Louisville vs. Pittsburgh Postgame Quotes

Louisville Head Coach David Padgett

(Opening Statement) "Well, it's good to go 1-0 in league play, obviously, start the new year in the right direction. Glad our guys got back on the winning track from last week, obviously. Happy with the win, but it certainly doesn't get any easier now. We've got to go on the road and play two games against two top-25 teams in very tough environments. So, we're happy with the win, but got to get ready for the next one."

(On starting freshman Malik Williams) "Anas (Mahmoud) got the stomach bug late Sunday night—was sick for about 24 hours, didn't practice yesterday. So, it was basically that. But, I will say Malik's last three days of practice have been three of the best of this year. Not only because Anas was out, but because Malik certainly earned the opportunity."

(On Williams' energy in the game) "It just goes to show if you practice hard, and you practice well, it usually correlates in the game. He earned the opportunity and took advantage of it. Malik is a kid, a really tough kid, plays hard every day in practice—the last three days, he's really played with a little bit of an edge. He comes in and rebounds the ball. He's not shooting the ball well right now, but I'm not worried about that. He's defending, he's playing hard, he's rebounding the ball."

(On team's performance today after the tough loss to Kentucky) "Well, it was good to see them respond that way. You never can predict how a game's going to go, but I would have been a little surprised if we didn't come out with a little bit of an edge tonight, just based on how the last three days have been. They've been very intense, but we got better in practice, which was good to see. We started the right way, like I said, 1-0. But unfortunately, in this league, you can't enjoy the wins for more than about half an hour because you've got to get ready for the next one, which is usually going to be harder."

(Looking at that and the month ahead, you've got nine out of your ten games with teams in the top-100 RPI, what are you looking for from your players in order to step up and get some of those quality wins that you're going to need for the post season?) "We're not looking at, 'Oh well this team is ranked and have a high RPI so we've got to beat them.' We're just looking at Clemson as our next opponent. It's a chance for us to go 2-0 and get a great road win, so that's the only way we can look at it. In leagues like this, and I remember it from my playing days in the Big East, you can't look at it. You just can't. You literally have to take it one game at a time. Do we have a chance to go get a great road win? Yeah. Is it going to be extremely difficult? Of course it is. But we have to come out and practice and prepare for a couple of days. I told the guys after the game if we're not very well-prepared and not at pretty much our extreme best then it's going to be really tough for us to go down there and win because they're obviously a very, very good team."

(On Pittsburgh run early in second half) "It's the same old thing. We've just got to learn to play with the lead a little bit. It's a good thing because you're in the lead, obviously, but you have to learn how to close teams out and not let them hover around a little bit. It's just something that has to be developed over time. Hopefully, we're in that situation because that means we're in the lead in a lot of games, but it's just something that you have to continue to strive for and take one possession at a time"

(On Ryan McMahon's performance – he hit some shots from outside tonight) "Yeah, he hit a couple… ddidn't miss any, actually. He's experienced. He can play the 1, he can play the 2. He knows what to do. He's been through it. He just has a sense of calm, same kind of thing Quentin (Snider) has, so just having someone you can bring off the bench that's been through it, been on the road and those kind of things is very valuable."

(On team's ability to stop early drives by Pittsburgh) "When you're playing against a team like this, you know they're going to shoot a lot of threes. More than half their shots tonight were threes, so you focus so hard on taking away the three that sometimes you get beat off the bounce. Sometimes you've got to give somewhere but a couple times, early, we corrected in the first timeout. We didn't switch properly on the drive or rotate properly and we got burned because of it. Now, once we corrected it, we seemed to do a much better job, but a team like this, you have to respect their three-point shot so much that sometimes you're just going to get beat off the bounce but overall, pretty good defensive effort."

(Was smaller lineup with only one big playing, was that an attempt to manage the fouls or for matching up?) "A little bit of both. They were a team that obviously didn't have great size. They played, what I would call, four guards as well, so we were able to play with a little bit of a smaller lineup. I was waiting to see how Anas (Mahmoud) was going to feel. Like I said, he didn't practice yesterday. He went to shoot around today and said he was okay but I wanted to see how he felt. Then, obviously, Ray (Spalding) picked up his second in the first half and we just stayed with it but it's going to be a game-by-game thing depending on lineups. There are teams that are bigger obviously and teams that are smaller so you just got to take it with each game."

(On Kevin Stallings' statement to fans during the game – what do you tell your guys as they go on the road in conference play to prepare them for this sort of thing?) "First road game we played at, Purdue's student section wore t-shirts that said FBI, so it's nothing that we're going to be surprised by. We played at Purdue and we played at Kentucky, two of the toughest environments in the country. It doesn't matter what team you are or where you go, you're going to get heckled on the road. Now obviously, I'm sure some schools will have a little bit more ammunition, but we just have to ignore that. Our players at Purdue didn't let it bother them so it's not anything that we're going to even talk about or pay attention to."

