University of Louisville Men's Basketball Post-Game Quotes
December 28, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 28, 2005
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
"We played with great effort and good hustle. Our effort level was sky high and energy level was high. We had a terrific first half and not so great second half unfortunately. They know who is around the corner. We will play a tough Miami team with their good guard, Harris, back. They were up five and in control of the game that we watched (Florida) and we need to get ready for them."
"Akron was the best game, but this was the hardest we've played, especially in the first half. We rushed offensively in the first half. I dont think we are any where near our potential. We will keep getting better and better. We wouldn't have beaten Miami tonight if we played like we did in the second half. If we bottled the first half, we could have beaten them. I think Taquan let the game come to him tonight and didn't rush it. I wanted to try Tello (Palacios) at the small forward position to see if he could rebound better and he did, but our power forward didn't rebound as well. Tello likes the small forward position better, but he looked the best tonight moving around on his ankle."
(On UL's improvement since UK game) "The Kentucky game was an aberration with us taking bad shots but that was a credit to their defense. The most important thing for this team is to have confidence. The reason we might not be confident is that we are young. We were battling injuries but now we are getting healthy. Taquan isn't playing with Ellis, Larry and Fransciso this year, who knew his every move. He has to learn to trust his teammates and go inside to David. We split the post and got some wide open jumpers. David is smart enough to know that if no one is on him, he can use his left hook and a good right hook and he is a great foul shooter so it can work for him. We are no where near where we need to be, or where we were last year, but our effort level is where we needed to be. We have given up the three more this year than any other team since I have been here. Defending the three comes with experience and knowing how that three can kill you."
Fairleigh Dickinson Head Coach Tom Green
"Their press got us going way too much. We worked on it all week, but their pressure got to us. They didn't do anything we didn't expect. We are a better ball handing team than we showed tonight. Taquan Dean is very talented. Really there was just too much talent for us tonight."