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Louisville vs. UNC Wilmington
December 14, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
| USA Today
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening statement) "Really happy for Coach Keatts. His team played with unbelievable heart and purpose. It's not easy coming into this type of environment and play as well as they did. Our team didn't play well because they made us not play well. So you have to give all the credit to them. We didn't pass the ball like we did against Indiana. We hunted points and we paid the consequences of hunting points rather than hitting the open man. So I'm really proud of Kevin and his basketball team, but I'm really disappointed in our basketball team, but they made us look bad so you gotta give all the credit to them" (On why an 18 point lead became a 2-point lead) "We didn't play defense"
(On Terry's play)"Yeah, he turned the ball over too much and he didn't have an assist in the game. He didn't play well at all."
(On UNCW) "Again, I'm real proud of Kevin (Keatts) for his team. You like to see that. They really deserved a better fate than that because they really outplayed us. Sometimes you have games like this. It'll teach a valuable lesson to the people in that locker room. If you don't play your style every single game, regardless of who it is...I mean this was great because we would have lost to Western (Kentucky) . No question about it, we would have lost to Western. So now the ego is out of that locker room, because ego is edging greatness out. They'll get back to earth, and they'll stop reading their press clippings."
UNC Wilmington Head Coach Kevin Keatts
(Opening Statement) "I thought we played extremely hard tonight. One of the things I wanted coming into this game is, because we design our defense after Louisville, and I wanted there guys to, obviously, don't come out and not play aggressive, and I thought we did a good job on both ends. I don't think Louisville played their best basketball. Obviously you know what type of team they are, and we made some shots and some shots went in late, and then I felt like our guys felt like we could win the game with five minutes left in the game."
(What changed in the 15-0 run?) "One of the things with Louisville and me being here for three years is, just like Coach K said a long time ago, they boom you. They get out in transition, they get steals, they get easy baskets, and I thought we had a couple runouts that we didn't get back, and they kind of got going on that. We did a good job of taking them away from the 3-point line, which surely they make shots, but we didn't get back in transition and we turned the ball over a couple times and led to layups and runouts."
(On the last five minutes of the game) "You have to understand (Louisville) is an outstanding team and always has been, always will be, and they just made plays down the stretch. Those guards are good, Montrezl Harrell got offensive rebounds, and they just outplayed us the last five minutes of the game."
(On if he could sense the burst coming from Louisville) "I sensed before I got here that that burst could happen because I was here on this bench for several years. That's one of the things that we wanted to do in the first half, and then most of the second, we didn't let them get out and get on their spurts, and consequently we were able to hang in the game."
(On the burst from his team in the second half) "We played well. I thought it hurt us a little bit when Craig Ponder went out of the game with cramps and we lost one of our scorers, but I thought our guys, as the game went along, that we were in the game, we got more confidence toward the end."
(On what the game does for the team) "We just have to build on it. It's of those things that, certainly those guys in the locker room, I hope they don't feel like this was a Super Bowl, because obviously we lost a game, we're a little disappointed because we lost. But we did some good things that we can build on, and hopefully we continue to do that."
(On being back in Louisville) "Great place. Everybody's been so wonderful to me and it's been good. It's been a lot of fun, I was glad to see a lot of my old buddies and get a chance to sit down with coach a little bit and hang out with the old coaching staff, and just to see the players. This is a special place in my heart."
(What were the conversations you had with Montrezl and coach Pitino toward the end of the game and after the game?) I just said Montrezl `we're not that bad are we?' He said no coach you guys are alright.' So if Montrezl Harrell says we have a chance to be good, I feel good about it. Coach just says he is proud of me and my team played hard and just keep it up.
