Miami (Ohio) vs. Louisville Postgame Quotes

Miami (Ohio) at Louisville
December 18, 2019 | KFC Yum! Center
Postgame Quotes

University of Louisville Head Coach Chris Mack
(Opening Statement) "We obviously were a different team the last 10 minutes or so. To hold Miami to six points on two, three point shots, one of which was a bank shot from the wing and I don't think it was intended to be. Then the other ones were there five man with 29 seconds to go when Aidan (Igiehon) was recovering from a ball screen. We hold those guys to six points in 10 minutes. Our offense at times wasn't very good, to say the least, but we cured the turnover woes from first half to the second half. Which we needed too. We were much more aggressive on the offensive glass. I think that all stemmed from Dwayne Sutton's effort and then Malik (Williams) joined in. It was good to see but we got to have more than two offensive rebounds at halftime and a lot less than eight turnovers at the half. I thought our guys defended pretty much the entire night. Their whole team had a 27 percent field goal percentage, 18 percent from the three and they shot an extraordinary amount of threes and we knew that coming in. See 20 three-point shots in the first half, and they only scored 20 points. We used our defense when our offense wasn't there."

(Dwayne Sutton played virtually the whole second half. What was he doing that made it so hard to pull him off?) "Man he plays so damn hard. As I pulled him off at the very end, because I told him that, you have to be that guy in the beginning of the game for us, you really do. As much as I want to applaud him in the second half. He's been through enough wars. He's a fifth-year senior, he's seen so many different games. Like, whatever it takes to get his motor running. He doesn't need a coach peeling the paint off the locker room wall to get going or he shouldn't need it. I don't think he does. It was nice that he gave the tornado-like effort in the second half, and he's not alone. I need to see that, to start the game and to play that way throughout the first half."

(About a 10 day layoff before Kentucky?) "It is what it is. Doesn't really matter if I hate it, or if I love it. I think it's good that our guys get a chance to see their families, even though it's not on Christmas but it's around Christmas. They'll adjust and figure it out. Then Santa comes down the chimney for each of the households. Meanwhile the coaches will be doing everything we can to get ready for a really good team on the 28th."

(About Jordan Nwora's shot selection) "I mean he took a couple really poor ones. Again, I'm going to keep saying the same thing over and over and that's why we pulled him in last four minutes of the first half. He took an absurd shot and it wasn't just Jordan. The other guys were shooting quickly and the guys weren't ready to rebound offensively. I feel like a broken record. I told the team in the locker room after the game, so many fifth year seniors on the roster and system of play they believe in. They have to honor the process and be ready to do what they're supposed to do. So that's why we pulled them. Again, he is one of the elite scorers in the country. He's being overplayed, bumped, and pushed. Not that the referee should have called it, but man, that's just what happens when you get circled on the scouting report. He has to let the game come to him. If we run a play for him, which we have it doesn't mean he shoots on it. He did the one time so that's why we pulled him out. He knows that and he's very coachable kid. He gets to geeked up and has too much confidence at times. It was corrected in the second half. He had some shots but we moved the ball much better in the second."

(Do you think the reason Miami was hanging around because of their rebounding) "Oh, I mean that's a way to keep us and to keep up with us. I don't think we gave great effort to the offensive glass like we did in the second half. I thought Steve (Enoch) was MIA. We are used to able to go to him. I mean when he ends the game 1 for 3 with 4 points against the 6-7, 270-pound center that hurts our offense. That's just the cold hard facts and we have to be able to rely on him to get paint touches. Not settle for turnaround face up jumpers from 15 to 17 feet."

(What was the anxiety level at four points ahead) "I think that, you know, coming in I knew we were the better team, but you know Miami gained their confidence because ill-advised shots and not good enough effort on the offensive glass to get the ones that we missed. And then I think the first six, seven minutes of the second half, we struggled with ball screen defense like we really haven't all year. And then we corrected it without by adjusting. We did what we do better. So, I'm happy that we're able to sort of pick ourselves up and figure out a way to defend the actions that were hurting us. But again, I go back to fifth year seniors had to be a little bit more ready to be the team that we practice being every single day."

