Louisville vs. Saint Francis Postgame Quotes

Louisville Head Coach David Padgett
(Opening Statement) "First and foremost, unrelated to basketball, I just want to say congratulations to Dani (Busboom Kelly) and the volleyball team. What she did with that team this year and what they did is absolutely unbelievable, so a big-time congratulation to them and best of luck to our football team tomorrow. I hope they go down there and get a win.

I had a weird feeling it was going to be a game like that… even dating back to when I played… you play a team that's small, they're all quick, they're quick off the dribble, they get in the lane they do a good job of penetrating. No matter what you try to do, it's tough to keep them in front of you. And they do a good job of spacing and passing the ball. The one kid for them obviously got it going for them in the second half. But, 4-0 that's the most important thing at the end of the day, obviously. We have to do a better job, our guards especially, of coming back to rebound the ball. A team like that where they take a lot of long shots it's going to mean a lot of long rebounds, they shot a lot of jump shots. They shot 21 threes, but I bet out of their other 34 shots from the field, I bet most of them were long jump shots. We just have to do a better job of coming back to rebound the ball. Obviously very pleased with the win, we're just going to get ready for Tuesday. We know it's going to be really, really tough, but we have to get better from this and get ready to go, because our schedule from this point forward obviously doesn't get any easier.

(How is Ray Spalding?) "I think he's okay, it didn't seem like anything serious. I obviously didn't want to have to put him back in and luckily, we kept it at nine or eight is the closest they got it. I think he's okay it didn't seem to be too serious."

(It seems that the offensive flow is getting better in the half court - good passing tonight) "Yeah we did a job of sharing the ball. Quentin (Snider), again, didn't shoot the ball great. He hit a couple of big ones in the second half. But he had six assists and one turnover. Offense was good tonight. Defensively it was just one of those games that had kind of a strange flow to it, we really couldn't our defense going, but luckily we were able to hit a couple of shots in the second-half and we did pretty good from the foul line only missed four, so that was a good area of improvement."

(What about what you got out of Ray Spalding when he was in there.) "He was playing well. I think he had a double-double at half time if I'm not mistaken. He was playing really, really well. Hopefully it's not too serious. Like I said it just was a strange game, I remember having games like that as a player, where, as a big guy, you just struggle because you find yourself having to guard a smaller, quick guard a lot on the perimeter. Ray did a good job of protecting the rim. Anas (Mahmoud) was okay in the second half, but we have to do a better job of coming back and rebounding the ball. It only says 11 points off second chance points, but we have to do a better job from the guard stand point. Ray had 13 rebounds, Anas nine and then nobody else had more than three. So, our guards have to do a better job of coming back and helping."

(When it was 26-26, you called a time-out, what was your message at that point?) "I feel like it's the same old story the first four games that we've had this year in the first half. We're getting great wide-open shots, Quentin (Snider) missed two I think Deng (Adel) missed one or two, Darius (Perry) missed 2 or 3. It's the same old thing, 'look guys our shots are going to fall just try to get stops, try to get stops.' And we actually did a pretty good job defensively there, got rebounds, got out on the break and got some easy ones. We're going to have to be a defensive team this year, I'm not saying we don't have talent on offense, but it's just going to be plenty of nights like that where we can't make shots, early at least and we've just got to rely on our defense."

(On using the smaller lineup more) "Against a team like this with four guards, you want to try to get quicker on defense, I guess. Not that Ray (Spalding) and Anas (Mahmoud)aren't quick because they're obviously good athletes, but you just want to try to matchup with them a little bit. Against a team like this when we go small per se we're not exactly small. I mean you've got VJ (King) and Deng (Adel), those guys are all 6-6, 6-7. We couldn't get into much of a defensive flow. Second half we did okay offensively. We outscored them by one. It was just kind of a tough game, but most importantly like I said we're 4-0."
(What have you found out about your team in these last four games?) "I see the potential. The funny thing about these four games is they've been similar in ways, but they've also been different. This reminded me of George Mason a little bit. They spread us. They took us off the bounce. They did a good job of jump-stopping because they knew Anas (Mahmoud) or Ray (Spalding) were probably going to block the shot and then they moved and did a good job of kicking it out. We fell asleep a couple of times on defense where our hands were down. When a kid starts making shots or when they all start making shots like that, you've got to have your hands up, but if you get up too close and your hands are up too close then they're going to go by you. So it's kind of give or take a little bit. Look, I love our team, I really do. I think we have a chance to be really, really good. Obviously we've got a lot to work on, but all things considered so far I think if you would have told me seven weeks ago that we'd be 4-0 after the first four games I would have sold my soul for it, all things considered. We're in a good spot, but like I said it gets a lot harder in hurry so we've got to improve."

