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University of Louisville Men's Basketball Post-Game Quotes
December 21, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 21, 2005
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
"We are getting better. Just not better for 40 minutes, but we are getting better, we're doing good things defensively. We're starting to learn what to do defensively. We're stepping up and rotating a little better and that's what I want to see. I think our offense will come as well. But I think we could be a good offensive team, we just have to become a good defensive team, that's how you win on road. It's going to take some time, we are a work in progress, but I think we're making headway in that area."
"I told them don't let your offense dictate your defense, whether you're 1 for 5 or 1 for 7 or 4 for 5, make defense your staple, just get better than that. Our guys were being a little tentative and I had to keep yelling for them to shoot the ball. They were gaining confidence. We need Andre to gain a little confidence right now. We know Taquan will be Taquan when it's time, but right now we need our other players to step up."
(On Taquan Dean) "I think Taquan was a little banged up tonight. He'll be fine, he's got to just use the offense to get off his shot. We've got to start rebounding the ball better because it gets very physical in the Big East. That's probably the biggest difference with the Big East in basketball. We've got to get much better with that."
"We went with Terrence Williams tonight because of their size and athleticism. They average about 19-20 offensive rebounds per game. We did give them 16 tonight which is way too many, but we've got to get more rebounding in the lineup and we did a better job. We've just got to get our big guys to rebound a little bit better."
(On Brandon Jenkins) "He's playing well. We worked very hard in this early season on developing a midrange game on individual instruction. We have a lot of guys that don't have that game. From Terrence Williams to Andre (McGee) and Brandon, through a lot of hard work has developed a midrange game. Now we've got to get Tello Palacios to develop that midrange game. He doesn't have it either. But he hasn't been able to work on individual instruction and Brandon has worked very hard at that. He's playing with a great deal of confidence. Nothing's been said you can just tell he's a different person, the way he feels about himself."
(On Juan Palacios) "He's not playing particularly well. Check out his ankle when it doesn't have ice on it, it's huge. It's not that Tello doesn't want to do it, but five and a half months without playing, it doesn't come back right away. That's tough to do if you miss a month, but you miss five month, it's tough to do. He's nowhere near back. I don't know if he'll get it back this year - back to where he was.
(On Terrence Williams) "He had seven rebounds in the first half. He played with a lot of emotion and I told him after the Kentucky game. You maybe 1 for 7 and they maybe bad shot. That's irrelevant. I don't look at 1 for 7. All I look rebound line, your assist line, your steal line, the effort line. I didn't see but one rebound steal and assist. And that's what made me make a change. It's not the 1 for 7. If the other lines are productive like Brandon Jenkins is very productive. When you look at what Brandon Jenkins is doing besides scoring. What's impressing me about him what he's doing on defense, on the glass and with his rotations. That's the best part about Brandon Jenkins right now."
College of Charleston Head Coach Tom Herrion
"They had some guys really step up for them. They got a hobbled Taquan Dean. I thought some guys who may have been struggling lately made some bit plays for Andre McGee, Terrence Williams. They shot the ball extremely well. Inevitably, I thought the three-point shot beat us tonight. We cut it to four with roughly 11 to go. They hit back-to-back threes to go to 10. Probably stretched the game at that point and to the wind out of our sails."
