University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Post-Game Quotesheet
11/16/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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POST-GAME QUOTESHEET
Samford at Pitt • Petersen Events Center • November 16, 2014
Pitt 63, Samford 56 • EA Sports Maui Invitational Game One
Quoting Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon
Opening Statement:
"Thanks for coming on a Sunday afternoon. I thought Samford played really hard and did a great job. I'm sure Coach Padgett is excited about how his team responded to their game the other day. I thought we could have responded better. We seemed a step slow. Their quickness had something to do with it. We'll get better, and that's what we're going to do going forward. I thought they hurt us on the dribble and the one guy that we were really concerned about shooting the ball, [Tyler Hood], bothered us. We've got to learn from that. We did some things well. If you had told me we would have 11 turnovers, I would have felt good about it. If you had told me we were going to shoot 51 percent, I'd have felt good about it. We simply got outrebounded. That's obviously our calling card and we didn't get it done there. We don't win very often when we get outrebounded. That's why we were not as good as we should have been tonight. Give them credit. They played hard. Their guards rebounded well. I thought [Christen] Cunningham was all over the floor and did a good job. He's going to be a really good player for them."
On what contributed to the rebounding differential:
"I think [it was] long rebounds. It's something we've been emphasizing. We just don't seem to get those. Our guards have got to get more rebounds. It seemed like we played some good possessions on defense, got them to take the shot we wanted to, and then they came up with the rebound. That's been happening too often. It happened the other night [vs. Niagara] and it happened again tonight. Thirteen offensive rebounds to our seven is not satisfactory for us and what we do."
On if he is concerned by the difficulty of the game today:
"As I told our guys beforehand, this thing is set up for a team to come in here really hungry. We just had a big margin of victory, and you hope it doesn't play out that way, but it sure did. We addressed it before the game, and I don't think our guys knew how tough and aggressive they were going to come out with their pressing and attacking. With that said, we only turned it over 11 times. We took care of the ball, we had 20 assists, we shot 51 percent. We had chances to pull away, but we didn't finish some plays. That's the situation. You get some momentum and you can pull away, but we weren't able to do that and missed some free throws down the stretch. They go 10-for-12, we go 12-for-17, we miss 1-and-1s, and you get into a situation where we're at."
On the effects of youth and inexperience on the team:
"I looked on the floor and we had five sophomores. It's not often that you do that and not have any upperclassmen, juniors or seniors. It seems we're going to be doing that a lot. That's the situation we're in. We did some good things, but we've got to make plays down the stretch. It seemed like we were in position and doing the right things. We had a chance and got it to 10, then we had a guy leave their best shooter. We've got to learn that. We had guys in situations we hadn't seen them before. In game situations, you don't know quite how they're going to handle it. That's what we've got to work at, address, and improve. You can't leave a guy that's their only real 3-point shooter. [He was] their best one by far, and we did it couple of times in the second half when we made it very clear what we had to do. It wasn't like we were doing anything that was going to help us, either."
On forward Mike Young's offensive efficiency today:
"We had 20 assists. He had one offensive rebound, so all of his [points] were probably bounce passes - good interior passing. I thought we did a good job of that. I just think we've got to continue giving him the ball. He's finishing well; he's a good free throw shooter. We've got to continue giving him the ball around the basket. He can step out and shoot it, but that's where he's been really good and really effective. We'll learn from that."
On the play of Sheldon Jeter off the bench:
"I thought that was probably the most encouraging thing of the game to me. Sheldon gave us a good effort and good improvement, I should probably say. Defensively, he was struggling for us early on in exhibitions, and I think got better here in the last two games. Today was his best [game]. We had him in there for some good things defensively down the stretch. That was good to see. And he'll score points; he puts the ball in the basket. We've just got to make sure he's doing the things defensively to get him out there."
Quoting Pitt forward Michael Young
Michael Young on what they expected of Samford:
"We expected pretty much what we saw today. They only had about two shooters and everyone else was a driver trying to get layups. We knew they were going to press the entire game, every possession we had they were going to press and we prepared for that. We knew they were not going to be scrappy. They were going to come out and play hard. They played a lot of guys kept them fresh. They played really hard."
Young on working better as a team at the end of the game:
"The last four minutes were the point where we went zone which I think stopped their flow a little bit. We got a few stops in a row as well as a few dunks. We just made them run."
Young on whether this game was a good game to prepare Pitt for Hawaii:
"Yes this definitely prepared us. We played our first two games and we're really preparing now. We won by 30 the other night and had a close one today. We're pretty much read. Today we didn't play as well as we wanted to play but we got the win and that is all that matters. We've got five days until we play Hawaii. We're going to rest our bodies for the most part and get ready for the next."
Young on whether or not he believes it was good to get challenged before going to Hawaii:
"I think a young team like this getting challenged early is a good thing. I think we will bounce back better than some people might think. I think a challenge like this and playing a team like this is a good game. It was a close game that brought good experience. Obviously the competition will be a lot tougher in Maui. But yes it was a good thing that we got challenged like this today."
Quoting Pitt forward Jamel Artis
On his hot shooting displayed today:
"I just let the game come to me. The shot clock was going down so I obviously had to shoot the ball. I'm a good three point shooter and my team believed in me so they gave me the ball. I just thought I should take the shot."
Quoting Samford Head Coach Scott Padgett
Opening Statement:
"The first thing I wrote on the board today was: to have a chance to win this game we would need phenomenal effort. It couldn't be good, it couldn't be great, it had to be phenomenal and the best we have. I think I have seen our guys play really hard in practice, but that is the hardest I have seen us play. As far as being locked into a game and what a team does, I think our guys did a great job today. We talked about how great an offensive rebounding team Pitt is, but they only had seven in the game. We actually out-rebounded them. If you told me that we were going to out-rebound them in this game I would have bet against it. We did a great job of getting five guys in the paint and grabbing rebounds. We did not shoot the ball the way we are capable of in the first half. The reason we were in the game in the second half was that we shot the ball to our ability…I thought down the stretch when we had to execute, we had to execute and we had a chance with 28 seconds or so on the clock…We are very, very happy with the effort."
On if the difference between today's and Friday's game was the effort:
"On Friday, I thought we came out shell-shocked. For seven of our guys it was their first division one game and all of seven of those guys played. We came out similar both nights except on Friday we continued to shoot poorly throughout the whole game. We got a little rattled. I'll take full responsibility for Friday. I ended up having to sub four guys at once and when Purdue's run happened in the first half, it snowballed. Today, we did a better job as staff subbing. We had fresh bodies in there and our guys were really locked into what we were supposed to do. They struggled scoring in the half-court. We are going to be a pressing, running team. I was going to play pressing, running no matter what happened today. Maybe it is a different game if I don't press because they killed us in transition, but it would not have prepared us for our following games. "
