Post-Game Quotesheet
12/5/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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USA Today 
POST-GAME QUOTESHEET
Pitt vs. Duquesne • City Game • Consol Energy Center • Pittsburgh, Pa. • December 5, 2014
Pitt 76, Duquesne 62
Quoting Head Coach Jamie Dixon
Opening statement:
“I thought it was a great crowd and a great night. The City Game is an important event for us. An important game. I thought our guys played very well. We’ve got some work to do, but we’re excited about having this week to go forward and get better. Duquesne is so dangerous because of the way they shoot the ball. I thought we guarded their sets well. The threes they did get seemed to be on broken plays, which are what concerned us. Broken plays is a compliment: it’s loose balls, they find guys, transition situations. That’s where they seem to get the open looks. We did a good job in guarding in the half court, a very good job. We did a good job with the scouting report and film. Coach Richards and Coach Barton. I thought we did a good job. We could have shot it better. We could have made free throws at a higher rate. That would have been a good thing. But we have a week to go work on it, and this is a tired group. We’re going to get better. We’re excited about what we’ve got coming up. We’re excited about finals week. We’re excited about the practices we’ll get, not a lot, but we’ll get some practices in. We’re going to get after it and try to reinvent this team. Obviously, we’ve got Cameron [Wright] coming back. He didn’t play but a minute. Learning from past experience, it’s hard to play after one practice when you’ve been out for ten weeks. Seeing Jermaine [Dixon] and Levance [Fields], we know that the good days are coming ahead. It’ll be good for him this next week going forward.”
On the team’s current outlook:
“We’ve got some new things to do. We’re excited about it, excited about where we’re at. Excited about what we have going forward. We’ve got three losses, but two were on the road and one was to a top-10 team on a neutral court. We’ve battled through a lot of things here. I’m excited about what this team’s going to be going forward.”
On what makes Duquesne tough to play:
“They’re really dangerous. They’ve done this; they did it last year, with who they beat. They’re going to beat good teams because there’s going to be nights where you just can’t guard their three point shooters. They’re dangerous. They’re not fun to play against. They’re not fun to prepare for. They’re not fun to coach against, because of the way they play. How they shoot the basketball. We did a great job on [Micah] Mason. It’s not like we had to convince our guys they could shoot it, they’re numbers pretty much told the story. They’re a very dangerous team and they’re going to beat people, like Xavier last year, because of how they play. What they do. They’re well-coached. They run a lot of stuff. They run a lot of good sets. [Jordan] Stevens is guy that will take some shots that are hard to defend. He made a couple of those tonight.”
On Joseph Uchebo’s play:
“We’ve just got to see how it’s going to go. It’s a unique situation we’re in. He practiced well the last two days and there was encouragement there. He hasn’t played in two and a half years. It takes some time. We had that conversation a couple times the past couple days. It takes some time. He’s playing good in practice, but you get in a game - it’s a whole different deal, and he hadn’t played in a while. He did a good job around the basket and I thought he played with a lot of energy the last couple of practices as well”
On defending Duquesne tonight:
“The penetration isn’t as much Duquesne’s game as it was with Indiana’s. I was surprised and disappointed with how we guarded against Indiana. They’re a good team, attacking, and we get in some foul trouble and things happen. I was surprised. But we had guys in new situations. That’s why you want [to have] returning guys who have already been in that situation, but we don’t. We’re going forward. We’ve learned some things over these eight games. We’ve played good people and we’ve played in different spots. We’ve got a week to improve and get better, and we will. I’m excited about getting Cameron [Wright] in there and getting all our guys out there. We’re practicing with 16 guys now.”
Quoting Pitt guard James Robinson
On his performance tonight:
“I made my first couple of shots, and I felt really good. My teammates did a really good job finding me and I took shots every time I was open.”
On his improvements this week:
“I have been working on a quicker release and a lot of repetition, just seeing the ball go through the net when I am in practice. They guys did a job getting into the lane and finding open shooters, not just myself but Josh had a couple big shots and so did Chris, I think we shot the ball pretty well tonight.”
