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Louisville vs. Ohio State
December 03, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
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Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening statement) "I thought this was one of the better crowds we've had here at Louisville. It was the fifth-largest crowd, and the crowd was great. We needed defense to win this game tonight. We got a lot of situations where we knew our offense would be challenged by playing people we didn't expect to play. We were expecting to play (freshman center) Matz (Stockman) tonight. He had a great week of practice. He dunked the ball in walk-through today and threw out his neck. Then we got in foul trouble and we had to play Anas (Mahmoud), and Anas did a great job."
(On the play of Anas Mahmoud and other freshmen pressed into action against Ohio State "I thought he did a good job. I thought our freshmen hurt us down the stretch because they didn't get to their, what we call our down position, and they gave up two wide-open shots. Then they kept giving (Ohio State guard) D'Angelo Russell his left hand, where we took it away in the first half. But that's to be expected. This is all a very complicated defensive scheme, and they're going to have a lot of trouble with it."
(On the play of Wayne Blackshear and Terry Rozier) "Wayne's been terrific. As good as Wayne was, I was really impressed with Terry Rozier. The other day, in the middle of practice, he and everybody started screaming, they said `Oh my God, his pinky became an S.' So he ran over to (head trainer) Fred (Hina) and said `Put it back in.' So he squeezes it back in, Fred's got big fingers. All of the sudden, he goes back in. So, I say, `You're fine, sit this one out.' He said, `I'm good.' And Fred said, `You're not good, you've got to tape it up!' he said, `I don't need it,' and then Fred had to pull him off the court. Same thing happened tonight. His finger was totally dislocated. You know it's throbbing. You know it's hurting. It's the second time he did it. He took the big shot when we were up three to give us the lead, and that's a hell of a thing for a guy like that to do. I thought Terry Rozier, who didn't have his jump shot early, was getting every rebound, making big plays, and I thought he was great down the stretch."
(On the number of turnovers in the game) "I thought we were just trying to do things we don't normally do, throwing half-court lobs. Sometimes when you play at home, guys get so pumped up that they try to turn on the crowd with spectacular plays, but what it does against a good team is it leads to a turnover. But that's as fine a half defensively as we've played in a long, long time, including past years. I don't think we could have played any better defensively in that first half. That's what's carrying us right now. Our offense is going to come. We've got a lot of young players, I'm playing a lot of veterans a lot of minutes. I thought we passed the ball really, really well tonight. We had a lot of open shots, I think we had 15 assists, and we just didn't make the shots. We'll start making it. If you all remember, from what I'm told from Eric Crawford, that you all questioned Luke Hancock, and we all remember what happened there."
(On the number of deflections in the game) "We had 27 for the game, but the game was a little slower. You get a lot of deflections when the game is fast. But we were so active defensively, really, they didn't get a good look but two or three times the whole first half, and they're, as you all know from the numbers, those numbers they put up are scary. And you can say what was the level of competition, but we were playing similar competition and our numbers weren't like that, so we're really a good defensive team. I'm real proud of what we're doing, and I know our offense is going to get there."
(On why the defense is so far along) "I think because the veterans know it very well. Mangok (Mathiang) wouldn't have made those mistakes, but unfortunately, that ankle's really bad."
(On the shooting in the final minute) "Chris (Jones) is a really good shooter. If you look at Chris' numbers, Chris is a real good shooter. Chris was taking challenged shots, but I've got confidence in him and Terry (Rozier) once they're open. Obviously, we know Wayne (Blackshear) is a good shooter. So all three of those guys have developed into good shooters, and they're average right now, but they're going to develop because we were taking challenged shots. Tonight they didn't take it, and Terry, down the stretch, really showed me something. Chris showed me something, and then we did an excellent job of rebounding for most of the game."
(On playing Anas Mahmoud over Chinanu Onuaku) "Well at the end, what happens is we're switching three or four times every possession. We go from zone to man, then we go back to zone, and then at the end we're always in man. And he never went up on the pick-and-roll, another guy comes off, and it's what we call pick-and-roll, the guy going `downhill' on a 5-man when the guy's much better. You've got to get out there and you've got to almost semi-trap him, and then when the guy rolls to the basket, the other wing takes him, the guard goes out to the perimeter. So it's a scheme that's very complicated for a freshman, but they're learning from their mistakes, and if you win and learn from your mistakes, it's a good thing."
(On the tight game down the stretch) "It is a great game, the atmosphere was awesome and I knew it would be. It was one of the better atmospheres I have seen in my time here. From the moment we came out, it was just a great atmosphere because we knew they were a terrific basketball team. That is the fun part about our home schedule this year, we've got North Carolina, we've got Duke, we've got Miami, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio State, Indiana in the Garden. If you can get out to our fans, Indiana has a lot of New Yorkers that go to that school so if you can forget Christmas and come to the Indiana game, we would appreciate it."
(On the Big Ten/ACC Challenge) "I was concentrated on one game and that is Minnesota versus Wake Forest. I was watching that whole game yelling at the screen and making notes. I made literally two pages of notes and he (son Richard Pitino) just listens every time and says, `is that it Dad?' He has to go so I have two pages of notes. He won by 15 and I've got two pages of notes."
