Wake Forest vs. Louisville Postgame Quotes

Louisville Head Coach Chris Mack

(Opening Statement) "I thought our energy level was much greater in the second half but I think that was obvious. But, I'd also be remiss if I didn't say Danny's (Manning) kids came out and played their tails off. I thought they played with a ton of confidence. I think he had those guys ready to play. They changed defenses on us. They went from zone to man and I think once a couple guys hit a few shots, they start to get a lot of confidence and, you know, we didn't do much to disrupt that. I give them a lot of credit; you know sometimes you just want to come up here and talk about your team but I thought his guys were really ready to play and presented some challenges by changing defenses on the other end of the floor . We certainly responded after halftime. I thought the first seven/eight minutes of the second half we were a completely different team. Frustrating, but we got to figure that out, same thing with the turnovers. We got nine in the first half and two in the second. Your guess is as good as mine. We better rectify quick or its going to bite us in the ass."

(About the change in energy? Was it a coaching message or was it player driven? About the frustration) "I think a few of them were, and they voiced that concern at halftime. I think the message was simple, we have to do what we've talked about doing in the first half -- at a better rate. We didn't redesign a defense in the second half. We didn't redesign what we were doing offensively, maybe we gave them a little bit more clarity, despite whether they're in zone or man we're going to run the same thing, and we're going to look to move the ball, move ourselves on the offensive end. But defensively, we didn't adjust. We just did what we were doing a hell of a lot better. Thought their looks were a little bit more rushed. I thought our guys had a sense of urgency that we should have had in the first half. And again, if I had the answer, then we probably would've come out and played that way in the very beginning. But, we are still learning about our team and I think Wake Forest is very talented. I know they're at the bottom of the standings, but I think they've got some talent on their team and they're finally a little bit healthy, so I give the opponent a lot of credit as well. They came out, like I said, we're very, very confident what they were doing. They hit a couple of shots and their confidence grew. We have to be much more electric to start the game."

(Is this one of the best shooting teams you've ever coached?) "I don't know. Maybe. We've got two of the best shooters I've ever coached in Ryan (McMahon and Jordan Nwora. They stretch the floor and we have guys like Malik (Williams) and Steve (Enoch) that have great touch from the foul line to the three point line. Again, our emphasis isn't to just go out there and shoot threes. We have to earn those. We have to get to the free throw line, which we did. We have to get in the lane, which I thought we did, especially in the second half."

(Dwayne was pretty pivotal on that big run to start the second half. What difference did he make late?)
"Made a big difference. I could probably go down the line. This guy played really well. We played with a lot of energy in the second half. But my mind is sort of focused right now on the first half so it's really hard to talk about all the good things when when we have to shore up that stuff from the very beginning. Dwayne, he does what he does and that is he plays harder than his opponent, generally, he gets the foul line, got us off to a great start in the second half. I think they had five team fouls within the first two and a half, three minutes of the game. That means the game is going to last longer, which is a good thing for our team. I think we have a deeper team this year. And the longer the game goes the better it is for Louisville."

(Malik seemed to have an impact late. Is he playing at 100%) "If he's playing less than 100%, he hasn't told me that. Everybody's going have bumps and bruises throughout their season. And, you know, Malik's never a guy that makes excuses, so maybe he sore. I don't know. I thought our ball screen defense was average at best, and it's been really good all year, but not tonight. Give Wake Forest a lot of credit for that. And then him not rebound the ball a lot of times, because we're dealing with the guard who's got the ball in the lane trying to help, shot goes up, we don't have the guys in the right position to block out because they're helping other guards, so It's all chain reaction stuff."

(About Fresh Kimble's second half) "He's arguably our best defender at that position, so you feel like you need him on the floor. David was turning the ball over at a high rate tonight, and David's going to have those moments. He's a freshman and he's spectacular and he can do things nobody else on the roster can do, but he also has to learn and can't put his team at the point guard position in tough situations. But having said that, I thought Fresh was great. He had some timely threes but has to do a better job at the foul line because he had the ball in his hands a lot. He created some looks for his teammates and I thought he did the job defensively that we've really seen him do all year."

