|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2012Chane BehananRick PitinoJared SwopshireNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK LOUISVILLE – 84 COACH PITINO: Well, I thought the guys did a tremendous job of pushing the pace tonight, getting a lot of easy baskets for us. We tired a little bit in the second half because guys were playing a lot of minutes, and Marquette is more than willing to run with anybody. When Gorgui went out of the game, Jerry gave us a big lift, a tremendous lift. We didn't lose a whole lot. They maintained their poise, and we did a really good job of offensively attacking the whole night. Real proud of the guys. We got a chance to rest Gorgui in unusual conditions. Q. You were really able to attack the offensive glass. Talk a little bit about your effort rebounding the ball. COACH PITINO: Well, they're a big steal team, and we told Chane all night to go along the baseline, and they helped go to the glass. We were going to bring three guys back, but I said that‑‑ because they're such a big steal team, we have an 0.2 rebound margin area so we were going to hit the offensive glass when we could but we were able to attack offensively especially with Gorgui out of the game. Peyton really tired down the stretch. I played him too many minutes but I had no choice. Q. They had a season high of 26 turnovers that they finished with. Did you feel pretty confident that you would be able to turn them over? COACH PITINO: Yeah, you never know, but sometimes it's not necessarily the turnover, it's the fatigue element. You get a lot of benefits by pressing when you don't give up lay‑ups. You get the fatigue element, affects their offensive shooting, and we were going to come into this game here‑‑ I think some of you in Louisville don't understand that a lot of times the opponent dictates the tempo, and you guys don't pay attention too much to South Florida's play because probably they're not on TV too much, but they do that to everybody, and there's nothing you can do about it. Tonight we knew‑‑ teams like Marquette and Connecticut and Syracuse if you choose to try it, will run. Other teams will not. So you have to pick your poison a little bit. Q. I was wondering if you could just talk about the play of Peyton Siva tonight? COACH PITINO: He played terrific, but I've got to somehow get him a few blows. Going into this tournament we were hoping he would turn it around, and he is, and we had a long talk. I used the analogy of the New York Giants, nobody remembers the regular season anymore when they went into the Playoffs, just matters what you do in the postseason. So don't worry about what you did in the regular season, just be a great player in the postseason, and he's doing that for us. Q. Is this your best win of the year? COACH PITINO: We've had a lot of great wins. We had a lot of great wins, but this was good for us to get back to playing the way we wanted with pressing and running and just pushing the pace. But we've had a lot of terrific wins. Q. Talk about Chane's development as a freshman. COACH PITINO: Chane is a young man with great pride, and he's a warrior. He won't back down under any circumstance at all. He's a terrific young man, and the sky's the limit to how much better he can get. But he's just a tough, tough kid, young man, and he takes on every challenge. He told me tonight in unusual circumstances, he grabbed me twice in the locker room, said, if Gorgui needs a break when he gets in foul trouble, I'll play that five, and don't worry about me. And sure enough, Gorgui got‑‑ I don't know if Gorgui knows that a technical foul is a personal foul, as well. In Senegal I don't think they have that rule. Q. Would you talk about when Gorgui went out they made a run but they never caught up their way back up and you were able to build a lead and then at the start of the second half, they came charging at you but you guys seemed to respond when they made runs. COACH PITINO: Well, I thought we were playing beat the clock a little bit. And I told our guys, if you do that they're going to win the game. I said they are a great second‑half team. They have done it against Villanova, every team they've played, they've come back in the second half and beat them. And I they said if you're going to play clock run out‑‑ that being said, I didn't want Russ to give a Magic Johnson look‑away on a three‑on‑one break. I wish he would have brought it out and maybe used a couple of seconds, but we wanted to keep pushing the pace. Q. You had enough of a spread that it didn't matter, but are you concerned with some of the decisions the guys made at the end of the game? COACH PITINO: I think that is fatigue a little bit. Peyton made some really bad decisions, but I think he's handling the ball the whole night. Chane made a couple poor decisions on back‑door timing plays. But I think when you see a lot of those plays, it's fatigue. We pushed the pace on every possession, and then we turned around and pressed them on every made bucket. So that a little bit clouds it, but we wanted to do‑‑ we've got to give Peyton a little bit of relief, and Russ did it toward the end of the game. He gave him a little bit of relief. But the answer is yes, of course, you don't want to turn the ball over. Q. You've said often you want to see the extra stuff from Kyle Kuric. Was that tonight the rebounding and blocked shots? COACH PITINO: I read his line and it said, no assists, no steals, no rebounds. We've got to have you step up some, and he did. Q. You've gotten a look at Marquette now and knowing they play a specific style, do you think that smaller style can survive in the NCAA Tournament, or if they run into a night where the other team is really rebounding well, will they run into problems? COACH PITINO: I think the big guy has to get rest from time to time. I think when he's in the game, they rebound fine. I think they're an outstanding ballclub because they put so much pressure on you with their shooting and their drives. We stayed at home and we tried to rotate at the end with our bigs, and we stayed at home. Look, every team, with the exception of Kentucky and North Carolina, I've watched every team in the country that I could this year, and we all this weaknesses. Kentucky and Carolina just seem to be‑‑ they shoot a very high percentage. Kentucky is also a great team defensively. They have outstanding talent. They're well coached. Those two teams to me don't have a major weakness. You know, they've been able to‑‑ Kentucky has been able to stay away from injuries, and some people say their bench, but they haven't had an injury this year. I think Marquette is like everybody else. We have our blemishes and our warts. Q. Jae Crowder never really got into any kind of offensive rhythm. Just talk about what it was like going against him and keeping him from being a major factor? JARED SWOPSHIRE: I mean, it was fun for me. He's a great player, and me and Chane talked about it when I subbed in that we wanted to keep him from getting touches, especially in the paint area. So I feel like we were able to do that. COACH PITINO: For you guys that don't know, that's Barry White's son. (Laughter). Q. Talk about how this pressing style pretty much poses an advantage. CHANE BEHANAN: The style, we go up and down. That's what coach wants us to do. All the teams we played so far in the BIG EAST, they expect us to slow it down. So now coming in, we agreed we were going to play up and down like we was in the Bahamas. We've just got to get used to it and attack everybody the same way in each game. That's how we've been getting up. That's it. Q. Facing either Notre Dame or South Florida, they're going to want to slow the tempo way back down. Are you still going to try and force them into your kind of tempo? COACH PITINO: Yeah, but I'm not going to win. You guys don't understand that in Louisville, you personally, you just don't understand that. West Virginia, nobody could do it with South Florida. If Notre Dame wants to slow it down, they will, because they have excellent ball handlers, they're excellent passers, and we have to learn to play both ways, and we have this season. But you know, sometimes‑‑ South Florida has gone a long way with this style of play, so you've got to give them all the credit in the world. We have no problem playing it. We played it against Vanderbilt this year numerous times try and play fast but you've got to give the other team credit. Certain teams will run, certain teams will not run. You've got to face that in the NCAA. We're going to run into a situation‑‑ I'm not happy that Gorgui got a technical foul. I was just as upset with the calls as he was, but the thing we've got to find out is can we play without Gorgui, and this young man stepped up, actually drew a charge tonight, which was like the miracle on 34th Street. So it's unbelievable for him to do that. He stepped up big, 12 rebounds. Now Chane knows when Gorgui is out that we can win without Gorgui in the game, and that was great for us to find that out tonight. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|