Louisville vs. Lipscomb Postgame Quotes
December 12, 2018 | Men's Basketball
Louisville 72 Lipscomb 68 | KFC Yum! Center
Louisville Head Coach Chris Mack
(Opening Statement) "Once again, I would like to thank Kenny Klein for this year's schedule. It's awesome. We beat a really, really, really good team tonight, and our team knew that coming in. All you have to do is look at last year with them being in the tournament, playing Carolina tooth and nail, bringing back virtually their entire team, the confidence they gained when they went on the road in Texas and beat both SMU and TCU. We knew what we were up against—one of the best passing teams, I think, in the country, certainly haven't seen everybody. They have a unique ability to play inside-out. We gave up a lot of over-the-top passes early, and that's just sort of our philosophy, we had to adjust that in the second half. With not having a plethora of big guys, we feel like we have to keep the ball out of there. Had we settled behind and come to trap them, you are talking about maybe the best low post passers in the country in (Rob) Marberry. In the second half, we still tried to keep it out of there, but we didn't give up angles and over-the-top passes as much and made those guys finish over our size, and it didn't happen. I'll tell you, they missed a few bunnies in and around the basket. But, that's what we had to do. That's what we had to do to quit giving up those easy baskets. I thought, just in general, our turnovers, we were either sloppy or we were soft with the ball, and that needs to be corrected. We had a tough time finishing around the basket. Our inability to make layups through contact is driving me nuts, but at least today, we earned shots in and around the basket. I thought against IU, we played donut basketball and just shot the ball from the three-point line, so we made an effort to drive, to get in the lane, to play the way we want to play. Now, we've got to convert some of those things around the basket to be a more effective team. I though Dwayne Sutton's energy—I sound like a broken record because it happens every game. Darius played much better, and then, Malik was a difference maker for us, he just was. His ability to rebound, block shots, he obviously hit a couple big threes. So, we feel very fortunate with the win."
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(On Malik Williams' performance) "I didn't coach him a year ago, but I did watch him on film, and he was a freshman, he was playing, and he got pushed around. He's not going to be mistaken for Shaq there, but he does have great size, he stays in the play, he has unique timing to block a shot, be able to go after it, seems like his hands are always around the rim. We need him to play better offensively, then his minutes will really increase because he's by far our best interior defender. He did a great job tonight."
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(On his message to the team going into halftime) "Well for us, it started on the defensive end. Lipscomb is averaging 86 points per game. They've only scored under 80 one time. So, to hold them below 70, I think someone was joking, 'Hey, first team to 80 wins.' And, that's not the way we want to be in our program. It started, I thought, with our defensive effort. We made that adjustment not to front, not to give up those over-the-top lobs. I think our ball pressure rattled them a little bit, we got a couple steals in the passing lane. They just looked a little disjointed there for a bit. I will say that Marberry getting his third foul in transition – it was a foul -- but it was one of those tough, unfortunate, bad luck fouls. When he goes to the bench, they're a different team. (Ahsan) Asadullah is a good player, but he's not the dual threat that Marberry is in terms of passing the ball. I thought that was a big difference defensively when he went out, it was a little bit easier to defend. Then, all of a sudden, my man (Garrison) Mathews, bang, bang, hits two threes. I thought that took the oxygen out of the Yum! Center there for a second."
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(On what he tells the team during close games) "It just depends if it's their ball or our ball. I try to make sure we understand what we're running, what we can't give up on the other end. A big key to this game is vision off the ball because unlike a lot of teams, a lot of teams throw the ball into their bigs and that guy just goes to work and takes a shot, whether it was a good shot or bad shot, or if he throws it back out, it's because he's about to travel or he needs to get rid of the ball. Well, that's not the case here. So, you get conditioned over time playing these other teams that don't play that way. So, it's hard to really understand how alert you have to be off the ball and we got beat a couple of times. Darius got back cut when the ball went into the post. So, those are all the things we try to talk about during timeouts."
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(On the importance of rebounding and post play) "Well, I'd like to think that we got a little bit tougher minded, probably got a little nastier. I thought in the first half the over the top passes had nothing to do with rebounding because we were generally taking the ball out of bounds after they made the layup, so I don't think the positioning defensively hurt us with rebounding so much as they were beating us to 50/50 balls in the first half."
