Louisville-Syracuse Postgame Quotes

Syracuse at Louisville
Feb. 17, 2016 | KFC Yum! Center
Postgame Quotes

Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(Opening Statement) "Needless to say, it was a very exciting game. One that I am very proud of our guys with their defensive efficiency, the offensive passing was so much fun to watch. With Anas Mahmoud being out, Ray (Spalding) getting hurt, it was just a really, really special performance. Nanu (Onuaku) had a big time game passing the ball, rebounding the ball, playing good defense. I think certainly all of our guys played terrific. I'm really proud."

(On playing better offensively after getting the lead in the 2nd half) "Well, we were a little nervous early in the game because we kept missing shots. What I tried to tell them was to go inside, paint touch, don't start the game shooting NBA threes, start the game getting paint touching and getting some movement. Then we started getting really good movement. They executed a beautiful play right before the half - came in with the lead and then from there we just played excellent basketball. One of the problems, we turned the ball over eight times in the first half and not good turnovers, just without ball faking."

(On Ray's injury during the game) "He was okay to go back in the game, so I don't think it's anything serious. I hope not, at least."

(On being able to keep Syracuse out of transition)"Yes, they're a great transition team and one thing I kept harping on was that Boston College had a lead against them late in the game and all of the sudden Syracuse in transition is up 12 before you knew it within like a minute and thirty. So we tried to do that. We said that the better defensive team is going to win this game. I said regardless of what happens you got to stay with defense and they did that.

(On finding the incentive to continue to play) "Well, we had a long meeting the other day and I just told them I said look, 'we're all emotionally drained the object right now is not to be bitter but to get better. Bitterness gets you nothing. Getting better is what it's all about. So, let's just finish this season like we started it with everybody trying to get better. Let's execute.' I said. 'we have two losses but you played your asses off from the work ethic standpoint in both losses so let's just continue to play hard basketball and get better.'"

(On outscoring Syracuse 50-20 in the paint) "Nanu (Onuaku) is a very good passer and Matz (Stockman) is a very good post player. He has to learn like Nanu did to become a better passer out of the post but he is very good. We try to run plays to Matz's right shoulder and Nanu's left shoulder. We got to get them both better at the other shoulder."

(On what else they did to try to take away for Syracuse's half-court offense) "Well, the problem with them (Syracuse) is you have to extend your defense eight feet behind the line to stop the three. Then, if you don't get back in and rebound the ball, they kill you with offensive rebounds, like they did with Duke with 26 second shots. So we did a good job by-and-large, and they're a very tough team. I mean when they play [Tyler] Lydon they can put four guys on the perimeter and really hurt you, so we switched from a two-three to a three-two trying to get to the corners better."

(On struggling with rebounds at Notre Dame, but being plus 11 against Syracuse) "Well, I think that Nanu got back to doing what he's doing. You know, he's still only scratching his potential. He's going to get so much better. Stamina is the key to this game, and he kept getting tired tonight because he's working real hard. But once he gets to the point where he doesn't get physically tired -- look out --because he can influence every play with his passing, his defensive shot blocking, and, of course, his rebounding. Tonight he has 15 rebounds, four assists, a block, a steal. He played really good basketball."

(On what spurred the run in the first half to make a comeback) "You know, I said, "Look your defense is fine. We're just turning the ball over." And I said, 'don't rely on NBA threes to back in the game. Rely on paint touches and ball movement and attack the inside and attack the offensive glass.' And we did a much better job. Syracuse can do that to you."

(On the 21 assists by the team tonight) "It was great passing. For any coach, any fan, when you see that type of passing it's just a lot of fun. When your center throws a behind the back pass in traffic, a perfect behind the back pass, it's just a lot of fun."

(On if he has seen any other freshman dunk like Mitchell) "Just T-Will (Terrance Williams) was the only guy that could jump like that I've had here at Louisville."

(On play of Matz Stockman) "He played very well tonight. Norway should be very proud, he tried to perform for you, and his country. As I told you all on the entry, he's going to be a very good basketball player. It's one of the few countries I have not been and I can't wait to visit Norway because Matz is getting very famous and I want to just hang around with him."

Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim
(Opening statement) "Both teams struggled in the first half, I thought they got some pretty good shots and we got some good shots. We just didn't get a good rhythm, we missed some free throws, but we battled them and our defense was good. The second half we just went back to probably 10 games ago where we didn't rebound the ball. I thought that was probably the main difference in the second half. They missed shots again. but they got it back. I thought the other thing was we missed some… you're going to miss shots, but you can't miss layups. We missed some layups in the first half when we had the lead and didn't take advantage of some opportunities that we needed to. But I think in the last 10 games this is the first game we didn't really do anything in the second half, we didn't do anything on the boards and I think that was a big part of it. I thought Louisville got going and they played much better offensively in the second half and they started to make some shots. I thought again, we got beat on the boards pretty badly and I thought that was the big difference in the second half."

(On the other end, what do your big men need to do to be more productive offensively?) "We got pretty good shots. You know, Tyler's (Lydon) played great. He couldn't get the ball in the basket. Malachi's (Richardson) played great. They were 4-for-16. They've been good. They've been really good. As far as freshman, they've been very consistent and they just had a bad night. We don't have room for error with having two guys have bad nights like that. Mike (Gbinije) didn't play as well as he's been playing and Tyler Roberson, he never could seem to get to the ball tonight. He was like a step late on everything and did not do a good job on the boards at all."

(Did Louisville's physicality force that bad night for Malachi Richardson and Tyler Lydon) "They had the same shots they've had - they just didn't make them. I thought they had good shots. Louisville is a very good defensive team, but I thought we got good shots, we had good ball movement. Mike [Gbinije] missed a dunk, Mike missed two layups, Tyler Roberson missed two layups. You can't do that. You're playing a good team on the road, they're a very good team. They've lost their last two games - they were at Notre Dame and at Duke in close, close games and they are two teams in the top 15 in the country. They've played well all year and they'll play well the rest of the year. I thought we got some opportunities, when you're playing on the road and if you miss six free throws in the first half and miss three layups – you can't do that when you're playing on the road. This is really our first bad road game. We played very well on the road at Wake Forest and Duke and Boston College, and we played very well at Virginia - it was a tied game with four or five minutes to go. We just had a bad night tonight. The first half was a just little bit better than the second half, but not a lot."

(Were you encouraged with Franklin Howard's performance tonight?) "He helped us with getting the ball up the court, he just has trouble defensively and he has trouble getting something where he can score. He's got to work on that."

(Do you feel like the interior defense regressed or was that most of the offensive rebounding?) "A lot of offensive rebounds. Our interior defense isn't great, we forced them to take a little bit tougher shots in the first half and they missed that in-between shot and in the second half they really still missed it, but they got it back. That was probably the difference."

University of Louisville Athletics

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