Louisville-Kentucky Postgame Quotes
December 31, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 31, 2011
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Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening statement)
“I think the turning point for us was Gorgui (Dieng) leaving the game. We just broke down and he is the guy we have to have on the court at all times. I've coached a lot of teams that have given great effort, but I have never coached a team that is willing to give the effort that this team gives. Unfortunately, there are no moral victories. We struggled shooting the basketball tonight; we forced a lot of turnovers tonight but didn't make them pay. We didn't do a good job on the backboard with Gorgui out of the game. Gorgui is one thing and then you are playing two six-foot guards and that doesn't help rebounding. Kyle (Kuric) didn't rebound, so we were really overmatched rebounding tonight. If we can somehow get our execution to match our effort, then we'll have an outstanding ball club. I'm real proud of our guys. I've never coached a group that has this much will to win but we've got to start shooting the ball better because if you work that hard and get nothing out of it, then it's really frustrating.”
(On coming back from an early deficit)
“I don't know every team in the country, but I don't think any team comes back like we do because, again, that's just incredible will power and effort. The good thing is we are getting more bodies back so we won't have to worry about foul trouble as much. We're always going to make comebacks, we did the other night. You can't always come back and win. This was a very good basketball team, we fought them hard but they were better than us.”
(On Russ Smith)
“He's impressive doing things with the ball. He's got to go in there and hit somebody; he's staying out on the perimeter and we're in a fight five versus four. We're getting the hell beat out of us and we just need another guy to come in and hit somebody.”
(On the remainder of the game after being tied 40-40)
“Having Gorgui not in the game hurts us because we are playing a guy coming off an ACL injury. Chane (Behanan) is a great guy; he made a big mistake in that game because he probably didn't realize that a technical foul also counts as a personal foul. We did a good job but they are a really good basketball team. We didn't mind fouling (Anthony) Davis, it looked like he was a shaky free throw shooter and suddenly looked like Jerry West out there, I don't know what happened there. They have a really nice basketball team, they play together and are really tough to guard; they will go a long way this year.”
(On the tight officiating in the rivalry)
“This is a good rivalry; we only had one incident a couple years ago. It's always been a good rivalry; it's respect, the two teams play hard. Tonight, it wasn't good offense, it was hard-nose defense but nobody is fighting or trash talking. It's two teams that have respect for the other team's ability and it's a good rivalry, it's like North Carolina-Duke, two good teams that battle it out.”
(On losing two games in a row)
“We are going to fight this year to make the tournament and for a good seed. We have to play Kentucky on the road, St. John's, Seton Hall, West Virginia, Pitt, Syracuse, Marquette, it just worked that way, I don't know why it but it just did. All of the great teams in our conference we have to play on the road and then you throw one of the premier teams in the country, Kentucky, on the road but I feel good because these guys are going to fight 'til the finish.”
(On early foul trouble)
“I'm sure they had some fouls called on them that weren't warranted too. It's just that the two teams play really hard and physical and they call it.”