(On if troubled him that it came from a coach) "I didn't hear it. I honestly didn't know until you said it happened so, we're just concerned about going 1-0. The rest of it I'm not going to get into, it doesn't matter."

Head Coach Kevin Stallings

(Opening Statement) "We didn't play well enough on either end, certainly didn't shoot it well enough. I thought we had some pretty good looks at times, but their length around the goal was a problem. We went in, we got some penetration, but their length, we knew was formidable and a problem. It was certainly problematic for us. We made a nice little run there at the start of the second half, got it within range, and then we had some breakdowns and they got us in transition a few times. That was really as much of a problem as anything was our inability to get back, and when we kept them in the half court, it felt like we did a little better, but we didn't do that well enough all game long, especially in the second half."

(On finding the starting lineup that is most effective) "I don't know if it's so much trying to find something that works as much as it is trying to reward guys that play well or deserve to be rewarded. I thought based on what Shamiel's (Stevenson) done since he came back from Christmas, the way he played against Miami, I thought he deserved to start. Jared Wilson-Frame had been struggling, tried to give him a different look and hope that it would jump start him. That didn't work, so of course we're searching for something that works. We play the same eight or nine guys, it's not like if Shamiel doesn't start, he doesn't play starters' minutes, same with Jared. I mean, Jared played 24 minutes tonight. So, it's just trying to reward guys that are playing a little better."

(On his team's shooting struggles) "I'm sure that we took some contested ones because they got us late. They got us deep in the clock a few times. Their defense is good, and it got us deep in to the shot clock. But I thought we had a lot of open looks, a lot. I thought Jared (Wilson-Frame) had a lot of open looks, Milli (Jonathan Milligan) had one or two, Parker had some that didn't go in. We're getting decent looks, our biggest issue is our inability to really be able to score consistently around the basket. That puts more pressure on our shooting, and when we don't shoot well, then it's more of a problem."

(Coach, at the end of the second half, you shouted out a couple times "At least we didn't pay our players $100,000." Could you elaborate on what prompted that?) "Somebody said something bad about my players, and so I'm just going to stick up for my players. I probably said the wrong thing, but I'm not going to let people talk crap about my players. We're down, the game's over with, you don't need to insult kids who are out there trying to fight hard and do their best. Like I said, I probably should have chosen some different words, but I'm not going to let people take shots at our players."

(What was said? Could you elaborate on that?) "No."

(Was it throughout the game, or was it just that?) "That's enough. I mean, that's enough."

(About having 11 new players on this team and what is the team goal through conference play and toward the post season?) "We're just trying to get better. As simple as it sounds, we're trying to get better every time we play, every time we practice, every time we play in a game. You start five freshmen and you play a talented team like Louisville, everything has to go pretty well for you to have success with that. We knew going into it, it was going to be a process. Our guys played hard. They're good kids, they try hard, they play hard, and they try to do what we ask. All we can do is keep trying to help them and keep trying to support them. They're a good group to coach and they have great attitudes and great spirits, so I just have to do a better job at helping them out, I didn't help them enough tonight."

(On Louisville shooting 50 percent from the floor and the Pitt defense against the three.) "It was the transition, they drove to our goal in transition and that was why they were at 50 percent. I don't know what they shot when we had a set defense, but they killed us in transition, they just kept getting to our rim. If they didn't make it, they could tip it in, but they usually made it. That was the problem, I thought our halfcourt defense for the most part was pretty solid, it was getting us in transition was the problem."

(About the push early in the second half and then losing that momentum) "A lot of it is inexperience, and it's what I alluded to a little bit ago, the inability to throw the ball down deep and just get a bucket or a foul from somebody inside. We don't have that inside presence developed yet, at least without Ryan (Luther) in the game. I think it's those two things, you miss a couple open jump shots and then if you have a turnover, if you miss free throw, now all of sudden, it feels like the dam's breaking. That's where our struggles to score come in, we have a hard time getting easy baskets."

(Marcus Carr has had a few rough outings to start ACC play, what is it about going against ACC level competition that guards have given him some issues?) "Those two guys he's played against are doggone good, that's part of it. (Quentin) Snider is a terrific player. (Ja'Quan) Newton is a terrific player. These guys are a lot of times the best player on their team and that's a tough position in this league. He hasn't played great in these two games, but Marcus (Carr) has been a good player for us, he's going to be a very good player for us, so I'm not upset with Marcus at all. Snider, he's doggone good, and some of it is you line up against a guy and you have a tough guy across from you, and that's what's happened to Marcus in the first two games. It's not going to get an easier, because everybody in this league has a guy at this position that's tough like that."

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Ryan McMahon

Malik Williams

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