Louisville Men's Basketball Postgame Quotes vs. Florida State

Florida State 78, Louisville 65
January 18, 2021
KFC Yum! Center | Louisville, Ky.

Louisville Head Coach Chris Mack

(Opening Statement)
It is fairly obvious that we got punked from the beginning of the game. Hats off to Florida State. They are a terrific team. They are a team that has a lot of answers at a lot of positions. They play extremely hard. We weren't who we needed to be to start the game. We really weren't for the first 13-15 minutes. I am disappointed. We have a lot of growing up to do in order to match that type of intensity to compete at this level with some of the teams we are playing. We have a lot of work to do.

(About not being ready to play) Yeah, put that on me. You get down by whatever you get down and you are not ready to play. How that is, I have no idea. We fumbled the ball around the basket and missed layups that we had created. We set the tone at such a poor way of playing intimidated. If you get bullied by Florida State early on, that is a problem because you are going to get bullied for 40 minutes. We responded but we got down too deep in a hole.

(The guys said they didn't follow the game plan, is that a byproduct of intimidation?)
"I don't know I mean that's what you are going to get when you play Florida State. You are going to get awkwardness on the offensive end because you have to drive the ball, you have to be able to drive it, you have to be able to get in the lane and draw their help. You have to have the toughness to deliver whether to pass underneath a spray out. You have to be able to play off close outs and we got our shots blocked so early and often to begin the game. That's one of those instances that the guys are talking about. We know they are going to play above the rim. We know they are going to flock, but yet we offer the ball up instead of spraying out or spraying down and shot faking it or drawing fouls or finding teammates. It's not our young guy's fault, it's my fault. We couldn't execute what we wanted to until we were down however many points we were down.

(Is Florida State a particular hard matchup?
I like to think with the guards that we have, we'd have the ability to get the ball in the lane and I thought we did that. But again, not early and often, we didn't set the right tone. The defense that we played was soft, we gave up way too many easy open jump shots. It doesn't take a whole lot of talent to sprint back to find your man and get matched up to make it a five on five game. Whether we are young, inexperienced or intimidated I don't know but it needs to be corrected.

(About beating you in the same manner last year and UofL coming back winning the next 10 games in a row… were they practicing poorly?)
Yeah good question, two things. Number one: we haven't been practicing poorly, we had a really poor practice before we went to Miami that showed we didn't deserve to win the game. We didn't earn it in practice. Our habits and how we got ready to play, we deserved what we got in Miami. It's a quick turnaround, we get back at 3:15 A.M. That's no excuse, period. But we don't do a whole lot other than watch film and talking it through. We can't wear down guys who have played 36 or 37 minutes and come off a 3:30 A.M. flight. But we didn't execute what we needed to execute. Last year's team is last year's team, they are dead and buried. They unfortunately didn't get the opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament like we all wanted. This year's team has a completely different personality, we have a lot of inexperienced guys that never witnessed high level ACC competition until these last few games, so we better learn from it.

(Is this team harder to coach than last year's team?)
No, they are just younger, they need more reps. They need more understanding that our team is going to win by doing little things and having energy. It's not going to just out-talent people, it's not going to walk out there. We aren't going to have a guy that hangs 30 on somebody. Obviously Carlik and David are are very, very high level, our two best guards. But we all have to, including David and Carlik, value the little things that our team needs to do to win. That's my fault because we obviously don't know that yet, but we are going to figure it out.

(About the problem being physical or beyond that)
"Again, I can only go on this year's team, I can't remember last year's game, we certainly watched it in preparation but we got thrown around. There were some things that had nothing to do with physicality. It doesn't take any physicality to sprint back and find out who you are guarding and communicate. You don't do that when you're in high school, you don't do that when you're a freshman on a top 15 team a year ago that doesn't play. You have to do it now and if you don't do it now then Florida State is going to get wide open threes like they did in the first half. Our practices need to be better, we need to develop habits quickly so that our guys can be a lot better on game night.

(In regards to the three-point shooting, a little bit better than the other night, obviously. Probably not where you want it to be, shooting 25 percent, but in regards to the three-point shooting, how much of it is just guys not knocking down open shots? Is it shot selection? What are you seeing when it comes to the three-point shooting?)
"A lot of misses."

