Louisville vs. Central Arkansas Postgame Quotes

Louisville Head Coach Chris Mack
(Opening Statement) "Well, I was really pleased with how our guys played the game. I felt like, from the very beginning all the way to the end, that we never played the score. We were ready to play. I thought our defense was as good as it's been all year. I don't think the opponent, Central Arkansas, played very well. But, I've been in a lot of games when the other team doesn't play very well, your guys play down to the level of competition, and that's what you fear as a coach because it leads to bad habits, bad shots. I thought our togetherness, I thought our defensive effort, was up to the standard that we set every single day. It's good to see."

(On junior guard V.J. King regaining his confidence with a strong performance) "I don't know, you have to ask him. He never complains. I know that he's been struggling with not playing his best and being bothered by it. You never see him frown in the locker room, he doesn't mope, he doesn't pout. Put him out of the starting lineup, bring him off the bench, he doesn't change his demeanor. In some ways, you wish he would, get a little bit fired up. It was great to see. I thought he was aggressive. He attacked the rim. I thought defensively he did a terrific job keeping guys in front of him, and that's how we need V.J. to play each and every night. Not necessarily the points, but just attacking and aggressive."

(On feeding the hot hand early in each half) "We're just trying to execute. I think certainly to start the game our intention was to get the ball inside and establish (redshirt junior) Steven (Enoch). I thought he did as good of a job as he's done all year of getting the big kid into foul trouble, posting deep, finishing, offensive rebounds. He almost had double-digit rebounds which is something I honestly sort of expected that he would have more rebounds each game than he has. Our objective in this game, and a lot of games, is to establish him inside and I thought he did a really good job. I thought (sophomore forward) Jordan (Nwora) took really good shots tonight. They say that you're the percentage that's on the back of your bubblegum card. As a baseball hitter, guys go in slumps. I know Jordan's a terrific shooter. But, as I told him, 'If you take really good shots your percentage is going to go up.' I'd say through the first seven games, he probably took one bad three a game. That's seven bad three's. He didn't make any of them. And now, instead of shooting, whatever 27 percent, he's shooting mid-thirties. It doesn't look so bad. And tonight, I thought he took really good shots. It was good to see, that's growth in Jordan."

(On not overlooking Central Arkansas after two big wins) "Well, I feel like that's our job. In terms of keeping them humble, I would've thought the whole offseason could keep a group humble for a long, long time. Nobody talked about us, and if they did it was negatively. But I give our seniors and our upperclassmen a lot of credit for being a mature group. When you come out there and you go through warmups and nobody's really in the stands, and you find out that they have one of their best players in suspension, I think it's a little bit easier to go out there and just try to get some buckets and have fun. Then next thing you know it's a 40-point game with three minutes left in the half. Guys like (graduate guard) Christen Cunningham, V.J. King, (redshirt junior forward) Dwayne Sutton, they're a little bit more mature than that and that's a good sign."

(On keeping team motivated through entire game) "I just try to be real with them and point out the obvious things. Sometimes, it doesn't work. That's when you learn lessons. But, I thought—like I said, we have 10 players that play. So, if a guy, if I feel like he's letting the team down, or he wasn't in the position he was supposed to be, then I'll just take him out. And usually, when you sit on the bench, that's a lot of motivation for when you get back in there. (Graduate forward) Akoy (Agau) wasn't very good in the first half tonight, and I told him. Giving up an offensive rebound and a free throw, he left his feet on a shot fake, that results in 4 points for the other team. He came back in, and he was a different person. So, the bench can motivate sometimes. Again, I don't want to be the coach where once you make a mistake, you go to the bench. I think then you're looking over your shoulder. But, I just try to be real with my guys."

(On number of players in current rotation) "I'm satisfied with five guys, with 15 guys, as long as they play hard, as long as they play together. That could easily go to seven or eight if all of a sudden, a guy has a different agenda. But if guys are on the same page, and they play hard and they play together, they should earn an opportunity to play."

(On Saturday's matchup against Indiana) "Yeah, I'll be truthful, I don't know a whole lot about Indiana. Obviously, I had a lot of battles with (Indiana head coach) Archie (Miller) when he was in the Atlantic-10 at Dayton. I know Louisville fans and IU fans can't appreciate that rivalry, but it was very heated between the two programs. He's an amazing coach, their coach before that was amazing. It's one of the best places in the country to play, they demolished a team that we lost to in New York (Marquette), so we know we have our hands full. We've got to be able to be a composed team, but make no mistake, we're going to go there on Saturday and compete to win. And we'll find out what happens."

Central Arkansas head coach Russ Pennell
(Opening remarks)"I just didn't think that we had the fight that it takes to win these types of games, in order to, compete in these types of games. That's what I told the guys. I think that's the thing that disappoints me the most. The ball may not go in the basket, but there is more to it than just shooting the basketball.

(When you guys played at St. Louis though, it was a hard-fought defensive game. You guys had a good long break. How do you describe that?) "I just have to say a couple things. Number one, I didn't have them ready and part of that is a lack of energy a little bit on my part. There's no excuse. You have to have some abrasiveness in the practices. You have to have a little bit of, as my dad says, 'you have to be a little bit unfair sometimes,' and I believe that. Yesterday, the practice was not crisp, it wasn't great. I was hoping that our leadership could kind of take over. We're going to all shoulder the blame for this one, but it starts right here with me, number one."

(How much do you guys use this as a teaching tool and how much do you put behind you?) "I think you flush these. You're going to have one or two of these. You don't like them. Especially when you are talking about a team of Louisville's caliber. They are a very good team and if you're not quite up to par, and they are, they can make you look bad. We'll learn a few things. Tonight, wasn't about strategy. I'm with you, I think we had some really good looks, the ball didn't bounce or go in the basket like we want. We've got a quick turnaround. As I told them, we have to drive home tomorrow and then Friday we got to get ready to play a very good Little Rock team in their gym and there's going to be the same attitude they had coming in the Farris Center for sure."

(On matching up against Steven Enoch, what can you do to compete against him?) "Get in the weight room. We've got to up our strength program. Right now, it's not good enough. We go play these teams, we're not thick enough, we're not big enough, and I'm going to have to take a look at that. We're going to have to make some changes, because right now we get out-physicalled by just about everyone and I think it's an embarrassment, not only to our team, but it's an embarrassment to the University of Central Arkansas."

(On the poor shooting) "Credit Louisville's defense more than anything. It was tough to get anything inside and we started settling for jump shots and when you're struggling with your shooting, you've got to get someone to the basket. Either post touches or layups or get to the foul line and we weren't able to do that, especially during the first half. Our ball movement was pretty good, but we just couldn't seem to find the basket."

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Christen Cunningham

Steven Enoch

V.J. King

Dwayne Sutton

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