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Louisville-St. John's Postgame Quotes
January 19, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 19, 2011
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Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening Statement)
"A tremendous victory. Tonight was a big shock. We really had major problems tonight with injuries. TJ [Terrence Jennings] has a hip pointer. He said he would go, and I just don't think when you're running a pressing team, that guys who play 70-80 percent are of any value. I told George [Goode] and the other guys, you just have to step up. It's your time to step up. Our guys did a tremendous job of passing the basketball, indicative of 24 assists to eight, as well as this is a team that doesn't turn it over. I think they've had 11.8 turnovers per game, and they had 25. I'm in a little bit of shock right now with the way we played tonight, through tremendous adversity, but extremely pleased that we can play this well. I'm very excited about that, obviously."
(On Stephan Van Treese)
"He was cramping, but no, I don't think he could have come back in the game."
(On Louisville's defense)
"It was good. The defense was good. The zone was good. The man was good. We rebounded well. We were great on the break, We were 19-for-26 on the break. That's pretty unbelievable when you think about it. We attacked the pressure very well. I thought Peyton [Siva] did an unbelievable job tonight. I thought he was great, I really thought he ran the team. He really got his shots. I thought he was really great."
(On his preseason choice of St. John's at No. 1)
"I just think that we had a great night, and they had a bad night. It happens. I wasn't just blowing smoke on picking number one. Obviously now, I think Pittsburgh is the number one team. That being said, if you have 10 seniors, that gives you a lot of experience. They're very talented. The third thing is they're very hungry to make the tournament. I told them when I was going down the line, `You guys can make the tournament.' They had a bad night tonight, because of the way we shot the ball. They had a bad night because of the way we moved the basketball. But this is a team that, without question, can make the tournament. They have to keep playing hard. They had an off night tonight. We had a very good night."
(On Kyle Kuric's confidence after making the first shot he takes in a game)
"I think he gets confidence from that. When TJ [Terrence Jennings] went out, I was afraid [Stephan] Van Treese would get in foul trouble and we would have to play Kyle at the four. I didn't want to play Kyle at the four, but that's when we made the run actually, so it was pretty good. We were able to step out against that matchup. We played a great game in every phase. When they played zone, we did a terrific job of moving the ball. When they went man, we did a really good job of reversing the basketball. We played very good zone defense. I was very surprised TJ got hurt in practice. It was a good lesson for all our guys. We really don't care about the injuries, our message was step up. Everybody's on scholarships, step up, and they did. George [Goode] played a very good game, with the exception of ball containment, but he played a terrific game."
(On Louisville's resiliency)
"I've never quite seen anything like this. I've been coaching a long time. We've had injuries, but I've never seen anything as bad as this. Guys can't practice because a back's hurt, guys with broken fingers and now it's another three weeks on top of another week. We thought [Rakeem Buckles] would be back next week. Swop [Jared Swopshire] has a mystery injury that puts him out for the season. We've had more concussions than a football team. Now we have cramping tonight. It's just amazing our resilience and how well they played through all of that. That's a great sign for the guys."
(On Terrence Jennings' availability for Saturday's game)
"That I don't know. He wanted to play tonight, and said he would go, but I've always found that guys like that, now you're going to miss two games. He'll come down on it wrong, he'll feel it. The best thing to do is say George [Goode], step up man, and play a great game."
(On Louisville's number of assists)
"I don't think it's a great passing team, I think it's a very unselfish team. I think they play very well together. They've got no ego. They're very much a together group, like I said from the first day of practice. It has been very difficult coaching on the fly with this team, because it's not their fault that we have got to keep on changing, to prepare for the Kentucky game for two weeks and then all of a sudden a guy steps on the ball in warm-ups, another guy's out, another guy's out--we've just had freak accidents that are happening to us. TJ's [Terrence Jennings] coming off his biggest game, and he has a hip pointer and doesn't play. We got very encouraged; he had his best practice as a Louisville Cardinal the next day. It's a little crazy but the guys fight through it. [on the number of assists Louisville should get each game] It all depends on the score of the game. If you have a high-scoring game like tonight, you should have plus 20, but if you're like the Connecticut/Villanova game and the score is 26-24 at halftime, you're not going to have it. But the good thing is, turnovers--they had 25, we only had 11.8. We had 24 assists, so we didn't turn the ball over. They're a very good defensive team, a terrific defensive team."
(On free throws)
"Chris Smith is just thinking too much. He's a good foul shooter, he just thinks about it. Like his parents told me, he just overthinks at everything. Even when you get on him, he can't let it go. He's an overthinker, a good shooter, a good player, and he's just got to forget about it and he'll be fine."
