N.C. Central vs. Louisville Postgame Quotes

Louisville Head Coach Chris Mack

(Opening Statement): I think NC Central's kids are in a tough situation. Just talking to Levelle (Moton) they have a bunch of guys beat up, dinged up and it has been hard for them to have a complete practice. But I thought their kids gave really, really good effort. I thought our guys were really good defensively in the first half but not as good in the second half. I thought we played the score a little bit. You feel as a coach that you want to play the full 40 minutes the exact same way. But human nature kicks in at times. We have to be better finishing the game. I know with eight minutes left we had given up eight offensive rebounds and go the last minutes with continuous fouling and giving them second and third shots was a little disappointing but I am not going to let the last seven or eight minutes of the game taint what I thought was a really good first 30 minutes. We have a quick turnaround. I am not used to playing all these Sunday games. We will be back at it tomorrow getting ready for USC Upstate on Wednesday.

(About NC Central defense) "Well, we ended up going 65 percent from the field for the first half. There's usually a feeling-out process. LeVelle (Moton) does a really good job. I've known him for a long long time. It's the reason his teams always go to the NCAA Tournament. You can tell with his style of play, where they walk the ball up, they're running their set plays with 18 seconds on the clock. So he wants to put you in that eerie feeling of 'hey, were seven, eight minutes into the game and the score's 12-4' or whatever the case is. But I thought our guys did a really good job of being patient, taking what was there. Steven (Enoch) obviously had a really good first half. We're trying to go to him and I thought our defensive effort was really good in the first half.

(About shooting being as high as 70 percent in the beginning of the second half. Was that being efficient on offense?) "Well, I think in the first half it was a product of us throwing the ball to Steven. He was really getting some work done. He's a load for a team that's not a high-major team. They just don't have the size necessarily to combat him. And they were doing a good job of really pressing into Jordan. But I was really encouraged with, even though it became sort of became a little bit like a tennis match with longer possessions for them, we didn't let that affect our defensive intensity. Especially the last 12 minutes or so in the first half."

(Graves and Miller didn't quite have the day from deep they've been having and on the perimeter defense)"Well, the only guy that really hurt is the kid who's only played the last two games. (Justin) Whatley, the pick and pop five man. We're learning. When Steve (Enoch) jumps or hedges out on a ball screen, there's got to be a responsibility for some other players on the floor to maybe rotate out and cover him. You can't ask him to get the ball handler going towards half court and at the same time guard his man when they throw it back. So, could we've made a little bit of an adjustment? Yes. But I think the recognition that we should've had, especially with the upperclassmen, they've seen the pick and pop. So it's got to get better. But Miller, he's the guy. Graves is the guy. Those guys were shooting almost 70 percent from the three point line coming in. So, we wanted to make their looks really, really difficult. For the most part, I thought we did that.

(About the interior defense, and also the way Aidan Igiehon played?) "I thought our interior defense in the first 30 minutes was pretty good. They're not a team that necessarily goes inside. But I thought both Steven and Aidan were doing a fairly decent job at keeping the ball out of the lane. Sort of tainted by the last seven minutes. We just fouled every possession. That's why people were getting tired of watching the game in the Yum! Center. There were hardly anybody in the stands at the end because there was a whistle every time down the floor. No disrespect to the officials, that's all our fault. We've got to do a better job of defending without fouling. A little bit of that was not blocking out. We've got to get better at that and finish up the game the right way."

(About Fresh Kimble being the player Coach recruited) "Yeah, as I said the other night, he's going to keep getting better. The more he is on the Yum! Center floor, the more he is playing with his teammates. I just think he is growing with his confidence. He understands what his head coach wants on the offensive end. He is no pushover on the defensive end. Does a great job keeping the ball in front. He's got a great voice. I'm really excited about what I've seen out of him the last couple games. It's more of what we expected."

(About Darius Perry) "I think Darius' (Perry) stat line is a bit of fool's gold. I think he shot well. I think he delivered a lot of passes to some guys who made shots. I think he needs to be much better on the defensive end. I watched film with him the last couple of days leading up to this game. He just has to do some routine things better. On the defensive end, he is blessed with strength, toughness, length, athleticism. But he's got to be able to jump to the ball. He's got to be able to block out when a big guy rotates out of position. He's got to be a little tougher on ball screen defense. It's not just the bigs' fault when maybe they get split on a ball screen. I expect a lot of Darius, especially on the defensive end because he should be our spirit. He should be the guy that really sets the tone. I've got to unleash him a little bit more to play more three quarter court when teams are walking the ball up the floor. We're going to start doing that, but he has to be better defensively."

