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Louisville vs. Jacksonville State
November 17, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 1 
| Photo Gallery 2
(Opening statement) "The best part about the game was the passing in the first half. It was as good as I have seen it in quite some time. Interior passing....it all stems from Chris Jones' play. He kept getting rebounds on missed shots and making great passes. I thought that he was brilliant tonight. Obviously, we were physically overmatching, them so it's tough to tell a lot of good things because we physically overmatched them. But the passing in the first half was brilliant and really pleasing to watch."
(On how well the team played)"Like I said the passing was great and the unselfishness, the team play, and the execution...but we're physically a much better basketball team with our size."
(On whether Jaylen Johnson is developing as quickly as expected) "Absolutely not, I thought he looked lost tonight. I don't know why you would say that. Yeah, I thought he was completely lost tonight. You like the way he played tonight? We're up 60, forget about the minutes. You thought he was okay? Alright, I'll give you the okay. I don't think he's in shape to be honest with you. That's why Chris and Montrezl and Rozier. They're just in unbelievable shape and I don't think he's in shape."
(On whether or not he knew about Chinanu Onuaku) "Yes. Kevin Keatts told me when he was recruiting him, `Coach, this guy can really pass the basketball. He's got a good feel for the game.' And I said `Really? With that body?' and he said `Yes. He's a really good passer'. And he is a great interior passer. He really sees it very well."
(On Onuaku's performance)"Well, we had a very brief conversation today and I said `Son, look, I'm going to tell you the way it is. We're going to play a bear of a schedule and we wanted to play you 12 to 16 minutes this year, bring you along slowly, and get you ready by sophomore year but we don't have that luxury. I need you to be a killer out there, and I need you to do it now. I've got to have you become a big time player in your freshman year.' And I thought tonight, from an effort standpoint, he was a big time player, even though we overmatched them physically. I thought the way he played the game was great."
(On where Onuaku needs to improve) "I think just getting the feel for the college game. I think he's a very good passer. He came in here in absurd shape. You all watched him when he came in here in the Derby Classic. And he wasn't in good shape, so he got in good shape. He's very strong, he knows the game mentally. He understands the game. Like Montrezl (Harrell). Montrezl is very intelligent. People ask me what the best thing about Montrezl is besides his motor and I say that Montrezl is very, very intelligent. Luke Hancock intelligent on the basketball court. He really understands the game"
(On how much he wants Montrezl Harrell shooting in close games) "You know, I think after movement, it's good. I just want to see him get some post-up plays on the break. I think he's taking away a little bit too much of the strength of his game but I think after movement, going from inside to outside is fine. Going from outside to inside is no good. I think he's got to work inside to out. Like tonight, he didn't get any post-ups tonight on the break and I think that's a strength of his. And I'd like to see him get six to eight points a game just on easy baskets."
(On Chris Jones' maturity) "I think Chris was brilliant the other night. I think Chris was great tonight. I think everything you see happening is Chris Jones making it happen. He's playing like a true point guard. I thought his play in the first half was outstanding. Sometimes statistics don't (tell the story) then you wake up tomorrow morning and if you weren't at the game [you wouldn't know] without question that he was the best player on the floor tonight."
(On if any of the players outside the core five or six are starting to show great talent) "I think Chinanu [Onuaku] showed me something. I think Anas [Mahmoud] has skills. I just don't think he understands how hard we play. I think it's so foreign to him. He never played with this level of intensity. Even though he's highly intelligent, it's very difficult for him to get that. It's just going to take some time. Gorgui [Dieng] was the same way."
(On what makes Chris Jones good at getting steals) "Well, I really think the quickness factor really helped him this year. He got so much quicker with his hands, quicker with his feet. I think he's emotionally- I want to say this the right way- becoming a man. I think that there were a lot of times when he didn't act like a man. Chris has a beautiful smile, a great personality, great leader. There were times in junior college and in high school when he didn't act emotionally mature. I think he's really maturing as a man, and that's great to see. As well as on the court, it's great to see how well he's emotionally changing."
(On Wayne Blackshear's talent tonight) "Yeah, the best part was his passing. You know I was joking around in the walk-through today. I said, 'Get to the corner. Wayne will get his first assist.' And he took it personally tonight. He made four or five terrific passes. I though Wayne was great tonight. I really did. I though he played a total game. He rebounded, he passed, he shot, he made a big-time dunk. That's about as high as I've seen him jump. So I think Wayne was great tonight."
