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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: LOUISVILLEMarch 29, 2019Kihei ClarkMamadi DiakiteLouisville, Kentucky Q. What are some things you've learned? Freshman year has a lot of ups and downs. Playing well in the tournament, what are some of the things you take away and learned during the course of the year? KIHEI CLARK: Just don't hang your head. Those guys really tell me just keep your head up. I'm going to make a few mistakes, being my first year, but they always pick me up. And then just always being locked in and ready to go because we're late in the season, and it's an elimination game. So just being locked in and ready to go. Q. Tell me about having the chance to play against Carsen Edwards. I know you guys didn't get to see the game last night. Have you had a chance to watch him at all this year? I know different guys will probably guard him in the game. But to have that matchup, that opportunity. KIHEI CLARK: Yeah. I know he's a great player, and he can really fill it up. So when I am on him, I'm going to have to get on his hip. I know he comes off a lot of off-ball screens and he has a quick release. So have to do my best job to contest some of his shots and get up under him. Q. Do you study some film between now and tomorrow? Do you try to prep? Or is it one of those things you can over prepare? KIHEI CLARK: No, I mean, we've definitely watched film on him as a team. We know he's a great player, so we'll have to do a great team job on him. Whoever is guarding him will have to make sure he puts it on the ground and make sure the guys are in the gap. Q. Have you heard the stat that apparently he's matched Steph Curry for most consecutive games of at least 25 points? And if he knocks down at least four 3s tomorrow night, he'd match Curry for another mark in the NCAA tournament play; have you heard about that? When somebody's name is going to be mentioned with a name like Steph Curry, does it catch your attention when you hear that? KIHEI CLARK: No, I didn't hear about that. But I knew he was a good player so, yeah, just going to have to do my job the best I can to get up under and contest his shots. Q. We're going to find out tomorrow night if defense can help hold off and cool down maybe a hot offense? KIHEI CLARK: Yeah, for sure. Our defense is going to take us as far as we want to go. So yeah, just going to have to do a good job on the defensive end. Q. Kihei, what do you think about Purdue as a whole, the team, the offense, the points that they score? KIHEI CLARK: They have a lot of offensive sets and little quick plays they run to get their guys and fill up open looks. We'll have to do a good job on the defensive end, definitely communicating. Set a lot of pin-downs and off-ball screens. On the offensive end, yeah, they have good length inside. So I'm just going to have to play good defense. Q. I missed your initial comments. Coach Williford says you'll be matched up with Carsen a bunch. What's the challenge of playing a guy like that? KIHEI CLARK: He's a great scorer. So just going to have to do my job to stay in front of him and when he does get the ball, try to make him put it on the floor because he can really shoot it. So, yeah, just going to stay on his hip when he's coming off the off-ball screens as best as possible. Q. All right, man. So how was it, I mean, a late game like that, coming down, I mean, you're on the high. And then you got to come back down immediately and lock in for another game 24 hours away. What's that process like for you? MAMADI DIAKITE: It's very hard. I didn't get too much sleep, not much last night. Probably seven and a half hours, eight hours. But it doesn't matter at this point, you know. The mind is doing the job. Even though the body's broken down, it's cool. But the ACC has done a great job of preparing us for this. In the season, we had some turnaround Saturday/Monday games. So we had one day in between and we had to travel, actually, from one place to the other. And we had to do that after practice, we were very tired. We were able to do it. So I thought that was a great way to prepare ourselves for this tournament. Now we're here today. Q. You've got a chance to look at Purdue yet. What do you see from them that might give you guys a problem? They're kind of similar in a way. They like to use their defense to kind of clamp down. They scored a lot of points last night. What do you see from them on tape? MAMADI DIAKITE: They're very talented, long and versatile. Two kids are shooting very well beyond the arc and they have a 7'3" kid that's very good for their system. And he had good hands and that tells me that they're good in and out, inside and out. So it's going to have to be a big battle tomorrow. Q. I know you guys don't pay much attention to it, but do you feed off of kind of being not necessarily the underdog but not having the home court advantage or, you know, having those crowds that are -- do you guys feed off of that at all? MAMADI DIAKITE: We don't care. Just come and we've been places like Duke, where you couldn't even hear your teammates talk. You have to make signs so you know what's going on. So the crowd and all that, if we have it, great. If you don't have it, what can you do? You can control what you can control, which is to play. We've got to come out ready to play and come with the right energy. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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