(About the guard play) "Yeah, I thought was terrific tonight. You tried to play way off him a few times and he had open shots. I know he didn't shoot well overall from the field. He had a couple threes, I thought his defense was terrific and he had great wall pressure, he blocked out. He was a pest when they were trying to find cutters on screen actions, thought Darius did a really good job tonight for sure and he played the most minutes of any of our point guards. David (Johnson), probably say the same song and dance for him for a while, some good, some not so good. And I thought Fresh (Kimble) was solid."

(Talking about the human factor in these like last games before break) "You never know where 19, 20, 21-year-old guys' heads are at. When they know you're going home to see their family they probably have their bags packed. You know can't pack our minds before the deals done. We talked a lot about it, just happy that we were able to finish the game, the right way. With such an overwhelming fashion the last 10 minutes but, you always worry about that as a coach."

(About Holiday break schedule) "I will give them a few days off. We will reconvene well before Christmas, so they won't have Christmas, or Christmas Eve. Really by the end the weekend, they'll be back so they get a couple days, and then we'll turn their attention to good team for the 28th."

(About coaching 'Killer Instinct') "Well, the other team gives scholarships, too. I know that we are Louisville. But they are really incentivized when they walk into a KFC YUM! Center. They have an opportunity; they get to play their asses off and play the No. 3 team in the country. Every contested shot for a little is going to go in and they will get excited. But I think you saw in the last 10 minutes, who our team can be. So, I didn't think we had hit the panic button, by any means, I thought defense completely clamped down. We had a season-high 10 kills. That's three stops in the row and that's a kill. So, I've been preaching to these guys all year long. There are going to be nights when our offense isn't clicking, we're missing shots. When teams are really disciplined to block out and we can't get a second chance shot. And they don't turn the ball over because they're really trying to work the clock and getting good looks. It's nice to know that during those times you can really hang your hat on the defense and for us to get 10 kills. And again, for 30 minutes they were there right with us. I think says a lot about our ability to get stops."

Miami Head Coach Jack Owens
(You had it to four in the second half. It got away from you a little bit. What happened?) "Yeah, I thought it was a big play, we cut it to four and they get a transition three, a rhythm three. I thought we were there, but we didn't knock them out of rhythm and they make their rhythm three. And then I thought in the second half, the offensive rebounds got us. It was tied 24 all from a rebound standpoint and then they get us plus 12 or plus 14 in the second half and that allowed them to get some second chance points, where in the first half, we're down eight, we're not making shots, but we're making them fight for everything and we're battling. And then in the second half, they got away from it. From that point, I think when they make that rhythm three, they got their second chance opportunities."

(Your defense looked like your zone gave them some problems.) "Well, it's not a zone. We're man. Yeah, we just moshed it off a guy or two and just made it difficult and wanted to pack the lane. They do a good job, Coach Mack does a good job establishing their post, and I just felt like there's some guys out there that you can play off of and just make it difficult to get the ball inside and make them make perimeter shots. And actually, Perry made the first three and I was like 'there's the game plan right there.' But we did a good job from a scouting report standpoint, making them score off the top, I just thought if we could have made a few more plays, a few more shots, the game could have been different."

(Who did you think played well for you?) "I just thought from a collective, Nike Sibande our best player, he's just banged up. He's probably 60-70 percent, but he got it out and wanted to play. I wanted to keep him out, but he did everything in his power to play and we gave him a go. He actually made his first shot. I just thought all the guys fought. Myja White did a great job from a defensive standpoint, just battling, blocking out, and rebounding. I just thought the guys collectively did a great job of just following through on the scouting report. Obviously, we would want to make more shots, but we're a better three-point shooting team that we've shown. I just truly believe once we get whole and healthy, we'll see those balls go in. But I'm just excited about the effort, disappointed in the result, but at the end of the day, we had a fight. They're a good team, you come in here and you hold them to what they shot from the field... from a defensive standpoint I was happy, just not as happy with the with the second chance points that they were able to get."

(What is your general impression of Louisville?) "They're a good team. Coach Mack does a great job. They're a very talented team. They have length and size and have skill. They have a couple of big guys inside that can score with their back to the basket, but same time they are a good team. They have the skill to make a deep run, in my opinion. Obviously, they do a good job of playing hard and playing, towards their strengths."

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Jordan Nwora

Dwayne Sutton

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