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Louisville-SMU Postgame Quotes
January 12, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 12, 2014
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Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening Statement)
“Obviously, you guys don't watch as much film as we do. We have tremendous respect for this basketball team going in. It is rare today to see a team statistically be as good at both ends of the floor. Their defensive numbers are awesome. Their defensive numbers are awesome. This is a team who shoots one of the highest in the country and our first half defense was the best we played all year. We rotated beautifully and we did a lot of great things. We deflected a lot of balls with 20 deflections. Then to be honest with you, we got tired and we fatigued. For a Louisville team, you don't ever hear that, but you have Russ (Smith) playing 38 minutes and Montrezl (Harrell) playing 38 and we had a few guys hurt. We fatigued a little bit and we were not as aggressive defensively. We did a very good job against one of the premier point guards in the league in Nic Moore. It was really a very good basketball game for us.”
(On Luke Hancock's second half performance)
“We started running a lot of turnout plays for Luke this week. He is not only the best shooter and free throw shooter but he is also the best passer. If he doesn't have it, he will throw the ball inside at 6-5. That is what we were missing. We were not getting the ball inside coming off plays. Not until the last two games has Luke been 100 percent. Now he is not 100 percent defensively, but that has nothing to do with his Achilles.”
(On Luke Hancock being more vocal the last few games)
“We talked tonight, over and over, about unbridled enthusiasm ... just being enthusiast as we could be all week. We were a little down after the Memphis game because we felt like we gave it away. Like I told them we were down last year, when we lost three, to stop trying to live up to last year's team. We are not that team. Just be yourself and we are going to be the best team we are going to be. Then in March we will see who we are. Stop trying to be last year's team because we are not. That is not a knock on our abilities. We are just a different basketball team.”
(On not starting a true center today and if we are going to see more of that this season)
“I think we are trying to get more offense in the game. We had a few droughts against Memphis because when you play a couple guys together it is basically five on three and half or five on four. We have to have offensive players on the floor. It makes Russ (Smith) much better and it makes Luke (Hancock) much better. Now their penetration guys cannot sag and tonight they couldn't sag off Russ.”
(Giving up defensive rebounding with new lineup)
“To tell you the truth, I don't think our front court has been rebounding worth a damn anyway so I don't think it really matters. Even in exhibition game, I don't think they were rebounding the ball. We aren't losing anything but a little size and shot blocking.”
(On Montrezl Harrell being more assertive by being primary big man)
“I think he has played okay, I don't think he has played great. I think he is getting better. He is working on his low-post game. His turnaround jump shot, we have worked very hard on the past two weeks in individual sessions. He is falling away too much. It has to be a Bernard King-type turnaround, not a fade-away. You don't want to make a 10-foot shot into a 14-foot shot. He is getting better and working hard. He is playing a lot of minutes, which isn't the best thing. ”
(On things Montrezl Harrell needs to improve on)
“I think he stands up too much. His biggest weakness is his body is too erect. He never plays in an offensive stance, so if he is posting up like this (straight up) instead of getting low, spreading wide and stepping over the foot and then turning away to create space. He stands up too erectly and does on defense as well. That's why people can go around him in the post. Great post defensive players span their feet like three times the width of their shoulders, that how exaggerated they are. He stands with the width of his shoulders, so it is just footwork. He is still very, very young but played a good game tonight.”
(On Wayne Blackshear's fouls bad luck or product of bad defense)
“I think it is just bad defensive basketball. There is no excuse for what he was doing out there tonight. It was just bad basketball. Don't go for the fake, just wall up the defender, and he can't get beat backdoor like he did in the beginning. We have to get Luke (Hancock) playing better defense. As good as he is on offense, we have to get him playing better defense. If Montrezl stands up, Luke is the Empire State Building, times 10.”
(On taking Nic Moore out of his game tonight)
“We watched Arkansas press him the entire game and trap him the entire game. They trapped him the entire game, he had three turnovers and five fouls. Our strategy was to wear him out so he couldn't shoot the ball. We got him out of his game a little bit and we also wanted to go at him to make him guard us. I know you get tired of me saying good things about coaches, but I am blown away with how great Coach Larry Brown is because when you watch seven games on film you get a great appreciation for the teacher he is at the fundamentals of the game. I have a great appreciation for him and he has always been a great coach. To keep the level of excellence after coaching that many years in the pros -- coaching in the pros is a dog's life so he is like 240 right now. That is an amazing feat. ”
(On Chris Jones not playing in the second half)
“He tweaked his hip off the turnover.”
