.png&width=32&height=32&type=webp)
University of Louisville Men's Basketball Post-Game Quotes
January 09, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 9, 2006
U of L head coach Rick Pitino
"I loved our unselfishness tonight. I asked our young guys try to play like a mature basketball team and I thought they did a phenomenal job of looking for open. T. Will acted like a senior tonight. It was BJ's birthday January 8th and it was a great present to play like that. We are trying to play a different style and our goal is to keep pushing it but we are not in shape to do it quite yet."
(On Brandon Jenkins) "I think every junior I have has a great year I wish they could be like junior year for four years. They don't have the pressures that the seniors have and wise enough to be a senior in terms of the mental capacities that you have. It is a great year and I love juniors and certainly Brandon Jenkins is having a terrific season. I think the whole team was thinking pass and of each other tonight."
"We are playing with good confidence right now with two wins on the road over Miami and Providence, that helps. Tonight with Taquan out they were playing a zone and we did a great job of attacking it. We need to improve conditioning.We are not in bad shape but the stomach flu run through the team and 7 of 13 guys and 5 or six players and coaches hasn't gotten it yet. Chad has it now. Taquan has an ankle sprain that he got against Providence. I am not able say if he can go tomorrow and we will take off Thursday and hopefully he can get two good practices in after that."
"We put in a different zone along with our 2-3 and vary our presses and put in an extra press and extra zone. We aren't physical enough so we can't stay with one defense and be very effective. I wish we could have played Tuesday and got an extra day of rest after Providence but we also need to prepare for Pittsburgh. Pitt is very similar to Cincinnati in terms not terms of width but in terms of height. Pitt is a terrific ball club and they are so physical. This league is so may different styles. varied. WVU and Georgetown. relies on back doors . Providence is terrific on the break. There are unbelievable shooting and zone teams. Pitt and U C are very physical. It is just a very difficult league. I am not ready to concede anything to the Big East opponents. Of course, if I had my druthers I would have had last year's team starting against Big East. I don't know if WVU or Syracuse is the best teams. There are six teams in the top 25, you can't concede anything to anyone .Certainly UConn is the most deep and talented team. In terms of draft picks and talent. Villanova is very difficult to attack. WVU is a nightmare to play defensively. This will be a very big test for us on Sunday. Pick your poison in this league and you will choke every night."
(On Andre McGee) "Andre is doing a great job. He has a two guard mentality when he penetrates he has to score and that is what he had to do in high school. He has point guard skills but two guard mentality. That is tough to learn. Passing is tremendous and our spacing is very good and our offense is really clicking. The only thing that is missing is how physical we are and we are getting pushed around a lot. When you get pushed in the back that is part of the game. Tello and David are not in great physical shape quite yet. Both of them are great runners at their position. When David's winds comes, is as good a running five man as there is in the country."
UC-Davis Coach Gary Stewart
"As far as we are concerned from our side of the ball their pressure wore us down we didn't turn the gall over a lot in the backcourt against the press but nevertheless it had an effect on us. In the half court they executed really well. They got the ball in the high post area to David Padgett. Then David Padgett was able to drop it down inside or go in for easy baskets. If he wasn't doing that then or Brandon Jenkins was open the entire. I think we spent too much time focusing on Taquan Dean over there in street clothes rather than focusing on Brandon Jenkins. Brandon had a terrific night."