(On a good number of 3-point shots for the team) "Well they played all zone, which we knew they would play. I don't think with the exception of the shot clock running out that we took bad three's. We took good three's, we just didn't make them. I think Montrezl (Harrell) took a bad one on the break one time and he is really disappointed in his free throws but I said, `Montrezl, three went in-and-out and they looked good.' Sometimes you just don't worry about it, they were in and they went out."
(On how the team plays against the zone) "I think we are going to be very good because we get open looks, sometimes in man you don t get open looks and we had open looks tonight. I think Chris (Jones), Terry (Rozier) and Wayne (Blackshear) are going to be good shooters from the perimeter, I think all three will and I think Mangok will give us some experience on defense and I love our big guys. I love Anas (Mahmoud), I love Matz (Stockman), and I love Chinanu (Onuaku). I think all three are going to develop into big-time basketball players some day and I am excited about their potential."
Ohio State Associate Head Coach Dave Dickerson
(On Ohio State seeming impatient and anxious early in the game) "Well, I think the one thing you've got to keep in mind is that Louisville is a very good team and this is one of the best home courts in the country. Their pressure bothered us in the first half and we couldn't get into any offensive rhythm. As a result of pressing a little bit on the offensive end, I thought we took some quick shots and our turnovers didn't help us in the first half. They are the sixth best team in the country and we're on the road playing a very good team."
(Did Louisville do anything to take you off of your game?) "We tried to simulate the pressure in practice, in which we didn't do a very good job of. I thought their pressure bothered us, especially the first 10 minutes when we couldn't get in a rhythm. Their offensive rebounding was as good as we've seen. From their pressure, we turned the ball over and the fact that we couldn't get defensive rebounds really took us out of some things that we do well, which is scoring in transition and kind of threw off early offensive opportunities."
(On D'Angelo Russell playing a key role in the final minutes of the game) "When we struggled as much as we struggled in the first half, we were looking for just running, just getting some type of offensive continuity. D'Angelo, even though he didn't shoot the ball well from the field, we thought he competed well. The pressure didn't bother him and putting him on the basketball in the second half really paid dividends for us, but the bottom line is that in the first half, we dug a hole for ourselves and hopefully we can chalk this up as being December 2. Hopefully we can get better from here, which we will."
(On the poise shown in the second half with three freshmen on the floor) "The easiest thing for us to do is to tell our guys they did a great job coming back and obviously, we did. We showed some toughness and Kam (Williams) did a great job of knocking down some threes and Jae'Sean Tate just played like an animal which was good for us. And then D'Angelo (Russell), we're going to need him to play well for us this year. I thought those guys settled down where the moment wasn't too big for them in the second half. But it was a tale of two halves, and the first half we dug a hole for ourselves being down by 17 at halftime."
(On D'Angelo Russell) "D'Angelo is a good player but he's only a freshman. We won't put everything on him. We're more concerned about the other guys stepping up to the plate and playing well because even though he's one of the best freshmen in the country, we need to have some balance scoring and we do need our older guys to play well, which they will play well and we have no doubts about that."
(On how the team and Marc Loving played in the second half) "I think Marc did a hell of a job of coming back in the second half and playing with some aggressiveness and some toughness. Foul trouble was a big problem for us tonight. Louisville caused a lot of those situations with their ability to control the glass. But Marc came back and showed some resiliency and knocked down a couple threes in the second half that we desperately needed. Now we've just got to get to a point where we can get everyone playing well for 40 minutes and not dig a hole for ourselves. But those are some of the things that we will work on and talk about. I'm sure we will get better as the season goes on."
(You guys knew that Harrell would be a challenge, how do you feel when your interior defense goes up against such an athletic and versatile player?) "He is one of the best players in the country and I know he'll be in contention to be a first team all American. In the first half we just weren't who we thought we were going to be, and they really denominated the boards and turned us over a lot. We've got to get ourselves to the point where we can go out and play well for two halves in a game like this. But give credit to Louisville they were as good as any team I have seen to this point. But we just have to get back to Columbus and get our legs back under us and go from there."
(On Louisville's defense) "They pressure you 94 feet. They have a multitude of pressure. He's probably one of the best pressure coaches in college basketball. He does a great job of it in the full court and in the half court. He starts out in a matchup that goes to a man, that sometimes goes back to a matchup. We didn't do a great job in the didn't do a great job in the first half, but I thought in the second half, we outscored them by nine maybe... but the first half was the tale of the game where we couldn't get anything going.
(Did you see confusion among the players - not recognizing the defense?) "Our guys knew what they were going to do, but when you play a team like Louisville that pressures you 40 minutes, sometimes you can't simulate that in a practice situation. He did a good job with his team of staying with it, but I thought our guys came back in the second half and played with some toughness and had a good vibe about themselves and some confidence. We came back into the game and had a chance to win it.
(Why did you go with D'Angelo Russell down the stretch and Shannon Scott sat out for the last 12 minutes?) "This is our sixth game of the year. As coaches, you do what you need to do to try and win the game. Obviously we felt comfortable with D'Angelo the last 15 minutes of the game and I thought he did a great job of handling the pressure and finding our shooters. But that doesn't signify that we're making a change in our program. Shannon Scott is an important person in our program and we're going to continue to ride him and he will bounce back.
