Louisville vs. Purdue

Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino

(Opening Statement) "Well, we knew we would have to win this game on defense and we certainly played unbelievable defense in the first half. Holding [Caleb] Swanigan to no points and Isaac [Haas] to one, but they're a real good basketball team. We had to give up something when you try to take away the inside and we said before the game the we're one of the best three-point defensive teams in the nation, but in this game, we knew we would have to give up some and we took the inside play away around rather than the outside because they would get us in foul trouble because we wanted to change our offense and we wanted to pound it inside. They'll wall up and they don't want to foul as well so we wanted to pound the inside and guys did a good job with that, so we're real excited about it. Purdue is one of the two or three teams that can win the Big Ten and if we keep playing this type of defense, we're going to be a very good basketball team down the road."

(On Ray Spalding's game after his remarks after last game) "Yeah, I just think Ray is a tremendous athlete - talent - and he's going to be, someday, a very good basketball player, and tonight he showed what he can do. He's been working on his game and I really didn't make pointed remarks. I just told the truth about what he is. I've always said he can be one of the best players I've coached, but that's going to take some time. Certain players are ready right away, others aren't."

(On Ryan McMahon coming off the bench and contributing) "With the exception of him pressing and getting beat, we knew he could make shots. I almost kept him in the game to shoot free throws, but I didn't want Q [Quentin Snider] to lose his confidence. I almost did, I almost did keep him in the game. Ryan is going to be a very good basketball player for us because he gives us something we really need. He is a great shooter - and I always thank Dick Vitale all the time because if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have him. A lot of times, it's really funny sometimes, because a lot of times everybody looks at Dick as an announcer, but I'm so old, I knew Dick as a high school coach when he was No. 1 in New Jersey. I'll never forget in Rupp Arena when he walked out with Detroit and he took a program from the ashes and, what a lot of people don't know is he took that program to national prominence. So Dick was a great college coach, a great high school coach, so when he told me that this kid could really play, I didn't doubt him for a second, because you know him as a great announcer, I know him as a great coach. So he gave us a real good one, and he's going to get better and better and better and I'm real proud of him because the game is on the line and we're not shooting the ball well, and what does he do, he comes of, runs an out-of-bounds play, comes off and doesn't even think twice. I just yelled kill it, and he killed it, so that was very exciting."

(On the effective low-post defense in the first half) "We trapped. We fronted. We went after it really hard. The guys really focused in on the game plan. We knew how tough they are and they wanted to stay in the game, but Ray [Spalding] is the length guy. See when Ray pressures the ball up top, they can't get the high-low. That's why I went with him over Jaylen [Johnson] because Ray's 7'4" wingspan, his length, stops the ball from going inside. Now Anas [Mahmoud] did a terrific job as well."

(About Tony Hicks play tonight) "I thought Tony and Ryan gave us a big lift. Tony is getting used to our culture of trying to win the basketball game and not take as many shots per minute as any player in the country. It's funny because today I was watching ESPN and I don't know the gentleman's name but I almost fell off the couch on the floor by what he said. He said Oscar Robertson couldn't go left, Westbrook is much better at the triple-double and there were only 14 teams, Oscar wouldn't be 11^th or 12^th man on a pro team. I almost died today, I couldn't believe it because Oscar Robertson is one of the great ones of all time. I was just thinking because he said he saw film that Bill Russell probably had to be a 7^th or 8^th man and when he said 14 teams that means it was condensed. Just to set the record straight for anybody who listened to that, Oscar Robertson is one of the all-time greats and in his prime could start today and average a triple-double. So Big O, I salute you."

(Their bigs were more effective in the second half) "No, Swanigan's really tough and the one thing we didn't want to give him is the three because he's got a really nice touch from the three-point line. We were trying to drive and take it to them all night. We missed about five or six layups in the game and we'll get better at that. Our whole offensive effort tonight was to go inside. We thought we could score inside against them and to get away from the jump shots."

(About the defense) "If you have a game plan and the players execute the game plan, then a young team sees the value of that for the next game because they did a super job against Baylor. They did an awesome job against Wichita State in taking away the stuff in the zone and tonight they did an awesome job of trapping the post and making the right rotations. Now they're a very good basketball team, they made some adjustments and we gave up 10 three's but we decided to keep our bigs in the game rather than get them in foul trouble. If we left then one-on-one, Swanigan can get anybody in foul trouble. He had no points and he ends up with 14 and 11. We did a very good job of creating turnovers, pressuring the right way. For a young, inexperienced team we played super defense and for the last seven games we've played great defense. We just have to keep going inside and instead of playing east-to-west play north-to-south and go into the post and cut off the post."

