Louisville-Lamar Postgame Quotes
November 13, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 13, 2011
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Louisville Associate Coach Richard Pitino
(Opening thoughts)
“I thought we played a very tough team. They're a very tough, physical team with four seniors and a junior in their starting lineup. Our problem is fundamentally, we are young right now. We don't do a good job at talking and communicating. It is tough, that is a BIG EAST tough team. It was a good test for us early. We knew that after one day of prep, it wasn't going to be an easy game. I thought that after Mike [Marra] went down, I think it took a little something out of us. We did a good job of matching some of their toughest, but there are some guys on the team, Gorgui [Dieng], I don't think did a great job today, physically battling. I think he will see that on the film. You know you have a team pressuring you all the time, the only guy that handled it well was Mike [Marra] and he gets hurt.”
(When point difference went down to eight, what was going on during that period that allowed them to do that?)
“They got a couple of offensive rebounds from us and I think that they got a couple of put backs. We missed a lot of assignments blocking out that we are going to have to go back and look at. We just have to a better job of you know, you look at a guy like Kyle [Kuric] – [he] played 37 minutes and only had four rebounds. Chane [Behanan] gets 13, that's good, and Gorgui [Dieng] gets nine that's good, and Jared [Swopshire] gets eight, but everybody else needs to step up. We were up plus five on the glass and we gave up 21 offensive rebounds and that was really the issue. When we sent them to the foul line, they made 15 foul shots.”
(On Jared Swopshire improving)
“I think that Jared [Swopshire] is getting healthy. You know, I think we are all a little impatient. I was, I know my dad was and I know the staff was. We just forgot he hasn't played in a year or so. He is getting back healthy and he is getting more confident. A guy with that type of injury, I am sure when he catches the ball and he goes to make a move, he gets a little nervous. Now he is feeling a little more comfortable every time he goes out there.”
(Expectation of Jared Swopshire this year)
“Our expectations aren't that low, but I think that the healthier he gets, we really expect him to contribute a lot. Swop has been in this program for a while and he knows how to play and, when he is fully healthy, he is just as good as any big guy out there I believe.”
(How Chane Behanan is playing so far?)
“You know I think Chane [Behanan] has a lot to learn fundamentally. I think that he has extremely good talent and he is very good rebounder and a very good low post scorer. But he does silly things that all freshmen do. It's not rare for a freshman to mess up on a scouting report or mess up with some of these things. We don't have high expectations for freshmen when it comes to those things. But Chane is well beyond his years with other things, and I think he is going to be a great player down the road.”
(What is going to get Kyle Kuric going?)
“I am not sure. I think that it is only our second game and we have a lot of basketball to play. I think that he needs to understand that he cannot rely on just jump shots. You know, when I was here the first year or so, he was a great offensive rebounder. We need him to become that, we need him to attack the offensive glass. He would have one or two put-back dunks a game. He needs to start doing that again. I just think he is relying too much on his jump shot.”
(How will your dad assess the progress after the game and where are you guys at?)
“I don't think we are very far ahead right now. We have played two games in three days. We didn't really expect to be all that ready just yet, especially with all of the injuries. You have so many guys hurt and then you have guys in. It's tough to get the chemistry really going just yet. We have a long week to prepare for Butler. They are a very good team and it is going to be a tough challenge for us on the road and in a hostile environment on Saturday. We really have to get better fundamentally.”
(When will Stephan Van Treese return?)
“It is going to be any day now. I don't know if it is going to be tomorrow, but it is going to be very soon.”
(On Peyton Siva picking up two fouls in the first half)
“I don't think he played very well. I am sure if you asked him he would say the same thing. I think he needs to understand that he needs to be the best playmaker in the country. That is something that he has the ability to do and sometimes he gets caught up in should I shoot it, should I drive, or should I pass? A lot of that had to do with them, and I thought they did a good job on him. You know you have to give the defense credit, it wasn't all him turning the ball over. They did a good job of playing defense on him and really shrinking the court when he had the ball in his hands. He has to get use to that, he has a big rep now and teams are going to do that to him.”
(On Mike Marra's injury)
“I am not sure. Maybe there was a wet spot on the floor or something. It is nothing that we do that creates any of these injuries. It's unlucky. Hopefully it is not a big injury with Mike and hopefully it is just a sprain or something. I am not sure what it will be, but we just have to hope. It's part of sports and unfortunately it is unlucky and we just have to deal with it.”
Lamar Head Coach Pat Knight
(Opening thoughts)
“From our standpoint, it's tough for a smaller school. In our coaches' contracts, you have to make a certain amount of money playing guaranteed games. So from that standpoint, it's a tough situation, but our kids took it a different way. They took in a different way, as a challenge when we play these bigger schools. I was proud of our kids. From a defensive effort standpoint, I thought they did as well as they could. Now from a shooting standpoint, free throws, it's got to get better. But to be down by 20 and cut it to nine, I thought they did themselves proud and Lamar proud."
“On the other hand, that's a very good team, Louisville. If the players listen to coach, they've got a chance to have a real special season. They've got everything they need. They've got size, they've got shooters, they've got ball handlers, they do a good job of spacing. They're dealing with injuries. Most of those guys didn't even play in their two exhibition games. I like their team. Then you add, they can press you defensively from a man-to-man situation or the matchup. They have everything in place to have a heck of a season.”
(On how they contained Peyton Siva)
“(We had to) back off. He really hurt us at the start. We were defending into him too much. You can't do that, you've got to back off of him. When he gets going, I'm not sure there's anybody he can't get by. Even if you do back off of him. He's just going to get better as the year goes on. It always helps to have a kid like that to get by defenders, draw two defenders to you, now you've got open shooters. They've got everything they need. Do we guard the ball, stop the ball, now the 3-pointer's going to be open, but how do you stop the 3-pointer if he's just going to drive by you. Then you've got to worry about the bigs, do we help out? They're just a mess to scout. You've just got to take your chances and hope some of the guys have an off day.”
(What caused the poor shooting performance)
“They get a hand up on you. They get you going too fast. By playing that matchup zone, the kids come down and they get confused. Instead of just running the man-to-man offense against it, the kids just want to back up and try to figure out if it's a zone or not. Their defense takes you out of rhythm, we could not get into a rhythm. We missed some open looks, but a lot of that is they get you out of your rhythm.”
(On the experience of going on the road and facing a top-10 team)
“It's huge. We're a one-bid league. We've got coaches in our league – you can play four non-Division I teams, what does that do for you? We're a one-bid league, you've got to win the conference and then win the conference tournament. So to get prepared, what's it do to beat someone by 50? I'd rather get my butt beat by a very good team to get ready for conference. I'll get calls with people saying you're going to want those four wins back, but the great thing about being fired … there's a lot of stuff you don't care about after you've been fired. I'm not trying to pad my record, I want to win and build this program up. If you want to build a program up like a Gonzaga, Butler, Belmont, you've got to play a tough schedule, get your RPI up, get your respect up. This was great for us. We hung tough with Louisville. BIG EAST Network, TV – we'll be on ESPN highlights tonight. We've got to get the Lamar name out there. So we're going to play a tough schedule: we've got Kentucky, Ohio State, next year we're set to play Purdue. We're getting after it. Now it may nip me in the rear later on from a record standpoint, but when you're in a one-bid league, it's about winning the conference and the conference tournament.”
