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NIT SEASON TIP-OFFNovember 26, 2014Elliott EliasonRichard PitinoNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK MINNESOTA – 61 Q. Talk about the defense, with the technical foul and the turnover after that, did that sway the momentum there? ELLIOTT ELIASON: Yes, it did. I've been warned twice. Whatever my personal feelings about it was; being warn twice, it's a huge mistake and I'm embarrassed about it. It was a huge turn. Q. In the second half, it seemed like their athleticism kind of made you struggle a little bit, finishing at the rim, can you talk about that? ELLIOTT ELIASON: Didn't come out strong enough. We play againstgreat teams all the time, just didn't finish. Q. Obviously the backdrop of what you guys had to play with tonight with all the off‑court stuff that's gone on this week, do you feel like‑‑ how tough was that to have to play in very big games, all that going on? ELLIOTT ELIASON: We're just trying to play basketball. We are just focusing on that and I don't really feel comfortable talking about anything else besides that. Q. You guys shot very well in the first half, and the second half it was a completely different story. What were some of the things maybe they did to stifle you guys or was it you guys not knocking down open looks? What happened in the second half? ELLIOTT ELIASON: I really don't have an answer for you guy I guess. Ball just didn't go in. I don't know. COACH PITINO: Well, certainly give them credit. They turned up the Heat in the second half, and they made a lot of hustle plays. They made a lot of loose ball plays. We talked about rebounding was a huge key, and they beat us on the glass 51‑39. They out‑rebounded us; they out‑hustled us; they out‑scrapped us. So give them credit. They are a very talented team. We knew that and certainly we've got to give them credit because they were very good tonight and we were just not so good. Q. You can talk about D'Angelo Harrison and specifically what he brings? I think he was 2‑for‑10 at the half, he makes that big play in the second half but he came up big for them. What does he bring? COACH PITINO: Yeah, from the foul line, he's a good player. I coached against him as an assistant. He's so lethal, just because he can make shots from anywhere. Six steals as well, you have to give him credit and he played 40 minutes in a fast‑paced game and made a big shot when one would think he was tired. So he gritted it out. They gritted it out and you have to give them all the credit. Q. Obviously a lot of mistakes, turnovers, fouls tonight and the foul issue has been a problem but turnovers have been pretty good so far this year. Do you feel this was something they were doing or the team being a little off? COACH PITINO: Probably a little bit of both. They ramped it up that second half. You have to give them credit for that. There were certain things I think we could have done a better job of, silly turnovers, and that deflated us. We talked about it all last year, plays that high jacked the team and there was a couple tonight that just hijacked us. But again, I think you've got to give them credit. They really fought, they really scrapped, so you've got to give them credit. Q. Can you talk about the sequence with Elliot? Seemed like the tempo turned. COACH PITINO: The technical foul? Yeah, we told him, blank told him, the ref warned us and I told him, can't do that. Can't do that as a senior. He was warned, and that was difficult for us. Q. Now you've had about 80 minutes between this game and the Louisville game to assess where your team is at, what do you think are the biggest things you need to improve on? COACH PITINO: Yeah, we'd better be prepared because we're going to play a BCS team on Friday and then we have to go out on the road and play an ACC team on Monday. So we have got to understand that we've got to make hustle plays that we didn't make. We can't beat ourselves because the margin for error is so slim for good teams. You can't turn the ball over 20 times and you can't send them to the foul line, they shot 37 free throws to our 16; and I'm not complaining about the officiating, we were fouling them. You do those things, you're going to lose. It's that sample. They made 22 free throws to our nine, and we had 20 turnovers, you're not going to beat good teams like that. So probably the answer is, we've got a long way to go. Q. Was Harrison's four‑point play the dagger for your team mentally? COACH PITINO: I don't think so. I think, certainly Elliot is not a good foul shooter but I thought we had open looks that we just didn't make. But I thought we had some good looks. He made a great play but it came off of an offensive rebound and that was our problem. We gave up 18 offensive rebounds. We were getting stops. We just weren't rebounding the ball. But he made a big shot. You've got to give him credit. Q. Seemed like you guys missed a number of shots inside. Seems like that could have made a difference in the game for you, too. COACH PITINO: Inside, outside, we missed them everywhere at the end. It did. A lot of that you have could give credit to Chris Obekpa, he's one of the best shot‑blockers in the country. We did miss some chippies, but if you rebound and you don't foul as much as we do and you don't turn the ball over, none of that stuff really matters. So we are not going to talk about missed shots as the reason why we lost. That's not going to be our excuse. Q. With Daquein suspended, how does that affect your backcourt rotation, and also do you have any plans about what you're going to do in terms of waiting for the legal system to play out? COACH PITINO: You know, it's a difficult situation obviously. We all know that. It's much bigger than basketball and so certainly we're going to stick with just the statement that we released right now, and that's really all. It certainly is a difficult situation, we understand that. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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