(8-0 run with a buzzer beater from Levitch) "Well, I think it's really good coaching because I told David (David Levitch) to let the clock run out and go to your one-handed floater. No, it was a big lift, David (David Levitch) has done that a lot. We wanted to get out without serious foul trouble, and we did. We got out of the half, but we knew they'd make a run. Like I said this team, Indiana and Michigan State; this is one of the teams that is going to win the Big Ten. They are a great team, and they are tough to guard, but tonight we did a terrific job. Down the stretch I told players, don't worry about the whistle. These guys are veteran officials and the crowd is not going to get to them, so just stay with the game plan."

(Talk about Saturday on the road) "Well that is the first road game, and I am going to show the…the first clip I am going to show is the Indiana vs. Fort Wayne to get the guys to understand that it's a true road game. We need it. That's why I wanted it because we need it desperately. Look I was hoping to be 7-0, but we are 6-1 and we are playing excellent defense. I have got no complaints. Although we fatigue, we forget to give the, rightfully so, Baylor credit, because Baylor was playing great basketball in that tournament."

(Does your team remind you of any previous teams you had) "Not really, I think they are just really inexperienced and fundamentally not strong. Like you saw, Deng's (Deng Adel) pass long would be probably the last thing I would think about in that situation. Once we get solid fundamentally like tonight we ran every ball into our hands. We screened, and used screens, and that is what really lost the Baylor game. We learned a lot form that and this is just an inexperienced team. I think we have the potential to be outstanding in March. But we are going to have a hell of a schedule coming up, and we need this type of crowd and this type of defense to win at home as well as win on the road, because the ACC is…You know I was listening to Jay (Jay Bilas), and he told me North Carolina is that much better. When you go to a Final Four and you don't win it, you're so hungry to get back, that your players have a taste that they do everything possible to get better. You see Villanova playing at a high level, North Carolina playing at a high-level right now. We just have to get to that point. We are just inexperienced. I was happy I used Ryan (McMahon) tonight because I do have a lot of confidence in his shooting and tonight he, although lost his man a few times, really didn't kill us defensively which was good.

Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter

(What did Louisville do to effectively limit the bigs in the first half?) "I thought we had some pretty good looks in the first half, and we didn't knock them down. They tried to come in there and get those guys off the block a little bit, and just use their length. I thought we got away from… Anytime [Caleb] Swanigan got it in there, they did a good job of swarming him and passing out. [Isaac] Haas got a little bit more looks, obviously than him, but he just didn't convert. You have to give them credit, because they're a long, athletic team, but we also helped by not being able to make an open shot. We had 10 turnovers in the first half and that really hurt us, because when you're struggling you still have to have opportunities. Anytime you have size you can get offensive rebounds and we weren't able to do that."

(How do you think your team handled this first true road game?) "Obviously we struggled. We probably had our worst half of the season. Just a lack of concentration, like I said, with those 10 turnovers. We have experienced players turning the basketball over. We have to do a better job of concentrating and making easy plays and getting good shots in the half court. We allowed them 18 points, in the first half, out of their 33 in paint. Obviously, they've got a couple of really good guards, but the main thing we were trying to do was stop that. Keep them away from dunking and getting layups and keeping the ball out of the paint and making them score over us. They're a team that uses their athleticism off of offensive rebounds and their press. We turned it over once against the press. They average 17 offensive rebounds, and they only have eight, but yet you get beat and you're down 14 at half. The dribble penetration and the dump downs and our lack of awareness around the rim really hurt us."

(The stretch in the second half, you made a few stops in a row and it seemed like the Villanova game…)
"It was right in there and we talked about it. We've got to get a string of stops, and we were able to do that. Then we had the three turnovers in a row and we had the outlet pass. Then we had a simple pass up top that we couldn't make and we step on the baseline, but we were getting stops at the other end so the score didn't really change. I thought their bench was probably the difference, if you look of the field goal percentage from those guys that came off. [Ryan] McMahon hit those two 3s that were huge. There was a lot of time in between them, but those are two big shots for them. Their big guys off the bench were really good also."

