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Louisville-Providence Postgame Quotes
March 02, 2011 | Men's Basketball
March 2, 2011
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Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening Statement)
"Great way for Preston Knowles to go out. I've seen guys make a lot of hustle and great plays this year, but that play by Peyton Siva was as good of a play I've seen as a coach. Dive head first, come up with the ball and make a perfect pass. You'll see he's got a tremendous gash, but that was incredible. I'm really proud of our guys. We started slow in the game, but we ended great. A lot of spectacular plays, a lot of unselfish plays again with 21 assists. I'm really proud of our seniors. Sometimes you miss coaching players like this and they kind of restore your faith in everything you believe in as a coach, this team. It was wonderful to coach them this year. I owe them a great debt of thanks because it was a really wonderful, wonderful season."
(On if he had lost faith through the season)
"No, I told them last year we wanted to rebrand ourselves. I think if you're out of place long enough, if you don't rebrand, it becomes a stale brand. That's all I wanted to do was rebrand it a little bit and get a certain style back. Make sure that we all understand why we're here, why we're playing the game. It's tough, the younger generation today, it's tough. You can even see it at the NBA level, guys not showing up to walk-throughs. It permeates everywhere in our society. You see business schools get dropped from number one to the seven, eight spot, graduate level because - I don't want to mention who they are - of the arrogance of thinking they're No. 1. It's everywhere. This team restores the faith of everything you believe in as a coach."
(On the double bye in the BIG EAST tournament)
"The most important thing for us, and I thought it was possible, but I thought it was a real long shot, was to win all six segments. You've been hearing it all year, and we won it tonight. So besides a double bye, I'm really proud of the team. I didn't care if we got a double bye, it didn't mean a whole lot to me. The six segments really means a whole lot to me. We never lost two in a row in a very difficult conference. We played very entertaining basketball, very exciting basketball with a lot of character. Now, we have our chance for our first sweep (of a segment) and it's going to take a mountainous effort. We've been there before in our last game of the season, but it's going to take a big effort to do it. There's not any team I would have more faith in than this team going into any environment."
(On Marshon Brooks)
"We did a really good job in the first half against him. In the second half, we allowed him to step away from the basket and get some 3s, even though they were quite long. We were going to make up our mind tonight we were not going to let him breathe."
(On Kyle Kuric)
"He missed his shots and the good thing about it is he drove and got some offensive rebounds. That's the thing we want. I thought that everybody really played well. Our three wasn't going so we did other things. We started slow and had to catch up. Sometimes the emotion of `Senior Night' makes you start slow, I've seen it before. We held them to seven assists in the game, which is big, and we had 21. [We] shot a good percentage and played good defense. It's a great night, great season as a whole."
(On Louisville's defense)
"It's a little more difficult with this team because it's a transition team. You can't really choreograph your defense to where they're going. Gorgui [Dieng] gave us a big lift in the second half of blocking people around the basket, missing easy shots, which we didn't in the first half. Before the game we talked about what makes us successful. What makes us successful is these guys understanding what the other team is going to run. We're not a very good defensive team, none of our guys can stop you. Collectively, and the same thing is true on offense, they move together and take away what the other team does extremely well. They're willing to talk, sacrifice, pay attention. These guys put a lot of work into that. Our coaches have done a fabulous job this year preparing them. We did a terrific job on offense of using each other because we're not a break down one on one team. You have got to use each other. Our pick and rolls were great this year, I thought Peyton [Siva] did a fabulous job of finding people. We improved a lot as the season went along."
(On the BIG EAST Tournament)
"I look at it this way--If I had to pick a team that I want to play, in the BIG EAST tournament, they would be from a different conference [laughs]. I don't know who I'd want to play. Somebody said, `[You] could get Syracuse', and I said, `Geez, I don't want to play Syracuse.' They said, `Well, you could get Notre Dame.' I said, `I don't want to get Notre Dame.' They said, `You could get Pitt again.' I said, `I don't want Pitt, give me someone else.' That's the way you look at the BIG EAST. You just play the game. (Mention of St. John's from the crowd) St. John's has a favorable schedule obviously. I always look at, as I break down the tournament, I always look at how many seniors they have, how talented are the seniors. The young players, want they don't understand about the NCAA is, they think it's their time to perform. They get caught up with performing rather than winning. That's why I like experience. It's a matter of having the right players who really want to understand. Last year, indicative of the Cal game, we had a good group of guys, but they didn't understand what Cal would do. This team will understand. They could get beat, but they'll understand what their opposition is going to do."
