USC Upstate vs. Louisville Postgame Quotes

Louisville Head Coach Chris Mack

(Opening Statement)
Let me start by saying that USC Upstate was not awed. I thought Dave Dickerson's kids came in and made some jumpers in the first half and found some confidence. Our defensive effort, I do not think, and again this is without watching film, I do not think it was poor. I think once they hit a few of those, our guys responded the wrong way. It was almost as if we thought they were supposed to miss those shots and that this is supposed to be an easier game. Sometimes you fall prey to human nature. Our guys were ready to play. I thought for the most part, outside maybe one or two of their threes they hit in the first half were pretty contested. Guys were communicating and guys made some tough shots. And then we let that affect our mentality until we hit the 12 minute mark in the second to the end of the game. It shows the power of the three-point shot in the game of college basketball – really at any level. The power of the three-point shot can keep you in any game. Fortunately we were able to find it within ourselves to clamp down and play much stronger and do a better job on the perimeter in the last 12 minutes to gain the separation. I give all the credit in the world to Coach Dickerson to be able to come off some butt-whippings and be able to come in here with his young kids, freshman and sophomores, ready to play. I told our team these games on the schedule are sometimes hard to play. They just are. I didn't schedule them, our coaching staff didn't schedule them but they were on the schedule. Those games are over and it starts with Akron on Sunday.

(About trailing for first time in second half)"
I had a lot of messages. I think the message that I think is the most important is the one that I told them at the end of the game. The team is going to go through some rough periods of play. They are going to go up against an opponent that isn't in awe and can play as well as they can for periods of ten minutes at a stretch. We are going to be put in some tough moments. To be honest with you, tonight was not as tough as a moment that we will find ourselves in the next month or two. But it is good for a team to have to figure it out."
(On playing Malik and David tonight) "I was planning on playing them."

(Did you like what they brought to the court?)
"Absolutely. I wouldn't have put them on the floor if I didn't feel they could bring something to the court."

(About the thought process to play David Johnson)
"He's a good player. He's worked really hard to get himself back on the floor. Coaches play good players."

(About Dwayne Sutton's impact on the glass)
"Incredible. Dwayne got recruited by schools like USC Upstate. I asked him in the locker room in front of his teammates 'how many Division I offers did you have coming out of high school?' he said 'three'. And it just shows what heart, will, competitive character, and a kick-ass attitude can do for a kid. 15 rebounds. 15. He's not 6-9, he's 6-5. He doesn't look much different than a lot of the kids who were guarding him. He's a warrior. We need more of those on our team."

(On Dwayne Sutton consistency on the floor.)
"The only thing I can say is, 'how come his teammates can't figure it out?'. Some coaches that are a lot smarter than me have talked about how playing hard is a skill, and it must be. It must be, because nobody else around the country can figure it out like Dwayne. Dwayne just has it figured out. He air balls a three, his expression doesn't change, he's not pouting. He's a warrior."

(Darius has nine assists, no turnovers again tonight.)
"Our point guards did a great job not letting the eeriness of the game affect their decision-making. They got in the lane, sprayed the ball out. We went 14 assists to one turnover with our two point guards. I don't know what David did, zero assists and zero turnovers from three point guards. "

(About David and Malik when they were in the game)
"Malik's going to play his tail off. He's going be a little rusty, but he affects the game. He's got a voice out there, that's why he was voted a captain. He can do things that Steve can't do defensively. And the lob that David got, it's no different play than we've run. Fresh (Kimble) had the same back-screen layup in the first half. You saw where David (Johnson) caught it. A little different spot than Fresh. His was about a foot over the rim, Fresh's was two feet under the rim.

(On David Johnson's work ethic)
"I'll be honest, I haven't seen his work ethic a whole lot. When you get injured, your work ethic is with a trainer behind closed doors. Nobody really cares about watching you doing rehab, it's monotonous. I know that, I had three ACL's and a knee replacement. I should actually say that I have seen David a lot because I've been in the training room with him. Nobody sees what he puts in. There're some lonely days when you get injured like that. He's a competitive kid. He's got very, very high character. He was injured before earlier in his later grade school and freshman year. He's used to bouncing back from injury. He was well-coached. He went to a great program. He's a high character kid and great player."

(On shooting in the second half)
"I think it's also a matter of us getting stops. It put us out in transition a lot more. Ryan (McMahon) got free and we ended up with Jordan (Nwora) getting a layup or two. We just got some easier runouts to up our shooting percentage. It was more defense to offense, at least from what I can recall."

(On Enoch's block to spur the team)
"Well, I think we need those plays all throughout the game. I do think that game got our fans into it. Fans fall prey to human nature. They look at the schedule and are like, 'Oh that's an easy win.' It's again the power of the three-point shot. There wasn't a lot of energy in the building to start. WE didn't give the crowd a whole lot to cheer about. That type of play really got them going. I thought our crowd was awesome in the last 10 minutes, but we were a lot better. So, it's usually chicken to the egg and it should start with us. That type of play, a great weak side awareness of Steven (Enoch) blocking the shot, was a conduit for us playing with a lot of energy in the last 10-12 minutes."

(On what happened to UC Upstate's shot in the second half)
"I thought our defensive intensity was better. It was better. You could see it with our ball pressure at times in the first half. It wasn't near what it would be. There was a time where Jordan was really crawling up into a kid in the second half. I didn't see that in the first half out of many guys. I don't want to misrepresent that we were UVA (Virginia) in the first half, we were far from it. Several of those made shots were at the end of the shot clock. Several of those drives were at the end and our team has to stiffen as the clock gets less. I didn't think that we did that. When they made a couple of those shots, it took the wind out of our sails and that's not a good thing. Teams that win championships, teams that put themselves in conversation to be one of the best teams in the country will not allow the wind to go out of their sails on a few made shots."

USC Upstate head coach Dave Dickerson

(On what impressed him about his team's performance)
"The biggest thing was our resolve. The fact that Monday night we played probably one of our worst games of the year, and then tonight we come back and play the second-ranked team in the country and probably played our best 30 minutes of basketball of the year. So, our resolve, toughness and our togetherness showed. When you are in our situation and you play four straight games on the road, you could easily lose a team when you have a bunch of freshman and sophomores. But our guys really showed a big deal of resolve, a big deal of togetherness and a big deal of toughness to come out and play 30 minutes of solid basketball."

(On Louisville)
"They are good. They have a great player. They are physical. They run good stuff. They are well coached. They are just a high-level team. For 40 minutes they just wore us down with their athleticism and their strength. But Chris (Mack) I've known for a long time, he is a high-level coach and he has a high-level team."

(What do you take from this game moving forward?)
"We really need to get back to Spartanburg and get some home cooking. And try and get our guys grounded, back into our own gyms, to our own beds, and see if we can have the same effort, we had tonight for 30 minutes, but for 40 minutes against Youngstown State. So that's our biggest challenge."

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

David Johnson

Dwayne Sutton

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