(Do you see symptoms of your team not having enough toughness to go and beat a good team like you talked about at the beginning of the season?) "I would say the mental toughness, because you're not going to beat Louisville, in my opinion, having 17 turnovers. For us it's like fool's gold because you beat Auburn by 25 and you have 21 turnovers. In their mind, in a subconscious thought they think it's okay, when in reality it's not okay. You almost score 100 points against an SEC team and you turn the ball over a lot and now we have these 17 turnovers. So it was kind of a sloppy game and we didn't help. We didn't help with that."

(Were the bigs more effective in the second half or did you attack differently?) "I think just more effective. We didn't have as many turnovers, even though we had seven. We got the ball. Isaac [Haas] had, he was 0-for-6 in the first half, so he's getting good looks. It's not like he's shooting the ball past five feet. He's right at the rim, so he got a couple to go for him. [Caleb] Swanigan got more aggressive with things. I don't think it was anything different."

(How does this compare to the big environments in the Big Ten?) "Oh it's very good, very good. Obviously we have some big time venues in our league, this would rank right up there. I don't think either team really played that well. When Louisville plays well, this crowd really gets it rolling, especially with their press. They get behind it. I thought we did a good job of that today, but I don't think either team played that well. Obviously, they made less mistakes, and I think that's why they won."

(The problems they caused defensively, was that strategy or was that just their physical attributes. Their length. Their quickness) "I think about half our mistakes were just the mistakes we would of made against anyone. Like we walked into this game turning the ball over."

(I meant more getting the ball inside and the difficulty with getting around the basket) "We got them inside and you've got to be able to make a decision. They came on a post double. A lot of the time, not all the time so you've just got to be able to make that decision and be able to make the right read, the right pass out of it. They didn't do anything differently than they normally do. They are a good defensive team, but we also had some unforced errors."

(What was off about Vince [Edwards] tonight? Was it the defensive matchup he had?) "Well, he starts out the game with a turnover and has a couple of turnovers. Everybody is struggling and as a coach in the first half, it's hard. You don't know which line… You're flipping quarters over there and nobody plays well. So it's hard to get that combination and when you get into the second half and you sub and guys play well and you're behind, you just stick with those other guys. I thought [Ryan] Cline did some good things for us. Carsen Edwards is a guy who really didn't shoot well, but he can break people down and get to the rim so we thought we needed him to be aggressive and attack and if you stick with Swanigan again and obviously Hass, you run out of numbers and that's what we did. I thought Swanigan played hard. I thought he gave us some quality minutes and sometimes just going to somebody else trying to get a spark."

(What were they able to do in the first half to limit Big E and Isaac's effectiveness?) "Isaac had the ball six times and he was 0-for-6, so I don't think they really did anything beside the one shot he turned the baseline and got blocked him, they came from behind and blocked him. The one time he had the travel early, you've just got to make your move. Things you have to work on. A couple he just missed and they got away from him. Swanigan didn't have a lot of opportunities. They kept swarming him, they doubled him pretty quick whenever he got that basketball. So they were just making people play and until we make them pay, why did they have to change anything they were doing. So we turned it over, missed open shots and when we did get in, we didn't convert. I think our front line was 0-for-12 in the first half with seven turnovers. I don't care who you play, you're not going to win too many games."

(Did Isaac get frustrated?) "I think everybody gets frustrated when you struggle."

(Rick Pitino said you have a team that could win the Big 10. What do you need to see in your team to make that happen?) "I think just not beat ourselves. I think taking care of the basketball is where it starts. People talk about toughness they don't realize the main thing with it is just them mental toughness. We lacked that tonight and you can prepare your team, you can talk to them until you're blue in the face, but you got to go out there and beat the guy in front of you and compete and give yourself a chance. Whenever you have size sometimes you're not getting the greatest shot in the world. Sometimes that can generate offense for you, because you've got a chance to rebound, but if you are not getting shots and you have two big horses in there, it's hard to get back on defense. It really is. So we keep hurting ourselves, because we put ourselves in that position a lot. And we just have to do a better job of that, but you can't be methodical. If you do that, just don't turn it over, but you're methodical and you stand still and you don't turn it over, but you're not getting a good look - that doesn't help either. You have to run good offense, but we've got to be more mentally tougher to win."

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Deng Adel

Tony Hicks

David Levitch

Ryan McMahon

Quentin Snider

Ray Spalding

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