(On Terry Rozier's play)
“I think he did a good job. Terry (Roizer) is just a freshman. The best thing about Terry is his professional attuide. He's got a pro attitude. He comes to work every single day with the same attitude. He never gets down, never gets high, just keeps learning. He's going to be a terrific basketball player someday. He listens to scouting report. He listens to the scouting report better than our seniors. That's an indictment against our seniors, but pretty good for a freshman.”
(About living up to last year's team)
“You know every announcer says that, 'You are the defending national champions.' Well yeah, you know they want to do so well. You can see the efforts there, but nobody's going to be Peyton Siva. Now they can be Peyton Siva as a freshman, who wasn't always pleasing to look at. But nobody's going to be Peyton Siva as I said to you many times. But (Peyton had) the best attitude along with Billy Donovan, I had in my 35 years of coaching, followed up by Gorgui Dieng and then you have Chane Behanan, who was a physical presence. It's just different. I told them aspire to be as good as them in March. Don't try and be that team now. We're going to lose some games obviously. We're not going have that record we had last year. It's going be OK as long as long as we keep getting better and, come March, we will be a decent basketball team.”
SMU Head Coach Larry Brown
(What was Louisville able to do defensively that held you to a low shooting percentage?)
“Their energy was great. They always play hard under Rick (Pitino). I also thought that we took some terrible shots - especially the first half. They got us. It happened to us at Cincinnati. It happened to us at Arkansas; we got to playing too fast. We didn't get a chance to get fouled, or get a rebound, or at least get back on the break. And when you do that with them, and with Russ Smith, you know he gets out in transition and you're going to pay. We get down 17 the first half, should've made a layup down 10, had five or six stops right from the start, and I felt we were back in the game. Foul trouble really affected us, and their effort was great. When you play a team that Rick is coaching, they're going to give you great energy, they're going to be disciplined and well-coached, take good shots. Their will is going to be something if you don't pay attention to detail and get to play the way they play. They play their way better than we play their way. And I thought that was the key to the whole game.”
(What did you think of Luke Hancock?)
“Well, he's lucky he is playing with Russ Smith. That doesn't hurt. But he makes shots. I'm getting old, but I thought he was the MVP of the NCAA tournament, just doing that. But I've watched him; he takes good shots. They do a great job of finding him when he's open; he's not afraid of the big stage. There's something about our sport that you find out what kids can't do and reasons for guys failing, but I look at that little kid (Russ Smith) and he's trying to make everybody on his team better. He recognized Luke was open and I think that was the key because we had our way on the boards and I thought we had a chance to win the game and we really got back quick. We're down four and we shoot a baseline jumper early in the clock - one of our big guys. We thought we got control of the game, but I'm proud of our guys. I'm happy we were playing in an atmosphere like this, where people love the game and respect the game. It was a wonderful experience for all of us. Hate the result, but we lost to a great team.”
(On getting into foul trouble)
“We came in with our freshman Ben Moore. He's going to be great - he played good. Cannen (Cunningham) struggled. We really needed Cannen to step up. He had been playing good. He was like a deer in headlights. He had three turnovers in warm ups. But, Louisville lost (Chane) Behanan, so I'm not going to feel sorry for us. They lost a great player. The way I look at it, opportunities like that when somebody gets hurt, (it) opens it up for other people. I didn't anticipate it. Shawn (Williams) is a fifth-year senior and he's kind of a guy you want in a game like this. But that's the way the game was called.”
(You couldn't take Nic Moore out of the game with two fouls in the first half, did you ever think about putting him back in at some point when Louisville went on a run?)
“Yeah, I did a number of times, but when he's out, there are some things we miss, but there are some things we gain. You know we were longer, more athletic, and I figured I didn't think we would give in or give up. If you'd told me down 17 with him on the bench that we were going to have a chance to get that down to 10, I'd have thought that I was a genius. But I trust the other guys and I was hopeful. You know he's been hurt, he's had an Achilles problem in the last week at practice, so I thought that was also a factor as well.”
