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Louisville-South Alabama Postgame Quotes
December 04, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 4, 2010
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Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening Statement)
"We played a good game. We wanted to get 25 points on our hustle stats tonight and we got 30. We got 10 loose basketballs, we took six charges, and we got three baseline traps. We won the hustle stats and reached just about every goal we had for this game, so I'm real proud of the guys. They have been a focused group all along and they are getting better. I was hoping to play Russ Smith a little bit. He came down with a knee injury so he didn't' get the opportunity to play. Peyton Siva is playing tremendous basketball for us right now, especially in practice. You haven't seen it in the games as much until tonight because he's been in foul trouble. He's been playing really smart, really trying to run the team. I'm really proud of him"
(On handling the press)
"We did a very good job of handling it when we needed to handle it. We did a very good job of attacking the zone. We played a very good basketball game and we're getting better, which is the key."
(On Mike Marra)
"The good thing about Mike, you could see that his stroke was obviously off in the second half, so what did he do? He immediately ball faked and went to the rim. He immediately passed the ball. He's just a very, very smart player. Like I said the other day in our press conference, he's taken over where Padgett left off in terms of knowing the game and knowing the scouting the report. He didn't have his shot in the second half so he had to do other things to make the team better."
(On intensity of the first group and getting ready for the BIG EAST)
"I think we know what lies ahead of us in terms of competition. We know that these are good teams. San Francisco is just as good as this team. We know what lies ahead of us as far as next Saturday in terms of a basketball team. Outside of Duke I think this is the best basketball team I've watched this year. I've been really impressed with Duke, really impressed with Kentucky, really impressed with Las Vegas. UNLV is as tough as a team as we'll face and that includes the whole BIG EAST. We're trying to get ready. We had a lot of time to prepare for Butler. We started preparing without them knowing it in the first week. We're only going to have a couple of days to prepare for them. We know we have to take it one game at a time and improve off of everything we have to do to get ready for the BIG EAST as well as the competition that is ahead."
(On Peyton Siva)
"I think it takes time to develop into a point guard. I think he's going to be a terrific point guard one day. He's improved dramatically. Somebody has asked me which freshman has improved the most. It's obvious that they've all gotten better. But you don't see it as much as I do. He really looks great in practice compared to last year. He's made dramatic steps, but they all have."
(On Rakeem Buckles)
"Rock did give us great effort. He got in a little bit of foul trouble. We need him to become a BIG EAST power forward, where he does this consistently and mixes it up. I was really happy with the way he passed the ball tonight with the exception of the four on one break where he didn't give it up. In the second half he made a lot of good plays for us in breaking the pressure. Besides Peyton, breaking the pressure in the second half was all Rock. When you have a power forward who can do that off the bounce and also passes the ball it is very good."
(On progression of the team)
"I think what these guys are doing more than anything else is they are playing extremely hard. When they get a lead they don't back off. I think they are very humble and hard working. They are very focused on the scouting report. Everything that last year's team was not in terms of focus and knowing the scouting report. Last year's team had much more talent, but this team has much more focus and humility. Sometimes that makes you a better basketball team. That's not to take away from last year. They're very disappointed like the coaches are in every phase. It's like having 12 coaches out there. They want to do the right things defensively. They want to do the right things. They have totally bought into every aspect of sharing the basketball. You've got a lot of guys out there who are acting like coaches. This is the first time in a long time that I've seen that in this modern generation. They're all acting like the most important thing is execution; the most important thing is talking. George Goode, who is not playing much this year, is out there talking on every play and that's what this team is all about. I'm real proud of that."
South Alabama Head Coach Ronnie Arrow
(On his team's performance against Louisville)
"Louisville is supposed to be in a down year, but there is no such thing. I vote on the Top 25 every week and that may turn out to be one of his (coach Pitino) best teams. They play so hard and very good together; they are not selfish. They are experienced in the positions they have to be experienced in. Their youth, big No. 10, they really take care of him. They will stay with him until he grows up and he is going to be good. They are going to have a lot of fun with that team. That team plays too hard not to have fun."
(Effort from his team)
"I thought that our press really got after it and really got us into the game. Then we went back and started taking some bad quick shots. We have played a very hard schedule and there is not a guy on our team that has played in our program more than a year. We are very young and hopefully these games help us grow up."
(On his team's defense)
"We sped them up. Their shooting percentage went down, and it actually gave us a chance to get back into the game. Just coming down and trying to guard them wasn't working. They have too many shooters, but we sped them up and they started taking quicker shots and I thought that helped us get back into the game."