(About Josh Nickleberry's health) "Yeah. A little freak injury, twisted his ankle where the wood ends at the side of the floor in practice yesterday. It swelled up a little bit. There are no broken bones or anything like that, it's just a matter of dealing with a swollen ankle and hopefully we'll have him back in a week or so."

(On Wake's credit to hitting three pointers) "I thought that their threes came off triple threat. A few of them, a few of them we shouldn't allow, a few of them were good offensive drive. Defense helps in kick it out and you create a shot for your teammate. When a player on offense has a ball, and the defender is matched up and squared up with him, and he can jab and look at him and shoot the ball I just don't think that's good defense. We gave up three of those and then we gave up even more of that when you count the ones 15 to 17 feet in the first half. I thought our defensive energy on the ball… we would put them on their heels in the second half. Nobody shot a triple threat three in the second half. That right there just tells me it was a lot of energy that we had in the second half that we didn't have in the first half. We got to figure it out."

(On which player takes charge in the locker room) "I wasn't in the locker room. I'm down in the coach's office huddling with our assistants. We generally leave the locker room so I could hear guys sort of barking. I'd be lying if I knew who it was at halftime. It's generally Malik (Williams) and Ryan (McMahon( but there's other guys that will step up. Malik Williams has been that way all year, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was him."

Wake Forest Head Coach Danny Manning

(Opening Statement) "I thought today we got off to a really great start offensively, especially from behind three. We shot the ball well. We did a really good job of getting the ball to the paint below the free throw line and making good decisions. We had guys ready to shoot it on the catch and that gave us a chance to build on our lead. The second half, not so much. They came in and are so physical and big. They had their way with us in terms of carving out space in the paint. Then they shot the ball at a high clip. There a few times that they didn't miss the second half, and they only had seven offensive rebounds for the game. It seemed like it came at the cost of an offensive rebound, or for some kind of turnover."

(Did you see any specific defensive adjustments from Louisville in the second half that made your shooting drop from 60 to 30%.) "They started pressuring us. That's what good teams do. We still ended up shooting 45 percent from the field. A lot of the shots that were falling came from multiple actions. In the first half, we got multiple action shots. You come off one side, dribble handoff, ball screen, back pick in to the second side. You get some other action over there, and they were able to get open shots. We didn't get many multiple action opportunities in the second half."

(What did you see from Louisville and its ability to shoot the ball from three?) "We knew they were definitely capable, without question. A lot of it to is that you're going to your game plan. What can you live with and what cannot live with? We know guys they have that can shoot. They have guys who can shoot 50% from three. They're a very talented team and that sounds pretty good. They have a lot of guys. Jordan (Nwora) is an intelligent scorer. He made some tough shots like he normally does. We really need to do a better job on Ryan (McMahon) because we knew going into the game he can do it. Malik (Williams) is another that can shoot the three. Malik is a talented basketball player but I much rather him shoot threes than be on the block personally but he's a capable three point shooter."

(Talk about Louisville turning the pressure up in the second half. How hard is that for a team to do in the middle of the game) "Oh, I anticipated it. You know when I say turn up the pressure, I more so meant every time Brandon (Childress) came off the ball screen and seemed that they were going to double team him and take the ball out of his hands and put the ball in other guy's hands. You know we didn't have enough guys coming off those ball screens and attacking the paint, the way we need to. I thought Brandon came off a few times and drew some fouls, because they were coming up very aggressively and he was attacking that aggression and putting them in foul trouble. They started corral trapping, if you will, when he came off just corral him and stay in front of him and make him give up the ball, and we struggled when he didn't have the ball in his hands."

(They call a (Dwayne) Sutton their glue guy, when they have a guy like that, how important is that in runs?) "Dwayne doesn't get enough credit. We know what he is as coaches. We know what he brings to the table. He's a hard rocking dude, shoots 10 free throws, gets 11 rebounds, 15 points, and they don't run a lot of plays for him. He goes out there and he makes it happen. He's really important to that team because of that effort and energy level he brings."

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Jordan Nwora

Malik Williams

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