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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: PORTLANDMarch 15, 2012Chane BehananRick PitinoPeyton SivaPORTLAND, OREGON Louisville – 69 COACH PITINO: Well, we're real proud of our effort tonight, defensively especially. Our offense was tremendous in the first half. And we had a couple of goals that we wanted to accomplish in this game, because Davidson and Bob McKillop are one of the most well coached teams in college basketball. We knew that. The players watched so much film on them they had the same opinion as I had and the rest of the coaches. So we wanted to really pressure them without trapping to try to take their legs out a little bit, because they're such a great shooting team, that if you let them have their legs you could be in for a long night. If Peyton stayed in the game, he could have had an absolute spectacular night. We had to adjust a little bit to the officiating, because it's not like that in the Big East and we get used to it a little bit and these two guys played tremendous. Q. What does it feel like to get the monkey off the back, and get this first NCAA tournament win this year? PEYTON SIVA: It felt really good. We wasn't really worried about the first round in the sense of trying to get that first win in and worry about losing. Everybody was focused on Davidson, everybody focused on defense. We watched a lot of film, tried to learn what they do inside and out. I think everybody did a really good job on defense today and that was really our main focus. Q. How did it feel playing against the kind of hometown crowd that you had going there, a lot of people had signs? PEYTON SIVA: It felt good. Coach said we wouldn't have a home court advantage. But if everybody was like my dad we would. I was happy to see them in the crowd. They can get loud. It was good seeing them. I thanked them for coming out. Q. I know New Mexico is just now playing right now. What do you know about them and what kind of match‑up is that? PEYTON SIVA: We know New Mexico is a tough team. Drew is a double‑double machine. I seen him play since high school. I know they're a tough, physical team. Really haven't watched a lot of film on them. But I know they're really tough. And I know it's going to be a tough game on the glass. Q. I was just wondering, at any point did you feel like you got a little bit of some of Davidson's push. About 8 minutes in it felt like you guys were in control and then you looked up and it's 16‑16. Were you guys at all nervous, taken aback at all at that point? CHANE BEHANAN: No. Me, personally, I wasn't nervous. We had good guards that were going to pressure the ball and get the game going, and just keep rebounding. I wasn't nervous at all. PEYTON SIVA: We knew they were going to make their run sooner or later. Davidson's a great team; obviously they wouldn't be here if they weren't. We just tried to limit their 3's and limit their fast breaks. Those are keys to the game today. We just tried to wear them out, and it worked. We tried to hold them, we tried to get them off the three‑point line and get them off the fast break. We knew they were going to make their run sooner or later, but we tried to sustain it and keep the pressure on them. Q. How much do you think your back‑court pressure frustrated Davidson and took them out of what they wanted to do? PEYTON SIVA: It might not have shown in the turnover department. We tried to get them ‑‑ they only average 11, we got them at 12. We just tried to wear their guards out, so later on in the game it would affect their free throw shooting and their three‑point shooting. We tried to keep pressure on them. They did a really good job. It got frustrating, and we tried to pressure them and tried to make them turnover. But they were very poised. They ran the offense to perfection. We just tried to wear them out and get their legs out of the game. Q. When Gorgui got the three fouls early, how much did you feel like you had to take care of business inside when Gorgui got the three fouls? CHANE BEHANAN: I was mad at him for a minute. But I knew I had to take it upon myself and just play like a vet and just go in and rebound. We have been through this situation before through the Big East tournament. So we didn't expect him to be in foul trouble, we just got to hold it down when he's not there. Q. You got it done with Dieng and Peyton sitting on the bench for a lot of minutes. You've got to feel good about that. COACH PITINO: I do. It surprised me a little bit. Because refereeing, I've worked so many basketball camps in my life, and it's really a difficult thing. But Gorgui on his first foul, the problem when you make a call that may be incorrect, it doesn't really affect it then. But if you get your second or third, then it makes the player tentative. It looked like Gorgui was going