Louisville vs. Southern Illinois

Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening statement) "We're having a very difficult time putting together a 40-minute game like the first half of Baylor and the first 14 minutes of this game, we were brilliant, and we're having a difficult time sustaining it -- especially in our passing department. The only guy on the basketball team who truly gets enjoyment out of passing the basketball is David Levitch. I didn't play him tonight because I wanted to get a look out of the other guys. But he's the only guy who really knows how to paint touch and how to play and how to move the basketball and it's tough when you're coaching guys and he's the only guy who's getting it from a passing standpoint. And once you start playing against the great basketball teams, you've got to be a great passing team. See, we had eight assists at half-time and we're shooting 55 percent. Then we have five assists and we shoot 37 percent in the second half. It's so evident that guys are just looking for their shot and when the get to the point where they're equally as gratified with the pass as they are the shot, then we'll be a pretty good basketball team. We'll be able to sustain a 40-minute game. Right now we're not doing that. We're just playing good basketball in segments."

(On if passing is contagious) "I just think our guys are hunting shots too much. I think that it's evident that we're coming down and - even Quentin [Snider] is just looking to score too much, when, in fact, if he would just pass the ball, get it moving, he would score more points, shoot a higher percentage. Donovan [Mitchell] and Q [Quentin Snider] if they would pass the ball more, move the ball, cut more, they would be scoring 14, 16, and 18 points. Instead, they're looking to take people on, and against a good basketball team - you play a Virginia - and you're going to come away with about four points. We looked really good in the first 13 minutes, we looked really good in the first half of Baylor, but, like I've said all along, this is an inexperienced team and hopefully they'll get it."

(On if the new offensive scheme has anything to do with the lack of passing) "To be honest with you, no. It's just a matter of guys looking to score. When passing becomes as important as scoring, then you'll see a team that scores a lot of points and shoots a much higher percentage."

(On Deng Adel's game as of late) "I just think he's playing hard. He's playing really hard. I don't worry about Deng. I think these guys are brilliant in segments. That first 13 minutes was very impressive offensively and defensively. Our championship team was a great passing team and they became a great scoring team because of the passing. If you look at all the teams that score a lot of points, it's because of their passing, not their ability to shoot it. I don't want our guys turning down open shots to take a dribble and take a challenged shot either."

(Is this team better defensively than you thought they would be?) "No, I don't think they're that good defensively at all, to be honest with you. I don't think we're great at anything. I think we're good at a lot of things. I don't think we're great at anything. We hope to get there though, in a hurry before the next two weeks."

(How much did Southern Illinois lack of size account for the big men being able to score?) "That's a lot to do with it. We have size. We throw it to the low post, if they're not doubling, then we're going to get easy shots. We're going to get good post moves."

(On passing from the bigs) "I think if you said to me, right now, 'what's the number one weakness of your basketball team?' Bigs, guards, everybody it's passing, with the exception of David Levitch. He's the only one that gets it. Passing is our weakness. We play hard. We play good defense. We're rebounding. We're after it. We were good on the break tonight, but passing is our biggest weakness. You look at the first half four passes that we threw: Matz [Stockman] across the court, Donovan [Mitchell] just giving, Ray [Spalding] just giving it… We've got to really work hard at passing. It's the fundamentals of passing, a ball fake passing away from the defense and then moving the basketball. We put on a clinic the first half with Baylor, then we stopped cutting and passing, but we'll get it. We're going to work on it. The good thing about these guys is they know it's their weakness."

(What is the biggest strength of the team?) "I don't think we're great at anything. I think we're good at a lot of different areas. I think it's to be expected. You have no starters back, but one in Quentin [Snider]. Only one nine point scorer back. It's just that we don't have a lot of time. We're going to play another good team on Saturday, then play Eastern [Kentucky]. Then we're looking at Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana, at Notre Dame. If we play this basketball where we're brilliant for 13 minutes, mediocre for eight minutes, we're going to lose to all four teams. So we've got to get it to the point where we're playing 38 out of 40 minutes with really, really good basketball. I'm hoping we can do it. We could use the little excuses that they haven't played together. Levitch really gets enjoyment out of passing, you can see it in his face. He gets enjoyment out of fouling too, unfortunately."

