Louisville vs. Bellarmine Postgame Quotes

Louisville Head Coach Chris Mack
(Opening Statement)
"The first thing I would tell you is, we beat a really good team. I know that they're a Division II team, they're not on ESPN. But, (Bellarmine head coach) Scotty (Davenport) does an amazing job with his kids. They run on offense that's very difficult to guard. The ball. It's hopping. Their players were cutting. Their fours and fives play more on the perimeter than they do on the post, so they can get a mismatch. I thought our defensive effort was terrific—I think, especially in the first half, the first eight minutes of the second half, less than 3:50. I was really pleased to see… it's easy to defend, or easier, to defend sometimes when shots are going in and you're feeling great about yourself offensively. That was far from the case in the first half with us shooting the basketball.

I don't think we're going to have many nights like that, but you give Bellarmine a lot of credit. I think we're a much better shooting team than we displayed. Our ability to sort of withstand our offensive struggles and still defend, I thought, by and large, was where it needs to be. Certainly, we haven't played many situations yet in practice. The turnovers we had down the stretch or some of the boneheaded plays we made - that's more of an indictment on the part of the season that we're in. Hopefully we can clean that up as we move forward. We've got to make better plays down the stretch to secure wins.

I thought (redshirt junior center) Steven Enoch played well. I thought he played Gulliver's Travels for him in there, against all of those little guys and he's trying to establish himself in the post. I thought (redshirt junior forward) Dwayne Sutton gave us great life off the bench. I though (sophomore forward) Malik Williams, particularly in the second half, stepped up his play. We'll try to learn from it—like I said before, we play the game, and my intention was to play and learn from it, and that's exactly what we're going to do."

(On graduate guard Christen Cunningham's floor presence)
"Well, I think he has a calming influence. He's been a point guard his whole life. There's certain guys who try to become point guards, but he's been that kid that had his ball under his arm probably when he was nine years old. Organizing his team, whatever team he was on, grade-school team, AAU team. So, that's where he's most natural. He'll continue to get better. He made a couple plays down the stretch that the point guard needs to do a better job. The good thing is, when you show him film, he'll have that willingness to improve, and I'm confident he'll continue to do better."

(On Sutton's performance)
"He does what he does. He's very active. I thought he drove the ball. We had them with a lot of fouls in the first half, and for a while, once we got to seven teams fouls on Bellarmine with about 12-and-a-half minutes left in the first half, we didn't take advantage of it like we really needed to. He's a guy who can play downhill. A guy who seems to come up with ball in loose ball situations. He's just a winner. He's not afraid of contact. And we needed it today. Obviously, we weren't making shots from the perimeter and that allows Bellarmine to squash the lane even more. So, it was nice to loosen them up a little bit. Being able to draw hand checks and get the ball reversed, and when we drive it in, we've got to be strong with the basketball. It's a little disappointing, because I don't know if a team's worked on it more than we have, certainly have to got to keep working on it."

(On Enoch leading the scoring charge)
"It was surprising because he doesn't take nearly as many (shots) as everyone else on the team, especially the perimeter players. Sometimes, it becomes contagious. He had the confidence in his shot and it was awfully good to see. We had some high-level shooters who couldn't buy one for a while. Steven is a very talented player and he was doing it with five and six guys all over him today. We've got to do a better job at feeding the post in certain situations. Both inside and outside, I think he can be effective."

(On sophomore forward Jordan Nwora's missed shots)
"I thought he was taking some pretty good shots. I felt like they were in the flow. He took one poor shot in the first half, the step back jumper from 42 feet wasn't the shot we were looking for. But, you also want your players to have a little bit of freedom, as long as he is doing it with a selfless heart. His shots, other than that, will hopefully find the rim. There were a couple I thought he passed up and I don't ever want him passing up an open shot and I think his teammates do as well."

(On Nwora's rebounding and steals)
"The defensive rebounds, yes. The steals, I'd be interested to find out for every steal that he got, how many he didn't get that caused us to be out of position. That's just the transition from one staff that really fed itself on getting turnovers and deflections. Not that we don't want steals or deflections, but we don't want those at the expense of putting ourselves out of position when we don't get them. I thought he was active on the glass and we need him to be."

(On the consistency from practice to the games)
"I thought defensively, yes. I thought we got a little tired. I thought in the second half our decision making, especially when we started to separate a little bit, whether it was an entry pass on a set play, or it was one-on-one in the open court and not picking it up before we dribble. There were just some plays that we will have to show the guys on film, and we're going to have to make the adjustment. That's when you have to stretch the lead."

