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Louisville vs. Marquette - Freedom Hall - Post-Game Quotes
January 26, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 26, 2005
Recap | Box Score | Notes
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
"Obviously, everything went well for us tonight. Larry O'Bannon had a special night tonight and I'm really pleased for him. He's the kind of kid that you envision this program being about. He's a great person, a player who improves and works hard each year and a good student. He exemplifies everything we're trying to build with our program."
(on the injury to Marquette's Travis Diener) "We didn't know until late and of course it changes. We were very disappointed that he didn't play. I know personally I was very disappointed because I don't like to see any talented player go through an injury and I hope it's short-lived. Travis has the ball in his hands about 50 percent of the time and they run some sets and get to him at the end of their sets and it's a big blow for their team."
"We stayed with our offense and we shot 56 percent from the field. We've been used to the changing defenses that they play and we were ready for it and practiced against it."
"We don't want you to write about us, we'd rather you write about Kentucky and leave us alone. Let us stay second fiddle because we're not good when we think we're good. Just give us a little box at the end with our score and don't write too much about us. If we stay under the radar, we're a pretty good basketball team."
"We're a very humble group. Guys like Lorrenzo Wade are very hungry to show their stuff and play hard. We knew that with Travis Diener out that we had a huge talent edge. The Marquette kids did a terrific job of continuing to play hard and Tom (Crean) did a terrific job coaching them throughout."
"Our field goal defense in the second half is really picking up right now where earlier in the year it was the other way. In the second half, they shot just 20.8 percent and that's a result of our increase in focus and effort."
Marquette Head Coach Tom Crean
"It (the streak) meant a great deal to our team. Our players never felt like they couldn't come in here and win. Without Travis (Diener) and some others who were sick we were outmanned. I don't want to make excuses because they are a great team. Larry O'Bannon is a fantastic shooter, best in the league. He has bought into everything the Louisville program stands for and now he is being rewarded. This team plays very well together and tonight they made their shots. When you make your shots like that your teams feed off it. "
"Travis Diener has a recurring ankle injury that we are treating like a sprain. But I don't know exactly the nature of the injury. My heart goes out to him because he wants to play so badly. This is the first time the game has been taken away from him due to injury."
"We will have to go home and regroup and get ready to go to Saint Louis. We will focus on the fact that we didn't meet the pass and we weren't strong with the ball and we didn't talk on the floor like we should. We didn't give them the game, they earned it. We caught them on a hot night. Novak has been sick with the influenza bug. But they don't cancel a game for that. We've got to come to play. No excuses. We were down 19 at the half last year and came back and won but they came out with a major onslaught early in the second half and we couldn't recover."
"Travis is day by day and will get more testing when we get home. There was no discussion today about whether he would play ... he was hurt."
