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Louisville-Rutgers Postgame Quotes
February 04, 2012 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 4, 2012
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 1 
| Photo Gallery 2
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening Statement)
“Shades of Willis Reed, I remember that. That was a lot of heart that he (Gorgui Dieng) really showed. The referee came over to me and said, 'Rick, he's got a bad one, all his weight fell on his ankle.' I said 'I appreciate that' and then I said, 'Gorgui, are you ready to get back into the game?' He said, 'Yes, give me a minute.' He's in a lot of pain. That was a great performance by him and by Chane (Behanan) and a great rebounding performance by Chris Smith. Really proud of our guys, we played a hell of a basketball game. This team gives everybody fits. Beat Notre Dame, beat Connecticut and beat Florida in two overtimes. They had Georgetown on the ropes. They shoot the ball really well. We were 14 of 19 on the break, which is why we shot such a high percentage in the game. I am really proud of our guys, they really gutted it out.”
(About Gorgui Dieng's ankle)
“We won't know anything now on the sprained ankle until the next morning. I have no idea. What I have seen in the past is that you can play on it but then it will swell. If what the referee said happened was true, then it will be difficult to play. Now if it is a high ankle sprain, then he is not playing. If it is not a high ankle sprain, he will take off tomorrow and rest it. I would say it is doubtful at best. It will be a very difficult challenge (to replace him).”
(About Chris Smith)
“He had nine rebounds in the first half and that was really crucial because, if you look, we gave up 10 3s and made some really, really bad mistakes on rotations.”
(About Chane Behanan's game)
“I think he has added new dimensions to his game. You saw it against Villanova, from that game on. He was always just the strongest guy on the team and relied on his athleticism and now he is doing things fundamentally well like going from the baseline out and timing his jump. He is realizing now that instead of floating around on the perimeter how much he can score by being an offensive rebounder. He is treating every pass like it is a shot to him.”
(Chris Smith's rebounding)
“I am not sure how to answer that. Just look at the statistics and see how Gorgui and Chane are doing. The team takes a lot of long jump shots and there will be a lot of rebounds that are going to come to the ground. We weren't doing this at the beginning of the year and now we are. It is up to the guards to chase down the rebounds and that is what he was doing. Russ didn't do this tonight. He kept leaking out and at the end of the game, when Kyle should have had the steal, Russ was already leaking out. And that type of play hurts you.”
(On earning a conference win)
“This league is so unforgiving. When we were in the Conference USA, I think you could look at your talent and say, 'If you play well, we could get this win.' You just can't do that in the BIG EAST. A week or two weeks ago, nothing was making sense in the BIG EAST. Today, the home team was blowing out everybody. Georgetown blows out South Florida and Notre Dame blows out Marquette. The dynamics keep changing. I don't know what to think. I think we showed a lot of heart and courage tonight, especially Gorgui. I'll tell you the truth, the win was in jeopardy.
(On losing Gorgui and how important he is)
One thing that Gorgui does that doesn't show up in the stat sheet is that he bothers people's shots. Nobody gets a good look at the rim. In our defense, he is the center of the wheel. We all switch off and he is the center. What we try to do is disguise our zone and play man and try to stop them from taking the ball to Gorgui. We have protected him pretty well because he hasn't been in foul trouble in a long time.”
(If Gorgui Dieng can't play against Connecticut, what is the next option?)
“I guess we will have to go with Zach (Price), because of (Andre) Drummond.”
(How effective was Gorgui Dieng?)
“I thought he played great but he was limping. I think if you go ask him, he will say 'he'll play.' He's going to ice it all night to try and keep the swelling down, and we'll rest him tomorrow and see what happens. You look at the stats tonight and we got 40 rebounds in the game. Even though the Rutgers shot 35 percent in the second half, they only got seven offensive rebounds. We need to really concentrate and improve on our turnovers. As well as Chane (Behanan) has been playing, he had six turnovers; he doesn't need to do that. He is too smart of a player.”
(What stands out about Connecticut)
“I watched their game today a little bit. Obviously, they have (Shabazz) Napier and (Ryan) Boatright, who are two outstanding ball handlers. They have (Andre) Drummond, who is the number one, two, or three pick in the draft. The assistant coaches really concentrate on the advance games and I concentrate on this. I'll watch them tonight and focus in on them.”
(On Jim Calhoun health issues affecting the team)
“I think under normal circumstances it would hurt, but Connecticut is so used to him being out. He was suspended three games earlier, so I think they are used to it a little bit. They played great today, played super defense and held Seton Hall to 19 points in the first half. I think they are used to it.”
(On the short turn around playing on Monday)
“It only affects you only when the other team has had time off. They played today as well so it doesn't affect us. Zach (Price) has got to be ready to step up. The problem with Zach is that Gorgui has done a great job of learning not to foul. Tonight was the first night in a while that he was the old Gorgui and slapped down at the ball. Zach has a very difficult time doing that (staying out of foul trouble).”
Rutgers Associate Head Coach David Cox
(On Head Coach Mike Rice's first half ejection)
“Eli Carter was driving to the basket. We thought from our view that he got hit on the arm. We thought there were some incidents earlier in the game where our players were being hit and the calls weren't being made, so as he (Mike Rice) always does, he fought for our players and they gave him a technical foul. According to them, they warned him ahead of time not to react the way he did, so that's why he got hit with the second technical foul.”
(On taking over coaching responsibilities halfway through the game)
“Well, obviously I wasn't ready to coach at that particular time, but I've been a coach for quite some time now. Mike and I are very close. We communicate all the time, so I know what he wants and I just tried to follow his formula as best as I can. I allow the guys to play a little lose just so that they can become comfortable on the floor. I thought they responded. I thought they played hard. Two things that killed us were Peyton Siva's penetration and obviously, Blake Griffin (Chane Behanan), who had 100 rebounds today.”
(On Louisville's 15-4 second half run)
“Rick Pitino's teams have always been teams that play that type of basketball. They're not afraid to take transition 3s. They're not afraid to get to the basket and take quick shots, and that's what they did. You have to be able to respond better to those spurts. I thought we handled a couple of the spurts well, but they just kept coming. Guys being young, it got away from us.”
(On Rutgers getting too “3-happy”)
“Absolutely, we hit a couple ... it was funny because in the first half, we were scoring and we felt that was going to be a major issue against the matchup zone. We were scoring because we were moving the ball, we were moving bodies and we were sharing the game. We had a lot of penetration, a lot of interior touches before kick outs for threes and then they started sailing on us. Maybe it was fatigue. Maybe I should've got those guys out of there a little bit sooner and expanded the rotation, but it happens.”
(On big games from freshman Eli Clark and Chane Behanan)
“Eli has been our leading scorer throughout the season. He's a tough, hard-nosed player. He responded exactly the way I needed him to respond when coach Rice was ejected from the game. He was the one who was very vocal in the huddles. He was letting the team know that we could do this and to keep fighting. He's a relentless scorer. He sprained his ankle twice in the second half and he ended up sticking it out.
“Chane gave an outstanding effort. I've been in the BIG EAST now as a coach for six years and I've been a BIG EAST fan for 25-30 years. I don't remember seeing a rebounding performance like that. He got every major rebound, he was 6-of-6 in the first half and he was just a man among boys. I tried to warn the guys about him and his physicality, about how he can get deep post position, but he just did what he had to do today.”
