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University of Louisville Men's Basketball Post-Game Quotes
December 27, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 27, 2009
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery 
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
"Well obviously when you offensive rebound it is a second offense for you. It's not only an offense for what you're doing, man to man or zone, it is a second offense. Our guys, especially Kyle and Samardo (Samuels) were treating every shot as if it were a pass to them and that is what you want to do. Those guys were really big on the glass. Our rebounding effort was terrific tonight. We improved defensively. We still have a long way to go. We still have a lot of improvement to make but we are certainly taking baby steps to where we want to get to."
(On defensive improvements) "I don't think we're giving up second shots. We're putting the other team into the bonus a little early by committing careless fouls. We're reaching in on guys who are not shooters. We did some really good things rotation wise. We did some really good things in transition."
(On being ready for South Florida) "I think the three guys getting injured set us back. It got us out of rhythm a little bit, but I think we're back on track to where we're hoping to get. We're not where we want to be. That's the good thing and that's the bad thing. We have so much growth left in us."
(On improvements that need to be made) "I'd like to see a little quicker ball movement in our zone offense. From a scouting standpoint we still need to focus in on who can shoot and who can pass. Overall tonight, we did a very good job of understanding how to play the low post. Against Kansas number 40 (Lynch-Flohr) had 26 and 14. We held him to three rebounds tonight. The big fellow (Parahouski) has had 20 rebound games. He had 36 and 20 at Duquesne and they played at Duke. So our guys did a very good job on the interior of not giving up easy shots."
(On what was learned in this game) "Yes, very much so. I think our team is learning. Now we're going to play a team who is the total opposite of that. A team that is great off the bounce and playing terrific basketball in South Florida. They play four guards at times. So now it's a totally different game. That's what we have to get our guys to understand, every game is going to be different from this point on."
(On the development of Kyle Kuric) "You all saw it last year, that he is a very good offensive rebounder. I think Kyle can do that. I think the biggest improvement is Samardo Samuels rebounding. Samardo's biggest problem was that he would check out like an old-fashioned point guard. He'd get locked on the ground. Now he's starting to check out and create a space. Then he's very long and he's a good jumper. He's doing a better job of releasing the pressure and pursuing the basketball."
(On playing Jennings and Samuels together) "It's not a strength to be honest with you. It's not a strength because what teams do automatically is they play you zone. It's not necessarily a weakness. We're going to keep working on it because when Syracuse or somebody like that comes we have to get used to playing it. In the beginning TJ was getting confused in the zone defense, but we'll keep working on it. It's not going to happen overnight. It's going to happen, but it's not going to happen overnight. We have to make sure that Swopshire keeps improving and Rakeem keeps improving."
(On Jerry Smith struggling the past few games) "I think it affects him mentally, but Jerry broke the offense tonight early on. He took four difficult shots and then he thought he was off. Three of them were challenged shots. Jerry is a good shooter. If he'd just let the game come to him it would be much easier on him. He'll be fine. I told him `Jerry, you just have to keep shooting. As long as you're playing defense and rebounding, we don't worry about missed shots as long as you take open shots.' That's what he has to do. He's a good shooter."
Radford Head Coach Brad Greenburg
"We weren't very successful. We weren't making enough plays to hurt them when they were scrambling and gave us a 3 on 2 - some sort of advantage where we could have gotten a shot. That was a disappointing first half. The second half, I thought we did a little bit better at getting it inside. We had it at a 14-15 point game with eight or nine minutes to go, but we weren't able to convert or push them at that time to get it at the four-minute make it a 10 point game. We made a couple of unforced turnovers along the sidelines one happened right after a timeout. I was like `what happened? And how did we lose the ball that quick?' We had a couple of those and 17 turnovers. It was too much. We've got to be a lot better at ball handling. We've got a lot of basketball left, so we've to get better at ball handling."
(On Jeremy Robinson's impact in the game) "He hustled. He got hit in the mouth one time and had to come out. I thought Evan (Faulkner) played solid. He missed some jumpers, but I thought he played solid. I thought he handled the pressure pretty well. He did a solid job defensively so I thought Evan did well. "
(On missing Phillip Martin and depth on the roster) "Phillip is such a versatile player for us. He gives you one more guy up front in that rotation. Yeah, we miss him. He wants to be out there and we want him out there, but his health is more important to worry about, so he's just got to heal. And Jamal (Curry) you do anything about the fact that he has a sports hernia and was in pain."
"This was a good game we got to play a lot of good minutes against the pressure which helps us down the road. In the game against VMI you're going to see that. You get these games despite losing, you try to find the silver lining - it gives us a couple of days to focus on the press attack and to work in different situations, whether it's inbounding on the sidelines, in the backcourt or the frontcourt. I think we'll be able to watch the tape and show guys where we didn't do it and where we'd like to do it, and put yourself in the right position."
