Youngstown State vs. Louisville | Postgame Quotes - University of Louisville Athletic

Louisville Head Coach Chris Mack
(Opening Statement) "I am a little disappointed when I look at the box score and I see that we gave up 19 offensive rebounds. That is just way too many offensive rebounds to give up. I have always prided our program's ability to not give up second shots and we have to get much better in that area. It starts with being able to contain the ball in dribble penetration, so your defensive rebounders are in solid position to block their man out and secure the ball. Then there is a little bit of a toughness element to it. We are very early in the season. We are far from a finished product. I know this, we have to get much better in that area. I give Youngstown State a lot of credit. I talked to one of their rival coaches in their league and he had nothing but good things to say about them. They returned the majority of their roster. We talked about them being a team, that is very tough and a together group and now an experienced group. We certainly had a lot of respect for those guys coming in, and we didn't have much respect for when the shot went up and that's why they gave us 19 offensive rebounds with their effort. Be that as it may, we will try and get better from this game. We know we have a big challenge on Wednesday against Indiana State who took Dayton to the wire yesterday."

(You hit your first 11 shots, to get off to a good start what was nice in this game?) "We got off to a good shooting start and sometimes I think that becomes fool's gold with your team, that now you don't necessarily have to work the ball into the right positions, that you don't have to be as patient with ball movement, you don't have to be as hard cutting because it is going in. And then it didn't. And we looked very stagnant on offense. So, we have to know that our offense isn't based on if were making shots, it's the shots that we are creating. I thought a good majority of those were good ones, but then towards the end of that 11 of 12 in a row, we started to take some tougher ones, that again went in, but that can be fool's gold sometimes. It can trick you into thinking that we're really hard to stop. We need to be a team that generates really, really good shots on the offensive end."

(Twelve assists from Darius Perry…) "Best game he has played since I have been head coach. It was great to see. I'm really happy for Darius. I thought he did it on both ends of the floor. He had the biggest challenge in their returning scorer, assist leader, and really a guy that leads them in everything in Quisenberry. So, Darius had that challenge. His assist to turnover ratio, to go 12 assists, one turnover, that's phenomenal. He did a great job."

(What do you think Ryan McMahon is doing on both ends of the floor and how he is developing.) "I think that Ryan has developed into a lot more than a shooter. We all know that he can shoot the ball. We all want him to shoot when he's open, but on offense he has really created other looks for his teammates. I think he's has almost perfected that little eye the rim, head-bob, head-fake. He gets his primary defender out of position, he gets into the teeth of the defense and he's been stronger with the ball and he's made better decisions, for the most part when he's gotten there. And, he's also made some two-pointers. If you look early in his career, he never shot two pointers. So, he has now figured out how to get there despite his size, and maybe not being the quickest player in the world, how to get there. And that's what good players do. Defensively, he's never going to overwhelm you with athleticism or his length, we know that. But he is very attentive to our system and he does as good of a job that he can with the DNA that he was blessed with."

(Point guard play; Coach what did you see in terms of running the team and getting into good shots?) "It was a tough, I won't say environment… it was a tough defensive look that we were given each and every time down the floor, because they were changing their defenses a lot. For our guys, our point guards, to go 17 to 1 on assist-turnover ratio, being able to at times deal with a contain press and at times being able to deal with man-to-man when they are switching everything. At times they were going into a 1-1-3 zone that's a lot of different looks that a point guard is seeing. For us to, again, go 17 assists to one turnover, I want those guys to run our team. Everybody says that's the question mark about our team and I think anybody in the room will take 17 assists and 1 turnover, no matter who you're playing."

(How much emphasis in the off-season did you work on Darius being under control to get easier shots instead of taking guarded shots like last year and being more of a point guard?) "I want Darius to do what the game tells him to do and that in itself determines how good of a player you are at the point guard or the off-guard position. He can get around his man, he has the ability to shoot the ball from the three, I know he hasn't shot it well so far this year. He made 20 in a row today in the shoot around, he can really shoot. Being able to balance when to shoot, when to pass, when to score, that is the challenge at this level. You've got bigs in the lane trying to block your shot and guards squeezing down helping the helper and Darius made a pass against Miami where he drove the lane and saw Jordan in the left corner. I don't know if he would have seen that a year ago or make the correct play. He is making the correct play more and more and more. Hopefully, the more he does that he gets more confidence he has in himself to run our team, being a more primary scorer when he gets pushed into the two."

