University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Post-Game Quotesheet
2/23/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 23, 2014
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POST-GAME QUOTESHEET
Florida State at Pitt, Petersen Events Center, February 23, 2013
Florida State 71, Pitt 66
Quoting Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon
Opening Statement:
“Not what I expected based on our practices this week. I was excited about how we worked and how we played but we didn’t play like we practiced. This was the result. We need to get it right and get better at executing offensively. That is really affecting a lot of what we are doing. Impatience is a big part of our issue offensively. That is something that we have been stressing and talking about this past week. We didn’t come out and do it offensively in this game. The free throws in the second half, that weighed on us when you keep missing and they are knocking down free throws. They beat us at the free throw line. The only thing that stands out is that we out rebounded them. At the same time, with the 14 offense rebounds we didn’t seem to get the finishes or baskets to go with it. We have got work to do. No surprise, saying the obvious. I really believe that we are better than what we just played. Give Florida State credit, for coming in and getting the win, but we have to go get it right against Boston College. We need to work on our execution, work on our patience and play better. That is all we can focus on. We got some work to do. The patience offensively is probably the biggest thing.”
On what he means by “patience offensively”:
“Drives and shooting on two. Taking bad shots, just not moving the ball, like we are known for. We can lose it for periods of time, but I think we have lost it for a stretch here. I thought we got it back in practice, we emphasized it, but we are not executing our sets. The missed free throws added up in the second half. It continued to put pressure on us. The rebounding is good as far as the numbers but it’s more our questionable shots and coming up with loose balls at the end.”
On not getting to the free throw line as much:
“I thought we had stretches in the first half where we made some really nice passes. Took some questionable shots, but we got in the lane. We missed jump shots. There were some stretches we had some nice passes early, got in the lane well. We had a few of those possessions get away from us. That has been the case. You can’t have a possession followed by another bad possession. The offense is sticking out to us. They shot 54% in the first half. They got their first to baskets seven layups in the first half. Our defense was not effective early, the zone helped us a little bit, but at the end of the day, you got to make free throws down the stretch as they are making all of theirs.”
On if he feels the team has hit a wall:
“I don’t know what it is. We have got to play better. I believe we are a better team than this. We can’t sit here and say we lost this guy, and this guy is injured. Everybody is banged up at this time of the year. We need to play through some things. We need to play through missed shots. We are letting a missed shot affect us two plays later and that is something we are trying to address. We have got work to do."
On the problem being shot selection, not missed shots:
“Yes. It is a combination of both but the one you can control is shot selection. So that is what we have been emphasizing. I though early, we did pretty well, right pass but maybe miss some midrange jump shots. That kind of carried over. You have to sustain it for 40 minutes and we are not doing that.”
On the difference during practice and the game:
“Impatience. There are still concerns with the court possessions and not handling a poor possession correctly and better for our offense.”
On how worried he is about standings for the postseason:
“That is a secondary issue. I am more worried about next game. We know what we are here to do, make the NCAA tournament. We have put ourselves in a pretty good position, now we have lost 3 in a row. You can only take so many losses. Granted, we have lost to good teams but we have got to play better. Based on practice, I thought we would have played better. We need to play more patient. I keep bringing up patience. Our shot selection is not where it needs to be. They shot 54% in the first half. A lot of that has to do with our shot selection and some turnovers in the first half too. We get an offensive rebound and we are throwing it to them and that turns into baskets the other way.”
On the impact of their teams’ height:
“We got 14 offensive rebounds and only got 9 second chance points. That doesn’t add up. They had 5 blocks to our 3. I don’t know. We get to the line and missed. That weighs on us. We missed free throws and those are second chance point opportunities we missed as well.”
On Cameron Wright becoming a leader and heading into his senior year:
“I think Cam [Wright] has really stepped up. He has played as well as anybody on our team these few weeks. He is really doing a good job in that area and that is good to see. I wish we would have had a better senior night for our seniors. Cameron [Wright] has really playing some good basketball and he is more vocal and doing a good job in a lot of areas. He is doing a good job, and is defending better. He is becoming the defender we thought he could be. As a junior now that is great to see. I think right now he has become more of a leader.”
Quoting Pitt guard Cameron Wright
On quality of shots:
“We need to execute better on offense. The game is simple. We are making it difficult on ourselves and taking tougher shots. That comes with practice. There are little things that we need to work on that will help us throughout the game.”
On taking perfect shots:
“Of course you want to take the best shot you can get, but you also want to take what the defense is giving you. A lot of the times that is what we are looking for is what the defense gives us.”
On Florida State’s success:
“I give them credit. Florida State came out here and played hard. I personally feel like we beat ourselves. The last three games have been a battle with ourselves. The game is more mental than it is physical and we need to take these next couple days we have and get together like we normally do and figure out a way to win.”
On Florida State’s free throw advantage:
“They only missed four free throws and we missed ten. If you put that together, we win the ball game.”
Quoting Pitt forward Lamar Patterson
On close score toward end of the game:
“I didn’t think it was over until the sound of the horn. We just have to get it done during the game.”
On effect of eight-day layoff on tonight:
“I think everything we did was on our own. We just missed shots and didn’t guard as well. Everything was on us, not on too much of what they did.”
On never regaining the lead:
“They just hit shots and got rebounds. Everything that happened was on us.”
On what is going wrong in three game losing streak:
“Our defense, rebounding, and our shots haven’t been falling. When we fix all of that, we will start winning again.”
On moving past senior day:
“I can’t do anything about it now. It is over and we just have to worry about the games coming up now.”
On fouling out:
“It was tough. I didn’t feel like we lost the game until the sound of the horn.”
On the possibility of falling out of contention:
“I think we will get it done. We signed up for the pressure and we will be fine when we get the next four wins and wins in the ACC tournament. We know what we have to do.”
Quoting Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton
Opening Statement:
“When I look back at the game tonight, I really thought our guys had great focus. We have a tremendous amount of respect for how well Pitt plays, especially at home, how they execute their offense because they never beat themselves. They move the ball and work the ball around to a point where they have a guy in the best position to get the highest percentage shot. They have always been a great rebounding team as well, so we had a lot of things that we needed to focus on. We tried to hold our own on the boards or at least limit the amount of high-percentage shots they got in that offense. Tonight’s game had an ebb and flow to it that didn’t allow us to get much of a cushion going into the half. They made a run early in the second half because they were getting to the line and being more aggressive than us. Then, we started becoming more aggressive and getting to the line, which I thought gave us a little bit of separation and allowed us to hit some free-throws to pull the game out.”
On what allowed them to shut down Lamar Patterson:
“He had some pretty good looks in the first half that didn’t fall, which was good for us. I think we at least made him work for every shot he took, because I don’t anyone can really hold him back. As you saw at the end of the game we were doing everything we could to stop him and he was still knocking down threes from the parking lot. We tried to defend the guys that were facilitating the offense more than we were simply trying to be firm with him.”
On whether his team is familiar with the style of ACC play now:
“To be honest with you, I don’t think there is much of a difference in style of play between the ACC, Big Ten, Big East, American (Athletic Conference). Jamie (Dixon) doesn’t change his style much, but I have faced him several times when I was with Miami. We all know about each other now because of the television broadcasts and statistical analyses, etc.”
On the free-throw advantage for Florida State at the end of the game:
“We ended up with the lead, but there was a point in time where they (Pitt) had gone to the line fifteen more times than us, because they were being much more aggressive going to the basket. They were going to the basket and creating contact, but as the half wore on we were the ones moving with pace towards the hoop and drawing fouls. Fortunately for us, we were able to knock some of those down and seal the game.”
