Louisville vs. George Mason

Louisville Head Coach David Padgett

(Opening Statement) "Kind of the same thing I said after the Bellarmine game, I was really proud of our guys and the way they were resilient from a defensive standpoint. We couldn't throw the ball into the ocean in the first half. I think we were 1-for-10. I think all 10 of them were great wide-open looks. We just didn't make them. We kept defending, we had 23 deflections, I think, at halftime. I think we ended up with 38 for the game. That's a heck of a basketball team. I was really impressed watching them on film, but after watching them in person, that was a very, very good team, which we knew it was going to be coming in. I thought our guys did a good job of staying in there, staying tough, even though we got down there late in the second half. We hit a couple of big shots—(freshman forward) Jordan (Nwora) came in, (freshman guard) Darius (Perry) came in, gave us some great minutes. We're 1-0, so that's what it's all about, and we'll take it."

(Were you nervous last night? Did you sleep?) "Unfortunately, I got wrapped up in a couple of those football games. That Alabama game was something else. I got a couple of hours in bed. I woke up this morning and I was ready to go, but it seemed like even though it was a 2'o'clock tip, it seemed like it was 9'o'clock by the time the game rolled around. I was just anxious, and I think our guys had some nerves too. Exhibition games are good, but they're not real games. You know it counts, it's just some different feel. I'm glad it's out of the way now, and most importantly, I'm glad we're 1-0."

(Did watching football last night take the edge off last night?) "I love college football. It's probably my second-favorite sport, but I tried to get some sleep, just couldn't. I woke up ready to go this morning, and most importantly, our guys woke up ready to go too."

(Were you more nervous in your first game as a player or as a coach?) "I don't remember my first game as a player, but I'm sure I was a lot more nervous as a player because I had impact on the actual game. I had nerves, but I knew that game was going to be like that. They're a very disciplined team. They knew we started to switch, they made some good adjustments and what they basically ended up doing is just saying, 'OK, we're just going to go one-on-one and take you.' We messed up a couple of times in the second half where we let a guy go to his strong hand, or one time, I almost had a heart attack when (senior forward) Anas (Mahmoud) didn't have his hands on a kid that had made four threes up to that point. It's just little things like that we have to correct, but considering our first time out, not that bad."

(What was your thinking in putting Jordan Nwora in the game?) "Well, I thought Darius gave us some good minutes in the first half. We made that run there where we got the crowd into the game and went up a couple. I think we were up four. He was in the game. Obviously, in the second half, we were getting good looks, but we could just not make one. That's going to happen. So, I said if that's one thing Jordan can do is he can shoot the ball. If he misses one, he's not going to be shy, he's going to keep shooting. But luckily, he made his first one and was off to the races."

(Do you give up anything defensively with Nwora and Perry?) "I mean we will from an experience stand point, but I thought Darius did a really, really good job of staying in front of the ball. He is the quickest guy on the team, for sure. From a lateral stand point, I thought that he did a good job. You know we made some mistakes defensively as a team, but playing against a team like that, it's kind of like a Bellarmine type where if you make one mistake, now you have to scramble, you got to rotate, and then, everyone is out of position. That is one heck of a basketball team right there. I am very happy with our win today."

(It really seemed like George Mason tried to discourage going into the paint early and you guys kind of went away from that, but the second half, it seemed like you were really intent on getting that ball in the paint, wanting to force the issue. Is that something you talked about?) "It was. That was a big point for us even after Bellarmine. We didn't put the ball inside enough. First play of the game tonight, we drew it up to put (junior forward) Ray (Spalding) inside. A: to see how they were going to play us, and B: to make the point that we were going to put the ball inside. I think we reversed it to the wing, revered it, and somebody got wide-open three in the corner, and that's how you have to play. Inside-out. Unfortunately, we missed a couple easy ones around the rim. Ray missed a couple easy ones, missed a dunk. Anas missed an easy one, but that's got to be a staple of our team, playing inside to out because that opens up the perimeter. We can't just come down and run ball screens and pass and shoot all the time. We got to play inside and out because we got good post players."

