University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Post-Game Quotesheet
2/12/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 12, 2007
POST-GAME QUOTESHEET
Quoting Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon:
Opening Statement:
"Give a lot of credit to
On what Pitt can take out of this loss:
"We've said all along that we need to continue to improve and get better and I think a loss like this proves it. We've never said that we were as good as we needed to be, so I think we'll just keep working towards that."
On how Pitt will respond to this loss:
"I think we'll bounce back. We have a very tough game on Saturday against
On
"They're very good at what they do, but we knew that coming in. Maybe only having one day in between games hurt us a little bit, but that's not an excuse. The biggest thing in the first half was that we weren't aggressive enough. It's tricky against the zone; you have to be patient but aggressive at the same time, which can be a difficult balance sometimes. I thought we had the zone beat a couple of times in the first half, but we weren't aggressive enough, so
On Pitt going 3-for-21 from three:
"It was a combination of factors that contributed to that. I think we took some rushed shots, but also when we did get a good open look, we weren't able to knock it down. It just happens sometimes. Also, when you get down by such a large margin against a zone team, you're forced into putting up some shots you wouldn't normally take."
Quoting Pitt's Aaron Gray:
On
"They're very good at what they do. They pressed, they played a two-three zone and we were never able to get our offense going. We weren't confused I don't think, we just didn't execute the way we're capable of. That's just going to happen sometimes. The test is how we respond."
On
"They have very good big guys for starters. David Padgett played a great game for them, and when he got his opportunities he capitalized. When they got out to such a huge lead, we had to change some of our strategy to try to come back, and that had an affect as well."
On whether Pitt overlooked
"If we perform like we did tonight then we're going to lose every game. I don't think we took them lightly; they just outplayed us."
On how Pitt will respond:
"I'm not worried about that at all. I have a lot of confidence in my teammates to keep focused and working hard, and in my coaching staff to make the necessary adjustments."
On
"It's been a long time since we'd seen a zone, so maybe that affected us early. There was also a short lay-off, which is something we have to get better with if we're going to be successful in the post-season tournaments. I look at this game as a challenge and a chance to get better."
Quoting Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino:
"This is a great win for a young team. It was really a blessing for us to come in here at 7-4 and tied for fourth in the conference and play Pitt on the road. We've gone to DePaul and
On
"We haven't been consistent offensively this year. We had most of our veteran guys out early in the year. [David] Padgett, [Brandon] Jenkins, [Juan] Palacios and [Andre] McGee just got healthy two weeks ago and we haven't shot a good enough percentage to get into our press, but tonight we played brilliant offensively and that allowed us to get into the press."
On going inside:
"We really wanted to go inside tonight, but only after we got some ball movement and used the pick and roll. It's tough to do because [Aaron] Gray's so smart in the middle and you really have to move the ball before you can attack."
On exploiting Pitt:
"We've watched every game they have played all year and this is the first team that I saw without a weakness. They have an excellent assist to turnover ratio, they're smart and they know who the shooters are. They're so tough to play against because they're well coached and they've got a lot of veterans."
On
"It was probably a factor. We haven't been able to go to it as much as we would like because of our poor shooting percentage. I think [Edgar] Sosa and T Will [Terrence Williams] really came of age tonight. They were both very focused on making other people better. This was definitely T Will's best game as a U of L Cardinal."