(About being ready to play)
"Yeah, we have to figure out as a unit what our team needs to do in order to be successful. We didn't do those things to start the game. Our lack of urgency to begin the game, it's confounding. I know that for a fan you're like 'what the hell is the problem, why aren't we ready to play?'. And that's what our coaching staff is saying and we're going to do everything that we can to fix the damn problem. But when we come out and don't understand how to get in the lane, how to be strong with the basketball, and then get back on the defensive end and get matched up, that doesn't have anything to do with talent, that has everything to do with toughness and it being important to us. And we're going have to figure that out. And if we don't, then we'll have more nights like tonight."

(How do you begin to challenge your guys to give more effort on those types of plays and search for that identity that your players referenced that is missing right now?)
"Yeah, I think that reality is a great teacher. And the reality of it is we cannot walk out on the floor and out-talent teams. And so, I'd like to think that we have guys that are willing to do what it takes in order to win. And as their coach, I'm telling you that's what we need to do in order to win. And we've got some guys who have to figure that out. We've got to be harder on our guys in practice, we have to demand more, so that when we come out on game night, we don't perform like we did the first 16 minutes."

(You've accepted the blame for the loss. Is some of it because it is a young team, do you feel like you have to go back to the basics and teach them What else needs to be done to get through to them) "Yeah, that's a big part of it, developing habits. Developing habits that didn't matter when they played at a lower level. For our guys it does not say on their jersey 'Louisville freshman', 'Louisville sophomore that didn't play a year ago', 'Louisville redshirt freshman', 'Louisville grad transfer'. It just says Louisville. Right now, there are a lot of guys that played in this program that did a heck of a lot more to earn those banners that you see in the Yum! Center, and we're not giving the type of effort that those former players deserve. We have to figure it out, and that includes the coaches and the players."

(Chris, along that line, How do you look to your leaders, to your vets, guys like Carlik and David to kind of gather the youngsters around and understand what happened? Where do you kind of have expectations for them?)
"It starts in practice. It starts in practice when your best players, I told Carlik this the other day, your best player can't ever have a bad practice. Your head coach can't have a bad practice. Point guards can't have a bad practice. And I don't mean necessarily how you shot the ball, I'm talking about being invested. And so for us, it starts right there. I do think that Dave and Carlik believe it's their team, and I think they've taken some steps, whether it's in huddles, whether it's in practice, to be those types of leaders, but we need more. We need more, and we need more response from our followers. And we need to make the situation and practice harder, so that when they get in the games, we can perform better."

Florida State Head Coach Leonard Hamilton
(Opening Statement)
"I thought our guys were extremely focused at the beginning of the game. We got out of the box early. Defensively, I thought we had the stops and got a lot of deflections. We were on-point with our execution. We made a lot of shots. That just shows that we are kind of growing up. Obviously, we stubbed our toe the last time we were on the road in the ACC. That was a bad taste, and I was glad to get that taste out of our mouth. Just going on the road and being able to adjust mentally and emotionally. This team has potential, but we are still growing and we are still coming together. We had the lead, and they cut back in, but what I'm most impressed with is two things. We maintained our composure. We didn't lose our poise. We regrouped and came back in and made effective plays. The second thing I was impressed with was the fact that M.J. Walker was not having a great night offensively, but he had 10 assists and two blocks. He gave us great leadership on the floor. That's the leadership we like to see from your senior."

(You said after Saturday's game that Anthony [Polite] was dealing with an illness. Was this related to that? Was this something else? What can you speak to how he stepped up in his absence?)
"It looked like [Anthony Polite] kind of had a shoulder injury or a bruised shoulder, and it was still sore. This time of year, I just want him to be 100 percent. Hopefully we can have him back for Saturday's game."

(Talk about Wyatt [Wilkes] obviously being in the starting lineup tonight.)
"Wyatt is probably one of the most knowledgeable players on our team. He has a very high basketball IQ. He understands everything that we're doing. We weren't hesitant at all to move him into that position. He makes great decisions with the ball, and he's shooting the ball very well right now. He stepped in and gave us great floor balance. I thought that he gave us a couple of baskets there early that fill in for Anthony. Anthony's shooting over 50 percent from three, so I thought that with Wyatt coming in we didn't miss very much, and that was very good."

