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Louisville-Oregon Postgame Quotes
March 29, 2013 | Men's Basketball
March 29, 2013
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THE MODERATOR: University of Louisville has joined us in the press conference area. And we'll take an opening statement from Coach Pitino, and then we'll go to the student-athletes.
Rick?
COACH PITINO: I sort of had to prod our guys the entire night. Unfortunately, Russ has infected our entire team with a ridiculous cold, and all our guys are really sick. And it took a lot out of us because Oregon's so good. When Peyton got in foul trouble, Russ had to play way too many minutes, and everybody's coughing and hacking at every timeout.
We just had to get our guys through it, and hopefully we'll get better. The only problem is on every timeout Russ is hacking in our faces. Every 30 seconds, just like this. So keep your distance and you'll all have pneumonia by the morning, like Gorgui and me.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes, please.
Q. For Russ, first of all, do you have a rebuttal to that? Second of all, did you see anything on the tapes that made you think you can drive past their big men in terms of your speed?
Russ Smith: What Coach said is right on cue. I'm terribly sick. I just kept coughing. But we go through scouting a lot, and I talk to Coach a lot about where can I find any gaps or where can I look good on the court, what could I do to help the team win.
And Coach always gives me the answers, and I just try to go out there and just find any gaps and any spaces I can to create shots for myself and my teammates.
Q. Russ, is there ever a time you don't think you can get to the rim?
Russ Smith: I don't know, honestly. When I'm on the court, I just see little spaces and I try to get to that spot before another defender does. And if I can beat them to the spot before they slide, that's how I create some contact.
And I always try and create contact, because I feel like if I get to the free throw line, that's the highest percentage shot that I can have, and that's particularly my main goal.
Q. Russ, can you talk about Kevin Ware and the lift he gave you, especially in the first half when Peyton was in foul trouble?
Russ Smith: I mean, Kevin plays so hard and he just wants to do good, contribute, and he was very focused before the game. I spoke with him, and he was just telling me how well he's going to do.
I mean, he was so overconfident today, and I'm so happy for him. His lift was just big, and for Peyton to go out and Kevin Ware to step up like that, that just goes to show you how deep we are.
Q. Russ, can you just define how terribly sick you -- define "terribly sick" and how did you manage to play through it?
Russ Smith: Well, I wouldn't say I'm terribly sick, because there's like people more terribly sick than me. But I was pretty sick where it affected my conditioning to a point.
But Coach been telling me to fight through it, fight through it, dig in. My teammates as well. I mean, I'm not the only one. There's been a few. Peyton's got a cold, Chane's got a cold, and we're fighting through it and just do whatever we can to get a win.
Q. Russ, during the National Anthem you're standing with your hands on your hips and you're staring at Oregon instead of the flag. What was going through your mind at that point? Were you trying to make a statement?
Russ Smith: Oh, man, honestly, I was daydreaming. Then I just turned around and said, oh, then I looked at the flag.
But normally, when we do the Pledge of Allegiance or the American Anthem, I like -- we face the team. So I just got caught up in something I shouldn't have been caught up in. I was daydreaming. I apologize.
Q. For Russ, the three games that you've had in this tournament, scoring-wise, how can you describe -- how does it feel when you're on the court right now? How do you describe what you've been able to do defensively in the three games in the tournament?
Russ Smith: Well, to be honest, we have great bigs and great forwards who are able to get the rebound and outlet it quick to me. So when I'm able to get in transition, I think that's when I'm at my best.
But, overall, it's really a team effort. They're like finding me in transition, coming off screens and throwing me like on point passes where I can create.
So a lot of times it's not the actual scorer, it's the person setting the guy up for it. And I'm getting great outlet passes, great curl passes, great passes fading off screens. I think we're just doing a tremendous job just trying to win it, doing whatever you can to win.
Q. Gorgui, this one's for you. Just the last two weeks, you guys have played against good rebounding teams, Colorado State and today Arsalan Kazemi had a couple of very big rebounding performances. Was that kind of a point of emphasis to keep the guys off the boards and concentrate in on that?
Gorgui Dieng: Yeah, coming to this game, we knew rebounding would a big factor in this game. We just try to keep them off the glass and try to dominate the glass.
But I think we did a good job as a team rebounding, everybody getting to the glass and rebounding the ball.
Q. For Gorgui, can you talk a little bit about what Russ said about the outlet pass? And are you always looking up first as soon as you get the ball to see if he or Siva are taking off down court?
Gorgui Dieng: Oh, Russ, like he's a great basketball player, so anytime we struggle, anytime we grab the ball, he's the first one I'm looking on the floor. Sometimes, like when I'm on the floor talking, I'm always like, Give him the ball, because once he got the ball in his hand, he's going to score, get a foul or both.
So he's doing a great job in this basketball team, and I think we really need him, so we throw him a good pass. And he's just a good basketball player. We just need to give him credit.
THE MODERATOR: Fellas, thank you. See you tomorrow.
For Coach Pitino right here.
Q. Peyton was telling us that you've called Russ a poor man's Allen Iverson. I was curious what prompted you to say that, why you make that comparison.
