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University of Louisville Men's Basketball Post-Game Quotes
December 27, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 27, 2008
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening Statement) This is a team that is very scary on film and very scary in person. With five minuets to go in the Oklahoma game, they had the lead. Then there was the unbelievable game at Arizona. They have played great competition such as Boston College. They're a terrific team, and they are very tough to defend. We did a great job tonight with our zone. We really played intelligently. They got the ball to the foul line a few times when Samardo (Samuels) did not get off of his feet but outside of that we did a great job all night. We made some little mistakes of not handling the basketball well but that is a credit to their defense.
(On Robert Vaden's first-half performance) I thought we played good defense on him. He makes good shots. He has got very comfortable NBA range. He does not have to make an adjustment.
(On Samardo Samuels quick passing) That was the difference in our team. The difference in our team is him trying to force it and turn it over in the Minnesota game, and now making everybody better and making the extra pass. It again is not his fault, he has to learn it. He has to learn how to handle pressure. He has to learn how to play good man-to-man defense and get up off of his feet and challenge shots. He is a freshman and he is supposed to learn these things. He is doing a terrific job for a freshman.
(On Jared Swopshire's performance and the lineup change) I thought that Swopshire played terrific. I thought we really did some good things both offensively and defensively. It is a mindset too, when you know that you have Jerry (Smith) and Preston (Knowles) out there. You have to watch them because it really opens up some of the inside as well.
(On Jerry Smith starting at point guard) He did fine. I think that it takes a little more energy from Jerry because it is a much tougher position to go against. I think he did fine. Jerry has not turned the ball over much and it is new to him. We have been using it a little bit in practice. Truthfully, we had to dominate the glass tonight and that was the key to our preparation. I thought that every good defensive play that we made earlier in the season but did not get the rebound, Twill has just been a man among boys rebounding the ball. He really played a great game tonight.
UAB Head Coach Mike Davis
First of all we just weren't ready to play. The team we played today was much more prepared then we were. They played with passion and had a relentless approach to it and we played afraid early. If Vaden doesn't make those four threes it could have been over early. He made some big shots for us early and they made adjustments and we never made adjustments. They sped us up and we knew they would and instead of taking great shots we took the first open look and we didn't respond to them. They did a great job.
(On Vaden) He just got tired, I played him too long. I just didn't have anybody to sub to get him a minute of two. This basketball team, they just made runs, they make runs. So it was hard to sub. I told our guys that it was my fault that I didn't keep our guys here for Christmas. I let them go home for Christmas. I should of kept them here and worked. It's all about us getting better and it is all about us getting better as a basketball team. Not about them going home and going on vacation for two days. We should of stayed here and worked and we didn't do that and it showed. We have a couple of guys we gotta get more out of. We only have six scholarship players. We can't have three scholarship guys playing and having the walk-ons play more than the scholarship guys. They have to play harder than that.
They sped us up and we didn't take care of the basketball. We made unforced turnovers, we knew they would come behind and try to speed us up. Once we got into the half court set we got caught up in the crowd more than just focusing on executing offensively. They played a zone and we should have got the ball to the high post and went high-low or hit a guy in the corner. We just played rim to rim and we couldn't change them. We had a lot of guys we could put in and out but we couldn't change our approach to it. And when we did we got something good out of it, we got layups we got open shots but we just played around and let them matchup against us. Then they next team we caught the ball too deep. We were gonna double team him every time he caught the basketball and a couple of times we tried to front him. They made shots, they made shots.
