Virginia Tech at Louisville Postgame Quotes

Louisville Head Coach Chris Mack

(Opening Statement) "I told our team in the locker room, I was proud of their fight. I thought that there was a lid on the basket in the first half and sometimes that wears on you both mentally and physically. You don't get the same effort on the defensive end, and I didn't think that was the case at all. I thought we continued to battle. We just could not put the ball in the hole. And in the second half, it started to open up a little bit. And I thought outside of losing Jalen Cone a couple times, I thought our defense was on point. We made Alleyne work for his catches. There were a couple times where they were trying to post him in the long post, both Dwayne (Sutton) and Jordan (Nwora) did a great job, fronting him and not allowing it to go in easily where he's really been effective all year long. I thought Jordan maybe played one of his most complete games in a Louisville uniform -- ironically, his last one here. And I thought on the defensive end, he gave great effort he guarded the ball exceedingly well. He rebounded. I thought he made the right plays in transition. And it was good to see. Obviously, we're short-handed a little bit. We got several guys that are injured. One of them, a huge contributor to our team and hopefully we get him back. I'll just list him as day to day from here on out. Talking about Malik (Williams), as you know."

(About an update on Malik's had an MRI or an X-ray?) "Yeah, there's nothing that's wrong with him other than he twisted his ankle and it's swollen. We're waiting for the swelling to go down. The more the swelling goes down, the less pain there is. The good thing is, if you have to have a sprained ankle on a guy that can come back, and is maybe the toughest guy on our team, he'd be right up there towards the top. So, the moment he can play, he will be out there. It's probably too far out to say if we think he's going to play at Virginia, but I know he's going do everything he can over the next several days to be prepared to play at Virginia. And if we can't, he can't."

(Toward the end of the ceremonies before the game about wanting it louder during the game?)
"I thought it was pretty loud. I thought that the seniors were honored. It probably wasn't to capacity in terms of people don't necessarily get here 20-30 minutes before. I thought it was really loud and I wanted the same thing to happen once the game goes on because I know that our guys feed off that adrenaline, and I thought in the second half we made a run. I know it's tough to stand up and cheer when both teams haven't scored six times in a row, you know. It's like you go to the loony bin if you start doing that but, that's alright. That's fine. So it was good. I mean I thought we were really spurred on by our crowd today."

(About making offensive and defensive adjustments in the second half there after it was tied at halftime) "The adjustment, I don't want to say it was an adjustment, we just emphasized that we thought we were running good offense. I thought we were trying to get the ball into the paint, I thought we did that in the second half and we got a few more fouls called and we got to the bonus a little bit quicker. Generally, the lid comes off the basket at some point as long as you continue to get defensive effort. There weren't a whole lot of adjustments; I didn't think they were taking us out of our offense, or limiting our touches, or reversals but it was just a matter of seeing them shots go in or trying to grab some more offensive rebounds."

(Virginia Tech is a little smaller maybe than some other teams but do you have to change when Dwayne Sutton is at the five or Quin as opposed to Steve, do you have to change the way that you run things at all?) "We don't necessarily. First of all, Dwayne (Sutton) is like a computer on offense. He can run every position every play. It's honestly amazing because he doesn't get reps at every position. Most guys just know, 'Okay I'm the two, I go here, I screen there,' and they don't have the full concept of the play that Dwayne does, and that you don't find that a whole lot. We still run the same stuff, but the emphasis may not be to get the ball into Dwayne in the post. You know, we certainly set pick and rolls, and where often he would pop, he has to roll because there's limited space for five guys on the perimeter and spacing on the basket. There's no spacing on the perimeter. So we do run a lot of similar things, and then we just try to put guys in the right positions that we can take advantage of."

(Do you draw it up for David to get that offensive rebound and kick it out for three to end senior night? I think that worked out pretty well) "I did. You can put that on the TV show Kent. That would be the play of the week."

(How about that as a way to end it, though?) "That was awesome. I mean, again, I've been talking about David's IQ. Just the presence of mind to know where Keith (Oddo) was, to have the unselfishness to spray it out. Then give Oddo credit, you know, a lot of times a guy doesn't play a whole lot, I've seen that shot 1,000 times hit the side of the backboard. I'm glad for him. He's a good shooter. He's a good shooter. I should be playing him more."

(What, if anything, do you do toward the end of the season when guys are may be tired of hearing your voice, and the doldrums of this part of the season, to keep them refreshed?) "I think the doldrums are over. If we win on Saturday, which is a huge task, we're co-champions. At least. The next thing after that is the ACC Tournament. After that, if we're lucky enough to be invited, it's the NCAA Tournament. There shouldn't be any doldrums at this point."