(On what he learned about the team through tonight's game) "When you have a lead, it's a tough thing to play. You change your style, you get everybody minutes, you just try to stay away from injuries. I think they were very focused to come out and play basketball. They knew this team lost by 25 the other night. They didn't even think about that, they just went out there and said, `We're Louisville on the front, we'll play like a Louisville basketball team,' and they took care of business. That's very pleasing for a coach to see that."
(On the ACC's fast start as a conference) "I would say Miami winning is obviously very good, and our win over Minnesota was very good, but if you're talking about Duke's win over Presbyterian then I don't know."
(On the strength of the league)"I want to see some more games."
(On Matz Stockman) "I thought he did a good job. About redshirting him, I'm probably not going to redshirt anybody. I'm just going to let it play out. I want everybody to compete. I think sometimes you redshirt guys for certain reasons. When you know they're going to be a great basketball player, you just know it. I'm saying they're not going to be great players, but, like, I thought Nazr Mohammed was going to be a great basketball player in time. Right now, I'm dealing with two guys who, and I keep saying the word `culture` -- they don't understand the culture of Louisville. Now, Matz gets it a lot more than Anas (Mahmoud) does, in terms of playing hard. He doesn't have Anas's skill level. If Anas would play as hard as Matz, with his skills, we'd have ourselves a very good player this year. But it's going to take time. And look, (former Louisville center) Gorgui (Dieng) did not have it as a freshman."
(About the newly-signed recruiting class) "I just wanted to reiterate one more time about our recruiting class, how excited I am about these three recruits. I think this is a really special class. It needs to be, because we're going to lose four, potentially, great basketball players. But those three guys, I'm just very excited about all three players. We're pumped up about these guys and I think they're going to be impact players as freshmen."
Jacksonville State Head Coach James Green
(You knew it would be tough coming in here, that you would have to rebound well and protect the basketball, and those were two things you didn't do) "No we didn't, and there's a reason for that. They had a lot to do with that - unbelievable talent and size. It was difficult for us to see over, see around. I thought early in the game we played with a little bit of composure, but because we didn't get our spots in the press offense, I thought that really changed the game. We had made a couple shots and I think the score was 19-13 and D.J. (Felder) hops up and shoots early three, and that's just not what we planned to do. If you look at the rebounds, that tells the story. If you're going to get outrebounded 60-26, that score is going to look the way it looks right now, and if you give a good team 74 shots at the basket, they're going to make 50... And some of those looks were good. It happened to be early, I thought the rhythm allowed them to make more shots than possibly it wouldn't have if we could have controlled the ball. It would have been a lot better if we had run the shot clock down a couple times and not even attempted at the basket and just went right and played defense. It sounds bad and you can't really go do that, but the game would have been closer when the score goes up, it would have looked a lot better. But I'm not ashamed of our guys. It's a situation where they have an opportunity play in a great arena against a great basketball program and it's something they will remember. Unfortunately it's not a very good taste in their mouth and we have to put this behind us and move on. We're going to play a lot of good basketball teams. We're not going to always play this caliber, but we can use this experience to help us somewhere down the road. I'm excited about that and seeing really what we are made out of because the guys will have to challenge themselves and challenge each other and see if we can get better. The fortunate thing for us is we are out here on the road, it's early in the year, we've got to go play on Wednesday so we have to put this behind us when we wake up in the morning. Hopefully we will be able to do it before we go to sleep."
(Is this one of the best team's you've played?) "I don't know, this might be the best team we've played anywhere I've ever been. I can remember way back even when I was at Southern Miss I think possibly the highest ranked team we played was No. 4 or 5 in Cincinnati one year and they were on our home court. That was a little bit different, we had a little bit better weapons to go out with. But again, we got a lot of guys some minutes in a tough, tough environment. That crowd was into the game. Their players - they were big, they were strong, they're talented. There's really no match for them. Unfortunately, I was hoping that we would give them a little bit more and actually help them with the game also, but I'm not sure we were able to do that other than giving some of their reserve guys minutes. Other than that, we can't be embarrassed, we can't be ashamed. I think if we look at where their program is and where our program is - I think anybody with any kind of understanding of basketball would understand something like this would happen and certainly as a coach, I'm not going to beat my guys up over tonight's game."
