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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: JACKSONVILLEMarch 18, 2010Rick PitinoJerry SmithEdgar SosaJACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: Guys, welcome. Any questions? Q. Could both of you address this: You guys got veteran guards and they've got veteran guards. I think both teams combined are going to start five seniors. What kind of game do you think that's going to result in? EDGAR SOSA: Well, I feel that when you have five seniors on the floor, you definitely have a lot of experience, guys who have seen it all. I just think it's just going to be a lot of smart play out there, like you said. They have three senior guards starting, and me and Jerry in the backcourt, our two seniors who have been to two Elite Eights and been through a lot of experiences at the University, so we've seen all type of situations. Q. How exactly do you guys kind of relay your tournament experiment over the last three years to the younger guys who are going to have to play a bigger role tomorrow? JERRY SMITH: Pretty much just tell them, you know, don't get too nervous and just come ready to play. You've got to leave it all out on the floor now that it's the tournament because it's a one-game do or die situation. You've just got to leave it all out there. That's what you tell them. EDGAR SOSA: Yeah, I mean, I feel like we have a lot of young guys that play key minutes for us, and you know, for -- I remember my first experience playing in the NCAA, and it's hard not to get a little nervous or a little too excited. But I feel that after running around for a couple minutes and a couple possessions, it's just another game. And yeah, if we lose, we go home, and if we win, we advance, and that's the mindset we're coming in with. We're treating each game like it's a championship game and it's a tournament, and we have to win. Q. Last year you guys started the tournament as the overall No. 1 seed with a lot of people picking you to go to the Final Four or even win it all. This year you're a 9 seed. Is there any difference in the way you're approaching this in terms of what impact it has on your season? JERRY SMITH: I don't think so. You know, you have to play each game as itself, regardless of the seeding. Teams got to come in here and compete. As you can see, so many upsets were brewing today, and it doesn't matter what seed you have. You have to come ready to play on that day in order to get a victory. EDGAR SOSA: I feel the same way. I feel that at the end of the day whether you're a 1 seed or a 16 seed, it's still six games to win the national championship and four games to get to a Final Four. Yeah, if you're a No. 1 overall seed, the first game, the opponent is not going to be as tough as it would be if you're a 9 seed, but that's the situation we put ourselves in, and from day one, starting tomorrow night, we're going to have to play with all we've got because Cal is a very good team. Q. Cal has got good guards but they're not a really big team. How important is it for you all to get Samardo involved in the action early and try and work through him? JERRY SMITH: You know, especially with one of their bigs going down, I don't know the situation, but he's not going to be playing, we really need to pound it into Samardo and let him get going early for us. That's going to be the main factor. EDGAR SOSA: Yeah, I feel like Samardo is going to be key for us in this tournament. He's our go-to guy, and we go to him whenever we need two points. I feel that we're going to make it an effort to go to him even more this game just because we know that they're going to try to double him, and that just gives us -- that gives the guards a better chance to get open for jump shots. Q. Jerry, are you limited at all by your thumb? Do you feel like the practice time you missed or anything like that is going to hinder you at all tomorrow? JERRY SMITH: No, I don't think so, because Coach Ray Ganong did a good job of trying to help me stay in shape while I missed the time, and my thumb has healed pretty well. Even the last couple days of practice it's felt pretty good. It hasn't bothered me much. Q. After watching tape of Cal, is there anything that particularly concerns you about them and that you need to get over to beat them tomorrow? EDGAR SOSA: I think what concerns us is how deep they shoot the ball. You know, and they take the first shot available. And they're all guys who shoot 40 percent from the three-point line. You know, for us to get back in transition and stop the three-point shot is probably the most important thing, and then when you have a team that takes such long shots, there's going to be a lot of long rebounds. The guards like me and Jerry and some of the other guys are going to have to come back in there and grab the long rebounds and help out the big men. Q. What about Randle? What do you see out there? You're going to probably have to take him. I was just watching him in practice and I don't think he missed a shot. He can score 10, 12 in a row. EDGAR SOSA: Yeah, he's a great player. From watching film on him the last week or so, he can shoot it with the best of them. He pulls from way beyond NBA range, and that's not the only part of his game. For the guys that try to get up on him and keep him from shooting the three, he also blows by people. He's a tough guard, he's a tough guy to defend, and I don't think it's just going to be on me to defend him. I think we're going to defend him as a team. Q. (No microphone.) EDGAR SOSA: He's a similar player. They both shoot the ball from, like I say, way beyond the three-point line. They both put the team on their shoulders in clutch situations. They take the majority of the shots. So I think a big key for us winning is slowing him down tomorrow night. Q. Guys, back home, UK gets all the credit for having all the best fans, but we've already seen more than a few Louisville fans here. What does it mean throughout your four years wherever you travel there's going to be a big crowd following you guys around? JERRY SMITH: That's huge. That's been true for the four years that me and Edgar have been here. Our fans have been second to none and always had our backs, and we love them. EDGAR SOSA: Yeah, I agree with