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Louisville-UNLV Postgame Quotes
December 11, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 11, 2010
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Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening Comments)
"For MVP, Preston, Chris or Kyle (deserved it), but I can't choose, I have a tough enough job. I am not picking that one. Obviously, Chris did so many things and Preston and Kyle were tremendous. Mike had an off night and what I told him was you need to be more like Preston and not think. Do you think it bothers Preston when he misses seven shots? Not in the least. Until you develop that attitude because they are all good shots, what bothered me was he was open and he was open and tried to drive to mid-range. You just got to keep on shooting. He will have a night where he goes 6-for-7 and then comes back. He needs to learn to move without the basketball and create other kinds of shots because he is such a good shooter. Everybody knows what they are getting to him.
We beat a tremendous basketball team tonight. We have been preparing for them for a long time. They pressure, and they force turnovers better than anyone else in the country. They can play five guards and kill you. We took advantage of pick and roll situations. We practiced hard for the last week and a half. Kyle made the shots, which is very, very important. We had to do it tonight with lineups we don't normally play. We knew we had to play Kyle at four because we had to last year as well. It is so important against them that the four man be able to pass and shoot the ball. But Bullet (Elisha Justice) gave us a great lift. I was just about ready to yell when he came out one-on-two---bring it out, bring it out --- and the words didn't come out of my mouth because I never thought he would go one-on-one and try to get it in one. And he did. That kid surprises me every single time I watch him in these games. It was a great win for us. We beat a tremendous basketball team."
(On Chris Smith)
"I think he did everything. He gave us big blocked shots. You know he came in here not understanding how to play. He averaged 5.4 rebounds per game at Manhattan, but if you look at his shooting percentage, it was 36 and 29 (percent). He really didn't know how to play. His shot had a little side spin. He's really improved his shooting and really worked on the fundamentals of the game of basketball. It has made him a better basketball player. I don't think he ever had any intention of playing defense in his life. In coming here, he has had to do it and it has made him a much better basketball player."
(On Louisville's shooting improvements in second half)
"Mike Marra went 0-for-9 (in the first half). Do the math. We needed this game and we had a great opportunity. The Butler game was a great win because of the way we won the game. We were allowed to do things in that game. This was going to have to be a spontaneous game that we had to make them react off our bounce and create momentum. Like us, they switch. They are very tough. They have always been great defensively. Lon has teams that will always give you a tough time. But this team, offensively, matches the defense. One wrong move and they bang a 3 in your face. Make one misstep and they step and throw the baseline bounce pass. I didn't know if we had the experience to win this game, but we did some great things in the second half. Obviously Preston and Kyle made some big buckets. "
(What did you find out about the team)
"This team has a great attitude. We got to cure Mike Marra. It wasn't his offense that bothered me, it was his defense. He has to get after it better on defense. Got to get him back. TJ (Jennings), in the first half, I had to keep taking him out because he wasn't doing what we practiced defensively. When George (Goode) came in, he did exactly what we practiced. Then, TJ in the second did a great job."
(About Preston Knowles)
"I didn't want to take him out. I didn't want to gamble, but I knew he makes all of his free throws at the end of the game. They are going to foul, so I kept him in. I gave him a break until right below the eight minute mark. He is what Mike Marra needs - no conscience. He doesn't think. Preston doesn't think at all and shooters can't think. You have to take open shots and drive when you are covered. Without the basketball Mike is thinking but Preston doesn't think about shooting."
(Length of bench)
"(It was) tremendous with George Goode. We couldn't play Gorgui; he did nothing wrong. This was a game where you had to do so many things right mentally to win. And you had to go with George. You couldn't even play Van Treese. You had to go with George. He is a cerebral basketball player, who talks and makes the right move. He also rebounds and blocks shots. We had to go with him. We had no indication that Van Treese wasn't playing well or Gorgui wasn't playing well. And now we have the big test. My admiration for this team - I wasn't just pumping them up. This is a heck of a ball club we beat today."
UNLV Head Coach Lon Kruger
(Opening Comments)
"They made a run, and we didn't handle it very well. They got a little momentum from that. When you're on the road especially, you have to try to curb those runs from the home team. We didn't do a very good job of slowing their runs down."
(On Louisville's second half zone defense)
"They played a lot of zone in the first half as well. They played a lot of man box too in the second half. They got us standing around a little bit in the second half. They played that zone a lot, and they were good at it. It's not like we're attacking a defense that's not very sound in what they do. They did get us standing a little bit, but that's not what we want to do. We have to attack it a lot more than we did. We got timid in the second half - that's not what you want to do. That's what they're hoping you do. They won that little battle there - getting us standing--you can't afford that."
(On turnovers)
"We got a little sloppy with the ball. On the road, especially, you have got to play stronger. When you go in the paint, you have to go in with a little more strength and take care of the ball."
(On Preston Knowles)
"Preston Knowles had a big second half. He made good plays and did a really good job."
(On going back to practice after a win versus after a loss)
"They make pretty good progress even with the win. When you lose, it gets your attention a little bit more. Only time will tell. I imagine we'll come back a little more focused. This group hasn't been bad with that at all. When you lose, it's a jolt. We have to bounce back and make progress."
(On what turned the game around)
"They made a couple of shots in transition there and cut into the lead pretty quickly. We turned it over a time or two right there. They made the run, and they kind of kept it going - instead of us trying to halt it a little bit better. They made some shots then in the second half that they didn't make in the first half, and we didn't. Anytime a team has got momentum, that team is always quicker to the ball - a little tougher, making nice plays, that's the nature of the game. During that stretch when they were making the run, they were tougher with the ball, quicker to the ball, and that's the way it always works."
