Louisville vs. Syracuse Postgame Quotes

Louisville Head Coach David Padgett

(Opening Statement) "We are obviously struggling a little bit right now. We haven't played very well these couples games, and it's 100 percent up to me as the head coach to get it figured out. We will. We'll get it figured out, we're just in a little bit of a rut right now. We have to play ourselves out of it, nobody's going to do it for us, nobody's going to hand it to us, we've just got to get a few things figured out. Obviously, defensively we've got to get some things figured out. We've allowed four straight teams now to shoot over 45 percent. We've just got to take a look at it and see where we need to make some changes and bounce back. We have seven league games left, so we have some opportunities to get back on track here, but we've got to go back to work, get back to the drawing board and figure out what we need to do."

(What do you need to do? What's wrong right now?) "Like I said, we're just not defending very well. Florida State comes in here and scores 80, Syracuse scores 78. So we're just not playing the defense that we're capable of playing. We've just got to look at it and see if we need to change some things up - how we're doing it, what we're doing and so on and so forth. So we've just got to maybe get back to the basics here a little bit."

(You got back into the game with some scores inside and then it was mostly jump shots. Was that just part of Syracuse's defense or did you guys not execute offensively down the stretch?)
"When we got it inside we did a good job. They made more of an effort there to not let us get it inside, but they're a good defensive team and there's a reason they're the number one field goal defensive team in the ACC. But wasn't our offense - if we score 73 points at home, we should be able to win the game. Our defense really just needs to change. We've got to do something about it and get back to the way we were defending a couple of weeks ago."

(What was the situation with Ray [Spalding], in the last three minutes he wasn't on the floor, injury?)
"He had four fouls before the media timeout. We were shooting a free throw going back on defense and I didn't want him to pick up his fifth for obvious reasons and we were down. We needed to try to get some jump shots. So no, his health is fine."

(You as a coach in this situation, is it time for tough love with them? How do you get the message across to them right now?) "If somebody had an easy answer for that question, I think they could make a lot of money writing a book. I was honest with them after the game, I said, look, our backs are up against the wall right now. We're in the corner pretty good. We have one or two options the way I look at it. We can wilt, which I know we won't do, because that's not the kind of kids they are and that's not who I am; or we can fight our way out of it. So we're going fight. We're going get back to work, we're going get this thing fixed. We're going to give it everything we have to get this thing fixed. If we can get our defense turned around I think that will really help."

(On how the players responded) "They're down. They're as frustrated as I am, just because we haven't been playing well. We were playing well a couple of weeks ago and all of a sudden, we hit a rut here, but it's part of every college basketball season. You're not going to play perfect all year long and we're just in a little bit of a skid right now. We've got to look at the film and see where we need to get better and come back to practice tomorrow ready to work, because we got another one here in about 72 hours."

(On the second half adjustment to limit turnovers) "We just had some careless ones in the first half, just kind of throwing the ball away and not ball faking, those kinds of things. We did a better job in the second half, but again, it's not our offense."

Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim

(Opening Statement)"I thought tonight…we've struggled to score. I thought the one thing we were a little better on tonight was moving the ball and being patient. But, at the end of the day, we haven't been making shots. We made shots, our guards have been four-for-17, four-for-17, six-for-17. If they do that tonight, we lose. They both made 7-for-fifteen, and they're capable of that. I thought Louisville did a great job getting inside—we just couldn't do anything with them on the glass down there in the second half. I thought that, obviously, the play that Ty making the jump shot in the lane; earlier. Frank made the three up against the shot clock that was really hard. Then, he made the drive. But, Ty (Battle) made the foul line jump shot to get us a little space, and then, Marek (Dolezaj) got the tip off the isolation play. But, this was our best win in a long time, coming off a couple really not good offensive, three bad offensive performances in a row. And to play well offensively tonight, I just felt we had good patience. We hit some shots. It's a lot easier to try to win a game when you score more than 50 points, and we haven't been able to do that for a few games now. This was a great effort. I thought Louisville did a great job at the end getting the ball inside—just couldn't contend with them. We had massive foul trouble the whole game. I thought our players were smart. They were good. They didn't…stayed away from situations. But, it was a great effort. I thought Marek was tremendous tonight. Every time they doubled, we found someone who made a play. We were concerned coming into the game not to let Ryan McMahon have any looks and we did a great job on him, except we fouled him once and gave him that one at the end. We did a good job on their three-point shooters, and early, they made some mistakes, but the second half, they made two turnovers. They were really good and they got it inside. But, we had just enough to hold on. It was a great win."

