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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2008David PadgettRick PitinoNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK COACH PITINO: As most Big East basketball games, it was hard fought. We just went cold at the wrong time even with tip-ins and lay-ups toward the end. Our guys did a good job of fighting back to get into overtime. Sometimes it's just about making shots, it's a simple explanation. We just couldn't make shots. But you've got to give Pitt credit, their defense had a lot to do with it. Q. Last couple of games your guards have been a little off shooting-wise, do you see anything mechanically? COACH PITINO: I don't. I think they're open shots just not going in. I think T-Will's shots were just bad shots. Runners in the lane and off balance. I think the ones, two, and threes just collectively had a bad night. The fours and fives played well. But sometimes you have a deep bench if can you get some guys to come in, it's a little bit better. But just collectively everybody had a bad night. That's, again, a tribute to Pittsburgh's defense. Q. Which things need to be addressed before the NCAA Tournament? COACH PITINO: Well, I'll take a look at the film first. We've had a good year, and we'll take a look at the film and make our improvements. Q. Last time you played Pitt they had only four turnovers against the press. They had their point guard tonight with 17, can you explain what you did differently? COACH PITINO: We relied on offense last game. We didn't play good defense at Pitt. We just shot 57% for the game. We dominated the glass. Tonight they dominated the glass early with a lot of offensive rebounds. We were playing excellent defense, but we would have shot 25% if we would have blocked out better in the first half. The second half was just a matter of us executing better. They did a good job of stopping our interior, giving our perimeter players a shot, and we just didn't knock it down. Q. David, it's nothing new, I guess. They came at you real hard with double teams. But did they do anything differently defensively than maybe they did last time? DAVID PADGETT: No, they were aggressive in their defensive game plan. You know, they came after me pretty hard when I caught the ball. They were ready to check the post and did a good job of being aggressive with their defense. Q. When you said they were aggressive with their defense, was that a surprise to you, were you expecting that? DAVID PADGETT: No, we knew. We knew they were going to probably come after us in the post. We've got to give them credit. They played very well on defense, they were very aggressive in what they did. Q. Rick, you sat behind Pitt's bench last night, is that something that you normally do? COACH PITINO: It's just where I had the seats. I would have been across the court. They were my seats that I had for the tournament. I didn't know it was Pitt's bench at all. Didn't gain anything by it. We know them very well. Looking at Antigua's warm-up, his outfits, that's about it. That's the only thing I gained by it. Orlando looked pretty sharp. Q. Can you talk about the way Derrick played tonight for you. COACH PITINO: They played well. Our front court played well. Then they started taking away our front court, and we threw it out. And we had difficulty scoring from that point on. Generally we don't, but collectively our wing players and our point guards went cold. Hasn't happened to us this year, but it can happen. Q. How much does it concern you entering the tournament with two straight losses? COACH PITINO: Well, obviously you don't follow basketball very well. Because if you think it's bad to lose to Georgetown at Georgetown, a hard-fought game in Pittsburgh in overtime, you don't follow basketball very much. Because I think they're two terrific basketball teams that played better than us down the stretch. So if that's a concern for you, it's not a concern for me. You worry about it, I won't. Go home and lose a lot of sleep over it. Promise? Okay. (Smiling). Q. Which Big East team do you think over the last few weeks are playing the best? COACH PITINO: I thought we were until tonight. I think Georgetown had a brilliant shooting. There's an old cliche, "shooting cures a multitude of sins." Teams always look much better when they shoot the ball well and you make the outside shot. When you don't shoot well, you don't look as good, obviously, no matter how well you played defensively. Georgetown looked great tonight. They shot the ball well. We didn't, we didn't look as good. It's just part of the game. It's always been that way. So we've got to regroup and make sure. We took good shots tonight, we just didn't make them. So I think everybody's playing well in the Big East. I think it's a very evenly balanced conference. I know we've had close games with the exception of maybe a few this year. We've had very close games with just about everybody. And it's a very tough conference, very closely -- I couldn't tell you who is better. Villanova was playing terrific, they lose. Syracuse was coming back, playing well. Notre Dame on a given night. I think it's just on a given night. But you've got to give Georgetown credit, because they won the championship beating us, and now they're probably the best team right now. But you never know. West Virginia's coming on. They were very aggressive today. We'll go home and lick our wounds. End of FastScripts |
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