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University of Louisville Men's Basketball Post-Game Quotes
February 11, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 11, 2006
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
"We expected that type of game and we got it. We had to really dig in deep and get into the trenches and play awesome defense down the stretch and we did. As a veteran ball club, they had no quit in them. We are all very impressed with UConn, Villanova and West Virginia - that is obvious. I can't tell you how impressed I am with Notre Dame and South Florida. When you lose you have tendency to let down, finger point and do things that aren't characteristic of a tough basketball team. They don't do that and they play every game like this. They had Villanova beat at the buzzer and played Georgetown tough on the road. They were up 12 with four minutes to go. At Seton Hall, they do it to everybody because they are a veteran team they are tough to guard. We are real proud of this victory."
"We felt we are not a great fastbreak team because we can't rebound well enough. We tried our tails off to block out tonight and really made a great effort in doing that. But we physically don't get above the rim and get it and go and it has hurt our fastbreak. We wanted to do two things in the second half, we wanted to do the correct things in the defensive end and make sure we locked down the three point line and not turn the ball over. We made some great defensive plays down the stretch."
(Regarding David Padgett's health) "He has a concussion. The good news is that it is not his knee and hopefully he will be fine. He had a pretty good hit and he banged his head on the floor. We have a week and generally you can come back from that."
(On why Brad Gianiny was in at end of game) "Andre was working his tail off and he was spent. At the end of close games, Andre, just from pressuring and running the team is just exhausted. He was working his tail off and I thought he was out of gas. And to be honest with you, I thought we would have to shoot free throws. We didn't get Brad to the line, but I thought we would have to shoot free throws. That, no question, is our Achilles' heel right now. It becomes somewhat mental when you miss it but we have to do a better job in general. Inexperience teams find ways to lose and tonight we found a way to win off defense."
(On Perrin Johnson starting) "We were looking for toughness on the glass. They have a young man who shoots nothing but layups, he was 10 for 10 in one game and in another he was 5 for 5 and that is pretty much Perrin's game. We wanted some toughness and Perrin has deserved to play, and I haven't played him. Perrin has deserved to start and I tried to go with a bigger lineup by starting Chad and Tello but that wasn't working in practice so I went with Perrin, because he deserved to start and really worked his tail off. Perrin is really not a good zone player, for some reason he doesn't understand zone concepts."
(On Terrance Farley) "Physically he is matured but mentally I just don't know. He is guarding a three-point shooter and gets caught on him and then plays sagging defense. I think he forgets faces."
(On U of L's free throw shooting) "It is not good and it hasn't been good. We are spending an incredible amount of time but it is pretty much what you see with rebounding, if you are a great shooter, rarely are you are a bad foul shooter. We are working very hard on improving it."
USF Head Coach Robert McCullum
"The defense down the stretch was outstanding when we went down by six, I thought that when we went up by six, defensively they were a different team prior to that point. They lowered their base and got very physical. It was as if they were determined that we were not going to get any execution or shots that we had gotten before that point we weren't going to get it then. It is like they said our season hinges on the balance of the last three, four, or five minutes of this game and we are going to get it done. That is the presence that they had. My hat is off to them. That is what a tradition rich program can have. Unfortunately we were not able to respond."
"I am extremely proud of this team and couldn't be prouder of what this team has had to deal with and what overcome, day after day. Yet they still continue to come out play and compete as if we are still in the Big East race. If you didn't look at the team records, you certainly think that this was a team that hadn't won a game. I couldn't be prouder of them. In spite of another loss, when we come out Monday for practice, I expect more of the same. The fact that we continue to come closer and closer shows that our players still are hungry and have the appetite to get a win. It might be different if we were being blown out, I think it would be a lot easier to throw in the towel. Bulls don't usually quit, I don't expect this group to quit either."
(On the last shot) "The ball was in the hands of the player, we wanted McHugh to have it and we thought Chad Millard couldn't guard it one on one. Unfortunately he didn't give a James Holmes enough time to get out on the side of the court. We wanted to clear out that area, let him drive and kick. He sort of panicked. Not realizing how much time we had. He just handed off the ball off to James and James wasn't expecting it. Still, James got a pretty good look at it and even if Collin Dennis tipped it in, we would have still been down one and fell short. We tried to get a drive-kick and that might be as good as we could get. They were switching everything, so we weren't going to bring James Holmes or Melvin Buckley off a screen, that was going to be very difficult."