(Do you feel like you need to say anything to (sophomore forward) V.J. (King) & Ray (Spalding) struggling tonight?) "No, they'll be fine. I think both guys may've been pressing a little bit and I don't know that for sure, but I just kind of got the feel that (junior forward) Deng (Adel) even though he wasn't shooting the ball well, the most impressive thing to me, so far, has been the way he lets the game come to him. He is not trying to force it too early. I know he missed a couple easy ones to start the game, but he stays with it. I think Ray and V.J. just might be pressing, for whatever reason, a bit too much, but they'll be fine. They are too talented. They are two kids that work too hard. They are going to be fine."

(It didn't appear you were on the referees very much. Is that likely to be a pattern?)
"Yeah, you know, I'll just calmly say something to them if I see something. A referee is the most thankless job in sports. There is no question. (Officials) Jamie (Luckie) and John Gaffney, I have known those guys for a very long time. They even officiated when I was playing. I just try to talk to them in a clam way. I'm not going to try to show them out or anything like that, but I thought the game was pretty well-officiated. Like I said, refs have the most thankless job in sports. I would not want to be a ref. It's tough. They're going to miss calls. They're going to make right calls, but overall, I thought it was pretty well-officiated."

(Are you conscious about when you're standing that you're blocking someone's view?)
"Not anymore. Honestly, Tim, the first two exhibition games I was. Bellarmine, I was a little bit more but tonight I was like I don't care. I've got to coach my team. I got win, I don't care. Get some seats higher up. The only person I really block most times is Kenny and I don't care if he sees anyways."

(You got rid of the towel today too.) "I didn't even realize until after Bellarmine that I could go six feet up farther. I knew they changed the rule to where you could be closer to half court, but for some reason, I just wasn't paying attention and I thought the first line, they just moved it but then I was watching the game on Friday and I was like 'Wait a second, I can go all the way up there.' I have like eight different spots where I was taking a knee and I was trying to be courteous to Paul and Bob because I know, last game, the microphone is like right here, and I probably said a couple of choice words. I was on the move a lot today and I broke a serious sweat."

(Down at halftime, what did you tell your team in the locker room?) "I told them to relax. We're 1-for-10 in threes. All 10 threes were wide open looks. We're a very good shooting team. Law of averages, it will start to fall. We were 7-of-10 in the second half, so there you go. I said 7-of-8 actually in the locker room, but we were 7-of-10. You just got to stay patient. The most important thing is keep getting good looks, and B: even if you can't make it, you can't let it affect your defense. I thought for the most part, we held true to that."

(Anas, Jordan, and (freshman forward/center) Malik (Williams) seemed to hit some very big shots in moments of the game. How much can they draw on this when the season does get into full-swing, when you're in the middle of the season. How much can they already drawback on the experience from this game?) "It goes back to practice. They've been practicing well and Malik even had been practicing well this week. I know he didn't get as many minutes as he had hoped but he came in and made two huge free throws. It's going to be an adjustment for those guys because, obviously in high school, they play all 32 minutes, so that's not going to be the case here. But, they came in. I thought the most impressive thing with Darius was he took pride in his defense and that's what we've been hitting home with him. You have to be a Russ Smith, Peyton Siva type player on defense and just be a pit bull and he's really taking that to heart."

(Even though he didn't have big numbers, (senior guard) Quentin Snider seemed like every time you guys kind of got a little rattled, he would have a layup or kind of calm the team down. What does it mean to have that senior point guard out there to kind of steady things?) "The post impressive thing looking at the stat sheet about Q is he had 6 rebounds. If your point guard can have 6 rebounds, I know he didn't have a great shooting night, but again Q, V.J., Ray, even Anas too, those guys will be fine. They didn't have a very good night tonight. They didn't shoot it great, but that's going to happen. They know, they have been through college basketball for two-to-three years now and that's just part of the game. I told Q, we did a good job executing our press O there when Darius got fouled and he cut over the top, but then the next time they missed a shot or something and Q let Darius get the ball inbounds and Q was running up the court and I said, 'Go get the ball.' I said, 'I love Darius, but you need to go get the ball.' The ball's got to be in his hands because he's going to make the right decision. He understands time to score and you know he's got that coaching mindset."

