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Louisville-Rutgers Postgame Quotes
February 16, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 16, 2014
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Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening statement)
We played really well tonight. Any time you shoot the basketball like that, everything is going to pick up. Terry Rozier played really well. Luke played well. Pistol (David) Levitch had a great pass at the end of the game. We shot the ball well and when you do that and don't turn it over and play hard, it makes your defense better and you play better in all phases of the game. I am very excited about the victory. Our guys just nailed their focus. They really pay no attention to whom they're playing and they just play hard. They aren't always going to win but they will play their butts off. They don't look at the other team's record. They don't look at how the other team is playing. They just focus in on winning the game. I am real proud of them this season.
(About the beards)
“What we try to do in the dog days of February is try to do things that make sure we have fun. People get tired. I told the guys, 'let's have some fun.' February is a tough month. I have never had a beard in my life, not even in college. I am one day behind everyone because I had to shoot a commercial. John Ramsey's wife cuts my hair and I have already told her to get the beard coloring dye. I didn't know what color it would come in and I am very disappointed. David Levitch can't grow a beard. Dillon Avare can't shave and Terry Rozier doesn't shave.”
(What has been the biggest challenge from last season to this season with this program?)
“I don't think it really has been a challenge to be honest with you. I think every year we have different themes and we went through some tough times losing Chane and expecting Kevin and so it's like losing graduation midway through. You don't like to lose players but we've kept our focus and we're getting better defensively. Mangok is improving. So I definitely like what I see. We're getting better as a basketball team. Don't look at who you played or the score, like the other night against Temple they only touched the paint 13 times in the course of the game, and that's good defense.”
(Who assumed the leadership role with Peyton Siva gone? What guys have stepped up?)
“I don't think you replace a leadership of Peyton (Siva). I think Luke and Russ and Montrezl do a good job of that.”
(On Van Treese's performance)
“When you have Luke on the floor, Luke makes guys look better. He knows how to get Van Treese's confidence going and throws good passes to him. Luke's a really big catalyst for us like Francisco (Garcia) was years ago.”
(On keeping the focus when ranked teams lose)
“Sometimes the focus is at home. The good thing is our style of play, if you don't play real hard and looked focused, you can get embarrassed because you can give up layups, you can give up dunks, so it forces you to really tune in or you can be embarrassed.”
(On having a certain number of threes he would like to hit per game)
“We really don't. I think you just want to move the ball and get open looks. And everybody shot the ball really well but it's usually off good passing that you get good threes. And we had 23 assists, and against Rutgers last time it was our poorest game of the season. We had seven assists in the game, so we didn't play particularly well with that long road layoff.”
(You go from nine days off to three games in five days. How does that affect you one way or the other?
“We were really focused in on Temple. We thought we could have played that game that day and then we had to stay another day in there. The guys love this. The coaches don't love it. But the guys love playing every other day just because they love games. Practice is not as much fun to them as games.”
(30-year-old version of himself and what he would have thought about tattoo and beard)
“It really is about having fun. I think we've had it the last three years and I think it's paid huge dividends. It gets guys to focus in. But we don't know how long it's going to go, we have a very tough stretch coming up. But it'll be some fun and hopefully if we have some luck maybe you can go a long time right now.”
(On What teams have impressed him so far)
“I was on a show this morning and I thought that there were two teams that I've watched that stick out right now, and one was Michigan State and one was Florida. Michigan State finally got healthy and lost to Nebraska at home. Arizona impresses me, Kansas, Syracuse. Kentucky impresses me, although they lost at home they've got great talent and great size and they're very well coached. But Arizona impresses me, Villanova impresses me, Creighton obviously is a very strong basketball team. And I'd put ourselves in the mix. Cincinnati and Syracuse have played a lot of really close games, and that means they shoot free throws well, the ball's in the right hands and the right people at the right time at the end of the game. I'm very impressed with all of those teams and I think we're in the mix as well because we're getting better. Now three weeks ago I was really worried with the type of defense we were playing. Our defense has improved dramatically. Dramatically. And that's a good thing. Even our zone's getting better.”
(On Russ Smith's growth as a player)
“I think what the pros are going to find out with Russ is, they look at his body and this is money ball with the pros. It's all about wingspan. What they're going to find out is they're going to get somebody that can make a difference in the game, that can go by people. I think he's even a more valuable asset there because they play with a 24 second clock. Russ has the ability with ten seconds to go to get by people almost every time and make good plays. He passed up a lot of open shots tonight. He knows he has to lead, he's trying to pad his assists, and sometimes that's not a good thing because you have a wide open shot. So I think he's going to be a valuable asset because he gets by people all the time and makes shots. He's a shot maker.”
