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University of Louisville Men's Basketball Post-Game Quotes
February 06, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 6, 2010
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Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening Statement) "Going in this was our trap game. There's always a (trap) game mentally and we talked about it all week. The coaches said we had some wars that have taken a lot out of us and this was our game that was very similar to what can happen in the Big East. You have to come through that trap and play good enough defense to get a W and get out. We played good enough to win tonight and Rutgers did a tremendous job of staying in the game. They were beating our pressure early on with the quick in-bounds. He (Jared Swopshire) did a good job of rebounding tonight and gave us a great lift. Offensively, we were breaking our assignments. Swop, Jerry and Samardo played a really intelligent basketball game."
"We have two off days coming up and we have been in our four or five wars. Rutgers had been playing good basketball of late. They beat Notre Dame and beat St. John's undermanned a little bit, but they play good basketball. We knew it going in. We had to stay focused, going to the backboard and do a good job of making sure we got good shots going down the stretch."
(On Jared Swopshire) "He was the key in the first half as well in the second half. Swop is getting better and better and is the guy who has improved the most. Samardo is improving and Swop is improving. Those guys are really getting better."
(On the improvement of Jerry Smith) "Jerry had seven rebounds and three steals and he is driving more and mixing up his game. The offensive slump, which I don't pay much attention to, made him a better basketball player because he drives more. I think it has made him more of a complete basketball player and his shot is coming back as well."
(On shots from perimeter helping the offense) "I think it is key for us because Samardo is getting so much attention. That is why having Swop is such an offensive weapon for us. We can step out and shoot from one, two, three and four, and he gave us a big lift. I think, without question, we weren't hitting those before. Now, he is hitting them wasn't before."
(On Swopshire coming off the bench) "I thought he was playing really good basketball all along, but like I said, our chemistry got a little bit better. We had been starting TJ, but he was pouting and not playing. To be honest, he should be disappointed because the only time he got in was when Samardo was playing poorly. He is a competitor, so he should be disappointed. It is helping us now but (Samardo) didn't play well tonight. The scouting report was in Chinese for him. We needed Will Scott to translate for him. It was in a different language and I will have to get on Stevie Mass (Massiello) about that."
"This was a trap game. I thought the focus was good, but this is a trap game. You see it whether it is Providence at home against USF or another team. It probably happened against WVU today. They were down and ended up going on a 25-2 run. In BIG EAST, it happens all the time. We have been through so many wars and adversity. We knew this was going to happen tonight."
(On the upcoming schedule) "We will take two days off because the rule book says one day off a week or two days every 14 days. We want to get two days preparation for every opponent and we will take two days off right now and face St. John's at the Garden and Syracuse. We said six out of nine and now it is five out of eight, which becomes a little more realistic. Three weeks ago it was a little unrealistic and now it is more realistic."
(On Samardo being aggressive) "I think Samardo is playing really good basketball. I thought three weeks ago, he was acting real immature and wasn't coming around mentally. But now, he's coming around a lot more professionally, doing good things. He made a good pass to Jared back door and those are things he wasn't doing before. He is becoming much more of a complete basketball player."
(On his memory of the Cards' 1975 team) "I do remember. It may sound strange, but (where I grew up) we had no one to root for, there was just the Knicks. You didn't root for a college team. St. John's was it if you were going to, otherwise it was just the Yankee League Conference, so Louisville always stuck out. For a lot of New Yorkers, Louisville was a team you rooted for primarily because they were a city team that had a lot of African Americans, while other southern teams did not. We rooted hard for Louisville so we knew that at the time. Louisville has not only been admired for the way they played but for the tradition of basketball. That always excited everybody. Each era excited people and had great basketball players. There was the Camden Connection and the Mt. Vernon Connection and the local connection, which I wish would come back."
(On Muhammad Ali being at the game) "I like Muhammad Ali. Our players did not see him fight but they know him. He is the most recognized athlete in the world. We are proud of him being from Louisville and for him to come back here. There is a guy like Rakeem (Buckles) who was cheering and looking and wanting to meet Ali. But here we have a game to play. But it is great and it's great for Louisville. It is great that Muhammad is back and we were excited to see him."
(On the team coming together) "We played really good basketball. In a trap game, we played well today. We played terrific at WVU and really good at Pitt. It is our own fault that we missed free throws down the stretch. It happens in a game. I think we are executing in the half court really well. I thought we played excellent and did a lot of good things against a team that really came to play -- playing really loose and well in Rutgers."
Rutgers Head Coach Fred Hill
(On being down 17 early in the game) "I thought we did what we wanted to do. They made shots, but you talk about their pressure - it might be the best in the country. They turn people over; we have 10 turnovers for the game. One of them is on the charge; it's not against the press. We handled it extremely well. I think it really came down to we didn't shoot the ball particularly well and they did. We turned them over; we didn't let them get a ton of offensive rebounds. They're the best in the Big East. They only had nine. I think they're averaging over 16 a game. We limited our turnovers to 10, we had nine steals. We just couldn't knock a big shot down when we needed it. It was 45-40, we get an offensive foul called, and it kind of changed the momentum. We get a couple of free looks, and couldn't get over the hump. You have to give them credit, they come after you. I thought the real difference what that they wore us down. Constant pressure wears you down, but they took the press off in the second half. We were going through it and attacking it, getting easy baskets. In the second half, they took it off. I had to play guys 40 minutes, 37 minutes, 33 minutes, and 31 minutes. You look at their minutes and they just wear you down. They have so many bodies they can just keep throwing at you and they wore us down."
(On playing on the road in the Big East) "I think the Big East is very difficult. The road is always difficult; again this isn't a typical 16 point loss. It was 45-40 - it's a shot here and a shot there. You've got to foul a little at the end; you've got to press and gamble to get a layup and one. This is one of those games where you're in the game right until the end battling on the road. I think it's a step forward for our guys on the road, because in some games it's been over before it started. Again, 17 down, we never quit and we cut it to 11 at the half - and really we had the ball for the last shot. These are the little things - experience - we're setting up a three-point shot for Mike Roasrio. There's no way you should turn the ball over in the zone - it's just a little ball reversal, we get a little casual, we turn the ball over. Instead of a nine point game at half, it turns into 11 - maybe if we execute and get Mike a shot and he buries a three, it's a six point game. It was a good game. We need to learn from it and get a little bit better."
