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University of Louisville Men's Basketball Post-Game Quotes
December 09, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 9, 2006
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
"It was a good ball game and we very pleased. I think we still have tremendous room for improvement, which is a good thing. St. Joe's is like us, a young basketball team that's only going to get better. Overall, we played a good basketball game and did some very positive things."
(On the positives) "We moved the basketball around and played excellent defense in the first half. I thought we did a decent job of rebounding the ball. We had some breakdowns, but we're getting better at it."
(On Will Scott's confidence growing) "It should, we have great confidence in him. He comes in in very difficult situations. As most of you know, his dad was the Knicks' doctor when I was the coach there. I knew Will before he was born, while he was in his mother's womb. It just goes to show you genetics, genetics, genetics. I played with his dad. I can assure you Norm's been one of my closest friends for thirty years now. Will's a good ball player. Genetics has nothing to do with it."
"Tonight he gave us a little bit of everything. He makes his free throws, drove to the basket, gave us a little rebound. He's become a better defensive player on the ball. He struggles a little bit off the ball. He's working very hard on that. He's getting better and better."
"I thought T. Will played very well tonight. He did a good job of picking out his spots and took good shots the whole night. He's got to work on his balance when he goes to the rim a little bit so he's not falling before he gets hit and that will come in time."
(On David Padgett) "I wasn't intending on playing him at all tonight, but we needed him down the stretch. We had to have him. We were in foul trouble. After that we had to go with him."
(On Bellarmine) "Bellarmine will give us a good test. We know they played us tough last year, but I'd like to watch a little more film on them."
(On losing the big lead) "I don't think you blow out good teams. We are too young to blow out. We don't know enough of the game to blow out anyone. I think it's just a matter of us growing this basketball team. We have eight freshmen and sophomores. We're very young. The most important thing is that we are getting better and we're getting a W."
(On UofL's interior defense) "It's still pretty weak, it's not one of our strengths."
St. Joseph's Head Coach Phil Martelli
"I first want to compliment the fans here. We go to a lot of places where it is hostile and I thought that they were extraordinary in cheering for their team and that's the way it should be. I really do compliment them and think that that was a good experience. That's what it should be, it should be a good experience. You want to win every game but the experience is something that you know I would like to do that again. My hats off to the way they conducted themselves and with Rick in charge I would expect nothing less. I really, really was impressed. Next Saturday when the two teams play, I am sure it might not be as cordial an atmosphere but certainly tonight I thought the fans came to see a good basketball, and I thought that from both teams defensively."
"We're just a struggle offensively, it's almost like scratching your fingernails on the blackboard. We turned the ball over in unusual ways. We didn't step onto the foul line, we pride ourselves on our foul shooting and obviously 13 of 22 is not going to get it done. And turning the ball over 16 times on the road is not going to get it done. We were aware that their bench, but their bench hurt us, the Scott kid had a big game. I thought we did a good job defensively I thought we did a nice job the rest of the places on the floor but offensively putting it one way, we stink."
"We weren't able to sustain it at the defensive end. We committed too many early fouls leading to one and ones and then the two shot foul. If you watch teams in games that get back in games limit their number of fouls so the other team has some game pressure, shooting one and ones. I thought our defense let down and a couple of times we were over anxious. The energy that we have defensively is our strength but our composure is needs to be developed. We need to come up with an idea of solid rather than frenetic, we never stopped them. I was pleased offensively but we didn't dig in. Even though we fought, too many of the loose balls went their way."