COACH PITINO: You know, sometimes I don't -- I spent eight years in the pros, and I don't read a whole lot what goes on. I look at Chad Ford's list, and I don't see Russ Smith, I don't see him on the All-America teams. Truly, I've been coaching a long time, I'm baffled, just baffled, because it wasn't like he's no Johnny-come-lately. He carried us on his back to a Final Four last year.
And Allen Iverson was so good at the pro level because it's tough in the pros because you really have a 16-second shot clock, and now Allen always had the ball with five seconds to go and he had to create.
And that's what Russ does. Russ is in some difficult situation -- we didn't have it tonight. We really were -- and it's a tribute to Oregon. Oregon's a great basketball team, one of the best we have played. They're about as well coached as any coach I've seen. They're really, really a well-drilled, coached team.
And we were short of gas tonight without Russ Smith. We couldn't win. We shot 61 percent in the first half. Our defense was porous at best, and that's carried us.
So Russ, I mean, as the next pro guy, I look at him and say colleges today is much more physical than the pros. When you watch the pros today, they go right away, hand check or anything like that. And Russ is able to get to the foul line, get a shot off, make the play, turn around and guard. I'd have him in the top twelve in the draft because of the way his game transcends to the next level.
I'm very happy that everybody's missing the boat because I'll have him for another year. But I really, I really can't believe what I'm reading sometimes of this kid, because he's -- to me, I thought he was a runaway Player of the Year. Runaway. And that's no knock on the other guys, because they're great too.
Q. Coach, everybody's talking about Russ Smith. But that was a career high for Kevin Ware. And Coach Altman talked about how his shot in the second half ended a run that they were having. So could you talk a little bit about Kevin Ware?
COACH PITINO: He was terrific tonight. We played him at point guard. Peyton didn't have it tonight. He's been sick. I try to tell our guys. Guys, we don't have it tonight, it's obvious. We're winning with offense, and that's great, but we've got to start digging in and getting stops.
We did at the end. We had a good run and they immediately came back and made big plays. But Kevin gave us a big lift. Every time we needed a bucket, he got it for us. Gorgui did a great job.
We've been a great defensive team -- not a good one, a great one -- all season. Tonight their quickness was so good, all it did was wear us out defensively. But we had Russ Smith and Kevin really bailed us out of some good situations that could have gone either way. We never let them come back, because we kept attacking offense.
The first time -- our offense has really grown in the last few weeks. We're shooting an amazing percentage, which we didn't do all season. That's why we're in the Elite Eight.
Q. Rick, can you just kind of expound on Kevin at the point? How valuable is it to have that maybe in December? Would you have even thought to have him at point guard in a situation like that?
COACH PITINO: Well, I think he's learned how to run. He was one of the poorest I've coached at running a pick and roll. He always went too wide. He never ran his men into the screen. He always looked to pull up a mid-range jump shot rather than take the guy to the rim. When we moved him to point, he got much more work at probing the lane and attacking the rim. And you see how long he is.
And he's gotten so much better at the pick and roll. Where he's got to improve is defending the point guard. He gets on the side of the man too much. Tonight he did that. But he gave us a tremendous lift because Peyton was in foul trouble, wasn't playing too well, and gave us a big lift.
THE MODERATOR: That's it. Thanks, Rick. See you tomorrow.
COACH PITINO: Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: We've been joined by the University of Oregon, Coach Dana Altman and the student-athletes. We will ask Coach Altman to make an opening statement, and then we'll go to questions for the student-athletes. When we're done with them, we'll let them go back to the locker room and we'll continue with Coach Altman.
So Coach?
COACH ALTMAN: Disappointed today. Didn't feel like we put our best foot forward in the first half. Dug ourself a pretty big hole and weren't able to come back. Louisville is a very good basketball team and very talented, and Smith got going to the basket, and we just never got him slowed down.
But I'm very proud of the team. Outstanding group of guys to work with. Showed a lot of character, bouncing back from a disappointing end to our season, and they showed that same character all year, overcoming obstacles with injuries.
So I really enjoyed working with the group. One of the most enjoyable years I've had working with a group of young men, and just disappointed that we didn't play a little bit better in that first half.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. Now we'll take questions for the student-athletes.
Q. For E.J., at halftime Coach was saying he was a little disappointed. What was the mood like in the locker room? They kind of had the spurt right before that, so you go in down 14.
E.J. SINGLER: We've been in that position before this year, so we were just looking at it as just another game. And we had to make some adjustments at halftime, and I thought we did. And we played a lot better second half.
But like Coach said, our first half we really dug ourselves a big hole and we tried to fight back as much as possible, but Louisville's a really, really good team, and they just played better than us today.
Q. Fellas, what has this run been like over the last several weeks, just the fact that you come in seeded a little bit low, took that as a bit of a slap. To come out, get the wins that you have, what has this run been like? That's for all three of the guys.
ARSALAN KAZEMI: It has been great. This is the most fun I've had, playing college basketball. And it was just great, just practicing and, I mean, I didn't want it to stop, but it's sad that it's over now. But it was great, and it was a great feeling that knowing that only 16 teams out there that are still playing.