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(On Lipscomb's ability to force turnovers) "Well, again, I thought we were either soft with the ball on a couple of occasions or I thought we were sloppy with the ball. You always give credit to your opponent. They do a really good job in terms of scouting. They've got smarter, older players. So, while they may not be gambling in the passing lanes constantly, they can tell when this set play is going to be a wing entry and try to sniff it out. Their coach is trying to throw it to the elbow, they're going to try to slip around the guy and maybe get a steal. We have to be better. We've got to be able to set a guy up, includes v-cut, button hook, be physical, get a big target, be able to see our man from touching the basketball. Hopefully tonight we learned from that. We've been a pretty good team all year taking care of the ball, but the last couple games, second half of the IU game and now this game, that's not a good trend. I don't know if three halves are a trend, but we can't make it four or five or however many more halves you want to talk about."
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(On Dwayne Sutton's performance) "First, he's a good player. Secondly, he gets lost in the game and he only cares about winning. I don't want to misrepresent the other guys in the locker room, but Dwayne wasn't given anything coming out of high school. Scotty Davenport offered him a scholarship and that was really the only place he had to go until the last second, he just wanted to play Division I. A lot of times when nobody gives you anything, you got a little bit more 'I'm going to go get this. I'm going to earn it.' He's got toughness about him, he's a really good player, he's self-made. Like I said, nobody was anointing him when he was here at Manual. But I also think if he was in that locker room with zero points, four fouls and we won, he'd be the same Dwayne Sutton and that's a characteristic that's hard to find not only in players, but people."
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(On putting aside loss at Indiana) "I don't know if it was refocus so much as just keeping our confidence, especially in late-game situations. Our guys are a mature group in the sense that I think they really respect our opinions as coaches and I also think that we have some guys that know college basketball. They see the score, they see Lipscomb goes to TCU, who's top 20 in the country, and beats them. So, I told them the only two losses they've had are to their backyard rivals and those guys know each other like the back of their hand. I think there was a healthy respect coming in, and that's key. You don't respect your opponent, we'd have no chance to win. We'd look like clowns tonight and that wasn't the case. So as ugly as it was at times, Lipscomb had a whole lot to do with it, they got a great team."Â
Lipscomb Head Coach Casey Alexander
(On the team's effort) "It wasn't our best performance by any stretch. Louisville had a lot to do with that obviously. To put ourselves into a position where we actually had a chance late, that shows a lot of grit and fight. I'm proud of our team for that.
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(On settling into the defense after Jordan Nwora scored Louisville's first 11 points) "We mixed up who was guarding him for one. More than anything, we just guarded him a little bit better and made him work for it a little bit more. He's a good player. He's scored it well all year long to this point, and I'm sure he'll continue to do the same."
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(On switching to Garrison Mathews to guard Nwora) "We just went smaller on him. Instead of guarding him with our four-man, we guarded him with a smaller guy… just so we could get up under him a little better."
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(On foul trouble in the second half) "Yeah, I was worried. They are one of the best in the country at drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line. Free throw attempts per field goal attempts is really, really high, so they exposed us there. Made us work with some unusual lineups and put some fear in us. The worst part about foul trouble is, it keeps you from playing defense aggressively. But we hung in there.
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(On the shooting performance) "Early on I though we missed some good looks. Then I though we forced a lot of looks. In the second half, I thought we were a little bit more like we're supposed to look on offense. Shots came more on-rhythm and guys made them. We haven't been a good three-point shooting team, it's important we take good ones."
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(On tying the game after being down by as much as 12) "Great response. Great response on the road. When they extended the margin like that in the second half, it showed a lot of character there for our guys. Even down to the end, we have a great possession to force a really tough shot, they get an offensive rebound and we fouled. Then on our end we had a chance to take the lead, we turned it over. Just ball handling, wasn't anything they did on that one. It was a bad catch. Sometimes those things happen and it just happened at a really bad time."
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(On this game as a measuring stick against a premier program) "That's one of the nation's best. Chris [Mack] has done an amazing job with them up to this point. I'm glad we came in here and fought. I wish we won, but we'll learn from it and move on."
