.png&width=32&height=32&type=webp)
Louisville vs. Cleveland State
November 26, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 1 
| Photo Gallery 2
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening statement) "Well, obviously, it was not a pretty game. What I basically told them at halftime is look guys, you're pouting and complaining to the officials that you're getting fouled. And you're using that as an excuse and it not only looks bad, but that's the way Virginia is going to play. That's the way Pittsburgh is going to play. We watched them play Kentucky last year and with about three minutes to go in the game they had a good chance of winning and then the year before they almost beat Vanderbilt. We know regardless how they are going to play against great teams. He's done a fabulous job with that for a long time. I told the guys is what's going to win it is not your jump shot. What's going to win it is offensive rebounding, you're going to have to make your free throws and you're going to have to play the best defense of your life. It's got to be a Wichita State game. You're not going to win it with offense. It's not Savannah State."
"Well, then they think all of sudden, well, Savannah State beat them - I said wrong type of game. It's going to be all about defense and our guys, as bad as we were offensively tonight and most phases of the game, we were very good on defense. Very good, because we thought going into that game that that is one of the best point guards in the nation that we will see. He's got size. He gets in the lane. He makes his free throws. If you'll notice, one of the reasons why we're not as good as we should be from the foul line is we're playing too many minutes. Guys are just tired. There's not a whole lot of what I can do about it because guys aren't ready to play. We're winning with focus on scouting and doing little things. Our bench is just not ready right now."
"Hopefully, Shaqquan (Aaron) will be ready soon - we'll get another break there. But as bad as we're shooting and free throw shooting -- if you'll notice our opponents, what they shoot from the line -- you'll understand what they're going against because we win that battle from the foul line with the exception of a couple of teams a year. But we'll get better at it. There's no excuse for Terry (Rozier) not to be a great foul shooter. There's no excuse for Chris (Jones) not to be a great foul shooter. If Montrezl Harrell can work his butt off and become a good shooter the rest of the guys can. It's just a lot of hard work. But the problem is, and what we do in practice we try to shoot it in game situations - we shoot more free throws I bet than any team in the country - but you're rested. You're not tired. You just go to the line. Yeah, you make 80 out of 100."
"But when you're pressing and you're running and you get to the line, conditioning is a factor. We've got to develop our bench - just small breaks before timeouts. But right now we don't have that because of a few reasons. Mangok (Mathiang), obviously was hurt tonight. Nanu (Onuaku) was exhausted. Anas(Mahmoud) is not ready to play yet. But, it was a good grinding win. We needed it too. You saw Butler beat North Carolina. You can lose these type games - happens all of the time. And we won it and we did it with defense. Our offense will be fine. We'll get it going. We're going to have to get ready for Ohio State because they're going to play a zone just like that team did tonight as well."
(On Chinanu Onuaku's defense) "He's playing well. He's got to get to where he doesn't get tired and has to come out of the game. But he's good, he's agile, he knows how to play. One of the big things tonight I tried to tell the guys is you can't bring the ball against this team because on every film they get four to five steals a game. They almost average 10 steals per game."
(On where the offense needs to improve) "Chris Jones has just got to understand the game a little bit and what's there. I tried to tell him, you know, when Bernard King was leading in scoring for the Knicks when I was an assistant coach, he would come to me every game and say, `Rick, where am I going to be open? Where are they going to double me? Where are they coming from?' He was the best player in the league, the highest scorer in the league, and he asks where can I score? And Chris doesn't understand that certain defenses will give you certain things. If you drive through the teeth of the defense against this team, they don't give it to you. He just has to grasp that - understanding what the defense gives. And he'll get it."
(On if there was a problem with ball security tonight) "No, I really think - unfortunately in today's culture, we very rarely speak the truth - it was Cleveland State. Now you don't want to give them credit because they lost to Savannah State. Cleveland State was brilliant tonight. You have to give them the credit. They made us look bad. They didn't make us miss the free throws. But they made us look bad with a great guard performance, (Trey Lewis) who had 17 of their points (in the first half). But as bad as we were offensively they shot 25 percent. Our defensive rebounding was good. You've got to win ugly sometimes while you work on things. We've got a lot of knew people. So, the answer to that is they were brilliant and we often just want to blame other things. No, they were great. That's why we were bad because they were great."
(On the significance of win 700) "You know, I hope I'm as lucky to 800, because I just remember as if it was yesterday, Tom handing me a picture of 600 ... as if it was yesterday. I know time flies by when you get old, but they won the most games in the history of Louisville. It happened so quick from six to seven. I just hope I'm as blessed going from seven to eight. I doubt that could ever happen but I would love to see it happen because it means you're winning. I don't think there's as much significance personally for me but the significance I take away is that senior class last year, how many games they won. And I was the beneficiary today."
(On if he thought of winning 700 games when he first got into coaching) "I always wanted to be a pro coach because when you grow up in New York you don't want to be a college coach. College basketball at that time was dead. I always wanted to go into pro coaching. That was my dream. So I never really thought about it too much."
