Louisville vs. Bryant Postgame Quotes

Louisville Head Coach David Padgett

(Opening statement) "Well obviously the most pleasing stat is 21 assists and only six turnovers, taking care of the ball, sharing the ball. I thought VJ King played an outstanding game. I know his stat line wasn't crazy impressive, but he did a great job of getting in the lane and finding other people, causing disruptions on defense, and I thought he played very, very well. Most of our guys played well. Obviously Anas [Mahmoud] had 17 at halftime, because he went to the offensive backboard. Good team win. A day off tomorrow much-needed. We haven't had one in a couple of weeks so I know the guys are a little tired. Good team win and we'll take it, and we'll take a day off and get ready for Memphis on Saturday."

(How did you guys get going after the slow start?) "For whatever reason, I don't want to say we're slow starters, but it takes us until about the eight-minute mark in the first half to kind of really get going. Maybe it's just a matter of getting into the flow of the game and figuring out what the other team is trying to do, but they responded. Maybe I just need to accept the fact that we're going to be like that. I hope we're not, but most importantly they responded. They figured it out. We did a good job of getting the ball in the lane and kicking it out for 3s. I told them instead of just passing the ball around the perimeter and shooting jump shots against the zone, get in the lane, kick them out, throw the ball inside, and we did a good job of that. We got some easy ones and created some points off our defense as well."

(On going to the press early) "I think it gets us going defensively to be honest. A couple games we haven't pressed until maybe the first media [timeout] or something, so I think it gets us going defensively. It gets us engaged. Obviously, with Ray [Spalding] out there, who's terrific in the press, we did a good job of disrupting things. Then Dwayne [Sutton] came in and did a great job, I thought. Overall most of the guys did a pretty good job in the press. It's just something that we've got to continue to work on. Obviously with Ryan [McMahon] back now, we have a pretty deep team, so it's something we'll probably look to go to more. If it can help get us going, then I'm all for it."

(On how hard Dwayne Sutton plays) "He does. He's like Ray (Spalding). He's like a 6'5" version of Ray. He just kind of disrupts everything. I told him one time we finally got a good trap in the backcourt, then he sprints back out of the trap and gets a back tip and dove on the floor, and then we ended up getting a dunk. Those kinds of plays, they don't show up on the stat sheet, but they don't go unnoticed by coaches at all. He just is an energy guy off the bench. He's shooting the ball better, as you can see. He was 2-for-3 from 3, but his defensive energy really helps to get us going."
On Anas (Mahmoud)'s strong performances over the past few games)
"I think I'm a little hard on Anas, but he was very active on the offensive glass in the first half, there's no question. He had five offensive rebounds in the first half, and he had 17 points at halftime. He's thinking too much when he's trying to get the ball inside or trying to make post moves, and it's frustrating me a little bit. We'll get it fixed, but he just is a calming influence on offense because when the ball is in his hands, like it is with Quentin (Snider), you know they're going to make the right play. He just helps make things flow better. He's doing what you would expect a senior captain to do. He's playing well. There's always room for improvement, but he seems to be playing well."

(Is that why Anas only played six minutes in the second half) "Once we opened up the game a little bit, I wanted to get those younger guys some more time, obviously. I think he tweaked his ankle a little bit. He's fine, it's nothing major. He was active, he had nine rebounds. He's doing a better job of rebounding, which is good to see."

(On what Quentin (Snider) has done over the last few games to improve his offense) "Just keep shooting the ball. I've met with him two, three times over the last couple of weeks, and I said, 'If you're open, keep shooting the ball.' It's going to be a matter of time before you have a game like he did tonight, where he makes four 3s, and he sure enough did, and one of his misses in the second half was half way down. It's just matter of keep shooting the ball. Don't lose your confidence, keep shooting the ball. It's kind of the same thing with Deng (Adel). Deng is 6-for- 12 the last two games from 3. As long as they keep taking good shots, I'm 100 percent fine with it, and they'll fall, just keep shooting the ball with confidence."