(On Peyton Siva)
"I just think he made great decisions. I said Peyton, `If you break what we call the first marker, you've got the block, and then the next hash mark is the first marker and you haven't passed by that point, then you're in trouble.' He was throwing chest passes rather than bounce passes [against Marquette]. Tonight he just kept finding open people. I just can't find fault with anything with these guys."
St. John's Head Coach Steve Lavin
(Opening Statement)
"A quick synopsis from start to finish: Louisville beat us to the punch in all aspects of the game. They were aggressive on defense and they were able to turn us over. They play with great confidence on offense - they were 7-of-10 from the 3. They really had their way for the most part of 40 minutes and were able to win the game."
(On his team not fighting back)
"What we were able to do against Notre Dame for 40 minutes was sustain a high level of pressure and aggressiveness and it was a total reversal of roles tonight with Louisville. They had their way with us for 40 minutes and we were similar with Notre Dame. I felt like playing us when we were at the Garden, we were the recipient of a team that was sharp. Their ball movement and finding the open man and knocking down the open threes - they were very crisp in their offensive execution, in their ball movement and rhythm. And they were aggressive on the floor, second, third, fourth short, they always had their hand on it. From start to finish, they were aggressive and played a very cohesive brand of basketball. We were a step slow and passive.
With the BIG EAST having nine teams in the top 25, it is that much more important to bring your A game and you A level effort on a consistent basis. Otherwise, you get taken to the woodshed. We have been on the flip side. This is how West Virginia felt when we took them to the woodshed on their home court. This is how Notre Dame felt when we took them to the woodshed. But this is a woodshed moment for us, similar to our game at Notre Dame when we took them to the woodshed. This team is a monster in the conference. You have to know when coming in that you have to give yourself a chance with five minutes left in the game you have to bring you're a level effort and you're A level of aggressiveness. And that just gives you a chance to get in the game, it doesn't give you a chance to win. But with five minutes to go, you are going to be in the ball game. You will get blown out of this conference if you don't bring it for 40 minutes."
(On the game plan before the game on attacking U of L)
"We wanted to be aggressive. There was a stretch in the last couple minutes of the first half where we had a run and cut the lead from 20 to 13. Then they came right out of the gate and got the 3 on the first possession to put them back up. They had a surge to start the half. I was hoping we could build on the run we had late in the first half, have that carry over and try to cut the lead down from double digits. Once you get it down to 15 minutes left, inside the first TV timeout, and you are only down by 10, it's a whole new ball game. But they came out in the second half really well to extend that lead. We were chasing from then on. Our goal was to be aggressive against the press. We had seven turnovers against the press in the first half and they were 7-of-10 from the 3-point line. Those were the two big keys of emphasis. The emphasis was taking care of the ball against the press and attacking the opportunities that were there and running the half court offense. But the opportunity wasn't there but to distinguish between those two. But offensively, it was tagging their shooters and chasing them off the 3-point line, and we didn't do either of those two things.
It is hard to measure - because it doesn't show up in the statistics - the aggressiveness. They beat us to the punch in every phase of the game in terms of offense to defense and defense to offense. They were tied together and they were cohesive. They played with great confidence. I think they picked up from where they left off in the last five minutes against Marquette. They just extended it now to 46 consecutive minutes with the last six of the Marquette game and the entirety of this game. They are really playing at a high level."
(On being positive with his team after a loss)
"Right after a game, you want to be clear and decisive and just hit on the main themes because that is what I learned from my mentors. Right after a game is not the ideal time (to yell). Film sessions are sometimes the time to pop a gasket or turn up the heat because it is right there for all to see, the eye in the sky doesn't lie in terms of the camera. The things I just hit on are what I just talked about. There is no time to feel sorry for ourselves and lick our wounds. We just have to get ready, because in this league, one loss can turn into six, or seven out of eight as we have seen across the board with some of the teams' records. We have to get back to watching game film and doing drills at practice. We have to get ready for some things and get ready for a high level game against Cincinnati who is coming in and will be fighting to get the W. But the things we hit on, we talked about there. We didn't have the aggressiveness, we were too casual with the basketball, and we were beaten to the punch in every aspect of play. We just have to move on.
Sometimes you can pull more positive things out of a particular game, but this wasn't really a game of anything positive. After a loss, it is tough to amplify anything positive. Sometimes you need to get away from it for a day or two and you come back and see something that went well. Maybe Malik (Booth)'s aggressiveness was a good thing. And Paris battled hard. We lost their shooters, they were clicking and hitting on all cylinders. They were playing a cohesive brand of basketball and were aggressive from start to finish and picked up right where they left off with Marquette. Coach (Rick) Pitino is doing a wonderful job with this team. You are starting to see them (Louisville) surge now."