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(On the environment) "Great. Great venue. Great fans. Great program. It will teach us a lot."
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(Opening Statement) "Once again, I would like to thank Kenny Klein for this year's schedule. It's awesome. We beat a really, really, really good team tonight, and our team knew that coming in. All you have to do is look at last year with them being in the tournament, playing Carolina tooth and nail, bringing back virtually their entire team, the confidence they gained when they went on the road in Texas and beat both SMU and TCU. We knew what we were up against—one of the best passing teams, I think, in the country, certainly haven't seen everybody. They have a unique ability to play inside-out. We gave up a lot of over-the-top passes early, and that's just sort of our philosophy, we had to adjust that in the second half. With not having a plethora of big guys, we feel like we have to keep the ball out of there. Had we settled behind and come to trap them, you are talking about maybe the best low post passers in the country in (Rob) Marberry. In the second half, we still tried to keep it out of there, but we didn't give up angles and over-the-top passes as much and made those guys finish over our size, and it didn't happen. I'll tell you, they missed a few bunnies in and around the basket. But, that's what we had to do. That's what we had to do to quit giving up those easy baskets. I thought, just in general, our turnovers, we were either sloppy or we were soft with the ball, and that needs to be corrected. We had a tough time finishing around the basket. Our inability to make layups through contact is driving me nuts, but at least today, we earned shots in and around the basket. I thought against IU, we played donut basketball and just shot the ball from the three-point line, so we made an effort to drive, to get in the lane, to play the way we want to play. Now, we've got to convert some of those things around the basket to be a more effective team. I though Dwayne Sutton's energy—I sound like a broken record because it happens every game. Darius played much better, and then, Malik was a difference maker for us, he just was. His ability to rebound, block shots, he obviously hit a couple big threes. So, we feel very fortunate with the win."
Â
(On Malik Williams' performance) "I didn't coach him a year ago, but I did watch him on film, and he was a freshman, he was playing, and he got pushed around. He's not going to be mistaken for Shaq there, but he does have great size, he stays in the play, he has unique timing to block a shot, be able to go after it, seems like his hands are always around the rim. We need him to play better offensively, then his minutes will really increase because he's by far our best interior defender. He did a great job tonight."
Â
(On his message to the team going into halftime) "Well for us, it started on the defensive end. Lipscomb is averaging 86 points per game. They've only scored under 80 one time. So, to hold them below 70, I think someone was joking, 'Hey, first team to 80 wins.' And, that's not the way we want to be in our program. It started, I thought, with our defensive effort. We made that adjustment not to front, not to give up those over-the-top lobs. I think our ball pressure rattled them a little bit, we got a couple steals in the passing lane. They just looked a little disjointed there for a bit. I will say that Marberry getting his third foul in transition – it was a foul -- but it was one of those tough, unfortunate, bad luck fouls. When he goes to the bench, they're a different team. (Ahsan) Asadullah is a good player, but he's not the dual threat that Marberry is in terms of passing the ball. I thought that was a big difference defensively when he went out, it was a little bit easier to defend. Then, all of a sudden, my man (Garrison) Mathews, bang, bang, hits two threes. I thought that took the oxygen out of the Yum! Center there for a second."
Â
(On what he tells the team during close games) "It just depends if it's their ball or our ball. I try to make sure we understand what we're running, what we can't give up on the other end. A big key to this game is vision off the ball because unlike a lot of teams, a lot of teams throw the ball into their bigs and that guy just goes to work and takes a shot, whether it was a good shot or bad shot, or if he throws it back out, it's because he's about to travel or he needs to get rid of the ball. Well, that's not the case here. So, you get conditioned over time playing these other teams that don't play that way. So, it's hard to really understand how alert you have to be off the ball and we got beat a couple of times. Darius got back cut when the ball went into the post. So, those are all the things we try to talk about during timeouts."
Â
(On the importance of rebounding and post play) "Well, I'd like to think that we got a little bit tougher minded, probably got a little nastier. I thought in the first half the over the top passes had nothing to do with rebounding because we were generally taking the ball out of bounds after they made the layup, so I don't think the positioning defensively hurt us with rebounding so much as they were beating us to 50/50 balls in the first half."