Jerry. This is the only place I've been so I can only speak with Louisville, but our fans are just amazing. Wherever we go, we always have a good crowd with us, and they just make the effort to come out and support us, and that's something that we're thankful for. Q. With them having such strong guard play, do you guys feel like you have to not necessarily win the match-up but hold your own with their guards for you all to have a chance to win? JERRY SMITH: I think we're going to have to do our part on defense, without a doubt. Like we said, we really want to focus on pounding it inside to Samardo. We know we have to get him going early but if we can manage to stop their guards on the defensive end, that can really give us a chance at winning the game. EDGAR SOSA: I agree with Jerry. We have to do the best we can defensively. I think on the offensive end, we're going to play the way we always play. Whether that's Jerry hitting three-point shots or getting it into Samardo and me playing off the pick-and-roll we're still keeping our same plain game offensively, but defensively we have to step it up because we know they have some great guards? Q. Coach has used that box of chocolates reference before. Is there anybody tomorrow that you guys see as having the possibility of breaking out, anybody in particular you think? JERRY SMITH: You know, like coach said, you really don't know, you've just got to come ready to play the game, and somebody steps up big for us, hopefully they will. EDGAR SOSA: I mean, I agree. I think with this team you never know. Like the first time we played Syracuse, who knew that Mike Marra was going to hit those big shots after not playing so many minutes, and then to close out Freedom Hall, who knew that Kyle Kuric was going to come out and have 22 points in the second half. I think with the way our system is and the way our team is, you never know who's going to have a big night, but you can definitely count on us coming out hard and sharing the ball. Q. You guys have been a little Jekyll and Hyde this season. What do you do tonight, maybe talk to the freshmen, just so you can put your best foot forward so you don't find yourselves all of a sudden down 12, down 14? JERRY SMITH: Pretty much just stay high with emotion. That's going to be key for us. If we come out, play together and play with a lot of emotion, I think we'll be fine throughout the game. EDGAR SOSA: I feel that everybody on our team knows what's on the line. Not that a NCAA bid wasn't on the line before when we lost games, but I think it's sunk into everyone now that if we lose a game, the season is over. I think lack of effort is not going to be the reason that we lose if we do lose. Q. One thing they kept talking about was your pressure, your 94 feet. I gathered they really haven't faced that this year, and this is going to be something new for them. How do you perceive your pressure being important in the game? JERRY SMITH: I think it's going to be key for us. We really pride ourselves in trying to get after teams and force them into different turnovers and what not. If we can put pressure on the ball with them and hopefully don't let them get off a lot of great three-point looks, I think it could be good for us in helping us win the basketball game. EDGAR SOSA: Yeah, I feel our pressure is going to be key, and something Coach Pitino was talking about in practice earlier this week, we're not going to press those guys necessarily to turn it over, but we don't want them to have their legs with six minutes to go in the game just because they shoot the ball so great. We're going to pressure them. We're hoping to wear Randle out because he's such a great shooter, and that's part of the main reason why we're pressuring them. THE MODERATOR: Rick Pitino, the head coach of the Louisville Cardinals. If you would give us an opening statement or two about the tournament and we'll field some questions. Thank you. COACH PITINO: Well, as you all see, how it's exciting it's been in the first day, double overtimes and Villanova, a team that our president picked to go to the Final Four, was life and death to get by Robert Morris. That's what March Madness is all about. It truly is madness, and we're very excited to be part of it. We know we have our hands full playing a terrific Cal basketball team with four seniors and really terrific backcourt play as well as fundamentally sound front court people. Q. Jerry talked about their defensive commitment for this game and letting the offense come to you and giving it all on defense. How important will that be to the outcome of the game? COACH PITINO: Well, when you're playing against a team that shoots it as well as they do, defense is a premium because they're a great offensive basketball team, and they have unbelievable range shooting the ball. So defense wins games at tournament time, and you've got to make stops at the right time. You've got to play intelligent basketball, and certainly you've got to keep them off the foul line, especially a point guard who leads the nation in free throw shooting. Q. I know that college basketball is a guard play in the game, but you're starting three seniors at guard, and they're starting two. If nothing else, is this game going to be a good clinic in guard play? COACH PITINO: I hope so. They're different backcourt players. We've been to two straight Elite Eights, coming off a Big East championship the year before, so we have a lot of experience in the backcourt. This is their fourth NCAA tournament appearance, our backcourt. So I think they know what it's all about. Q. Talk about having Jerry back, how much of a difference that's going to make, even if it's just from a leadership standpoint to have that senior out on the floor like you said. COACH PITINO: Well, I think Jerry, we missed Jerry in the Big East tournament because we didn't have a substitute. Now it puts Preston back in his normal role and it makes our rotation back to normal, so that's a big lift. And Jerry, you know, sometimes when you have an injury this time of year, resting your legs and getting a little bit of a blow is not the worst thing in the world. Q. One of the themes that kept going through their press conference with Randle, Christopher and Coach Montgomery is that they were worried