(Do you ever enjoy yourself while the game is going on?) "When it's played well, I do. Obviously, tonight they needed me as much as I needed them because we were exhausted tonight. We were tired. I told Chinanu (Onuaku) you've got to dig in son. This is what builds champions. I was saying that to each and every guy. It's not about your missed shots. Do not worry about missed shots. It's all about defense. If you want to get there again, its going to take one NCAA game where the shooting is just not there and you have to win it. I just kept repeating that to them. In this type of game everybody is needed."
(On how he would you rate the defense tonight after holding team to 33 points.) "Think about this. When do you press? After made shots. We didn't have too many because we shot 33 percent. We couldn't wear them out because we couldn't get it on that many times. All we were trying to do was wear out that young man (Trey Lewis) so that he didn't have the second half that he had the first half. He goes more to the right than he does to the left and we kept giving him his right hand. He was brilliant. We knew he would be but I'm not sure our guys knew it. He was great. We are playing excellent defense right now but I'm telling you it's fools gold in this regard. You can't play our style without a bench. We have to develop a bench and I'm hoping that we can get some good news pretty quick. I'm very bullish on Anas (Mahmoud) because I've seen them all. I've seen the Nazr Mohammed's, the Gorgui Diengs; I've seen them all. They come and they get better and better but they are not going to be ready this year. So we need Shaqquan (Aaron) and we need Anton (Gill) too. He's pressing. He's a better shooter than that. He shouldn't shoot air balls or miss free throws. If those guys would do what Trent Gilbert does. I told them in the locker room, I come in early in the morning and my goal in life is to beat Trent Gilbert to work. I haven't beat him yet. If I get there at 6:15, he's there at 6. The kid lives in the gym. I said `Guys, he knows he's not going to play! He knows he's not getting in and he lives in the gym. I'm really impressed by that young man."
(On Shaqquan Aaron) "He'll be ready by the time conference play rolls around. You're going to play against Virginia some nights. We lost our two best scorers, Luke and Russ (Smith). Luke Hancock was our best shooter and they both shot free throws well. You're replacing them with guys who are average to good shooters instead of good to great so it's going to take time to develop that. We've got to win with our defense while our offense develops. I told Montrezl, if you stay on the perimeter we are not going to win this game. We need offensive rebounds to win this game. And he did it. He did a great job.
(On what he remembers about his first victory) "It's strange you say that. I remember number three, we lost to Adelphi and I never forget that. I was so miserable. We beat Fairfield which was a major upset. They had a long winning streak and we snapped them. We had a long lay off and we had to play at Adelphi. I wanted to take my first plunge in the East River even though I lived right nearby. So I remember that. I don't remember too much."
(On first win at Hawaii) "I had six guys, remember now, I'm 23 at the time. I gave them a curfew and they were all 23 and 24 at that time. I gave them a curfew and I had to knock on the rooms. Not one guy was in. I was worried about my future with Hawaii with that team. It's been a great run. The thing I'm most proud of about the run is that I've been able to keep passion for the game and love for the game. I think I love the game more now than I did in my 20's. That's probably, personally, the thing I take away most. I coached great guys at BU, great guys at Providence, great guys at Kentucky, great guys with the New York Knicks, and obviously now Louisville and I hope I can go for a long time."
Cleveland State Head Coach Gary Waters
(Opening statement) "It's not very good when you look at it. Looking at the stats it was an ugly game, but sometimes you've got to play in those types of games and you've got to make sure that they come out of those things successful. Today we didn't, but I felt that we were playing probably one of the better defensive teams in the country. I think that's their strength, I think it's maybe Pitino's best defense teams he's had. Why? Because I think they all show intensity and they all play hard. When you've got that going, you've got a chance to have a pretty good season."
(On Rick Pitino saying Cleveland State made Louisville look bad) "I wish I could take some consolation in that, but I just think they didn't hit some shots - they hit some shots, they play a little bit better. That's one of the things I know they've got to work at, make sure they get the right shooters, taking the right shots. But, I think you can be off in a game if your defense is there to hold the opposition off, and that's what they have the ability to do."
(Coach Pitino called Trey Lewis, he thought one of the best point guards in the country, talk about his first half - he also said their goal was to wear him down, what did you see in the second half?) "They did, they got to him, and they wore him down. But, he's not our starting point guard. Our starting point guard is Charlie Lee - who has started for three years and he wasn't here today. I suspended him for six games and he will be back next week. Now we'll have our point guard back and I can put Trey back to doing the things he does. But he did a great job taking over for him and I thought handled the point extremely well today, under all the pressure. We only had 13 turnovers and I thought it was because of him and what he did out there controlling the tempo. If we got here and ran up and down with them I knew we would have a hard time. They score I bet you 45 percent of their points in transition. We wanted to keep them out of transition and we wanted to make them shoot the ball from the outside. Then we had to execute on the offensive end. Which we did sometimes and didn't at others because Grady had one point and he averages 15 points a game. Mason didn't have a point. So they did what they were supposed to do and shut down who they wanted to shut down."
(On being down four in the second half with multiple chances to take the lead) "We just didn't execute during that period of time. The positive thing is we can work on that. Those are things I think we can get better at and what makes me feel good about what occurred in this game was that (Anton) Grady, who averages 15 points a game and Marlin Mason averages 14 points a game. One had one and one had zero - that is never going to happen again. I feel pretty good that if we can get everyone playing at their level, we've got a chance to be a pretty good team this year."
