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Louisville Basketball Post-Game Quotes versus Duke
February 27, 2021 | Men's Basketball
LOUISVILLE HEAD COACH CHRIS MACK
Opening Statement:Â
"What a game. Coming into the game, Duke had won four or five in a row, quite honestly those games weren't close. We thought that we were going to be facing an offensive juggernaut as of late, they've changed a lot, they've improved a lot. I thought our guys–we just battled, we battled. To have five turnovers at half, to not give up an offensive rebound in the first half, we knew that in the second half they were going to come out and respond. It was a little similar to last year's game where we were up pretty big, and they come out and punch you in the mouth a little bit. I thought a few of the layups and not being strong with the ball in the second half allowed them to get right back in it, give them credit. And then Matthew Hurt, as I told our players, he's just special. We put everybody on our team on him. He just has such a high release. We tried denying the ball when he takes guys into the post. If you don't switch his ball screens, they're just going to drag it out and throw it back to him, you won't be there on the catch. If you switch his ball screen, they'll just get a small guy on him. He's a really difficult matchup, one of the best players in the country. But we have got one of the best players in the country, too, and he made some plays down the stretch. For our team to respond the way they did in overtime, Carlik [Jones] misses the free throw, we get the ball back and miss a shot, come to the bench feeling like we controlled almost the entire game and to have to go to overtime, we responded a year ago with a veteran team, and today we had a lot of young guys making some plays. Quinn [Slazinski] walked out on the floor for overtime and said, 'Coach, I got you,' and I didn't know what that meant, but he knocked down that three and hit some clutch free throws. Carlik made some incredible plays, [Sam Williamson] really has been playing well. So, [we're] excited and we'll turn the page and play a really good Virginia Tech team on Wednesday."
On their defense excelling in the first half:Â
"It needs to be. Maybe the first four or five minutes we weren't on it, but after that point, our defense from the 15-minute mark down to the end of the half was lights-out, phenomenal. Malik [Williams] going out hurt us in the second half, we couldn't play as many guys, [David Johnson] gets in foul trouble, so we weren't as nasty and as stiff on the defensive end as we needed to be, but we got stops when we needed them. I agree, I thought our defense the last 15 minutes of the [first] half was terrific."
On what the win means for the team's morale:Â
"I think it means a lot. They have a belief in themselves. We had two of the longest COVID pauses, a lot of teams have maybe had one, some teams haven't had any. We have a young crew, not practicing and then getting our brains beat out by Carolina, you've got to love our response. Everyone leaves us for dead and people say, 'They're not that good,' and maybe we aren't, but we're battling. Those guys listen to themselves, they allow themselves to be coached. I was really proud of their effort today and their resiliency when we went to overtime."