(About Jordan Nwora playing his most complete game. How much of a factor do you think his aggressiveness and his attack during the whole game contributed to that?) "We ran a play for him and he took it off the flare screen. It's usually for a jump shot and he pressed up and drove to the basket and the kid started to tie him up. He had a little bit of his arm and a little bit of the ball and the referee called the foul. But he powered through and got an and one and a basket. I'll be honest, we hadn't seen that a lot out of Jordan. I thought his whole mentality was a little bit more aggressive. I thought he gave tremendous effort on the defensive end. He got tired - he played a crazy amount of minutes - and he got beat by Wabissa Bede there at the end, which I think was straight fatigue and that's why we took him out for a little bit. I've told you when he hasn't played hard or he doesn't do things that affect winning, but what he did today was awesome to see. If he continues to do that, it makes us that much harder to play against."

(On feeling good since it is post season) "Sure, I want to get Malik back and be at full strength. We got some guys in this locker room that behind the scenes and in the locker room and on the floor… this team means a whole lot to them. It means a whole to them. 'What the race means to you often determines how you run the race.' That's a quote that's stuck with me for a long time and when it's not meaningful you don't run as hard; you don't dig in as deep. I really think while we have some flaws and we have some guys that maybe make mistakes, their heart is in the right place. They really love each other. They're teammates to the end, and it a fun group to coach."

(On if he was happy with what they got out of the center position with Malik out) "First half to second half, I believe that Steve (Enoch) made a 180. I know his shooting percentage wasn't great, but he was way more demanding of the ball, which we need him to be whether Malik's healthy or not. I thought he was so much more effective in the second half. He was offensive rebounding. Virginia tech chooses to post trap, he makes a great pass out to Ryan McMahon, he made another pass out to the post. I just thought he was so much more engaged. He gets double digit rebounds which, even when Malik wasn't playing at the beginning of the year it wasn't like he was getting 10 plus every game. So, it was awesome to see him really respond in the second half. Steve's MO has been, if he hasn't started well and played well in the first half, it never really gets changed. I thought he was much more effective in the second half. That's great for our team."

Virginia Tech Head Coach Mike Young

(Opening Statement) "I applaud Coach Mack who I think the world of and is a terrific coach. This is a really fine group of seniors that represented Louisville. They play with passion. I remember Dwayne Sutton, and his college years. I can remember him playing with the Tennessee Travelers. He was a wispy, 6'7, maybe 200 pounds but a good-looking man he has become and a really good basketball player. I thought we were in good shape at the half. We never turned the ball over. We have seven first half turnovers, 16 for the game. Which negates our play on the perimeter, where we thought they may shoot the basketball so well. We limited them to two made threes at the half. But we shot ourselves in the foot and kick it seven times which is just unnerving. Two charges, we stepped out of bounds twice, but we didn't have a bad start to the half. We had quick possessions, two bad shots off a bad turnover in transition. When you're down 10 and you have a problem."

(About staying close at halftime tied with the No. 11 team in the country. Did Louisville make adjustments on you defensively and offensively and did their defense make it a tough second half for VT shooting wise) "It was more of a conscious effort to throw the ball in the post to Enoch (Steven Enoch). They took Enoch out of the post and played Sutton at the five with Nwora (Jordan Nwora) and a couple others. I don't think there was anything drastic nothing that Chris typically does throughout the course the games were a bit different because we're so damn small. I mean you're on the road in an unbelievable environment. A great fan base and they amped it up a little bit. We didn't respond quite as well as we needed to."

(Landers Nolley II is one of the best freshmen in the country, as he has gone through this rough stretch, what is your message to him?) Just hang in there. Don't turn down a good shot, if you turn down a good shot, I'm going to take you out of the game. I'm not going to take you out of the game for missing a shot but, he had another tough night. Louisville, Chris Mack, and his staff, are good coaches. They are going to scout the fire out of the Hokies as we do them. They can put Dwayne Sutton on him. They can put a big, strong, athlete on him and he had a hard time getting to some spots that he typically does. That's the only message that I have for him. Continue to play. Continue to be aggressive. Continue to do the things that make you a great player."

(Obviously, you saw Jordan Nwora, one of the better players in this conference. What about him makes him tough to defend?) "He is so big. He is one of those that has a little fade on his jump shot. That makes it really hard to contest effectively. He is a terrific catch and shoot player. With that size, the big strong body and can get his shoulders by you. He can get fouled and he is as good as advertised. I knew that coming in. I have certainly seen him play a lot in our preparation for the Cardinals."

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Steven Enoch

Ryan McMahon

Jordan Nwora

Dwayne Sutton

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