(On Terry Rozier's lack of turnovers)
“I can't explain it because it is a remarkable thing. Even if you are not a freshman, it is a remarkable thing. I just think he keeps his head up. He doesn't put himself into situations where he could get trapped and foul. So it is a remarkable stat. I have not seen it too many times.”
(On veterans returning)
“Well, that is what you hope for with continuity within a program. It stops you from having to rebuild and having the continuity of the other guys coming in, we don't have to really tell the guys to work hard. The veterans say, 'hey, look these are our commandments here. You put on that uniform on, you are going to have to work hard. They do it. It has really been an easy transition from year to year.”
(On blowouts and close games)
“We have played very well on the road. We have done that for a long time. Since joining the Big East, we have had the best record for most road wins in the Big East. So we have always been a good road team. The guys come in and play hard. We had a very good chance of beating Memphis and Cincinnati. At the end we made some mistakes, we dribbled off our foot one time and it cost us big. They are good basketball teams. We are a good road team and we are going to three of the most hostile environments you are going to see. And we know that. We like that. So we are encouraged by that. We always try to play our best basketball in March and we put heavy emphasis on the conference tournament at the end of the year. First goal is to win the regular season. Our second goal is to win the conference tournament. It is a big dress rehearsal for the NCAA tournament. You have very little preparation time like the NCAA so that is going to be interesting as well as it is in Memphis. We have really, really good teams in this conference with good guard play. But I am really happy with the way Mangok Mathiang and Stephan Van Treese is playing. In the last month, the jump that Montrezl Harrell has taken in other phases of the game is important.”
(On Chris Jones' weight loss)
“You know I think Chris (Jones) is going to be a really good player at 173 pounds. That is normal weight for him. I think he put on about ten pounds and that's not good. He got beat a lot off the bounce defensively. I think he's going to gain a lot of quickness from that he's going to look more like Russ (Smith) on offense. Chris (Jones) is playing good basketball right now and there are three terrific back court players plus Tim (Henderson) and David (Levitch) now as a fifth weapon is someone I can go to at anytime.”
(On the crowd reaction to David Levitch)
“Look, he's going to be a very good basketball player. I'm telling you he's going to be very good. He's not like a guy I put in at the very end. He has very good offensive skills. Now he's weak and he can't guard anybody but offensively he's very clever as a passer and a very good ball handler. He's going to be a very good shooter as he gets stronger. He's not a guy that down the road his junior and senior year, he only plays at the end of a game. He's going to get to play the same as Tim Henderson. Now everybody roots for him at the end but as a junior or senior that will not be the case.”
Rutgers Head Coach Eddie Jordan
(Opening Statement)
“You have to give credit to Louisville. They have a great attack, they defensively change up their pressure full court, half court, different ways they run at you, different ways they zone you up, different ways they attack you. I told our team going in its not so much about us defending them it's how we handle all that multiple action defensively. And we just didn't do that well enough.”
(On how much of this was a shift in effort compared to the SMU game)
“It's one loss and our guys have to believe that. This loss cannot devastate you, we still have a goal in mind that's reachable. Hopefully, we can play well enough to reach sixth place in the league and earn that bye in the first round of the tournament. So don't get devastated by the numbers on the scoreboard, it's just one loss. Let's bounce back. We have one heck of a game on Thursday against Memphis.”
(On what was it that allowed Hancock to reach a career high)
“He made shots and we weren't on him. Simple as that.”
(On once Louisville starts hitting shots early on if it starts to snowball at that point)
“It did, sort of. When you can't answer back, their confidence and mojo is at a high. They hit a three and jumps shots on the break. Their confidence was riding high. We didn't get back well enough. When we were in our zone, we didn't find him (Luke Hancock) well enough. I have to do a better jump our guys to get out on shooters and play better defense.”
(On what actions he needs to take so this loss does not devastate them)
“We need to play with more confidence and stay together. Trust our offense. They (Memphis) is going to pressure you. They are going to body you up. They are going to be physical like they were down there. We have to answer the bell physically and intelligently. We have to make plays.”
(On if the good play of Kerwain Okoro will affect his playing time going forward)
“Kerwain did some good things out there. I am happy about that, we will see going down the line. It is a credit to him that he came in and gave a lot of effort.”