(Steven (Enoch) had a couple of great passes on the game, and he picked it up and walked it up the floor on a play. Would you use him as a point guard in a pinch?) "Absolutely not. My view was obstructed when that happened. So I turned to Coach (Dino) Gaudio and Kahil (Fennell) and asked, did he make that pass on purpose or did that drop and it just so happened to go to his teammate. They said, I think he made it on purpose. Unless I'm taking your word for it, I'm going to have to watch it on DVR tonight at the house. To give him the credit he deserves for making the right play on a 2-on-1. We've worked a lot on 2-on-1's. A lot, because again we're not going to take anything for granted. We have to be able to finish at the rim. We do a great job at turning you over or get a long rebound and have that opportunity where it's a 3-on-2 or a 2-on-1. High level teams make you pay so it was good to see Steve (Enoch) make a good play in that moment."

(The team's been shooting over 50% every game. As the schedule gets tougher in the next month, what are you going to be looking to keep that performance going?) "It's just basketball practice. That's what we do as coaches. We go to the practice gym and we figure out where we fell short. I think our younger guys have to get a little bit tougher. On the defensive end, there were a lot of 50-50 balls and they have to get more disciplined. We're reaching in, we're going for shot fakes, we're fouling jump shooters. I'm specifically talking about the young guys. Our older guys aren't perfect, but I think our younger guys are going to be put in situations where they're coming off the bench and maybe we're at a high-level game where we're up four, and they have to go back to the bench up eight and not down two because of these magnified errors. I'm hoping experiences where I give them a little bit longer of a leash and more playing situations like tonight will aid that development. They've got a ways to go. They're making improvements in some areas, but there are still other areas. I don't care what year you are, if there's a 50-50 ball, Louisville needs to come up with it somehow, some way, but we're not quite there yet."

(About what Dwayne Sutton means to the team in senior leadership) "I feel like I'm a broken record and I feel like I'm saying the same thing every time we play a game. Dwayne's a winner. I do need Dwayne to have a louder voice. For all the great qualities he brings to the table, he's too quiet. If it means as much as his play indicates, then he needs to be a little bit more vocal and a lot less 'I'll just set the example.' You're supposed to set the example, but I also need you talking on the defensive end. I also need you exhorting those guys in huddles. I need more out of Dwayne when it comes to that type of leadership, not just the 'look at me, do as me' leadership."

(About Malik [Williams] and David [Johnson] status) "I could've put them in the game tonight. Just because the doctor clears you, they haven't had their basketball legs under them in so long, especially David. I'm not going to put those guys out there in a 20, 30-point game just yet, but I could've put them in if I wanted."

North Carolina Central Head Coach LeVelle Moton

(Opening statement) "We knew they were good. I personally think that they are the number one team in the country. You kind of have to pick and choose your poison. So we tried to dare them to shoot the basketball. I think they shot it better than they ever have. I thought we did some good things, we're banged up. We've got injuries, we're just the walking wounded right now. We haven't had an opportunity to practice. So with that deck stacked against you, it's difficult to come in and perform at the level that you hope to. I think we did some good things offensively. And I think we did some good things defensively, they just made contested shots and when do that, God bless them… I think they've got three pros on their team that showed why they are pros."

(On their first half run "'The thing is that they are so big and they're so physical that we wanted to control tempo, so a lot of our shots were coming with the shot clock under 10, which that was our game plan because we didn't want to get into a rip and run fest with them. But what that does is it puts additional pressure on you to make a shot. And sometimes we weren't making shots, but we were open, we got clean looks. In the second half, we made them, but our defensive wasn't as efficient."

(On what impressed him about Louisville) "I think they should be the number one team in the country. They don't make mistakes. They are going to protect the basketball. They are big and physical at every position. They are talented. They have quality depth. They are well coached. And if they make their shots, they can cause some problems. The big kid in the middle (Steven Enoch) is unreal. There is not a weight you could lift for that. It's tough. So you've got to pick your poison. They've got the ACC Player of the Year; the point guard was hitting some shots tonight (Darius Perry). Obviously, number 30 (Ryan McMahon) is going to expand the defense. They are good, they are really good, so God bless them."

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Steven Enoch

Aidan Igiehon

Ryan McMahon

Darius Perry

Dwayne Sutton

Related Videos