Long Beach State vs. Louisville

Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino

(Opening Statement) "Well for the first 11 to 11:30, that was the best offense and defense I've seen in two years. Not since the championship team have I seen passing like that, cutting like that, and then turning it around and playing defense like that. Then we went a little bit one-on-one and broke down a little bit because we had a lead, but that was really, really special to see. That was a clinic at the offensive end and a clinic at the defensive end. Did a lot of good things tonight defensively and did a lot of good things offensively. When you get 45 defections, you're working your butt off. I just told the guys 'how do you know when you hear about a team letting down?' I said 'there is no such thing… when you can get 40 plus deflections, there's no such thing as a letdown' and they did that tonight and that was a great performance, a terrific performance. I feel bad for Long Beach State. It's going to help them in the long run, but they've had to play Wichita State, North Carolina, and us and that's a really tough schedule. They're good kids and hopefully it will make them a better team come league play."

(On being able to get double digits out of multiple players early on) "I'm really not interested in the scoring as much as I am as the way they pass the basketball and the way they played defense for those 11 minutes. We're playing a lot of people right now because of the lopsided score. I thought that Ryan McMahon did a terrific job, believe it or not, on defense, which I didn't expect in blocking out and playing in the passing lanes, so that was excellent."

(On why he decided to go with McMahon so early) "Well, I just wanted to see him play before I went into Atlantis. I wanted to see what he could do. Watch him in practice - I wanted to see him in a game setting. I saw what Tony [Hicks] could do. I saw what other guys could do. I wanted to see what he could do."

(On if Tony [Hicks] was available tonight) "Yes, but I couldn't play everybody."

(On what the primary focus for the team is moving forward) "Just to let them, somehow, watch the first 11 minutes and 30 seconds and say, that's great basketball on both ends of the floor and the more you share the basketball, the more you score. I think at one point we were shooting 80 percent and the other team was shooting a very low percentage. Just bottling that 11:30 -probably not going to see that too often- those types of percentages, but just to show them what passing can do for a team."

(On if the post players at the four and five can get consistent stats like they did tonight) "I think Jaylen Johnson is just - he's doing everything we'd hoped for and then more. He's going after every single rebound. He considers every shot a pass to him. He's posting up well. He's being very physical. It's great play by him, you got to really give him all the credit in the world, because when you play 18 minutes and get 14-11, shooting 7 for 11, that's a pretty darn good day's work."

(On what Jaylen [Johnson] has done to improve his game) "He worked very hard this summer. He went with his AAU coach and worked hard in Chicago and he just did what he had to do. He was highly, highly motivated to be a better basketball player and I think he recognized that he was out of shape. And if he would've gone after the ball like he did twice, he would be gassed and couldn't do it. Now he can sustain it for long minutes. He hasn't played long minutes yet. I didn't expect to have routes like this in the first three games and I can guarantee you it won't happen again this season. Maybe once if we're lucky - I watched Old Dominion today, it's going to be a heck of a ballgame."

(Is there something beyond his conditioning?) "Well what happens when you're in great shape is you never quit. They all say fatigue makes cowards of people, you quit the race. In every sport, as soon as you fatigue, you break down and you don't fight through it and you witnessed it with Donovan [Mitchell] tonight, who has a legitimate excuse, he's coming off having a fever. He got tired and gassed and he couldn't go anymore. That's the feeling that Jaylen had every year or last year. He ran up and down twice and just got gassed, and now he doesn't stop which is great for us."

(On Ryan McMahon, we know he can shoot but is he affecting the game in other ways like with five assists and five rebounds) "I was just impressed with his defense. He's got a lot of savvy. I've got to give Dick Vitale credit. He discovered him, we listened to him. He's now 1 for 7. If he would have done that at the Pistons and drafting people, he would have been much better. I do have to give him credit because without Dick recommending him, because he was being recruited by all lower Division 1 schools and he says 'I guarantee he can play for you.' I went and I liked him so I give him all the credit in the world. He found him, he believed in him, and he's going to be a really good player someday."