(On the defense, can you break down how you view that?) "I am not very pleased with our defense at this point. My challenge and our challenge as a team is to be the same team every single play, every single game. We are not there yet. Everyday guys and every play guys, regardless of what's going on in the game. Regardless if we've been on a 10-0 run, we continue to play with passion on the defensive end. On the offensive we going on a 10-0 run, we continue to move the ball to get the best shot we can. Again, regardless of the score, the opponent, the venue, who is in the game, that's how Louisville needs to play. We're going to continue to try to grow in that area. We got some work to do. You give up 18 offensive rebounds I wouldn't say that's a good defensive effort. You get beat like we did in the lane, as we step up competition level, those guys become 6'7 instead of 6'4, those are dunks. We've got to do a little bit better job than we did and we were better in the second half than in the first."

(What did you think of Lamar "Fresh" Kimble out there, he didn't score, he made five assists no turnovers.) "He's got to shoot it better. He is more than capable of that and maybe the longer lines affected him a little bit. He's very steady with the ball. He's very cognizant of what he has to do on the defensive end. It's a little bit like CC (Christen Cunningham) with maybe not as much opportunity as what CC had. I am very comfortable when he is on the floor and with him running the offense, getting us in the right play and being very steady with the ball. Maybe not taking as many chances. Doesn't have the electric quickness that Darius does. I think as Fresh gets his legs under him with our team, our program, and gets used to the Yum Center and his role, I think he will continue to get better and better for us."

(Malik [Williams], before the injury, was very vocal for you guys on defense. Has somebody stepped up into that role?) "We're a little hit or miss right now with our defensive communication. I think you see that on what we call fake ball screens, where our guy's acting like he's ball screening and he slips out to the three-point line, and next thing you know we have two men guarding the ball and nobody guarding the pick-and-pop. That's a communication error. That's just not on one guy, that's several players. We have to be more vocal, and no one on our team is more vocal than Malik. That hurts us a little bit. Hopefully days like today, and spells that we went through at the end of the first half continue to reinforce that notion to our team of how important communication is."

(So Steven [Enoch] had a big game. In what ways have you seen him improve since last year?) "He is very confident, and I don't just mean in scoring the ball, because he did a great job today. He missed six shots, and two of them were threes that I didn't want him shooting and we'll discuss those in film, so now we'd be down to eight out of 12. One of them was a missed dunk under the basket, and normally he makes those, so that would be eight out of 11. He has grown in his confidence around the basket. Left, right hook - it doesn't really matter. He's grown in confidence. He also got 14 rebounds, which he's never been a great rebounder. When you look at those two things, those areas, he's grown there and also he got doubled quite a few times tonight. He was very patient, he made an open pass, he got guys shots. I don't know if Steven could've done that a year ago. So, his ability to handle double-teams has really grown as well."

(As a coach, when I say 'Quinn' you probably think of him getting beat baseline on that one play. He did have two big shots when the game was still in doubt. What can that do for a kid's confidence this early in his career?) "You might think I'm a bad coach because I crush him on the defensive end. Quinn (Slazinski) does not lack confidence, and I know that I can get on him. Some guys really, really shrink with their confidence levels, but Quinn isn't that guy. That's why we recruited him. It's a big part of why we recruited him. He feels like he can play on this stage. He has to learn angles and do a better job on the defensive end, and part of that's game experience and getting burned like he did. But, he's not afraid. It's good to see when hard work gets rewarded for any of your players."

(What's your take on Aidan [Igiehon]'s game? It wasn't necessarily his best. Where does he still need to improve?) "In all areas. He's fouling at an alarming rate and the game's moving too fast for him, but we're going to continue to expose him in games so that he can get better. Ball-screen defense and rebounding are the two primary concerns that we have to get those two things better. If those two things improved greatly, we don't need him to be a primary scorer as a freshman two games into his career. We don't need him to be a play through post. We need him to rebound in and out of his area and we need him to be able to defend the ball screen. When he does those two things, his minutes and opportunity will grow."

