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Louisville vs. Savannah State
November 24, 2014 | Men's Basketball
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Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening Statement) "Well, if you coach long enough you see a lot of different things. That was a very unusual game tonight, to say the least. I thought our pressure was good. I thought our zone-man was very good, and the other team just had one of those nights where they could not hit a shot. They are not as bad as they played tonight. It was just one of those unfortunate things for them. We got a chance to rest and play everybody and take a look at some people that have not played. We will take the victory and move on. Cleveland State will be a much tougher game. I know what you are saying, well Savannah beat Cleveland State. It is totally different. Cleveland State was in charge of the game. They made a run late and pressured them, up eight at their gym and made a couple long threes and put it into overtime."
(On the team staying focused even with a large lead) "Well, you want to work on certain things offensively and we were struggling there a little bit. Our guys were hunting shots and that's what happens when you get a lead and everybody's looking to score."
(On who impressed him) " No, I don't know what to say about tonight's game. I'm speechless, really."
(On what he told the team at halftime) "I just said we're not going to press. We're going to play everybody. And, just, let's work on our execution."
(On Chinanu Onuaku) "I wouldn't base it on tonight's game, but he is playing extremely(well) ... You know the nice thing about Chinanu is he's a very good passer. The only thing left for him is conditioning, he wears out very easily. Now compared to where he came from in the Derby Classic, it's night and day, but I think we got ourselves a real jewel. We haven't seen those outlet passes to people since old-timers here, since Wes Unseld we haven't seen that. He's got a great future here."
(On watching film) "I always love watching film and breaking it up. This will be the first time since I've been at Louisville that I will not watch the game film. I will not watch it. I want them to concentrate to Cleveland State. We always do edits every game, this will be the first time... we will not watch that game. It will be false security. You get really nothing out of this and you feel bad for the other team more than anything else."
(On if he fears the team will have an inflated ego) "Well I put on the board almost every day that "Ego is edging greatness out," and if they want to edge greatness out. The one thing I'd say about our team, they're not only focused to win, but they're highly intelligent people. They know that we totally overmatched this basketball team tonight, so if we go in and beat Cleveland State, beat Ohio State then you'd be concerned about ego. But beating this team that we overmatched, I wouldn't think that."
(On if he didn't enjoy watching the game) "No, I don't like to see any team struggle like that, I really don't. We tried everything."
Savannah State Head Coach Horace Broadnax
(Opening statement) "Moving on to the next program. We play Jacksonville State on Friday. Our purpose and our goal is to try to be competitive against programs that we can. Rick has a tremendous program here at Louisville. Obviously they're trying to get ready for a Final Four. I don't think I did a great job of trying to get our guys - in the first four minutes of the game - we needed to try to trap it, break it down, kind of break the ice a little bit. It's time to move on.
(On the sense frustration of going scoreless for so long in the first half) "There was no frustration on my part. I've been here before - I think we've got the record against Kansas State for the fewest point in the second half, so I was trying to figure out if we had another first. I've got a young team, I've got a very young team. I've said it in the past that if this is the worst that ever happens to these kids, they're going to have a great life. We've got a trainer who lost her father last Wednesday or Tuesday and I heard that phone call... so to me, this is nothing and I try to tell my players that we've got to learn and move from this, but she's got to deal with her father's death. And the kicker of it all, it was her birthday. We're going to move on, this is a sports contest and hopefully these guys will learn from this and get better as young men."
"Were you able to take anything away from this game? "We've just got to move on, sometimes life deals you bad things and this is not bad. If this the worst that ever happens... Our preparation has got to be a little better. We're trying to win in the MEAC Conference. We not up to this level just yet. We started two freshmen and two sophomores. We have five freshman and four sophomores on this team. One senior just dressed today, everybody is an underclassman. So the future within our parameter looks bright, but competing against the top ACC teams in the country is going to be tough for this program."
(You've been a part of some great defenses, did this bring back to your playing days at Georgetown at all, did you see any similarities?) "That's one of the things I talked to Coach Pitino about, how he could keep that culture alive in this day and age. When there are a lot of distractions and a lot of catering to the players. It's a tribute to his greatness and hall of fame, is just to attract people to the program to play that hard. It sounds romantic and sexy to tell kids you want to play hard, but it's a huge price to play day in and day out.
(On keeping Savannah State's players focused and encouraged) "Well, I knew that [Louisville] was pressing after a point. Just play. At this point, if we beat Louisville, that will be a feather in our cap, but it's not going to be earth-shattering within our program. If we win championships, regular season championships, postseason championships, and the MEAC, that'll do more for us. We've got a lot of work to do. We're young. We've just got a lot of work to do. I don't want to lose the season on one game. As a coach, I could've been in the locker room kicking and threatening and all that and then I lose a kid. Not comparing us to the Patriots, but six weeks ago they thought the Patriots were done. Now somebody is saying they're the best team in the NFL. Not that we're going to be on that level, but we want to try to finish strong. It's a long season. We still have 20 to 30 games to go, so I don't want to lose these kids on a game like this."
(On Savannah State's possible discouragement during the 29-0 stretch) "No, I don't feel for [us] because I tell them 'It's your preparation.' What you take from this game is what you take from this game, meaning I have to [go] back and work hard. Your preparation will be rewarded. You are rewarded based on your preparation. We lift weights. We've got 10-foot goals. We have 94 feet. We have 24 hours just like Louisville. It's just how we use our 24 hours. [We] need to use them a little bit better and I need to prepare them a little bit better."
(On beating Cleveland State, Louisville's next opponent) "We were very fortunate to beat Cleveland State at our place. It was home. We were feeling comfortable. I think Cleveland State has some guards with some savvy, with some swag to them. They've got some bigs that could match up with Louisville... Cleveland State will definitely give [Louisville] a better game than we gave them."