On his Pitt’s win tonight:
“After three games on the road, it feels good to be back home, we need to use this win tonight and build on it. We can take a lot of things from tonight’s win and keep on improving and getting better and get ready for St. Bonaventure. We had a tough couple of days of practice leading up to this game and we used what we learned from Indiana and the practices we had this week to perform pretty well tonight”
Quoting Pitt guard Josh Newkirk
On his team’s performance:
“Duquesne made some big shots tonight, but we stayed composed and stayed solid on defense and kept our offense running the entire game.”
On his own performance:
“I think I am just playing more confident on the offensive and the defensive end. My teammates are doing a good job of finding me and I moving well with the ball and finding open shots.”
Quoting Pitt center Joseph Uchebo
On his continuing improvements this week:
“I have just been working with Coach (Dixon) this week to prepare for this game, and I just knew I had to come out and play hard tonight.”
On his recovery from being sick:
“When we played in Hawaii I wasn’t feeling great, but when we came back to Pittsburgh I did a lot of rehab and took care of myself to get ready to play hard for the game tonight.”
Quoting Duquesne coach Jim Ferry
Opening statement:
“I’m highly disappointed with the way we played today. I’m highly disappointed in our effort on the glass. When plays needed to be made, Pitt made the plays and we did not.”
On learning from their improvement in the second half:
“We shot the ball better. We played a 2-3 zone just for survival and to change it up. We went into this game talking about [the importance] of rebounding. If you can contain your offensive rebounding and we were so soft in the first half. That set the tone. We put up to the foul line 15 time, nine turnovers, shot 31 percent, and 18 percent from the three-point line. That was really poor. When [Pitt] needed to make an offensive rebound they got it, when [Pitt] needed to make a big shot, they got it. When we needed to do that--we didn’t.”
On the team’s first 20 minutes of play:
“It was disappointing. When you know a team and know what they do, and to just come out and not execute. Really? That’s on us. I’m not going to use youth as an excuse. To be honest, I thought some of our younger players played well. I’m more disappointed in some of the older guys.”
On having difficulty competing with a team like Pitt, this early in the season:
“It’s the City Game. If you’re not ready to play this game then you should play [another sport]. The team was motivated to play this game. did we play at the same competition [level] as Pitt? No, we have not. We also only had five games where Pitt had eight. That has something to do with it more than anything else.”
On Derrick Colter misreading James Robinson:
“Shame on Derrick if that’s what he thought. [Robinson] is a fantastic player, won gold medals, and is one of the best players in the ACC. He is a basketball player. He needed to make plays for [Pitt] to win and he did. Our guys did not.”
Quoting Duquesne forward TySean Powell
On providing a spark in the frontcourt for his team:
“It meant a lot as long as I can help my teammates out. Being a freshman, I’m just trying to do my job and it means a lot knowing I helped my team. As a freshman, playing the minutes I do, it builds confidence for the future.”
On facing a guy the size of Pitt’s center, Joe Uchebo:
“I played against him in the summer league, so I knew what he was all about. I knew he was going to be aggressive and he’s a good player. It was a challenge for sure.”
Quoting Duquesne guard Derrick Colter
On playing a team of Pitt’s caliber:
“Yeah it was a lot different because the first three games we played teams that weren’t as big as Pitt was. We were able to adjust to them better in the second half and do what we do.”
On the first-half struggles his team went through:
“Pitt did a good job of contesting all of our shots and made us drive and shoot pull-ups.”
On how the program has progressed in his three years:
“We’re getting better as a program every year and we’re getting closer and closer, but we have to win. We’re tired of settling for losses and in the future we have to keep working and keep getting better and Coach (Ferry) will help us out.”
On Pitt’s James Robinson:
“Usually he’s always a pass-first point guard but tonight he was really aggressive and shooting three’s. We didn’t know he could shoot three’s that well, we thought he was a mid-range shooter but he changed the whole script on us.”
Quoting Duquesne guard Jordan Stevens
On coming off of the bench to give his team a lift:
“That’s what Coach wants me to do when I come off the bench. My role is to come in and provide the spark offensively and get things going. I like to create and whether that’s a pass or me getting a shot, I want to help the team out and that’s what I tried to do tonight.”
