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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2009Earl ClarkRick PitinoJerry SmithNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Louisville 69 COACH RICK PITINO: Well, at halftime I told the guys I was speechless for the first time this year. I said, I don't recognize any of you, I don't know who you are. That's not Earl Clark, that's not Terrence Williams, that's not Jerry Smith. I don't know who you guys are. Everything that we've gone through to become a good basketball team you totally changed in a 20-minute half. Key to our basketball team is passing. When we pass, we shoot great. We go one-on-one we shoot poorly and go one-on-one to pass we do a great job, and I think our guys recognized what they were doing wrong and I thought these two guys had a tremendous second half and the good thing about these guys is when you say something, when they know you're right, they step up and admit what they were doing is wrong and they stepped up and played great team basketball. We only had five assists at halftime and had a lot of the assists in the second half. We didn't turn it over and that's the Louisville basketball we've been playing. The good thing is when you can learn your lesson and win, it's going to really help us come tournament time not to impersonate another basketball team. I'm real proud of the guys. JOHN PAQUETTE: Questions, please. Q. Rick, did you think your defense improved in the second half also? COACH RICK PITINO: One thing feeds into the tide. Earl was tired but he wouldn't give into fatigue. I play him too many minutes all the time but he cuts it out and he's a big-time basketball player. Q. Rick, did you do anything in particular to keep Scottie Reynolds from getting off any shots in the second half? COACH RICK PITINO: When we play man or zone we really put great emphasis on pressure on the basketball. We did it with West Virginia, we did it the overnight with Providence. If we get beat we rotate well. So these guys are very intelligent people and this young man to the left, Jerry Smith, Earl and T. Will (Terrence Williams) are All-American. Last ten games he's been the key to our run. Absolutely spectacular basketball. His defense is as good as his offense. I'm real proud of Jerry. Q. Both Rick and Jerry, the front court has gotten so much hype, deservedly so and you come to this game particularly where their guards are very well respected. Have these guys not gotten what they deserve this year? COACH RICK PITINO: I think they get with a they deserve because they won a championship. We realize that all your glory comes from winning and individual glory is nice but the team is what it's all about, and these guys have been very unselfish all along. I think we appreciate Jerry and I think he knows that. He knows how much his teammates need him, how well he's playing and I think Earl would speak how good our backcourt is because they do that dirty work in the backcourt for 90 feet and don't give in. Q. Has there ever been one moment in this season where you felt is anyone ever going to realize there are actually guards on Louisville? JERRY SMITH: Not so much. I think the more we buy into winning, you know, like Coach said, if we win a championship, everybody will get recognized and if we buy in and guys back each other up, we'll be fine. It's not about personal accolades. Q. Coach, Terrence Jennings, how big of an improvement? COACH RICK PITINO: He played great. Terrence Jennings, when you have two freshmen, they're going to make freshmen mistakes. Terrence has caught up to Samardo in a different way. He's longer and been a rebounder and shot blocker. Samardo is better at certain things and he's (Terrence Jennings) better at certain things. He's really improved, by far the most improved player on our basketball team, but you know when you have that guy really bothering shots in the lane, it makes it real easy for Earl and T. Will (Terrence Williams) to do the things. I thought Earl and T. Will in the second half were brilliant with passing the basketball. Jerry, I don't know if he stole it from Sam Young from Pittsburgh, but he's got that ball fake down like Sam does. I'm going for it on the bench when he does it. He's really mastered that. Q. Coach, Earl and Jerry, is part of the celebration at the end there getting over the hump, getting to the title game for you guys, is that what was going through your head there? JERRY SMITH: Definitely. We were down big at the half and for us to come together the way we did, definitely. We were very excited about it. Q. Specifically getting to the title games, the success hasn't been here. JERRY SMITH: In the past couple years together with this group we haven't had a lot of success in the Garden. For us to get to the championship of the Big East tournament, that's saying a lot for us and what we've overcome. Q. Rick, was part of the problem offensively in the first half, was Villanova pushing you guys farther out? COACH RICK PITINO: Villanova is a great basketball team, they're great defensively. We just kept abandoning our offense and going one-on-one and that's exactly what they want to do because they don't give you second shots. You've got to create player and ball movement. They're going to converge on the basketball. And Villanova are very similar. You've got to make the second and third pass. You've to got to work inside to out and we weren't doing that and we didn't have many assists. We shot a low percentage. Look at what we shot in the second half. So, you know, it's been a special year. I think even our own fans and I know it, didn't realize, probably until West Virginia played Pitt, how great a team West Virginia is and I think one of our better wins in the last few years was Senior Night, game day at West Virginia with the championship on the line. That was an unbelievable win because the atmosphere was really, really difficulty. You've got to be a tough group of guys to beat West Virginia that night and these guys were. That win -- people say you didn't play Connecticut or Pitt. West Virginia is one of the premiere teams like Villanova. Wouldn't surprise me to see any of those teams in the Final Four before it's all said and done. Q. Coach, you played back-to-back games now and you're going to pretty much play a close game. Are there things you learned about your team through this? COACH RICK PITINO: They're a pretty tough group. We played quite a few Saturday/Monday games and our guys -- we don't have curfews and things like that. Earl gets in about 4:00, 5:00, Jerry goes about 11:00 to 12:00. Earl doesn't get until about 4:00, 5:00. We let him sleep until 3:00 or 4:00. I'm only kidding. Q. Rick, what were you guys going to do to keep Dante Cunningham not scoring in the second half? COACH RICK PITINO: I think we picked up the pressure on him on the perimeter so when did he get the basketball we were smothering him and digging. We played a poor a half as we played in the first half and we were brilliant in the second half. It was a brilliant group in the second half. Q. For both players, you opened the second half with a 17-to-2 run. They tried two timeouts. Did you get a sense that they had not seen that kind of pressure before? EARL CLARK: I think we just pressured and we digged in, got back to what we do, forcing turnovers and our guards did a great job, Andre, Preston and Jerry, they just forced turnovers and they just put the heat on the guards and we hit open 3s. Q. Rick, I'm curious, what you thought of the second game last night, if you saw any of it live and if you think as a result of what's happened here, you guys are pretty much assured of a number one seed? COACH RICK PITINO: I think we have a very good chance. If we get to the final game you have a very good chance. When you win the regular zone championship and you win the final game, you've got a great shot. We have to great play teams no matter what. It's not a major thing to us. We don't talk about it a whole lot. Last night I watched the game with my daughter and my niece, Christine. We were sitting there and when it went to the first overtime, let's go to bed. The girls said, no, we're not going to bed. In the second overtime my niece Christine said, "Uncle Rick, when do they stop an overtime? How many do they go?" I said they, go on forever. They never go past two or three. At the fourth let's go to bed. Two young kids were glued to it. I've never seen anything like that in my life. I really had a great appreciation for Flynn. It's not easy taking on those pick and rolls the whole night like that and that was amazing, amazing thing to me and I thought A.J. Price was amazing. It was a great game but that's what the Big East is all about. I know all these guys watched it and I think you were blown away with it. JERRY SMITH: Definitely. That was definitely a great, you know, great game, the best I've ever seen in my life. Everyone that kept going on, we got to get some rest but we couldn't do that. We had to stay up and see the end ever it. COACH RICK PITINO: The interesting thing will be normally when something bizarre like that happens, Syracuse will really gut it out and play well in the first half and somewhere in the second half they lose their legs, normally. If they don't, you're really looking at something special. If they can hang in there for a whole game, that's a special basketball team. JOHN PAQUETTE: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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