Louisville at Florida State Postgame Quotes

Louisville Head Coach Chris Mack

Opening Statement:
"I give Florida state a lot of credit. They have a terrific team. For us it was a tale of two halves obviously, we battled, we wanted to keep our turnovers low. I thought their pressure, although it might not have turned us over a ton it kept us on our heels like it does with most teams. We handled it for the first twenty minutes or so but I thought we came out of half time and set the tone the wrong way the offensive end with a couple bobbled balls. I don't even know if they converted; I thought they coughed it back up. It just sort of set the tone the wrong way. And then we got driven way, way too much in the second half, rather we were in zone or we were in man. They are a really good team; we don't apologize for anything when it comes to playing a team of this caliber. For us, playing shorthanded, we won't make excuses but it's a little difficult, it wasn't difficult in the first half we just couldn't keep up in the second half and again I give Florida State a lot of credit."

You've played Florida State twice now, both tough games, speak how talented of a team this FSU team is?
"Really talented. I think the most impressive thing isn't their talent level, it's how hard they play, I said that to Leonard (Hamilton) before the game. I have such a respect for how hard he gets his kids to play; the buy in that they have. They are obviously led by a guy who I think is an amazing point guard (Trent Forrest), who has been through the league wars and he just plays like a vet. He's a big challenge for us because we have a freshman point guard that we hope will get to that level one day. He is just really good, and he gets his guys to the right spots. They are a really good team, they are hard to guard, they play extremely hard on defense, but we knew that coming in."

With the season winding down, just a few more games, how can you access which team has the best chance to win the league this year, is it a four team race or a three team race?
"I only worry about our race. Obviously we aren't in the driver's seat anymore, we've got two games left other teams have three or four, we have to worry about we can control and that is. We have to be at our best on Sunday against Virginia Tech, we finally have a chance to get a little rest, we have been going twice a week sense December. This (Florida State) is one of the better teams in our league no doubt about it."

Why do you think the offense was being slowed down so much in the second half?
"They (Florida State) turned up the pressure, their intensity level. I thought we missed some layups near the rim that we made in the first half. I think we missed we open threes from guys that I want shooting threes and had those gone in you know you probably wouldn't be talking about offensive struggles. It's not as if we had 20 turnovers which can happen to many teams. I'll take Jordan Nowra (shooting) open threes; we had some stagger action and got open threes for Ryan (McMahon) and they didn't go in. We have to find a way to get offensive rebounds. They (Florida State) are big and athletic, they have a plan, they switch, and they tried to get in the lane like we did in the first half, spray out, make shots and get to the foul line like we did in the first half, we couldn't get to the foul line, couldn't get a whistle even when we initiated the contact. It is what it is. In this league when you're playing a team that deep, or with so much energy, when they come out in the second half like that how hard is it to come back."
On defense did you feel like you were missing Malik Williams for the inside presence or did you feel like there was another factor?
"On the defensive end we are always going to miss Malik no matter who we play; he's our best defensive player. He defends the rim, very vocal, he sees the game. But it's still going to be a challenge on offense, not because he doesn't bring anything to the table it's just they switch, you know you're post game a lot of times can get negated because they have big guards and they switch, you try and take advantage of one your two mismatches. The big guy on the little guy in the post or the guard on the perimeter … I've watched so many games and nobody runs their offensive against Florida State and it's a credit to how they play."

Florida State Head Coach Leonard Hamilton

Opening statement:
"I thought that Louisville had an excellent game plan at the beginning of the game and that they kept us at bay. They held the ball, even while we were pressuring them to move the ball, and they were patient in the first half. We had a hard time stopping penetration and they had two excellent shooters on the perimeter. It is difficult when you face guys that can take you off the dribble, and (Lamarr) Kimble gave us a hard time because he was getting below the free-throw line and hitting shots. We had a hard time finding our guys on that end. In the second half, I thought that we turned it up with a little more energy, a little better focus, and we were able to get some defensive stops. We got out and made some easy baskets and started to get back into the game. When we got the lead, I thought that our guys executed very well offensively, and maintained the energy and effort on the defensive end. We had a lot of guys that I thought stepped up and gave us big contributions tonight, Dominik (Olejniczak) gave us tremendous energy off the bench, (RayQuan) Evans, and (Anthony) Polite. I thought that they made a huge difference, we continue to keep winning games by committee. This team is eighteen strong, we had nine guys score tonight. That is who we are; I am very proud of our guys. This was a very important game, but our plan was not to allow the game to be more important to Louisville than it was to us. II have to give Louisville credit, they came out and played extremely well, and they wanted the game just as bad as us. I just thought that our guys game a little bit more effort, got some stops, got out in transition, and gave us an opportunity to come away with a very important victory. I can't say enough about the crowd, there were times throughout the game where we could hardly hear even in the huddle. We were screaming and hollering, but I cannot say enough about the support that we have got from the community and the students. It has made a huge difference to our players and I want to thank everyone for giving us that type of support."

On Florida State's Defense
"I think that we have been winning games all year with the quality of our depth and our ability to play good defense for long periods of time. Devin (Vassell) played his heart out, and he asked for a break. I thought that (RayQuan) Evans and (Anthony) Polite came in and gave us a tremendous life. I think that we can keep doing that, the good thing about this team is that we still have a lot of holes in our game, we still have a lot of room for improvement and we have a lot of new guys that are still growing in our system. I hope that we can continue winning and that we will start peaking somewhere here soon."

On the crowd's noise level during the game
"I think our players are responding to the support that we are getting and the support we are getting are responding to the players. I think we are working together, and we are a great team."

On the difference between this matchup and the previous one against Louisville
"Obviously, the injury to (Malik) Williams early in the game made them shorthanded with their post play and position. However, their smaller lineup created more problems for us in the first half. We were a little indecisive on how we could match them because their inside guys were a little more mobile than our big guys. Dominik (Olejniczak) stepped up, and I thought Malik (Osbourne) gave us good effort from an interior standpoint that didn't allow when we switched one through five their perimeter guys would take advantage of us. I thought we was locked down fundamentally and played sound defense."

On Florida State's Depth
"There is no doubt that we win games by committee. It is interesting that our players embrace that. People keep asking questions about how do we keep everybody happy with playing so many guys. These guys are happy to come out of the game because they give tremendous effort. We feel like that is who we are, that is the style of play that best suits well for us, and we have different guys stepping up every night. Tonight, Trent (Forrest) scored 16 points and didn't even realize it. I thought there were moments in the game where you could see that each player took upon himself to make a major contribution."

On Trent Forrest showing a lot of emotion during the game
"You guys are not around these guys all the time, but these guys have a lot of fun. He (Trent) seems to have a quiet demeanor, but he is one of the fellas. I thought he got excited during the game and he demonstrated after his dunk how much that moment meant to him. He bleeds garnet and gold, he is a Seminole through and through, and he represents what the unconquered spirit means to all of us. I am glad to see him have his moment, especially in his senior year."

On what this big win can do to Florida State's confidence
"We are going to try and keep this in perspective. This game was important to us, but we are in a conference of teams with some of the richest traditions and most success in basketball history. We are trying to find our niche. They have 75 to 80 years of success ahead of us so we cannot start to get excited now because just about every team in our league has gone to the final four and won a national title. We have a big mountain to climb. We want to keep doing what we are doing by not trying to pick up momentum, not get down, and not get overly excited. We just have to keep grinding to see how far we go by staying focused and believing in a philosophy that makes sense."

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Malik Williams

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