(Can you talk about Raiquan Gray and the game that he had, and also the improvements he has made in his game this year?)
"He is becoming more comfortable with his role. Obviously early on, that's a big adjustment from being a player that's playing on a team and in a different role with Patrick [Williams] and Trent [Forrest] and Devin [Vassell] over the last couple of years. Now he's in more of a leadership role. He's experienced. Whether we are successful or not has a lot to do with how well he plays. I think he's maturing into that and understanding his strengths and his weaknesses. He's going to the basket more. He's being patient with his shot selection. He gives leadership on the floor. He gives us a unique ball-handling and decision-making for his size, which is challenging. We want him to drive the ball to the basket. He's a really good jump shooter, but he's not shooting the ball as well from the perimeter right now, but I think you will see as he grows with confidence, you will see him become more and more consistent throughout his offensive game. And he's playing very good defense."

(How much better has Malik Osborne been in these last two games? Is he finding his role a little bit?)
"Well, to be honest with you, we're still trying to define our roles within our rotation and who fits in what. For instance, tonight we wanted to be as big as possible if we could contain the dribble. We weren't very effective with it. And so we went with a small lineup and I thought that's when we, in the second half that's when we were able to extend the lead. And so we're kind of still defining our strengths and our weaknesses in relation to the personality of this team. Tonight was not a very good night for Tanor (Ngom). I thought Balsa (Koprivica) was a little sluggish early, he came in and gave us a big lift in the second half – for a sophomore you like to see that. I hope you guys understand we're still just growing and developing. If this team continues to keep growing, by February we could be a pretty good basketball team.

(Do you feel like in the first half, in the first 10 or 15 minutes of the first half, that's what you want to look like on defense, in terms of deflections and blocks?)
"Yes, and we pushed the ball down after we got those deflections and blocks and steals. We've been solid on the offensive end as well, so you like to see that with a team that really has as many moving parts as we have."

(Against UNC you guys didn't have Scottie (Barnes), but it looked like Rayquan Evans really took a step forward. With Scottie back, tonight you used them at times together. Does that allow Scottie to kind of be more effective at different spots on the floor?)
"Well, Scottie's been playing on the ball an awful lot so some of the things, he's not really familiar with. But that's kind of who we are. He hasn't been around enough to learn everything. So tonight, we kind of felt that, because we didn't have Anthony Polite, a great decision-maker, great free throw shooter, well, we think he's a great free throw shooter. Obviously the guy who's probably our best on the ball defender, we kind of just had to improvise tonight by playing both of them together."

(How would you assess your defense at this point in the season?)
"We had some good moments tonight, but we still had trouble containing the dribble. I thought that there were times when they just, at will just drove right by us and laid the ball up at the rim and that's unacceptable, but you've got to give them credit, that's the strength of their team, they have those skills. We don't like to get beat on the first step, but that's the strength of their team and I thought that they did a very good job and challenged us and maybe they took advantage of our weakness. They forced us… we like to switch 1 through 5, but it didn't seem to matter if they were trying to drive off of our center or our perimeter players, and we had a hard time keeping them from getting to the rim."

(Playing on one day's rest, and three games in six days is tough – what did you learn about your team in these first games back after the layoff?)
"I'm learning that we have some strengths. We're shooting the ball well from the perimeter. We're not moving the ball and executing in the half court nearly as well as I think we should. I think that we're not really taking advantage of maybe some of our strengths. But that's kind of who we are, we're still kind of growing. Some areas we're experienced, some areas we're not. We're just still trying to put it together, still got some growing to do."

(What do you say to yourself when your 7-1 center gets that steal 70 feet from the basket and goes coast-to-coast and has a follow dunk – is that in his arsenal?)
"Well, that just shows that he's growing and maturing. That was a very big play during that part of the game. He got the steal, had the confidence to take it to the basket and the focus to go back up on the missed shot, so I was very pleased with that.

Louisville is a good basketball team and I thought our guys did a very good job on the road against a very good basketball team. You've got to give them a lot of credit. They're well-coached, they play hard. They never backed up, they never gave up. And they kept coming back at us every time we extended the lead. That shows that they're a very good team and very well-coached."

University of Louisville Athletics

Louisville Men's Basketball Postgame Quotes vs. Florida State

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