(On shutting Bryant down after a slow start) "We just decided to be a little bit more aggressive, maybe trap a couple times, those kinds of things. You've got to give them credit, the kid (Ikenna Ndugba) did a good job of getting in the lane the first half and scoring at the rim. Obviously (Sabastian Townes) hurt us a couple times too, but we did a better job of being active in the second half, deflections and turnovers and those kinds of things. Something we've got to continue to work on is one-on-one defense."

(On Lance Thomas) "Lance has been active. He's been playing really well in practice. He plays hard, he's active on the backboard, he can obviously shoot the ball. His one 3 was a little short, but he shoots the ball, he's got good touch. I was actually surprised that he missed two free throws, but he's just been getting better and he's stayed with it. I give him a lot of credit. Obviously, he hasn't played very much this year, but he hasn't let that affect his attitude and his work ethic. He just continues to work every single day and get better. The improvement he's made from the first day he got here in the summer to now has been remarkable, so this will be good for his confidence. It's good to see that you can put him in the game and he'll be productive."

(Could a performance like this lead to more playing time for Lance Thomas?) "It could. It's a blessing and a curse to have a lot of guys who you can put in the game and play, because you can look down the bench and have options if you're in foul trouble, have injuries, whatever. But at the same time, there's only so many minutes to go around, so it makes it a little bit tricky. Guys, when they come in, they need to take advantage of the time they get. They need to be productive. We've just got to continue to get better as a team. Every day at practice get better, individually get better and just try to build on this moving forward and just keep getting better."

(What can you do to cure the slow starts?) "I'm not sure. Sometimes as a player, it just takes a while to get into the flow. You're figuring out what the other team is doing defensively to you, what they're doing offensively. Just something we've got to continue to work on. Traditionally, honestly, even when I played we've never been an outstanding first-half team. We've always been tied or down at the half a lot. I'd much rather have it that we're a good second-half team than a bad second-half team, I guess. We've just got to continue to work, just lock in on what the other team is trying to do. Shoot the ball well, obviously helps – I think we were 3-for-11 in the first half and 7-for-15 in the second half from the 3, so that obviously helps. So just come out and just focus on what we need to do and just take it one possession at a time. You can't necessarily win or lose a game in the first five minutes, so there's no need to panic if you don't get off to a great start, but nonetheless we need to try to see what we can do to get off to a better start."

(Is it too early to worry about the slow starts?) "I think it is. We were doing good things. We were getting in the lane, we just missed shots. We have gotten off to good starts this year. At Purdue we were up five or six points. There's no need to panic over it. If it continues to happen, if it comes back to bite us at some point then obviously there will be something to worry about. But as long as we come out and execute and do what we're supposed to do and just take it one possession at a time."

(What do you think when in the third possession of the game, you get a steal and a dunk?) "That helps. That's why we wanted to press right away tonight to see if we could get the pace up, to see if we could force some turnovers early and kind of get us going. It helped a little bit. We weren't down 10 points in the first half. It's not like we had a bad first half. We missed some shots. We had about three or four possessions there I think where we didn't really get the ball in the paint, where we didn't throw it inside or drive, so just continue to improve on those things, but it's nothing to hit the panic button about by any stretch."

Bryant Head Coach Tim O'Shea

(About how the team started off the game 12 for 21) "We had a great start. We've done that in some games this year. But eventually, what happens in these types of games. When you have the size differences and the difference in athleticism, they just kind of wear you down. And Sabastian Townes, who played so well early, he's been hurt. So, I think he got a little bit tired in the second half. He's an undersized big kid. I mean he's about maybe 6-5 going against 6-11, 7-1. That's hard to sustain and our leading scorer is out. So, I thought we did a great job for probably the first 16-17 minutes making some tough shots and staying in it. But we just, at some point, there's sometimes a certain reality at these type of games in terms of the school with the talent level of Louisville and the depth of Louisville that generally wears down teams like us that come in here on your schedule. It's not atypical. I just thought we got worn down."

