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NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOURMarch 31, 2012Kyle KuricRick PitinoChris SmithNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA Kentucky – 69 THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with Louisville. Coach Pitino, if you could give us a couple opening thoughts. COACH PITINO: Well, basically what I told the guys was that for Chris and Kyle, it was like preparing for the Olympics, and you just work so hard every single day, gave some extraordinary effort, then at the end you're on the podium and they're playing somebody else's national anthem, but you have a bronze medal around your neck. When I compared them a few weeks ago to the '87 Providence team, it was in terms of effort and attitude. They made me really, really proud. They battle add great team tonight. We just needed lot of things to go right down the stretch. We just screwed up a little bit on our offensive execution in the beginning because we were running pick‑and‑rolls with the four and we were supposed to seal Anthony Davis and we did at the end of the game, and that's when we made our run. We had a little bit of a mishap with Chane not coming up to screen Peyton Siva and he shot the air ball. But Kentucky is a great basketball team with great effort. These two guys leave us with a Final Four, another banner goes up in the Louisville gym, and we'll always be remembered by that. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Coach Pitino, if Kentucky finishes the job Monday night, how will this team compare to the team that you won the national championship with in 1996? COACH PITINO: Every team is different. We had an average margin of victory in the SEC by 28. We had very few close games in basketball. We were a very deep team ‑ much deeper than this team. But their six are every bit as good as our six, so you can't really compare eras. I will say this, that Anthony Davis is as fine a basketball player as there is. They have a great basketball team, one that I know John is really proud of. To tell you the truth, I haven't always liked some of the Kentucky teams. I'm not going to lie to you. But I really like this team a lot because of their attitude and the way they play. I'll certainly be rooting for them hard to bring the trophy back to Kentucky because I'm really impressed with them, not only as basketball players, the way they carry themselves, their attitude. They're a great group of guys, doing a tremendous job. Louisville will be rooting for Kentucky, which doesn't happen very often, to bring home that trophy to the state. Q. Obviously a disappointment tonight. How do you look at the overall season? COACH PITINO: Anytime you don't win a national championship and you're playing for one, it's disappointing. When you go home with a bronze medal around your neck, it's not disappointing. I told the guys, Look, I'm going to Miami tomorrow and I'm celebrating a season where we worked around the clock, around injuries and everything else. If you guys don't celebrate and have good, clean fun, you're fools. Because I think there's only been eight teams that got to the Final Four in the history of the one of the greatest traditions and they did it. So they're going to celebrate. Kyle will celebrate a little more low‑keyed than Chris will, but they're going to celebrate. KYLE KURIC: Like coach said, just proud of the team. Had a lot of highs and lows throughout the season. And just the way they played together and the effort they gave, just proud to be on this team. Q. What impressed you the most about what Anthony Davis did tonight? COACH PITINO: Well, the whole team, forgetting about the dunks at the end, because we were desperate, but what I was impressed with, we took away the three, is the way they make 8‑ to 15‑foot shots. That's very impressive. Anytime you don't know whether a team is better offensively or defensively, you know you got a great basketball team. So Anthony Davis is very impressive because he alters. His length is incredible. Not till the end did Gorgui block him out. That's what you've got to do with him, you've got to block him out to keep him away from the basket. Q. Rick, did you feel when it got to 49‑all, you were getting all those offensive rebounds, you were starting to win the physical battle? COACH PITINO: Yeah, we came up a little short. We had an open shot for Kyle. We didn't get it. We've never been a great shooting team. So to get to a Final Four, I've always felt, in 2005, we got it with Taquan Dean and Francisco Garcia and Larry O'Bannon. All three guys could knock down the shots. These two could knock it down, but this was not a team of great shooters. They had to win with confusing opponents and old fashion hustle and doing it. We're only going to get better. You saw a glimpse of Wayne Blackshear who is coming off of shoulder surgery. Q. What did you think was the most important thing to stop Kentucky to beat them and what did you do to nullify them doing it? COACH PITINO: We knew they were going to play like starving dogs on the glass. We haven't eaten in a week, and the only food for us is the rebound. We had a very difficult time early. The game early, when we got behind, really hurt us. It took so much incredible energy to get us back in the game, and they gave it. Our conditioning I think was awesome the whole year. The differences, quite frankly, just Anthony Davis is the No.1 player picked in the draft. When you're playing against Bill Russell at the pro level, you realize why the Celtics won 11 World Championships. When you see this young man at the collegiate level, you realize why they're so good. Not that their other players aren't, but he's so much of a factor. Q. Chris and Kyle, could you talk about Anthony Davis and how he alters the game when you're