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Louisville-Long Beach State Postgame Quotes
November 28, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 28, 2011
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 1 
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Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening Statement)
“To be honest with you, they did a great job in the first half. We ran out of gas in the second half because we haven't practiced at that pace. What we have been trying to do in practice is just execute and stay away from injuries. We have gotten a little out of shape to play that racehorse type basketball game, and we made a lot of mistakes. Defensively, in the second half, we slowed down the pace too much. I can totally understand Peyton (Siva) slowing it down because he is not in shape and hasn't played in a long time. We got our pace in the first half. We should have come back with a 46- or 48-point second half, but we didn't. We made a lot of good play. When you play transition basketball, your defense is not as crisp and we made some mistakes. They are very difficult to guard, they are a senior team and we are very pleased with the victory.”
(On different lineups used throughout the game)
“Yes, I am just a little frustrated with what we are going through right now from a practice standpoint. You are just so frightened on what shoe is going to drop next that you don't go up and down like you should. Tonight, there was an opportunity to really play racehorse basketball. We could have done some great things in the first half, but we ran out of gas in the second half. That is ok. That was to be expected. I didn't think Peyton (Siva) had it, and I messed up Gorgui's (Dieng) game. I told him 'look Gorgui, they are going to try to take it to you.' He doesn't understand terminology yet. I said 'Gorgui, you are going to have to wall up and stay out of foul trouble,' but what he did was get out of the way. He was just trying to stay out of foul trouble and I took away his aggressiveness, which was my mistake.”
(On Russ Smith's minutes)
“He does a good job, but emotionally he has to control himself. He is a terrific basketball player. He just has to emotionally control what he is trying to do. If they are in the bonus, you don't reach in and foul, or if time is on your side, you don't force a shot. He will learn all these things, but the best thing about all these injuries is the development of Russ Smith. I probably wouldn't have played him that much if Wayne (Blackshear) was ready to go. We have a very good basketball player with him now, but like Chane (Behanan), he just has to learn the game. He has to understand time and score, and he has to understand defense off the ball. He should be the best defender on the team, but he is not.”
(On injuries potentially helping later in the season)
“Injuries never help you. We all would like for the glass to be half full and look for the silver lining, but those questions are not reality. You don't want broken noses when a ball hits you in the nose. You don't want ACL's when you're driving down the lane with no contact. You don't want a torn adductor when you're working out with your dad. You don't want these things. It doesn't help you. You'd like to think that, but it's just not reality. It hurts you because you can't practice what you need to do and it showed tonight. But we kept executing, kept doing good things, and I think our guys benefited greatly."
(On winning despite injuries)
“They (Long Beach State) are a heck of a ball club. They're traveling more than an NBA team. They're like the Harlem Globetrotters. I imagine they are going back west. They have to come back east to play North Carolina and Kansas. They are going to be a great tournament team. We wanted to press them. We wanted to run them because we knew they were coming from Montana and they probably weren't flying private charter. There are very few direct flights from there to here. So we wanted to get after them right away and try to wear them out. When you foul it negates all the good things you do but we continued to make free throws when it counted and that's one thing that is really pleasing.”
(On holding Casper Ware below his average)
“We tried trap, wear him out and make him beat our press. They did a very smart thing. They moved him to the back line. They brought him in so it wouldn't wear him out so much. In their zone offense they like to have him play off the ball and run the baseline. We played a box and one basically and had one player go with him and everyone else would stay in the zone and match up. They are all tough. That is a very good basketball team.”
(On this year's injuries)
“Last year was bad, but this year is ridiculous. We don't even talk about injuries. I just tell them I've seen this for 35 years. I'm lying. I've never seen this before. We still pay attention to it and we realize someone has to step up. I think this is very good for Peyton (Siva) and our goal is to get Rock (Rakeem Buckles) back so we can have a legitimate backup five man who really understands the game. When Rock comes in we hope to get him through this week, get him some minutes against IUPUI, a few more minutes against Farleigh Dickinson, and let him play full on for the Memphis game. We are going to bring him along very slow so he's 100 percent ready to go. Although we are very anxious we have to be patient with him.”
Long Beach State Head Coach Dan Monson
(On the game)
“I was disappointed. I'm not taking credit away from them, they're a great team, but we didn't play we're an experienced team. We started on the road down 8-0 and it looked like five freshmen out there instead of four seniors. To me, that was a disappointing start. We rushed shots around the rim and missed a lot of easy shots. Part of that was obviously due to their quickness, they got us off balance in there. We only have these opportunities so often against a team like this and I would love to have played a little better.”
(On getting within striking distance a few times in the game)
“We got it to six and missed a reverse lay-in … you can't do that against a team like that. Again, we never put the pressure on them to get a lead. They were always playing relaxed. When you have a good team like that playing relaxed, it's awfully tough to stop.”
(On whether Louisville did anything to stop Casper Ware)
“He was their focus, but he created a lot for others. We told him it was going to be a hard game to finish in there and they were out on him so much, but he got by people and created a lot of baskets. I thought he played within himself pretty well and he certainly wasn't our issue. Our issue was the turnovers - they sped us up - and finishing around the rim and getting stops. We played a little better defensively in the second half, but 79 points is a lot to give up on the road.”
(On whether their big guys affected Louisville)
“A lot of that was created by our guards and they didn't finish as well as maybe they could have. We've got work to do - every team does in November, and I think they exposed a lot of things for us to work on today.”