DOMINIC ARTIS: It was just really exciting, this being my first year and everything. Just getting the experience for the first time, it was real nice. And just appreciate everything the coaches and seniors have done for us.
THE MODERATOR: E.J.?
E.J. SINGLER: This being my last year, first three years never made it to the NCAA Tournament, so it's been awesome to experience it in my last year, and just soaked it up, had as much fun as possible.
Like you said, a lot of people didn't believe we could make it where we were. Just proud of our guys for just playing so well down the stretch and just battling together to make it as far as we did.
Q. For Arsalan, the last week when Louisville ran up so many turnovers on Colorado State, their coach was talking about how you can't tell from the film how quick they are. You guys seemed to neutralize them a little bit better, and, in fact, I think they had one more turnover than you did. What did you study that helped you to contain them a little bit? Except Russ Smith did seem to be a little bit quicker than anybody in America today.
ARSALAN KAZEMI: I mean, I'm sure after we won the game against St. Louis, our coaches watched a bunch of film on Louisville and they came with a lot of new press breaks on it and we practiced on it. We had a lot of time to work on it. We practiced on it for three or four days. We were comfortable with their press. They didn't make us turn it over much.
It's been all about our defense. All year, we've played great defense, the games that we won. And today it wasn't there the first half.
THE MODERATOR: Fellas, thank you. Congratulations on a great season.
We'll continue for questions for Coach Altman, please.
Q. Coach, you were more successful the second half. What kind of adjustments did you make at halftime, and how would you advise the next coach to take these guys on, what to do to beat Louisville?
COACH ALTMAN: Their team speed, in the first half, got off to a bad start. They got some transition baskets easy. Second-chance opportunities. I know they had six points on put-backs very early in the ball game. And it just set a bad tone.
Obviously, that pick on the top of the circle there with Smith bringing it at us, we just didn't contain his speed. He got by us and powered some into the rim. We went small.
Typically, Tony would block a few of those. I didn't think Tony was having one of his better games, so I decided to go small. I don't know if -- if the guys got that recommendation, they probably wouldn't have won 32 ball games.
So I don't think there's an easy answer to that. Russ Smith is a talented young man. They've got a lot of talented players. When he got going, we didn't have an answer.
Q. Did it seem that Smith just wasn't going to let them lose? I mean, every time you kept -- you were on the verge of being blown out so many times, you came back, and then he'd make a play. It would be an assist or a drive.
COACH ALTMAN: I agree with you. He made big plays. I think when we got it down to 6, I'm not sure if he or Ware got to the rim and got one in, but one of those two guys. Ware hurt us also.
So, again, they're a talented basketball team. Disappointed we didn't come out a little bit looser and more prepared, and that's as much my fault as it is the team, because we just were stuck in the mud those first ten minutes and dug ourself a hole.
When you let a good team like Louisville be the aggressor, because they're ahead, never make a play from behind, they're tough to beat.
Q. Coach, you mentioned that -- you said Woods didn't play particularly well. Is there anything in particular that he was doing that you didn't -- that you didn't like or was it trying to keep up with Louisville?
COACH ALTMAN: Well, the speed of the game. He didn't get up and down the court. He didn't change any shots in his 11 minutes. He had two turnovers, just didn't make a difference for us.
Q. Coach, talk about your two building blocks. You have your two freshmen guards, played very well. Damyean had a good second half and Dominic played well the whole game. What can you look forward to and what can you build on with the two building blockings in the back court?
COACH ALTMAN: I think the freshmen are going to be good players, D.A. and Dot (Damyean Dotson). Very talented young men. Dot has been playing like a vet; the first half he played like a freshman. Then he bounced back, had a great second half, which shows you a lot about his competitiveness, a lot about his character and toughness.
So D.A. and Dot are going to be very good for us. They're two guys we can build around. Their experience will help them. They had freshmen years that were successful. And if D.A. had to fight through an injury, which is also a learning experience. So I thought both young men did an unbelievable job for us.
And I think they're going to be really good players. They're really good young men to work with, and I think they can really provide -- we've got to get a core group together that we can build some things around, and I think those two guys have the character, the work ethic, those types of qualities we're looking for now.
We're going to lose some big leaders. E.J. Singler is a good young man. He's a great leader. Arsalan, Tony, Carlos. We lose four pretty good seniors. So we've got a lot of work to do.
Q. How much did the foul trouble in the first half hurt you guys? You had three guys with two, with about six minutes left. And then I think somebody picked up a third with four minutes left.
COACH ALTMAN: Yeah, a little bit. We lost our aggressiveness. Everybody is looking around, going we're in foul trouble. That makes you take a step back. We were already a little bit on our heels. So it didn't help us.
But, again, our problem started right from the jump when we gave up some easy seconds shots. We gave up some easy baskets in transition. It set a bad tone. We were trying to recover from that all day.
The foul trouble did slow us down a little bit because then we weren't quite as aggressive. Johnny, I know, picked up his early. And Johnny is our aggressiveness right now. So D.A. had to -- we had both our point guards with two, and Carlos had a couple. So those are three of our more aggressive players. So it didn't help us any.
But, again, just poor start, I think, probably was a bigger factor.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. Thanks for a great season.