Southern Illinois Head Coach Barry Hinson
(You can't replicate their size and athleticism and it looked like there was a shellshock factor…) "We knew there would be a shock factor, but quite frankly, I thought we got through it pretty good. We had a chance to get it to single digits before we got to the half, but we cut it to 11. We actually came in the locker room, we felt really good in comparison, to when we played with Arkansas and I was actually kind of encouraged. I thought we did a good job. We had a flurry there where they went on a 13-0 run, but we had four straight turnovers too and I think we set an air ball record tonight too. Their length, obviously their size bothered us specifically in the first half. You've got to give credit to Coach Pitino, they went down at us. We knew they were going to. Obviously our game plan is to do it a little bit different than what that was. We wanted to dig on the ball and once we started doing that we forced some turnovers in the first half and had some success."

(How much tougher was it when Thik (Bol) and Armon (Flethcer)really struggled to get going today?) "Well I think you have to throw Leo (Vincent) in there too. Leo can't have one assist and six turnovers. When your two starting guards go 4 for 20 and 2 for 14 from the three; and your starting center gets one rebound, we're not going to beat anybody, much less beat anybody on Saturday or next week or whenever if we play like we played today. So we've got to find a lineup that wants to come out here that's not scared - that wants to compete and we would hope that our starters can do that - we didn't do that tonight."

(It seemed like their full court press kind of stymied you guys early) "I take the blame for that. We changed up how we were going to attack the press, because we were so concerned about it. We put in something new. I shouldn't have done it. Once we went back to what we do, we didn't turn the ball over from that point on. So I take full responsibility. We thought because of their press we had to do something different, and we shouldn't have done that. I take full responsibility for that."

(I know it's very difficult playing a ranked team but you know you said they kind of came out scared. Are you disappointed in that?) "I'm disappointed every time we get beat. I'm disappointed that we didn't play better. I think that's the best way to word that"

(What do you take going forward, you won't see that a team with that size?) "We'll see it one more time for sure with Wichita State and we'll see it at UNLV – we will see it again. I think you've got to learn from it. I don't think there's anything that you can't come out of this ballgame without learning. You've just got to figure it out. That's the great thing about this, experience gives the test before the lesson and tonight was one of those experience moments."

(Was Sean O'Brien's play the best part about tonight?) "Yeah, I was really encouraged with Sean tonight. We've got a guy that, for the first time, went against athleticism and length and comes off the floor with a double-double. I'm really impressed with that –I thought it was good."

(It seems like everybody always thinks about the inside with their length, but it seems like their length also disrupted the outside shooters) "Yeah, I think you've got 6-7 wing guys and we're running Sean Lloyd out there at 6-2 as our sub. At one time we had Michael (Rodriguez), Aaron (Cook) and Leo (Vincent) on the floor at one time and those guys are all between 5-11 and 6-foot, so it makes a little bit of difference. But when you're small like that, you've got to attack and that's where we were hesitant. We didn't attack and we talk consistently about 'get to the paint, get to the paint.' And we didn't do that. But you've got to give Louisville credit - they did a good job at keeping us out of there."

(On Louisville's hospitality) "I just want to make a comment about Louisville. I've been coaching for 36 years and I went into an arena yesterday and I don't think I've ever been treated as nice and as cordial and as hospitable as the Yum Center treated us. I also walked in here last night and had a card and a note from Coach Pitino that gave me two tickets on the floor for anybody that I wanted to give them to and for somebody that helps at our program and I am blown away. Our service at our hotel, at the restaurant, everything in this community and this city just reeked of first class. We don't talk about that enough, but we were absolutely treated like kings and I just want to thank, not only the athletic department, but also the facility people here and the city of Louisville."

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Deng Adel

David Levitch

Quentin Snider

Related Videos