(On Adam Grant being out) "Yeah, he's our leading scorer. He's in a boot. He's got a sprained ankle. Probably out another week or so, maybe two weeks. So, again, when you're talking about the level, one of the examples I gave my players is that when I was at Ohio U, a few years back, we played Maryland. We win at Maryland, who had a pretty good team. Then we played Kansas and Kansas was huge then. And we lose pretty badly. Sometimes these teams, there's a certain number of teams that potentially could win a national championship. There's a certain number of potential NBA players, certain amount of size, certain amount of length. I would think that Louisville would fall in that category. I know they've got two losses right now but that's against two pretty good teams. They're going to be there at the end, I think. What I said to my players was don't be surprised at all if when we get to San Antonio, Louisville's one of the final four teams. There's probably every year I'd say probably about eight teams maybe ten that you could see win the national championship. You have to have a certain baseline of talent. I certainly think Louisville is in that category. We're forced to play a lot of zone. We just couldn't match up man-to-man because whenever they would roll their big people to the rim, you're talking 6-11, 7-0 against my guys that are a lot smaller. There's really nothing we could do defensively. Rebounding is also a function of length and size. There is a difference. There's a level of Division I basketball that, in terms of facilities, in terms of everything, it's almost like it's pro basketball. Louisville is one of those schools. We just played another one, Memphis. We look at their facilities and it's just at such a high level that it's a lot different than a school like Bryant.

(Does that apply to the size issue you faced and had to strategize against) We did the best we could, we had to play zone. Because we started going man to man but then they, if you switch or you had to just roll their big guys to the rim and the size differential is nothing we really can do anything about.

(Did that apply especially to Anas Mahmoud) "Well, all of them. They got so many guys that are 6-9, 6-10, 6-11. I think my tallest guy is maybe 6-8 maybe 6-7 with Gus Riley 6-7. Sabastian Townes, my best guy inside player, is probably 6-5. Every now and then you'll have an anomaly where a school will have somebody emerge a pro or a great player like where you had a kid like (C.J.) McCollum at Lehigh or Curry down at Davidson, but that doesn't happen very often. Our best years we could compete but its tough to take on a true top 10 program when they're in a year where they have good talent. One year at Ohio, we beat North Carolina but we caught them at a down year and had an NBA player on my team. So, there're anomalies but they don't happen that often. This Louisville team, they had to shoot poorly for us to stay in the game but then they started hitting 3s from all over the place and what could we do with that. We had to stay in a zone and they made shots tonight, they shot the ball really well. (Quentin) Snider made a couple, I think, to start the half. I'm happy to have this game out of the way and our schedule lightens up from this point on. We played nine of our first 11 on the road, so now we get to play some home games back to a level of competition that will allow us to be very competitive."

(Playing in a series like this where you have games here you have games at Memphis, what do games like that do to help you specifically prepare your team for the NAC?) "I've had that question for years. Part of it is, that when I came to Bryant they were moving from Division II to Division I, some of these games are helpful in terms of name recognition for the school. I think the players do like to have the chance to see how they compete against teams of that level, but let's be honest, there is a revenue component to these games for schools that come in here that are from smaller conferences, that are really significant for their athletic department not only Bryant but everybody else so that's really the answer. But our kids do enjoy it and my best teams, if you hit it right, you could be very competitive and over the years we have been fortunate to win a few of those guarantee games. They call it the Holy Grail in scheduling when you get the check and you get a win. But one time, we played Kansas, the year they won the National Championship, I was joking with Bill Self, I said, 'we should really have a check ceremony where you got a big cardboard check here before the jump ball' but that was years ago. That's the reality of scheduling sometimes, there is a revenue component to these games that is very helpful and it's also exposure for the University when you get on TV. We're not in a league that gets on TV all the time but when you play a big school you get to play off their media asset and that could be a positive. The best situation is when you are competitive in these games and it didn't happen tonight. because once they got the lead they extended it and we just couldn't deal with their size at all and then they start shooting the ball well, that becomes a nightmare because you're hoping to pack in a zone and they're making shots there's no playing D to that.

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Anas Mahmoud

Dwayne Sutton

Lance Thomas

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