(On if his relationship with Preston Knowles has been up and down)
"Up and down? It has never been up and down at all. It's been a love affair since the first day he's come. Has he been in trouble academically, and have I had to discipline him in certain areas? Yes. That's like saying you're a parent and you've had an up and down childhood with your child because you've had to discipline him. If you love someone, you discipline them. Certainly, it's been anything but up and down. It's always been up, but like a parent, you have to discipline kids. The ones that don't discipline kids are the ones that don't love the children. Discipline is a big, big part of love."
(On the chance he took taking Preston Knowles)
"I did because of Charles Givens [Knowles' AAU Coach]. I've known Charles a long time; he was a friend of mine in Lexington. He's probably the only Louisville fan in Lexington. He said to me, `Coach, I'll vouch for him.' I've told this story many times. I called all types of coaches and they said I was crazy. When he went in, he just had a fire in his belly, it was noticeable. He said some things to me, and I thought we were taking a big risk on him, but when you've got fire in the belly, I'd much rather coach a Preston Knowles than anybody else. He's been great. Great freshman year, great sophomore year, his junior year he was hampered by his thumb. It's been really fun to coach him because when he steps between the lines every single day, he gives it, but he gives it more importantly for the right reasons. He gives it for Louisville."
Providence Head Coach Keno Davis
(Opening Statement)
"I want to congratulate Louisville. Rick Pitino has done a great coaching job with this year's team. With all of the injuries they have been able to sustain and still be playing this type of basketball, I know they are going to be a tough match-up for whoever they meet in Madison Square Garden and in the NCAA tournament."
(On Louisville's defense against Marshon Brooks compared to its last game)
"I think they did some things different this time. With all of the success that Marshon has had in the BIG EAST Conference, teams are going to double and triple team him and force him out. They were able to run and jump on him every time he touched the basketball. I think Marshon did a good job of getting rid of it, we just need an extra player or two out there. They did a good job of finding the open guy; we just didn't make enough plays. We hit a wall against Louisville, but you give them the credit. They had a good game plan and were able to execute it."
(On playing BIG EAST teams in the conference tournament)
"One thing that has made the BIG EAST so strong is that those teams that are in the bottom half of the conference have gotten better. It is tough when you are in the second half to be able to jump over some teams. When you go into a season and everyone talks about the BIG EAST being down, and then it's the best conference in the country- we know what that is about at Providence. I understand what (Pitino) is saying that there are some teams in this conference that have to play on the first day - possibly teams that are nationally ranked that will have to play five days to win. And they are going to have a tough first round, it's not going to be a cakewalk for anybody. Any of us can beat the other team on a given night. I really like my team and the guys on my team. They have been able, except for a couple of games, to be very competitive this year while knowing that we are only about a year away from being able to challenge on a nightly basis to be one of the top teams. I thought for about 30 minutes we did about all we could, and I think we just hit a wall. I do not blame our guys for the last 10 minutes, but they just ran out of gas."
(On what makes Louisville tough)
"Well I think their ability to shoot from the perimeter. It is awfully tough to defend when they have so many good shooters out there, so we extend our defense. But now they (Louisville) have the ability and intelligence to dump it in low to penetrate and attack and make you help out weak side. And then they are able to rebound the basketball, those are their strong points. And maybe the biggest point for them is that they are the best transition team in the BIG EAST Conference. They get out and run as fast as anybody and it is awfully tough to defend, especially then they are running out to the 3-point line. Now we don't just have to run back to defend the basket, but we have to defend on the perimeter, and that can definitely wear on you throughout 40 minutes."
(On Louisville's transition to zone defense)
"I think one reason that BIG EAST teams have done so well in the NCAA tournament is because with such a big conference, you see everything. You see Syracuse's 2-3, you see Louisville's match-up zone. Louisville is unique compared to any other team in the conference, because you don't see it. We haven't seen it since we played them the first time and it is tough to be able to play against it and even tougher to execute. I think that Louisville will bother some teams that they face in Madison Square Garden and hopefully they will bother some teams in the NCAA tournament because when a BIG EAST teams win, it helps all of us."
