University of Louisville Men's Basketball Post-Game Quotes
February 02, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 2, 2009
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening Statement) "We played decent basketball all season but we ran into a team that was much better than us tonight. You have to give them all the credit; they were very aggressive on defense. They ran their offense and got a lot of good shots. They were just a much better basketball team tonight and totally out of our league. You have to give them credit. They are a great basketball team on both ends of the floor."
(On Hasheem Thabeet) "We played him really well last year because we worked inside to out, we took good shots, and we had offensive rebounds. Not making excuses but there is a very big difference between a fifth year senior and a freshman. He was overpowering our young guys."
(On Louisville's game plan) "You stop them in transition by taking great shots and offensive rebounding; we did neither in the first half. We are a cutting and slashing team, but we are playing like we are guys from South Dakota who are unbelievable pure shooters. Thabeet had a lot to do with our offensive philosophy in terms of us being intimated by him. I am sure he does it to a lot of people and he sure did it to us tonight."
(On Connecticut's offensive) "They are truly the number one ranked team in the country and are very deserving of their ranking. We were not in their league tonight."
(On Terrence Williams performance) "It was ok; I did not think it was great. It was just a night when we had to have a lift. He had a good night and the rest of the team did not because he was able to compete. He took a lot of difficult shots in the beginning. Every difficult shot we took got them out in transition, which was a double edged sword. To their credit they (Louisville) did not have a lot of confidence throwing inside tonight and I don't blame them."
(On Twill's second foul) "I did not want to totally take him out because we would have gotten blown out, but I just wanted to buy some time right before timeouts and put him back in the game. We just wanted to make sure that we could let him play and try to stay in the game."
(On Louisville's next focus) "The good thing about our team is we did not get too encouraged with our 8-0 start. We are at the half way point right now and we are not going to get discouraged about a team that was much better than us, beating us. We are not going to win every game and we are not going to get discouraged. It is a long season we have a chance to be a very good basketball team. It is imperative that we take great shots going down the court because we are not a good offensive passing team. The difference between last year and this year is we were a great passing team last year; we are not a great passing team this year; so we really have to execute. We have to show patience and too many times tonight it took us too long to get into our offense. We were running our fast break for a jump shot instead of a lay-up. It took us too long to get into our offense and had to play beat the clock against a very good defensive team with a very good shot blocker in the middle."
UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun
(Opening statement) "I could not be prouder of our kids in the sense that the couple of things we always like to do; we defended well but we exposed a team like Louisville that is on an 8 or 9 game winning streak. Watching them (on film), practically here and just how good they can be. But something happened during the game when Stanley (Robinson) got two fouls early in the game. And I became a genius, we only play three guards anyway because that's who coming off the bench. But we got the three guys in early."
"The pressure really never bothered us, as a matter of fact, it helped us because we have a great team and we all can really run particularly, A.J. (Price), Kemba (Walker), Craig (Austrie) and Jerome (Dyson) is as tough with the basketball as in anybody we are ever going to find. And that was a great advantage for us, to just attack pressure. And that's what number one teams always do going back to our days in battle at Northeastern and a long long time ago."
"Of course they like to attack you offensively, and of course attack you defensively. I thought we did a wonderful job. Hasheem (Thabeet) 4 blocks that's the first half stat I believe. We lead the league in blocked shots, but I'd rather lead the league. What he does for us, whether its 4 or 40, he's a great defensive player. What he does is causes you to look for him. And that's the greatest thing he did tonight was his presence because it was overwhelming."
"Samardo ( Samuels) is a terrific young player, I don't think he enjoyed the evening because of Hasheem(Thabeet), Rick Pitino as soon as we take Hasheem (Thabeet) out, he puts Samardo in and he tried to go right into him. The point being simply is he can control the middle of the floor, now you got the threes. And we did great, great job. But I couldn't be prouder of our team."
"Hasheem owned the paint, and he showed his jump shot tonight which is really nice to see, he's a really good shooter. People don't realize what good of a shooter he is. When you saw him a couple of years ago down here when he was a freshman, Jeff (Adrien)continues to be our rock, gets points, brings toughness, he missed some really tough dunks going to the hole."
"They really did a terrific job, anything we showed them they did, the only thing we couldn't do. The atmosphere was terrific really, and we just wanted to keep the crowd quiet. And Rick Pitino has clearly done a magnificent job with his team this year. And we will always see Louisville again because they are really good basketball team."