about the ruggedness of the Big East and the way you guys play a more rugged game than they're used to. COACH PITINO: Well, I don't think we're -- it's true, the Big East is very rugged, but I wouldn't say we're one of the more rugged teams in the Big East. We're sort of in the middle of the pack, so we're not West Virginia and we're not Pittsburgh. We're not as rugged as they are. But the Big East is a very physical league, no question about it. You're very happy when you come away with a victory. I think the Big East, most of the teams at the end of the year were pretty tired and pretty beat up because it is such a physical league. Q. The Bears will be without one of their starters, Omondi Amoke. What does that mean for you? COACH PITINO: Well, it's another body certainly. Any time you miss -- I don't think he's one of their key offensive threats, but he is a big body, and certainly any time you take a big body away from an playing our best -- it's not going to affect our scouting or the way we play the game. Mike could speak more to what it means to his team. I'm not sure what it means as far as we're concerned. Q. You guys have been a little Jekyll and Hyde this season. What do you do coaching-wise just to motivate them to come out and have at least a good first five minutes because as you said they're such an emotional team. If you get off to a good start it could be good for the rest of the game. COACH PITINO: I don't believe we're a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I don't believe that. I think we're an average to good team that played in the toughest conference in basketball and just the competition is so keen that on a given night you could lose to Marquette very easily, you could lose to St. John's very easily, and then turn around and beat Syracuse. It's just a very tough league. The only thing that we had to overcome in the beginning of the year was some key injuries when we had three players out, but I think they've been pretty consistent because any time you win 11 Big East games -- and I still have an asterisk next to two of those games. I'm going to give our team maybe 12 or 13 times because I think we played good enough to win some of those games, so I don't think that's true. I think when you're not a great basketball team, you're going to have your ups and downs. I think we're a good, solid basketball team that certainly does some things well and certainly needs to improve in other areas. Q. You obviously have a chance for a big weekend here, given your team's chances. But I think you also have a horse running Saturday with a chance maybe to become a Kentucky Derby contender. Are you even able to keep tabs on that at this time of year? COACH PITINO: Well, if we win I'm going to fly down there and skip practice. (Laughter). No, I have no clue what's going on there. I pay attention the week before the Derby. Obviously I hope the horse wins. I'll get on the phone with him right before the race. Q. It seems like teams have really been coming at Samardo hard with the double-team since the Notre Dame game. Where is he at as far as his progression in dealing with that and can I make that kind of adjustment in a short period of time and improve? COACH PITINO: The only team that really came hard after him is Marquette. The other teams were basically the way everybody else plays him. Samardo has made baby steps all year. I've said that all along. He's improving his game in short increments and learning something different each night. So he's seen the gamut of that. We're going to start out Jared Swopshire in this game. I think when TJ and Samardo play together, it hurts Samardo a little bit in terms of the congestion, so we're going to try to open it up a little bit with Jared. Q. I know you've had coaches' meetings and things like that and a busy day, but did you get a chance to watch any of the Florida/BYU game? COACH PITINO: I did. Q. Any impressions how that turned out? COACH PITINO: I was sick. Obviously I was rooting hard for Florida and it was a great basketball game. Two teams played with unbelievable heart. It was very exciting. Florida put themselves in a situation to win the game twice, and BYU just kept battling back, and that young man, Fredette is it? He was just tremendous, a great player. It was a great game. Both teams played with unbelievable heart, and Florida certainly has nothing but -- they should be filled with great pride with the way their kids played, and BYU has to be elated with the victory. It was an exciting basketball game, but it's tough to lose in double overtime in the NCAAs. Q. Through your career you've seen a lot of coaches come and go. Does it mean anything different to look across the sideline and see another coach that's been there for a couple of decades and is still kind of plugging away, much like you have? COACH PITINO: Yeah, it's -- you know, Mike tried the pros, and certainly I spent eight years in the pros, and I'm sure he -- I shouldn't say I'm sure, but I'm sure he had some great experiences with it. Guys like Mike really are students of the game. Kids are very lucky to play for guys like Mike because he's going to get a different perspective. He's seen it all happen at both levels. I was glad to see him back in the game certainly. I'm very shocked, though, he went back to a rival of coaching at Stanford. I was very disappointed in that. (Laughter). Q. I know a theme that seemed to come out of the California interviews was that they were intimidated by your full court pressure. How do you see that? COACH PITINO: I don't think it'll be a major factor in the game, the full court press. We haven't been a typical Louisville basketball team this year in terms of full court pressure. We haven't relied on that as much as we have in the last couple of years. They've got very good backcourt play, very good ball handlers. I don't think that that will be much of a factor in the basketball game. I think sometimes because of our past reputations, teams that don't see us that much just consider Louisville a pressing team. Really, if you've followed us, you realize -- maybe you don't realize because you asked that question. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you. End of FastScripts |
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