(David, I know it has only been one game, but what can you do with Anas and the mindset when he is on the line. It seems like once he misses his first one, he just wasn't very confident about that) "We've worked really, really hard all spring and summer. He's actually been shooting really well in practice. Free throws are all mental. You can change form here and there, but it's confidence. I'm never going to say something to them for missing free throws because they're not trying to miss it. The big thing with him is if he misses one or two, maybe, he starts to get a little nervous and starts to think, but we just have to keep working on it. Malik came in a crucial situation and made two big ones."

(How conscious were you trying to be positive with those guys. Secondly will you be almost exclusively man-to-man this year?) "No, I actually thought about going zone there for a minute in the second half when we couldn't keep them in front of us off the bounce. I just said, 'Look, they are going to start missing, we will hit a couple and it will even out, so just stay with it.' We will mix it up, we just haven't worked on our zone very much, but we wanted to really get the young guys to understand how we play man-to-man defense instead of throwing two different things at them and now they're confused. We'll work on it. The reason I was so positive with them was because I knew we were getting good looks, we just weren't making them and there is nothing you can do about that. As long as we are taking open good looks they'll fall you just have to continue to share the ball and get good looks."

(Was there a point today where you heard Coach Pitino's voice in your head) "No, but I did find myself stomping the floor a few times, I don't know if you guys heard it. I guess old habits die hard people. But no, I knew we were going to be find. I just kept telling them in time outs, 'Guys, we're going to be fine.' We are going to hit a couple. We are going to be fine, just keep getting stops, keep getting stops."

(How nice is it to have this first win for you?) "For all of us, it's almost like, not the weight of the world off our shoulders, but just the relief. For six weeks to today, we were practicing getting ready for this game and now that it is finally here, I think we were anxious. Some of us have a little bit of nerves, but now we can just get in the routine of games moving forward."

George Mason Head Coach Dave Paulsen

(Opening statement) "I think we really, really battled. I told our guys I'm not into moral victories, but I am into the process. We talk about the process all the time, and we're a better team tonight than we were Friday, and that's what it's got to be about. I thought we executed a defensive game plan really well. I thought we played with quite a bit of composure. Our guys battled. To only give up seven offensive rebounds to that group is really great. We'd like a couple open looks to go down and a couple free throws to go down, and it might be a different result. We knew it was going to be a process with this group, we just have got to keep plugging along."

(Justin was very effective taking the ball to the hoop, the second game in a row with a career high. Is he establishing a new standard for himself?) "I hope so. He really competed and really did a nice job. He got to the rim, facilitated, knocked down free throws. If we can get everyone to take some steps forward, and then we've got to develop some depth, and this was a hard environment to do it. We have to play some of those guys off the bench, but when you've got a chance to knock off Louisville on the road, you've got to go with a group that was more effective. Certainly, Louisville stepped up and made some big plays, but I think fatigue was a little bit of a factor as well."

(Louisville had some big plays from their freshmen in the second half, how much of a chance did you get to scout them? Were you surprised in any way in terms of their performance?) "Well I wasn't. Nwora, I've seen him play, he actually played AAU with our guy Greg Calixte on our team. So, I knew what he could do and he was impressive in the exhibitions, and the kid, number 2, was impressive in the exhibitions, but he was really good tonight. So, I would guess those guys kind of helped themselves a little bit in their playing time."

(Otis, if you look at the stat sheet it doesn't look good. Did he play better than that?) "Yes, Otis played really well. We're giving up size, athleticism. He ran the show, he facilitated. I thought he did a really good job defensively on Snider, who is a hell of a player. He missed a couple of shots, and obviously their length, they block shots so much, so their length bothered him. I know he's upset and disappointed with himself. That's what makes him special, but I thought he did a good job. The ball just didn't go through the hoop for him tonight and it'll go through for him hopefully on Thursday night."

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Jordan Nwora

Quentin Snider

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