University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Post-Game Quotesheet
10/31/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
POST-GAME QUOTESHEET
Indiana, Pa. at Pitt, Petersen Events Center, October 31, 2014
Pitt 72, Indiana, Pa. 58
Quoting Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon
Opening Statement:
“Thanks for coming out. We think they’re going to be a good team. They got to the Sweet Sixteen last year, brought three starters back and added a couple of guys, so I think Indiana PA will be good. I wish them and Joe luck, and you know a lot of respect and friendship that Joe and I have. But we also thought they were the best team -- they could be in the Final Four of Division II -- the best team out there and I think they’ll be good.”
“They out-executed us today. I thought their guards would hurt us and they did with their quickness. Smaller, yes, but quick and athletic and can make some shots. That was good for us to see and know what we have to work on. We have to improve in a lot of areas. Obviously played eleven guys in the first half, rotating guys, guys playing in too many positions right now, but we have to start cleaning it up and getting better. Our defense isn’t where it needs to be, but I told you that last week, and the week before that, and the week before that [laughter]. So they know it, they’ve got to do something about it, and we will. But James played well, Josh played well, did some good things. We got the ball inside early, we didn’t make great decisions out of it, didn’t finish great, but as the game went on we started to do a better job of that. But ultimately our defense has to improve a lot and we know that. They ran good stuff, good sets. They have five guys on the perimeter that can drive it and shoot it, and that always becomes a challenge for us, especially early in the year.”
On Mike Young’s potential to be an elite post player:
“He’s improving. Obviously it wasn’t a strength of his last year but he has improved. He’s more athletic, he’s finishing better, and it’s something that we’ve talked to him about. And the added thing is that he can make free throws as a big guy, and that’s going to be a great asset and something that we are really emphasizing with him in terms of getting the ball inside. He’s getting better, he’s got to do it every day until we can see where he gets to, but he’s got some tools and he’s a much better player. His body has changed and he’s finishing better, he wasn’t a great finisher we thought last year and now he’s getting to be better at it, especially you saw it in the second half. He didn’t handle the digs, the double-downs early, and then we kind of isolated him more in the second half and he had more room to play. We think he can do that for us. And I thought Joe [Uchebo] did a good job in a couple of post ups, and Derrick [Randall] can do it too. Derrick and Durand [Johnson] haven’t been practicing, and so they’ve been struggling. They practiced the last day or so and struggled through it, so we’ve got to get their ankles in order. We’ve got some work to do, but getting the ball inside is going to be an emphasis. We think that they can all score enough and pass out of it. Mike and Joe and Derrick to a degree, and Ryan [Luther] and Sheldon [Jeter] can do it too. I think that’s something we are going to have to play through.”
On the lineup and substitutions:
“Our hands are kind of tied with the injuries and guys not practicing. I don’t know if it’s the right thing that they should be playing right away on game day if they haven’t practiced in a while or all the time. Jamel had practiced well the last couple of days, but the concern, the emphasis for us is defense and who is going to be our best perimeter defenders. Those are the guys who are going to be out there the most, and that’s what we’re trying to get across. Chris [Jones] has played pretty well, he shot it well early. He’s got to do more than just being a catch-and-shoot guy; he can put it on the floor. We’ve got to run better stuff offensively, we didn’t do a good job executing, which in turn made me simplify what we were doing, and I didn’t think we were very effective in it because of that.”
On the starting lineup:
“It’s a work in progress always, and even probably more so now. But James [Robinson] and Josh [Newkirk] will play together a lot. I don’t anticipate them both starting, but we could see how it plays out."
On Joseph Uchebo’s performance:
“He got the seven rebounds, and he’s going to rebound. The guy has a knack for the ball. I thought he made some good plays out of the post. I think it was good for really the first time for him playing in forever. It’s probably been what, three years since he last played? So in a lot of ways I should probably be really happy with what he did. He’s practiced well, but it’s a little different, and I think he seemed to play better as the game went on and I think that was good to see for us. Sheldon [Jeter] is a better player than he played today. Defensively we’ve got to get more out of him, but he scrapped and got some loose balls and came up with some rebounds, so that was good too. But we played 11 guys in the first half, so nobody’s going to get a real rhythm going here. We played 14 I guess today, but we’ve got to start getting some guys in right spots for 40 minutes a game.”
On the status of freshmen and probable redshirts:
“This thing is wide open. The freshmen have played well, Cameron Johnson and Ryan Luther. I though Ryan did some good things today, he got five rebounds in ten minutes. He did some good things. Didn’t finish any shots, and he is a good shooter for us and has played well in practice but did things that you want to see. Thought he was pretty sound defensively. But on the perimeter he had to guard a shooter and he’s not quite ready for that yet. We saw that in practice and we saw it today. But he’ll get better and he picks up things pretty quick, after one time through really. But we have some work to do and we know it. I’m glad we played this early. I almost wish we could have played a week earlier. But we needed to go against somebody else and get it on film. I think it will be better to see film on somebody else in that facet. But there were some good things. We kept our turnover numbers down, we out rebounded them by a good number, but we didn’t finish stuff early and never got that rhythm. We need to finish some stuff in transition, and have to do that, and they kept making shots in the second half but we need to fix that defensively.”
Quoting Pitt Player Michael Young
On his improvements from last year and his performance today:
“Over the summer I worked on all aspects of my game, just being able to be versatile. I knew coming into this year I was going to have to play five and four and working on being able to have a few go to moves and work the ball really well. I want the team to be able to count on me to get the job done when I get the ball and tonight was just the start of my hard work.”
On playing either the four and the five:
“I am very comfortable playing both the four and the five positions, I worked really hard to be able to play both positions and I am very comfortable to play both.”
Pitt Player James Robinson:
On his team’s performance today:
“I definitely thought we could have come out tonight and played a better game in terms of execution, but it is our first exhibition game and we have another one coming up and a lot of practices in between to work on some things.”
On improvements for next week:
“We just need to make sure we execute our plays better, and get our plays running and continue to communicate especially on defense.”
Quoting IUP Head Coach Joe Lombardi
Opening Statement:
“First of all, I am grateful for the opportunity Jamie [Dixon] gives us. This is the third year now and he doesn’t have to do this. That speaks to him and the type of loyalty the guy has. He could get easier matchups but we give him a challenge out there. I’m grateful for that. He has a class program, they have a lot of good players, but they are at a point right now where they have to figure out how the pieces of the puzzle fit. Michael Young is a man-child right now. He is going to be the best low post player they have had for a number of years. He also, has the attitude to go with it.”
On what this game does for IUP:
“It challenges us. We need to be challenged because it exposes us. What we try to do with these games is show the weaknesses we have in a real game scenario. Some players won’t see the weaknesses until they are exposed. This game allows us to focus on the details because every coach needs to focus on those to be the type of team we want to be.”