to have a tremendous play in the beginning. He got a foul. And then the second foul was a legitimate foul. So now you've got to make a decision. So Peyton was having his way because they were staying home on Kuric and Smith. He was having his way on pick and rolls. So it was a shame, we knew we could play without Gorgui, but we didn't think we could play without Peyton. Q. Should you beat New Mexico in the next round ‑‑ COACH PITINO: I don't mean to cut you off. I know nothing about New Mexico. Q. You have a former Lobo assistant, does that help? COACH PITINO: I'm sure it can't hurt, but I haven't seen them play one play. So I don't know if they're going to win. We played Long Beach and they're a great team. So I don't know who's going to win. We have great respect for them. He knows drew Gordon, I don't know him. So I'll watch them. Q. The importance of getting this win for this group, after the past couple of tournaments being one and done there. Can you speak to that. COACH PITINO: You know what, every team is unique and different. I've had a lot of great teams. I felt two years ago we didn't deserve ‑‑ we deserved to get knocked out. Last year we had a bad break with our best player going out before with an injury. So every year it's just different. This is a very good basketball team. They just came off a Big East tournament championship, where we had to beat some outstanding teams. One thing that stuck out for me about Davidson, I haven't seen too many teams do this in my lifetime, they run almost 99 percent of the time. They are made buckets. So our press took them out of running on made buckets. And this is a team that averages 78 points a game and also only averages 11.8 turnovers per a game. You know how many fast break turnovers they had in the game? 0 for 2. That's tremendous ‑‑ we look at field goal defense, but 0 for 2 from one of the best scoring teams in the country on the fast break is tremendous defense. Q. Coach McKillop talked about your offense as being relentless and said that every one of his guys had to scrape off at least five ball screens on almost every possession. And there were a number of times Peyton drove and then came back out. Is that a conscious decision on your part in your offense to just wear them out literally on offense? COACH PITINO: It was tonight because they help in the post great. They trap low. If you throw it into the post, they'll play on the high side and trap low. So our whole effort tonight any time a play didn't work was all pick and rolls. And we knew they were going to stay at home with Kuric and Smith in the corners, Peyton was going to have his way, but he got in foul trouble. Sometimes it's not that strategy, tonight it was, because we thought Peyton could maneuver in there. And we told him a while ago ‑‑ we showed him films, we put an edit together of Steve Nash. We said one of the greatest things Steve Nash does off the pick‑and‑roll, if he probes the lane, and he decides not to have anything, he just dribbles it back out and takes a different angle of the screen. I think that helped Peyton watching Steve Nash do it. Q. Conditioning has been so big for you guys all year. Could you see Davidson wearing down, and how big is conditioning for the rest of this run? COACH PITINO: You know, I can't speak whether they were or weren't. That was our goal. But I really mean it, I haven't ‑‑ if you would have said to me you could hold them to zero for two fast breaks in the game. I watched eight games for them. I would say there was absolutely no way. But the press stopped them from breaking on makes, which they run a lot of probing pick‑and‑rolls on breaks. We took them out of that. It was our goal to wear them down. Whether we did or not, certainly ‑‑ I would expect that level from that basketball team. I've been coaching a long time. And that's one of the most well coached basketball teams I've gone against. Q. You guys made free throws, you held them to a season low in scoring. Overall do you feel like you guys played well in every game, and late to the party, what happened to your hand? COACH PITINO: My hand, I was trying to dunk the ball, Russ Smith said I couldn't dunk it, I grabbed the rim and just missed the dunk and sprained it. You know, getting Peyton out of the game was difficult for us. But he's been playing so well of late. Our whole strategy tonight was to just make sure that we guarded the three‑ point line with our life. We did it at Cincinnati as well and held them to 14 points at halftime. So we're playing great defense. I think the guys got a big boost off the Big East championship. And now we run into two teams that, one we faced, they're both outstanding. But we're having a great time right now and real proud of our guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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