(What can you take from this game into Purdue?) "Purdue is obviously a little bit different. They play small for their standards per se - they start four guards - but we've got to have a little bit more urgency on defense I think to start the game. We were just a little bit flat. I'm not going to say that we were looking ahead because I don't think we were. I just think we were coming off a good win. We played well, but you've got to give these guys tonight a lot of credit. They did some really, really good things that made it difficult for us and just the way they played. We were able to go zone there for a couple of possessions down the stretch late and that kind of took their rhythm away a little bit, which was crucial. We haven't spent a whole lot of time getting ready for Tuesday so we'll start doing that tomorrow."

(Has your zone been better than you anticipated?) "It was really good the other night. Tonight it was okay. It was better than our man, I think. We've got to continue to work on it. Our first five know it very well. We've just got to continue to get Darius [Perry] to know, Jordan [Nwora] to know it, Lance [Thomas], Malik [Williams] those guys. But we'll get there It's just a work in progress."

(On if there will be any different preparation going on the first road game) "No, not at all. Our older guys have been through it. It's going to be an eye-opening experience for the young guys just because they've never done it before. It's going to be, for lack of a better cliché, it's going to be welcome to the jungle a little bit because there are not many places in college basketball that are tougher to play in than Purdue, but they'll be ready to go. Like I said, we weren't looking ahead. We knew Tuesday was coming, but we've just got to learn from this and get ready for Tuesday."

(Did you ever play at Purdue?) "I haven't, no. We played them in Indianapolis my senior year as a neutral site, but never played there."

(Ever seen a game there?) "No I've been there and seen a practice, but I've never seen a game. But Greg [Paulus] was obviously very familiar with it. He said it's extremely difficult."

(On Malik (Williams) not playing, was it a matchups thing?) "No, I just knew we were going to have to go small a little bit more in this game. The reason I put Lance(Thomas) in there for a couple of minutes is because I thought he earned it in practice. I'm not saying Malik was dogging it in practice, I just thought Lance earned it a little bit more. It was a tough game for our big guys. Even Anas (Mahmoud) struggled a little bit just to contain the ball, but I wouldn't look too much into this. I told Malik that we're going to need you on Tuesday so you've got to be ready to go."

(Are you guys going to take a break to watch the football game tomorrow?) "Yeah, we're actually off tomorrow. It's our required off-day for this week. Then we'll get ready for Sunday and Monday so hopefully we can get a great win."

Saint Francis Head Coach Rob Krimmel

(On injured player Isaiah Blackmon)
"The team's mantra is 'next man up.' He's a talented young man. Our guys rallied. We had a guy go down like that, we've got to rally in support of him. But you've got to rally and support the team also. It's that next man up mentality. Not one person is going to replace him, but I thought a couple of guys gave us a good lift. I thought Malik (Harmon) is starting to play like the old Malik. He's coming off of an injury himself, but Andre (Wolford) and Scott (Meredith) are two kids who can really shoot the ball – I think between the two of them they might have had 12 or 14 points. Those three guys in particular can help us make up for the loss of a really, really good player. The culture of the locker room that we have is next man up."

(On Louisville's length)
"I was proud of the way our guys battled. If you look at the rebounding numbers, our guys out-rebounded a team that is really athletic and long and I thought our guys competed. They're definitely at a size-advantage on us and I thought that they exploited that at times, but our guys battled. Give Louisville credit, they were able to make some key shots down the stretch there to open it up, but it was a great atmosphere. Our guys could have certainly hung their heads with 10 minutes to go down 20. That could have very easily gone 30 or 40, but I was proud of the way they battled back and made it a game under the final media timeout."

(On the team's 19 turnovers)
"That was one of the keys coming in here. It's been a big key for us all year. In the first four games, our turnover percentage was really good. Now, we hadn't face a team like Louisville with the length and the athleticism and their ability to pressure the basketball, but when you give them 17 points off the turnovers – a lot of those turnovers led to layups and easy opportunities. Our margin for error in a game like this is very slim and that's one of the things we challenged our guys at halftime. We had 11 at the half and we cut those down a little bit in the second half. It's a good learning experience for us. We had 19 turnovers and I think these guys see how important it is to handle the ball and take good shots, because when we get shots, we have some guys who are capable of making them."

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Ray Spalding

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