(Do you think this team can be effective from the foul line? Are they good foul shooters?) "We worked with Mangok [Mathiang] this week and he's much improved with his free throw. Ray is the one that is most difficult to change because he brings the ball back too far and he shoots a flat shot. He shoots a jump shot much better than a free throw, but we'll continue to work on it."

(Do you like where your team is at right now?) "At 3-0 winning by 30 points? Yes, I do. Sometimes its fool's gold but when you see 45 deflections and you see the way they're going after the ball sometimes. But Atlantis is going to be a different situation. This is going to be a test for all of us because these teams can really play. I was very impressed with Old Dominion watching them on tape today and then we've got to get ready because we play at 9:30 and then at 2:30. You've got to get your rest, stay out of the sun and whoever is running that tournament really, really hurt us with the timing of it."

(It seemed like Ray Spalding got a ton of deflections, do you think he's really starting to assert himself defensively?) "I think Ray, as much as any player on this team, that young man has the most potential of any player I've coached here at Louisville, but he's got to learn to catch the ball with two hands, he's got to learn to grab the rebound and hold on to it, he's got to learn to just do fundamental things because his talent is so enormous. So he's going to get it someday and he's going to be a great player someday, but it's just going to take longer than the other guys."

(You going to go watch the football game now?) "Yes, we're having a party, watching the football game and win the football game..."

(Do you kind of chuckle now seeing the football teaming dealing with selection committees and seeding and controversy?) "I think that what's going on here is beyond being special. I've been here now 16 seasons and I've been through five football coaches. To see what is happening in baseball, to see what's happening in football, women's basketball, our basketball, swimming, all the sports here it's remarkable, with soccer, what's happening. It's not easy to do what is going on here right now and we're all a little surprised but Michigan and Ohio State, one of them is going to lose. We're in the fifth spot and hopefully we'll move in to fourth, beat Alabama and go on to win a national championship. It's an easy formula isn't it? Playing Alabama is a real easy thing to play? But we're big fans and we are going to watch every down and root for them as hard as we can root for them."

Long Beach State Head Coach Dan Monson

(Opening statement) "It's disappointing for us because we played North Carolina on Tuesday and it was very similar. We weren't able to withstand that first blow to stay in the game and once we got comfortable, it was too late, the game is over. And you come on these road trips to try to put your kids in adversity to get them better and I don't feel like today we handled it any better than Tuesday. But with that being said, for us we found out at lot about ourselves. We are not as good as we need to be and these teams are very good. Louisville is going to get a lot of people disrupted and uncomfortable and they certainly did that to us today."

(The 23-2 run came when you were within a point and seem to be kind of disrupting them in doing the things you needed to do.) "We had the same thing on Tuesday it was I think a 22-2 run on Tuesday to start the game so we've got to grow and be able to handle punches and be able to shore things up when things go bad better, but Louisville is an elite team, their length gave us a lot of problems. You can tell guys all the time that you have to go and make one more pass when you get inside because they are going to block and they still got nine blocks and it really disrupted us. This is our third time here and I think this is the best offensive team they have had. They just have lots of ways to score and some years they have been more of a grind-it out-team, but I'm really impressed with their balance. Their defense is always suffocating, but I just thought that we made some mistakes and they made us pay every time they really make open shots."

(On the challenging stretch they are going through) "Can I cancel the rest of it now? Now that I know we're not where we need to be, because we have another week of it… One thing that people have to understand is that it is a true preseason for us and I hope Louisville got something out of the game, because I know we did and we will get better from this, watching it and our guys will grow. We are in one bid league and for us to get into the NCAA Tournament - these games don't matter in that sense. We have to get in our league and be the best team in our league, so that's why we challenge ourselves as best we can in our preseason."

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Jaylen Johnson

Ryan McMahon

Ray Spalding

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