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Louisville-Kentucky Postgame Quotes
December 31, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 31, 2010
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Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening Statement)
"It doesn't take a smart answer to figure out that they (Kentucky) were the better basketball team. They were better on the glass, they were better at executing and they played a terrific game. They have good speed in the open court, and they execute very well. We did a much better job in the second half of moving the basketball, of going inside. That was our strategy. We felt if they were going to take away the perimeter shot on us then we had to go inside. We only went inside four times and that was our Achilles' heel in the first half. We have to give their defense credit; they made their free throws and did an outstanding job on the backboards."
(On Kentucky's defense)
"I think it was more of us not paying attention to what we had to do. We kept trying to drill it like they were going to run at us, trying to block our shot. The first play of the game we took a lazy jump shot rather than a ball fake and going inside to make the next pass. We didn't take any time off and that is all we practiced; they took three days off and didn't have to worry. That just goes to show you that they have a heck of a basketball team."
(On Gorgui Dieng's injury)
"He stepped on a basketball in warm-ups and had to be taped. It was bothering him a little bit, and he tweaked it again today. I went with TJ (Terrence Jennings) a little more in the game because he knew a little bit more about what we were trying to do. But it was more (Dieng's) ankle injury."
(On Kentucky's Josh Harrellson)
"We have great respect for him. We obviously wanted to take away (Terrence) Jones in the low post and we did a good job. We just didn't rotate to Harrelson in the low post. At the end of the game, we didn't switch twice when we were supposed to switch and got caught on a layup."
(On DeAndre Liggins' defensive effort)
"I didn't notice that as much, to be honest. But I'm sure you are right, I will have to watch the tape. I thought we created our demise by staying strong side too much and not reversing the basketball. (Liggins) is by far the best defensive player on the team. He and Harrelson are two really valuable assets to that school."
(On Preston Knowles's performance in the second half)
"It was good, but in the first half we needed the ball movement and the player movement. (The second half) is too late. We didn't need that shooting in the first half and we have to stop hunting shots. That is what lost us the Drexel game and it's what got us behind here. But look, we are a team right now giving everything we can. We are a little bit limited right now. We have to play Mike Marra at the four spot, which he has never played before. We don't have a power forward in our program right now that can play this style. So we are a little bit limited, and that could hurt us in the long run. We have to figure something out right now. We have to get Mike to know, and we have to get him healthy."
(On Josh Harrellson's blue collar quality)
"I think he understands what to do. He roams the baseline. They are very good at driving, and as soon as somebody helps he goes to the baseline. Even if he doesn't get the ball, he is always on the glass. The best you can hope to do is block out with a weak side guard, but now because they shoot it so well, you have to be very careful because they will kick it to the opposite corner, where last year they couldn't do that. It makes it quite more difficult to guard them this year as opposed to last year. Not that they are a better team, it is just more difficult because you cannot help on certain guys."
(On how long the team will reflect on the loss)
"We are going to take off tomorrow because we have not had any days off. But we are going to lose more games. They are a top 10 team, but we are going to play Connecticut twice, we are going to play on the road at Notre Dame, we are going to play Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and we are going to play without a power forward. Our guys will give it all, we just need to stop quick shooting early in the game and use some ball movement to take better shots. Our guys play hard. I like the team a lot. They play well. But Kentucky is just a better basketball team."
(On Kentucky's Brandon Knight)
"I think he is very good because he is fast, he is under control, he makes it free throws and he shoots it. I don't think they really have a weakness because Liggins and Harrelson are so smart. They don't have to worry and they really play intelligent defense. They are not going to get in a whole lot of foul trouble. They are in great shape, they play smart and they play well. I don't say this in a negative way, but they are going to get better and better in a conference that is down this year. Next year they could be the best conference in basketball when schools like Auburn start building up. But we are not going to get a break. They are going to get a lot better, we are going to hopefully get better but we are going to face some teams that are going to overpower us a little bit. We have to compensate by doing smart things."
(On playing two big guys on the court together)
"The reason (Stephan) Van Treese didn't play tonight is because he doesn't do very well with scouting reports, and passing and shooting. One of the reasons why we struggle a little bit is because we have to bother people all the time at all five positions to get open and shoot the ball. We cannot run any of our stuff because they just sag off of him. He will have to play some when he picks up certain things. Would I play Van Treese and TJ or Van Treese and Dieng together? We are going to have to do that some. But I will probably go small. We beat UNLV and Butler; we beat Western [Kentucky] playing very well on the road. It is a good lineup, but it wasn't good tonight obviously because we couldn't score."