Â
(On Lipscomb's ability to force turnovers) "Well, again, I thought we were either soft with the ball on a couple of occasions or I thought we were sloppy with the ball. You always give credit to your opponent. They do a really good job in terms of scouting. They've got smarter, older players. So, while they may not be gambling in the passing lanes constantly, they can tell when this set play is going to be a wing entry and try to sniff it out. Their coach is trying to throw it to the elbow, they're going to try to slip around the guy and maybe get a steal. We have to be better. We've got to be able to set a guy up, includes v-cut, button hook, be physical, get a big target, be able to see our man from touching the basketball. Hopefully tonight we learned from that. We've been a pretty good team all year taking care of the ball, but the last couple games, second half of the IU game and now this game, that's not a good trend. I don't know if three halves are a trend, but we can't make it four or five or however many more halves you want to talk about."
Â
(On Dwayne Sutton's performance) "First, he's a good player. Secondly, he gets lost in the game and he only cares about winning. I don't want to misrepresent the other guys in the locker room, but Dwayne wasn't given anything coming out of high school. Scotty Davenport offered him a scholarship and that was really the only place he had to go until the last second, he just wanted to play Division I. A lot of times when nobody gives you anything, you got a little bit more 'I'm going to go get this. I'm going to earn it.' He's got toughness about him, he's a really good player, he's self-made. Like I said, nobody was anointing him when he was here at Manual. But I also think if he was in that locker room with zero points, four fouls and we won, he'd be the same Dwayne Sutton and that's a characteristic that's hard to find not only in players, but people."
Â
(On putting aside loss at Indiana) "I don't know if it was refocus so much as just keeping our confidence, especially in late-game situations. Our guys are a mature group in the sense that I think they really respect our opinions as coaches and I also think that we have some guys that know college basketball. They see the score, they see Lipscomb goes to TCU, who's top 20 in the country, and beats them. So, I told them the only two losses they've had are to their backyard rivals and those guys know each other like the back of their hand. I think there was a healthy respect coming in, and that's key. You don't respect your opponent, we'd have no chance to win. We'd look like clowns tonight and that wasn't the case. So as ugly as it was at times, Lipscomb had a whole lot to do with it, they got a great team."Â
Lipscomb Head Coach Casey Alexander
(On the team's effort) "It wasn't our best performance by any stretch. Louisville had a lot to do with that obviously. To put ourselves into a position where we actually had a chance late, that shows a lot of grit and fight. I'm proud of our team for that.
Â
(On settling into the defense after Jordan Nwora scored Louisville's first 11 points) "We mixed up who was guarding him for one. More than anything, we just guarded him a little bit better and made him work for it a little bit more. He's a good player. He's scored it well all year long to this point, and I'm sure he'll continue to do the same."
Â
(On switching to Garrison Mathews to guard Nwora) "We just went smaller on him. Instead of guarding him with our four-man, we guarded him with a smaller guy… just so we could get up under him a little better."
Â
(On foul trouble in the second half) "Yeah, I was worried. They are one of the best in the country at drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line. Free throw attempts per field goal attempts is really, really high, so they exposed us there. Made us work with some unusual lineups and put some fear in us. The worst part about foul trouble is, it keeps you from playing defense aggressively. But we hung in there.
Â
(On the shooting performance) "Early on I though we missed some good looks. Then I though we forced a lot of looks. In the second half, I thought we were a little bit more like we're supposed to look on offense. Shots came more on-rhythm and guys made them. We haven't been a good three-point shooting team, it's important we take good ones."
Â
(On tying the game after being down by as much as 12) "Great response. Great response on the road. When they extended the margin like that in the second half, it showed a lot of character there for our guys. Even down to the end, we have a great possession to force a really tough shot, they get an offensive rebound and we fouled. Then on our end we had a chance to take the lead, we turned it over. Just ball handling, wasn't anything they did on that one. It was a bad catch. Sometimes those things happen and it just happened at a really bad time."
Â
(On this game as a measuring stick against a premier program) "That's one of the nation's best. Chris [Mack] has done an amazing job with them up to this point. I'm glad we came in here and fought. I wish we won, but we'll learn from it and move on."
Â
(On the environment) "Great. Great venue. Great fans. Great program. It will teach us a lot."
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