Youngstown State Head Coach Jerrod Calhoun

(You got behind early, but you made the late run. What changed for you?) "Yeah, I think we slowed down. This environment, we don't see these types of environments in the Horizon. This is one of the top 5, top 10 programs of all time. Part of the reason, our thinking was playing this game, we knew how good they were gonna be. I told our guys 'win lose or draw, we're only gonna get better from it'. I think what (Louisville head coach) Chris (Mack) has been able to do with their staff, he was thrown into a difficult situation, and this is a team that's got a chance to win a national championship. So, I thought we settled down. I thought our game plan was really good. We wanted to leave Perry and Kimble. There's just so many guys out there who can shoot the ball. That's their biggest strength. I don't know if there's a team out there that shoots it like these guys. So they came out and made every shot. We slowed down, and we showed a lot of grit there at the end of the first half. But credit their defense. You can see how much better they've gotten in the last two weeks. They were much improved from the Bellarmine game to Miami. And then even tonight. So this is a team that is just gonna get better and better if they stay on the course and don't tail off."

(It seemed like Enoch, any time they got the ball, they threw it to him when he was open.) "Well, he's 6'10". I don't know what his wingspan is, but my guys are 6'6", 6'7". We were a little bit late at times in the traps. But you can see he looks healthier. He had a pep in his step tonight. And when they get the other big guy, Malik (Williams), back, look out."

(Heading into the half, you guys had a lot of momentum after the three. What did you tell the team at the half?) "We've been in all of these games, we've played everywhere. Ohio State, Pitt, Butler, Indiana. You name it, we've played anywhere in the Midwest and now you can add Louisville to the list. We've played a lot of buy games in three years. This is a little bit different. This is an MTE (multiple team event), so Louisville gets to host four games and we get to host one. Just stay the course, they were really excited, they made some winning plays and I feel like we beat them to a couple loose balls. But in the end, their defense was tremendous and they passed the ball as good as I've seen. What makes this team really good is that they know who they are. Their guys don't get out of their box, they know who they are. What a team they've got."

(What did you think of Darius Perry and his ability to facilitate?) "He and Kimble are going to be two guys, in my mind, we always said when I was at West Virginia with Coach Huggins 'You've got to have three guys that are going to play in the NBA.' We went to the Final Four in 2010. Very similar to this Louisville team. This is what the game has gone to. A lot of interchangeable guys. Chris can go to a small lineup, switch everything. But those two point guards, at the end of the day, there is going to be heavy weight on your shoulders. They are getting better and better. You look at what Cunningham did last year for this program, really was an unsung hero in my mind. Kimble, I think, is going to be good, I think Perry is good. He's got good length. They've just got to run the show because those other guys can really make shots. But I thought those two kids played good. But our plan was to double and leave them open."

(Coach after a strong finish in the first half, what was the most difficult thing going into the second half) "If you watch them and you know basketball, the name of the game is moving when the ball moves. So you can tell their staff put a huge emphasis on defense. Cause there were guys in the gaps. I thought Bellarmine really chased their man. But it's hard because college basketball is so much different than high school. I watched his interview this week, coach Mack, and a lot of you guys asked him about Miami's start. It's a difficult game. They beat Miami and they were up by like 35 points. Yeah they got down at one point but these kids aren't going to be perfect. It takes a lot, even (Samuell) Williamson has a chance to be a pro and that stuff, but the college game is different. So you can see how much better they have gotten off the ball. Not chasing their man. Getting in their gaps. That's what bothered us. We only had five assists and we really struggled to make a shot. It's their defense, it has gotten better."

(Talking about the size advantage Louisville had, and how they were still able to get 19 offensive rebounds. What do you credit for that?)
"Two things. I worked for Bob Huggins. So he really stresses toughness. It's something that we work on every day and then number 33 Naz Bohannan. He's a relentless guy. He was a big time football player out of high school, could have gone to a lot of high majors like Michigan State, Ohio State. I'm not sure if Louisville's football team recruited him, but he was a two-way kid. He's just relentless. He is tough. I think we really emphasize it. I believe that you are what you emphasize. We've done a good job of that over the years. Just trying to come into these high major games and not back down. We didn't do that but in the second half I think you saw the talent. The talent usually takes over and we didn't make shots. When you're going to beat a team like this, you've got to make probably 12 to 15 threes. Cause they can get easy baskets. Every possession is hard for us."

University of Louisville Athletics

Youngstown State vs. Louisville | Postgame Quotes

Players Mentioned

Christen Cunningham

Ryan McMahon

Darius Perry

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