(On Kyle Kuric's importance)
He is important and both he and Mike have to improve their bounce game. They have to be able to take guys off the bounce and create because everybody is going to guard them. I told my guys that this is not a game where you are going to get wide open corner shots, that won't happen. You have to be able to put it on the bounce and create. And he is getting better at it."
(On the second half stretch where both teams scored)
"Well what was frustrating was we got them to miss, but then there were long rebounds from long jump shots and we didn't come up with the ball. They had about four loose ball rebounds off of jump shots and that hurts you. Your ones, twos and threes cannot block out 28 feet from the basket. You have to get in the lane and chase the rebounds down."
Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari
(On Josh Harrellson)
"I'm just proud of him. What I said to him after the game was he has taught me a great lesson. What we coaches like to do is just work with the good guys. The guys who struggle, sometimes you just push them aside. What he has shown me is every kid deserves everything we have to help them get better. I told a couple other players on the team who haven't been playing particularly well that that is our job as coaches. Josh probably thought I was crazy not playing him last year, but he wasn't in this kind of shape. I'm just proud of him. He had 23 points and 14 rebounds. It's an emotional rush seeing that."
(On offense in the second half)
"I think [Peyton] Siva is the key to their team. That was my opinion. I think Siva is really, really good, and that's why we put DeAndre [Liggins] on him. We were hoping [Preston] Knowles wouldn't go crazy. And then when Knowles went crazy, we put [Liggins] on Knowles. And then Siva went crazy. I told Brandon, you just set a record - 87 percent of their points were scored on you. More than offense, it's what we did defensively. But they shot 46 percent, 40 from the three, so we didn't do as well as I thought. We've gotten better executing out of bounds plays. I told them after, it's nice we can call something and everybody knows where they are supposed to go - grinding it out at the end, when we are being strong with the ball.
They're a strong team to be hard against because they come up in you, and if you do that, they'll flop and go down and it's an offensive foul. I thought we executed. We really did a good job of getting the ball where we wanted to. They were trapped in the post and I was going absolutely bonkers because they weren't going to the spots we needed to and they stole a couple passes. We got where we needed to be, it was a little harder for them. That's how Josh [Harrellson] got those three or four baskets under the goal."
(On how Terrence Jones handled the double teams)
"He was fine. I just want him to be better. I think he's a better player. He didn't want to catch it on the block to start the game, so I took him out. Catching it at eight feet is not happening, sit down. He's the greatest kid. He's not the kid who is going to get mad about, he just [says] okay. After the game I said, you know I love you, [and he said] `I love you more.' I said you just can't catch the ball at seven feet. He started the game again and he's just better than he's playing. He should be getting or have his hands near every rebound. He should be averaging 15 rebounds a game. Again, that's what our jobs are, to get these young guys.
I thought Brandon [Knight] had a great floor game. If you would have been with us in Hawai'i, it was a little scary, because he was not running our team. He was trying to score and make fabulous plays. Now he's running our team and he still scores. So he's figuring it out. He's a really smart, smart player."
(On rebounding)
"We did good. Let me get back to Darius Miller. Darius Miller, in the first half, is the reason there was a gap, or it would have been a two or three point game. I couldn't throw Terrence [Jones] at the post because he was catching it at nine feet and fading away. We gave it to Darius, he makes three straight baskets. He got some balls and I told him, hey, you played aggressive. You're doing some good things. He fouled because he stopped playing. He started standing straight up and down. The guy cuts and he grabs it. He did it three times.
Doron Lamb didn't have the same fire. That again is a freshman. We had the worst practice I've had in my two years at Kentucky yesterday. As a matter of fact, we ran lines and ran and ran and ran. I told them, I'm going to give you an excuse why we're going to lose, so either you're scared, or you don't understand. It just shows they have got to fight. They have the fire, they have the will. They're just immature. They don't understand the preparation and what it all entails playing these kinds of games, a top 20 team on the road in front of a hostile crowd. We're getting better."
(On Josh Harrellson hitting a three)
"We said, `if you ever have a problem passing the ball, because [Preston] Knowles, [Chris] Smith and [Peyton] Siva are all up on you, it's hard to catch a ball.' We said Josh, just break out; you can catch it every time. Terrence [Jones] threw him that elbow jumper, he shot it. It crawled in, it didn't snap and swish, but it crawled in. I'm happy it crawled in. How about DeAndre Liggins--the difference in the game was him and he was one for seven from the floor. He played 39 minutes. That's what great basketball teams have. I have to have some of the other guys who don't care about shooting the ball, but can do all the other things."
