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University of Louisville Men's Basketball Post-Game Quotes
December 26, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 26, 2007
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
"Once again Andre and Jerry helped us bust this game open with incredible pressure in the backcourt defensively. The added the adrenaline to our offense. We are falling into situations where we give up the three too much. Whether they're difficult threes or not, it doesn't matter whether its with Marshall or New Mexico State and tonight. They are difficult threes and they are going in, you've got to limit the attempts. Under a minute to go they made their first three and that was the difference in the game and we stopped the three, and played much better defense."
"Our full court press was good, it was our half court defense that gave us trouble. We've got to work on the fundamentals of defense."
(on what Andre and Jerry did well) "They denied the ball well and read the basketball. They were able to utilize their quickness."
(On Jerry Smith's scoring tonight) "I think it has been a lack of passing. We passed the ball a lot better last year. Our passing dictates weather Jerry gets hot or not. I think our passing was there tonight."
"The 3-point shot is a great neutralizer in college basketball. If you give up the three and don't defend it well you can die by it on any given night."
(on starting Caracter) "We gambled tonight, we were going to start Juan with Clark. But thought that we could hurt them inside with Derek and I wanted him to work on defending someone smaller."
"This is a team that has taken 149 threes between three people. Walter did a good job scouting, it was his first scout tonight. We knew what they would do but teams have been shooting the threes deeper and later in the shot clock."
"I'm pleased with our progress we are just fundamentally doing bad things and mentally not the right thing. We are not blitzing and getting back on defense."
Morehead State Head Coach Donnie Tyndall
"First give Louisville credit, in the second half they turned it up a notch or two. Offensive in the first half, we did a good job. In the second half, like any Coach Pitino team, their defense is what wins game for them."
"I thought our kids played extremely hard for about 20 minutes, they took us out of things in the second half. When you look at games they struggled, New Mexico State, they lost by five, the game they lost at home to Dayton and the Purdue game, they didn't shoot a great percentage from three point land. We doubled the post a lot to limit the touches, but then you sacrifice a lot in the perimeter game. When they got easy baskets from their press, they got in flow a little bit, their three point shooters got comfortable."
(On Maze Stallworth) "Any time a guy scores 34 points, the next game he'll be a focal point and they'll focus on him. Tonight they did a good job. He was 1 for 7 on threes."
