Louisville vs. Clemson

Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino

(Opening Statement) "Well, Mangok [Mathiang] has been playing great in practice. He's really, in the last ten days, gotten back to where he was over a year ago, and that's a big lift for us because he does a lot of great things for us defensively. Clemson's a really good basketball team. They've hung in there with everybody. I'm really proud of our guys because I hate when things get in the way of preparation. We didn't expect anything wrong with Quentin Snider. Because of our reduction of scholarships, we're already down two, and we took the hit in the backcourt because we were deep in the frontcourt. Now, we don't have a true point guard, and we took another hit and the guys responded in a big way. It's really going to show the effects because we're playing a nine o'clock game. Have to go to Florida State, who does not allow you to run one single play. They deny the high post. They deny the wings. Normally, we would go double sessions tomorrow just to go over what they do, but we can't because of the late game. We're going into a heck of a basketball game, but we played great tonight. That's all that counts. We're a game away from being tied for the lead, and really proud of the effort. The guys did a great job tonight in every phase of the game. Jaylen [Johnson] was relentless in his work ethic, and sort of spoiled a really good night by stooping to a different level. That being said, we'll get ready for Florida State. This is what happens in the ACC, sometimes you catch bad breaks like this. Playing a nine o'clock game and having to play a two o'clock game, but it's just the breaks of the game."
(On what Mangok does) "I just think he's healthy again. You know, it takes time. There was a lot of rust on him. He's active. He's jumping. He's running again."

(On Assists) "We made a lot of good plays. You have to beat them off the bounce it's almost like playing Virginia; their concept defensively is just like Virginia. And we always tried to run a lot of screen with Virginia and after studying Virginia that's really not the way to play them. You have to create ball movement and you have to beat them one on one and Donovan (Mitchell) did that. So you're not going to get an assist when you beat people one on one. That's why it was so low. Because we were shooting a very good percentage."

(Six turnovers in the first seven or eight minutes of the game… last 12 minutes of the game without one.) "Well, that's because we didn't play Anas [Mahmoud]." (jokingly)

(About how many different lineup combinations) "Well, I went with the best group defensively. We were going to go with Tony Hicks as the first guy in off the bench. I'm glad he played well tonight. That's a big lift for us, as well. We were going to with that lineup. I tried a bunch of different lineups. Like I said, I don't like what happened to us but we're really weak in the backcourt as it is. And Donovan's foul there, I had to take him out of the game. (David) Levitch on the offensive end, he gives you a big lift. On the defensive end, it's like a disease to him. Everybody tries to stay away from a disease. He's very much afraid of defense."

(About the offense being balanced, nobody was rushing and making the extra pass. Was that because of Quentin being out, maybe they paid more attention to detail?) "I think that it's a different game with Quinten being out. You don't get as many baskets. You've got to really work hard for it. They were great on offense tonight. This is a very good defensive team. We shot 63 percent in the first half, 51 percent in the second. It was a great performance by our guys. I've got to get to bed because I'm 64 and the ACC is making us play at two o'clock. Anybody else have a question? Thank you all."

Clemson Head Coach Brad Brownell

(Opening statement) "Congratulations to Rick and their staff and players. I thought they played at a very high level tonight, especially with one of their guys being injured. Disappointed with the way we played the last 25 minutes of the game. We were really not good at all, especially defensively. Obviously the play at the end of the last minute of the half really put us in a bad place with the two 3's from [Donovan] Mitchell and we just never recovered… Not a good performance in the second half at all. Their rebounding killed us and we didn't do anything we needed to do."

(On what Louisville did to out rebound you?) "They're bigger at every position. If you look at the guy we have next to the guy they have, they were bigger. I'd say some of the things they do offensively to create drag situations and ball screens where they have bigger guys rolling to the basket while you're helping on guards off ball screens. We tried not to do as much of that in the first half, and obviously, Donovan Mitchell just went to the rim on us and so in the second half we had to do more of that and that was not good. It helped us guard Donovan Mitchell, but it gave up everything else, which we kind of knew it would. This is a tough team for us this year, we're just so small in some ways, and they just made us pay in every way possible in that situation."

(Was it just their size?) "I think defensively Louisville is very good. I think Louisville is a terrific team. They have very good players and an outstanding coach. They run a great system. When they're playing like they did tonight, they get a good roll with Donovan Mitchell early, it's going to be a hard night for you. We couldn't do anything to get our legs back under us. Once we got hit in the gut there in the last minute it was over. I was disappointed in my team. At halftime, we challenged them, but we didn't have the fight tonight. It was the first time really all year that we haven't played with enough gas."

University of Louisville Athletics

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Tony Hicks

Donovan Mitchell

Quentin Snider

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