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University of Louisville Men's Basketball Post-Game Quotes
December 10, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 10, 2006
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
"Our main objective was to end this thing 5-2 and get on a winning streak. We had to fight for every victory and tonight was no exception and we knew that. BU did a great job against all three Division I teams. They are a terrific team that can really shoot the basketball. That is indicative of the 10 threes they made. So they deserve a lot of credit and they are hard to play if they get their other player eligible they will be even harder to play off the backboard."
"We do so some things very well and we do some other things not so well. This game is very indicative of another game that we played that could have been easier on us if we could shoot better from the foul line. All of our "five" guys are bad foul shooters and only Padgett can shoot them. We need to get him healthier so he can play the last five minutes and make those shots. Then we know we are going to shoot a high percentage. We didn't want to play him last night and we did so we rested him tonight."
"I think we are extremely young. I think we do some real good things. With DC, he doesn't understand certain things. He needs to absorb more of the questions and have more of the answers. With Derrick Caracter, we give him the answers to the test and he still fails the test. He has the answers but he doesn't absorb things. His past hasn't allowed him to learn quickly. He is going to be double teamed so he has to throw it back outside to get the second pass. He has the answers but he doesn't absorb it as much. That is why his progress is not going as quickly as I would like to see it."
(On the play of Terrence Williams) "Like I told him (Williams), I was concerned that he came off a driving play and shot a three. He made one. Neither one should have been taken. It is not a three-point play, it is a driving play. I told him that then I pulled him out before and I said 'Look, now you have a wide open three against the zone and you have to take it.' That is where he has got to get better. He has to make his layups and he has to make his mid-range jump shot. He throws it too hard. He has to go in to about eight to ten feet and take a nice soft jump shot. That is where he has to get better in making those. But, I thought he played excellently in the tournament."
"It is early. I think we are working really hard but it is early. We have a good attitude though. But it is very early in the season. We have to shoot our free throws better. If you don't shoot the ball well, the games look ugly. If you can't shoot from the foul line well, the other team can stay in the game. We have got to improve from the foul line."
(On the play of Juan Palacios) "I want to see him (Palacios) play well against BIG EAST type competition. I want to see him rebound better. We are playing against a UMass team that is one of the two best teams in the A-10 in terms of talent. If we play good, we will lose to UMass. We have to play great to beat UMass. They are a great team. I didn't coach any little dummy as a point guard. Travis Ford did not schedule us to come back home. He scheduled us to win. They are a great team, not a good team with great talent. They have the best shooter we have seen this year by far. They have great interior people... three of four of their players could start for any team in the country. This will be a big, big test for us this week."
(On the extended minutes of Brad Gianiny) "I thought Brad Gianiny was playing better than Sosa. Sosa was running into screens. Brad was getting more people the basketball. I just liked the way he played. I know Brad's going to make free throws when we have to. Who knows when Andre McGee will come back and I need to get Brad playing time. I am not sure when Andre is going to come back. We thought it was going to be this week, but I would say it is more like another week because his knee swelled up a little bit yesterday after working out. We will see what happens. You guys have a tendency not to believe me. If we play like we played against the last three games we will have no chance against UMass. We played good enough to win and we did a lot of good things in this tournament."
Bellarmine Head Coach Scott Davenport
"What a game! I think the first thing that`s got to said is how proud I am of our guys. They are absolutely incredible - to take on three schools like that. Play 9:30 Friday, 4:30 on Saturday and 6:00 tonight against a Big East power. I could not ask for anymore. Now the value of it is - I could bring in coach Pitino, coach Crum, Dean Smith, Bob Knight, Adolf Rupp - I could bring them all in and ask them - how do I practice for Friday, Saturday and Sunday and get me ready for the rest of our season. All those brilliant minds could not simulate what we got to go through in these last three days. We've got to embrace that opportunity. We'll take off tomorrow, we're in the middle of finals starting tomorrow. And when we practice at noon on Tuesday, we need to take that and move forward with it. Again, I'm just so proud of our guys."
"Matt DeMasters goes down with hip injury. We're so short handed and we still fight them. We were down six rebounds in the first 7-8 minutes of the game. And it ends up being an 8 rebound differential for the game. And they're just a bigger, stronger, talented team."
"I said to coach Pitino before the game. 'I want to thank you for what you've done for me both professionally and personally to allow us the opportunity to come here and put our program on display in this - the greatest of all basketball venues - in front of the greatest fans ever.' We're hoping that they liked the product and they'll come into Knight's Hall and see us play some of the remainder of the season."
(On Dzalfo Larkai) "One thing that did happen, because we had to go so small, it was a difficult matchup for them. Flo underwent knee surgery Jan. 4 of this year. Major knee surgery. And did not play one second of 5 on 5 basketball until Oct. 15. So he's still a work in progress and that's after having been out of basketball for two years. It was a difficult matchup when we went to a smaller lineup."
"In our league what would be a 3-man in the Big East is a power forward in our league. We just don't have the 6-10 - those guys who are coming off there with Derrick Caracter, Terrance Farley and that's not even playing David Padgett. But we kept battling, we gained rebounds - try to be as fundamental team as we could be - that's the only way we were going to be successful. We're not going to out-athlete people, but we know that. We are what we are. Our guys embrace that. They take great pride in having confidence in their fundamentals to play the game - and we work on it every day."
"I'm so proud of their effort in those three games. Marcus Flynn tonight was the leading rebounder in the first half. I played him way too many minutes in those three games - 39 tonight, 37 the other day. He's a special young man. He's a senior, he's embraced the opportunity and the chance and went out there an performed."
(On Matt DeMasters) "Now we're short on size. We lose a very good rebounder, a very active player. He's our best defender. He does a great job of drawing charges and fundamentally blocking people out. He went out and tried to warm up and there was just no way. His hip was just so painful - he couldn't do it - and that's five less fouls. Then Flo fouls out. Then we to Mark Veith, a freshman who plays very well, tries as hard as he can every day. He's going to have a great career at Bellarmine. Our guys knew it was going to be a team thing, no matter what we asked you to do tonight - if we asked you to do one possession or 39 minutes - you had to give it everything. Guys in the lockerroom are absolutely spent, I'm very proud of them. They need to hold their heads high. If you can just embrace this and take it and keep getting better and we will."
