a lot of young guys. Losing two games isn't a bad thing. This is the type of thing that our team needs to go through right now."

(on Louisville guarding Matt Walsh) "They did a good job staying at home. When teams do that to a player, it's a great sign of respect. One of the big things for Walsh, Roberson and Lee, they are dealing with a different defensive focus than they were last year. They were four, five and six on the defensive scouting report last year and now they are one, two and three."

"When we got it to six, we got a little overanxious. I didn't think we capitalized as well as I would have liked when they missed some free throws."

University of Louisville Athletics

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