(On playing a tough Bellarmine today, how good of a starting point to be tested early in the season)
"With about five minutes left, I wasn't sure how good of a notion that was. I would rather test ourselves. Certainly, our schedule is going to do that. The tough part is they are a very unique team. I don't know how many teams we are going to see that their best two shooters are at the four and the five. They're posting up on multiple players, but it is a learning experience and they have nothing to hang their head about. I had a team at Xavier, and we talked about it before this game, that lost to Bellarmine under similar circumstances. We got up 12, 14, and they evaporated that lead, and our guys were a little fatigued, and we didn't play well. Most important thing is just learning from it and moving forward."

(On coaching his first game at Louisville)
"For about the first four minutes when we didn't have a basket, I wanted to go sit up in the stands with my wife and kids. But no, it's special. I've said that anytime I've interviewed. One of the reasons why I'm sitting here before you guys is because of how much this place means to all of college basketball and certainly, the Louisville community and university. You coach with a lot of pride when you're here, and we've got to continue to get better."

(On performance of junior guard V.J. King) "V.J. didn't play very well. I know he was our leading scorer, but I don't define good play by how many points you score. He's got to make quicker decisions. Sometimes, it's just that one more pass to the corner. He's got to be able to make quicker decisions. We have to show him on film how to do that. He's a guy who will hopefully continue to get better and be versatile for us. We don't want him to be a guy that stands around the three-point line. When he's decisive, he's very effective. We have to get him a little more decisive when he's playing offensively."

(On V.J. King's stretch of play in the second half)
"The one play I thought—two plays, I mentioned when (sophomore guard) Darius (Perry) went and dropped it off—the guy came off the ball screen and threw it back and he (V.J.) sort of ran through the pass and right down the lane for the layup. He's so athletic and he is quick, but you negate that quickness when you catch the ball, rattle it and figure out what you want to do with it. Help defense gets built in. You've got to have quicker decisions, and I think that will help him be more decisive and be more instinctive, but we have to show him what we mean by that."

(On how much they've worked on Enoch staying out of foul trouble)
"A ton. We've worked not only with Steven, but all of our guys on staying down. Bellarmine is a team that will test you. Overall, maybe a C+ out of our team in terms of staying down on shot fakes. We had a few guys that were leaving their feet and then conversely, they fouled. I thought when we stayed on the floor, bodied up and held our position, some of those layups rolled off. We kept Steven out of foul trouble by being a disciplined team and strong off the basket. Bellarmine is going to test you as much as any team we'll play with shot fakes. Again, for the most part, there were some guys that were really on it and some guys have to get better at it."

Bellarmine Head Coach Scott Davenport

(Opening statement)
"I've got a lot of reasons to be proud and I think the first reason… with only having 11 days of practice, we only turned it over seven times in the second half. A lot of you made me aware five weeks ago yesterday, we had our first grandchild, Wren Elisabeth, and she did not turn it over one time today. So, I'm pretty proud of her, she didn't turn it over once because everybody else did.

People make fun of me and they love doing it, 'Oh he loves his team.' I do. If you're with them every day…Doug (Davenport) forgot something in the office last night, went back in the office at 8:45 and there's a senior and freshman in there getting shots up. 8:45 on a Saturday night. Look at our locker room... You've got Beau Braden, played at DeSales, went to Centre. He's coached at Tennessee, he's coached at Morehead, at Bellarmine in his second stint. Doug - a GA at Xavier after playing at Bellarmine, on to Louisville and to Eastern Kentucky. Myself, Felton (Spencer) – 13 years in the NBA, four years at Louisville. That's a lot of basketball games, and you ask to a man - when you don't have to coach effort, when you don't have to coach desire, it's a lot of fun to coach and we never have to do that with these guys. Again, we've had 11 days of practice, so we are thrilled. We must play a lot cleaner to play better. It's one thing if that comes from just the staff, but it's coming from the confines of that locker room. On the 28^th of October, that's a great attitude to embrace when everybody wants the same thing – players, the staff, the support staff, etc.

Again, we say it over and over, we appreciate the administration with Dr. Bendapudi and Vince Tyra and Coach Mack and his staff, because it's a tough week in this community. I wish we had filled this place today with people that can turn the corner. Whether we like it or not, all those players out there are our answer moving forward. They've got to have the answer because there's a lot of problems right now. They've got to be the leaders. That was a tough game, where everybody gave everything they could. I know it helped us, and I hope it helped them."

