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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 16, 2019

Richard Pitino

United Center - Chicago, Illinois

Michigan - 76, Minnesota - 49

RICHARD PITINO: Well, tip of the cap to Michigan. They were really, really good today. We were not very good. You know, it's kind of been a tale of two teams with us. You know, we get going offensively and we get energy, enthusiasm, and today couldn't hit shots in the first half. That really, really affected us, and you could just tell we totally ran out of gas, and Michigan was really good. It stings. I don't want them to be satisfied, but also I do want them to take a step back and say, okay, we had a really good win versus Penn State, we had a really good win versus Purdue. We were sitting there coming into this tournament with having to do some things to make an NCAA Tournament, which hasn't happened a lot in our school history, and they did that under the most adverse circumstances and the most pressure. At this point, I'm really proud of the guys that they were able to move this program forward. That's the beauty of this league when you play so many good teams.

Q. Richard, what are you doing -- I know you've probably been in countless situations like this, but when a team kind of snowballs you, how do you counteract that when you're out there on the floor?
RICHARD PITINO: Obviously, I didn't do a very good job of that. You try to get your guys' head right, and I thought that they were hitting shots, which they can do to you, and it deflated us, and probably that, coupled with the fatigue we have already from two physical wars, down another man in Matz, I just think all of it kind of happened at once. So you need to get guys on the court to kind of band together, and we definitely ran out of gas.

Q. Once you step back and maybe get over the sting of this one, what do you think you'll be most proud of over the last two days and the two wins in hard-fought games?
RICHARD PITINO: Yeah, it's kind of like I've said. I mean, we came into this game -- if you take a step back, we're right on the cusp of making an NCAA Tournament, and we were picked towards the bottom of the league. We had to replace two starters. Eric Curry's injury, Dupree's mom, five new players. I don't know if I would have thought that we'd be standing there with an NCAA Tournament berth, so we're going into Northwestern, we're staring at Purdue at home, and at Maryland, and win two of those three. And then we're coming into Penn State, a Quad 1 opportunity, we get that in overtime, we fight through it, to enhance our resume. Then we got Purdue. Again, as much as I was telling our guys, I think we're in, fellas, I think we're in, you never really know. And then for them to go get one of the best teams in the country in Purdue and solidify an NCAA Tournament berth, there's guys in there -- Amir, Murph, Michael, Dupree, now two NCAA tournaments, they should be very proud of that.

Q. They finished the first half on a 19-4 run. What was kind of key to that part?
RICHARD PITINO: They were making shots. We couldn't hit anything. We were really easy to guard today. They were kind of choking down the paint, and we weren't making them pay by kicking it out. It seems kind of simple. I don't think we hit a three in the first half. We've had -- the problem with us a little bit, we've had a couple of these games, so we've got to make sure we don't have it next week.

Q. When you look at the way that Amir was playing leading up to this game, would it be fair to say that without that, you wouldn't be where you are today? And what do you think, in his mind was he thinking that, I need to carry this team in order to get you where you needed to go?
RICHARD PITINO: Well, Murph, too. Murph had 27 points last night versus Purdue, so I think both of them really, really elevated their play. Even Dupree, you look at those three older guys -- Dupree showed awesome leadership. So I think all three of them, yeah, they rose to the level of -- we needed it, and they delivered. That's what older players do.

Q. Just looking ahead, what are a few areas you'd like to see this team improve as they enter the NCAA Tournament?
RICHARD PITINO: Well, we had really been moving forward before today. So you know, as a coach, you hate to say that you're tired because that's an excuse. But maybe it's a valid excuse a little bit. But I thought from a toughness standpoint, from a defense standpoint, from an offensive execution standpoint, we were really moving forward. You know, so we've just got to take a deep breath, not overreact from this one a little bit but learn from it, and see if we can get Matz back. I do think he's important. You're down two guys. Jarvis came in and gave us good minutes, but from a scoring standpoint you've got to be able to establish the low post a little bit.

Q. Maryland game, you talked about maybe burning the film and not looking at it. How are you going to treat this one?
RICHARD PITINO: Oh, I'm going to throw it in the Green River and I'm not going to watch it. Zero chance. I don't know how they called the game. I don't know how -- Raft's one of the best in the business. I don't know how he did it. He figured it out.

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