(On if Syracuse adjusted their defense to keep the ball out of the paint after Louisville cut their lead to two points) "No, I think when they cut it to two, I think we got a bucket. I can't remember the exact play, but I think they missed and we got the rebound, something happened down there. I can't remember exactly, but they had scored probably four straight times. I think two of them were tips. They get (Ray) Spalding down under the basket, and you can't do much with him in that situation. When you have a lead and you lose it on the road, it's always tough. You've got to make plays, you've still got to make a play or two. We knew we had the clock, we just had to get it back up to four, two is not enough. We were patient, and at the end it came down to Tyus making that jump shot in the lane to get us some space. It was a great effort."

(On Syracuse's lack of depth) "If you look carefully around the country, there's a few teams that play five or six guys. Villanova is pretty good last I looked, and they played one guy six minutes and one guy three minutes yesterday. They beat a top 15 team and scored 92 points. There's a few teams that play five or six guys. Our players are in great shape. They're capable, they don't seem tired, they make plays at the end of games. They've been playing the whole year, and we've won an overtime game, we've won games at the end. It's a different game today, you get a two and a half minute rest every four minutes. Without that, you couldn't do it, but that's a big factor. Now that said, our backup point guard was helping us. It was tough to lose him and Bourama Sidibe, he goes for 18 and 16, then he tweaks his knee again. We're hoping that this week the rest is going to help him and he'll be back. The one thing I think it has helped a little bit, and I believe this, when you know you're going to play the whole game and you're not quite as confidently as you should be, I think you play better. I really do."

(On the significance of this road win) "Well we need wins. We need wins anywhere. The road is good. We need to get wins. I told them after the game the other night we have eight games left, our season will be determined by what we do in these eight games. We've let a couple slip away in this makes up for some of those. Every game is going to be like this. We're not overpowering anybody. We haven't overpowered anybody. We're going to have tough games every game now. This was a good start. Louisville's got a tremendous talent and a really good basketball team. We're fortunate to come in here and get this win."

(About young guys playing so long with four fouls) "That was good and we needed them. In fact Oshae (Brissett) should have never gotten the fifth one. He made a bad play on that side and he knows better. It was an obvious block and he knows better. We committed three or four bad fouls, five maybe that we can't commit. I sometimes forget they're young players and our veterans, it's Frank's (Howard) first year starting and the second year for Tyus (Battle) to start and all of the rest of them are first time starters. They've learned. They're getting better but we've still got a ways to go. "

(On the absence of Rick Pitino on the opposite bench after decades of facing off) "I don't code play against the coach. We don't have to play one-on-one. It's a good thing, David (Padgett) would beat me by about 30. David is doing a great job and I don't want to get anybody mad at me and I'm not trying to, obviously Rick Pitino worked for me and is a great friend of mine. In my opinion he's one of the two best coaches that have coached in modern basketball in college with that I mean after John Wooden. To lose a guy like that, in my opinion that's where he is at, you have to put Mike (Krzyzewski) ahead of him. I think Rick did it with lesser players. He's a great friend of mine and I feel bad about the whole situation but it's what happened. It's interesting the other three coaches are still coaching, I don't know if that means anything or not."

(Did you offer any words or advise to David before the game?) "I said he's doing a great job, I think it's an impossible situation. To take over a team like that is something that is just hard, I think he is doing just great."

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Ryan McMahon

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