(On the defensive effort of Bellarmine)
"Where we want to go, we're not going to beat people like Louisville, we're not going to beat people in terms of competition mano a mano. Everybody here talks about how well we pass the ball, and we do this and we do that. Well, we must – and this was a great example – I was incredibly proud of our team defense. We cannot stop Steven Enoch one-on-one. It's not going to happen. V.J. King, Darius Perry, Jordan Nwora – we can't do it, but team-wise that's how we have to play. Everybody talks about we pass it so well and we shoot it so well, well they haven't changed the rules. It's not make-and-take-it like in the park, every time we score, they do get the ball. These guys really buy in on the team defense concept. It's fun to coach them. Our goal defensively was under 40, they shot 40 right on the number. Hold them to 10 offensive rebounds, they got nine. I'm really, really proud of that team defense concept. The great thing about college basketball, and all levels… like in the second half – it's one thing when they're in front of your bench and everybody's calling out everything. But in the second half at that other end, they only have each other. We prepare them in practice every day, but at the end of the day when they leave that huddle, who do they ultimately have? Each other. That's fun to coach."

(What do you think of how well Enoch was shooting the ball?)
"Well, I saw him last Sunday. We knew he could hit them. He never made one in his career, but we saw him hit 'em last Sunday. And those are two big, big shots. No question. I mean, you give him credit. He jumped up, and he shot. And the defense, it always wins championships, because you never know how the ball's going to go in the hole. But it's still basketball. You've still got to put the ball in the basket. And it does take us time to adjust to their athleticism, their length, and their strength. It does every year we come in here. I cannot simulate Steven Enoch in practice. Or Jordan Nwora. Or VJ King. We can't do that. But this just makes us better. We only had seven turnovers in the second half. Why I'm upset about the turnovers are the unforced turnovers. There's situation where we- just look at points off turnovers. We get outscored by eight. You can't defend that. We could've kicked it into the second level of the Yum! Center, and at least set our defense. It's kind of like a pick-six in football. Can't stop it. But, again, give them credit with their size and length. And you know, I thought Christen Cunningham was an absolute warrior. We ran five different guys at him. And I thought he would just try to wear you down. I told him; he is a warrior. He's a guy that will absolutely go to war. He's every bit as good as advertised. But, it's just tough for us to see. And again, we only had 11 days of practice. So, we've got to go fast. We've got six new guys. One fighting an injury. We have five other new guys that we're incorporating in. So it has a lot of teaches to it."

(What can Louisville fans expect out of Chris Mack? You've coached against him before. You beat him once at Xavier. What can they expect? What's it going to be like?)
"I think first of all, I admire the players. VJ and a lot of those kids have played for three coaches in three years, it's very difficult. So, I admire those kids and their perseverance. I think what people will get from coach, and I have a son (Doug) that served on his staff for two years, and is getting his Master's degree from Xavier. They will become a very, very sound basketball team. A team that you have to beat. That won't beat themselves. Go and watch NFL games tonight, watch college football yesterday, watch college basketball in two weeks, more games are lost than are outright won. Where you just beat someone. Doesn't happen very often. What happens more times than not, one team loses. If you don't get his team, they will be so solid, where you have to beat them. And that's difficult to do. It's difficult to do. Their schedule is incredible. Gosh, I mean… I look at it. And I look at the random polls that come out, or all the publications, and i just shake my head. Wow. And it is difficult."

(It seemed like it was a concerted effort from your guys to kind of stretch the defense out. Was that something just for this game, or is that how you want to play?)
"No, that's how we play. We love to take… if bigs have a hard time guarding us, we step out, put them in, they put a smaller on him, we'll go post you up. That's just coaching basketball players, not positions. We've got people who try to guard out- I have a hard time with small, quick guys. And we're going to go in, and post him in the arc, and he's going to wear him out. So now they go big, and he stretches the floor. And that's Ben Weyer. Now that's, coaching basketball instead of robots. I was proud of him. And I really enjoyed watching him. The turnovers, just… it's ugly. But not one guy woke up this morning and said 'I'm going to turn it over and upset coach'. Trust me, they didn't. They're in there trying to do what we ask as hard as anybody I've ever coached. I'll tell you this: you write it down on October 28. That's a very, very special group of young men in there. Without a doubt. And I know. If it wasn't, I wouldn't sugarcoat it. I just wouldn't say anything. I'm comfortable enough. That is an incredibly special group of young men. Off the court, on the court, academically, athletically, socially. They really are. Tyler Jenkins is going to have his MBA from Bellarmine next December. Pretty good."

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Christen Cunningham

Steven Enoch

V.J. King

Jordan Nwora

Darius Perry

Dwayne Sutton

Malik Williams

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