trying to take the ball to the basket. CHRIS SMITH: Well, Anthony Davis, he's a great player. He can change every shot. Everything we try to get close into him, he's just so‑‑ I would say he has good footwork. He kind of falls back a little bit and times his shot pretty well. KYLE KURIC: He just has great length, so he's able to alter shots. It's difficult for guards like Peyton and Russ to get a clean look like they usually do. Q. Rick, I wanted to ask what you said to Coach Calipari right after the game. COACH PITINO: I just said, John, I'll be pulling for you. Bring the trophy back home to Kentucky. Really impressed with what he's done. Love to see Kentucky bring it home. Sometimes there's a lot of talk about you see those guys fighting in dialysis, there's also a lot of people that really get along. On the bus, I was talking about mixed marriages, a lot of Kentucky, Louisville fans really get along, really appreciate everything. In every society there are people without brains. But for those that have brains, they get along, they root for each other. We root for Murray, Western. We're going to root for Kentucky. We like their basketball team and we hope they bring it home to the state. Q. Is there an actual reinvigoration with what you put in with your staff to get you more pumped than you have been at times? COACH PITINO: I think so. I marvel at what John does. I couldn't do it. I can't say hello and good‑bye in seven months. It's just not me. I love getting to know Kyle Kuric and Chris Smith. I feel like they're my children, part of their life‑ not that he doesn't feel that way about his kids. This kid gets a scholarship and he grows. He met his future wife. I know his parents, his girlfriend. Chris, I wanted him to cut down the net badly because he's JR's little brother and he needs to get the spot light because he's a big part of this. I like that emotional attachment of the players. Every person's different. I marvel at what they can do with that. I could never do it because I just emotionally get too attached to these guys. I want to see them grow as people ‑ not that he doesn't, I'm sure he does. Q. Kyle and Chris, as emotional as this game was, do you think you'll ever go back and watch the film of this one? KYLE KURIC: Yeah, probably a couple times, just go over the last game, see what happened, just re‑watch it. CHRIS SMITH: Maybe a few times. But, you know, you don't want to dwell on the past really. You just want to try to prepare for your future really. You know, they got a great basketball team coming back. Q. Chris, if you could freeze the moment in time when you tied it at 49, what did you think was going to happen the rest of the way? What do you think was happening back home? CHRIS SMITH: I feel the rest of the way we were going to win.  Everybody thought we were going to win the whole game, and the team, because we had confidence. If we could go back, I would say maybe change a couple plays. But it's too bad we can't. Q. Chris and Kyle, give us your reaction to the way you played out there, the result, the way you came up short, the effort you put in trying to come up with another victory to get to the national championship game. CHRIS SMITH: Well, the effort we put in, you know, we put in a lot of time and hours with each other like building a family. It's pretty much like we lost, you know, for our little brothers, I would say, because we all wanted to bring it back home together. I don't know, our younger brothers, like on our team, you know, we're going to help them get better as long as we're here in Louisville. KYLE KURIC: This team always played hard. The last 8, 10 games it really came together. It had a special bond I've never been a part of before. Proud to be on the team and proud of the guys, the way everybody stepped up. Q. Rick, could you comment on Miller, hit the big three, a few big plays in the second half. COACH PITINO: Yeah, the unfortunate thing, Miller did make that. Wayne is just getting new to the system. He should have been out on him. But you got to give them credit. The reason we were confident we could win this game was that if we could shoot a good percentage, we thought our pressure would work. But anytime you shoot a low percentage, you don't get it on enough to really wear down an opponent. That's due to their defense. They're a great defensive team. Every time you come off a screen, they bang you. They know how to handle screens. They got a very mature ballclub. Whoever wins the Kansas/Ohio State game is going to have to play a helluva game to beat them. Q. When the game is tied, do you believe at that point that's a young team, you are a seasoned team, the pressure of the moment maybe can work for you? KYLE KURIC: Uhm, maybe some other circumstances, it's possible. They really don't play like freshmen. They just have maturity in just the way they play. They carry themselves with confidence. They aren't shy or afraid of big moments. They always step up and come through. Q. Going back to that 49‑49, all of a sudden Kidd‑Gilchrist, invisible in the first half because of fouls, took it to the hoop, got a couple free throws. Talk about the impact he made at that time. COACH PITINO: I didn't think his impact was as great as what you're making it out to. I love him. He's one of my favorite players in college basketball. We wanted to do three things in this game: control the backboard, take them out of transition. What they do in transition, it doesn't matter, they go in a straight line to the basket. We didn't want to put them to the line. We accomplished the second thing. The third thing we had to do is we had to score to get our press on, and we didn't accomplish that one. You know, he's projected to be the No. 2 or 3 player in the draft, you expect him to make some good plays. But I don't think he was Anthony Davis or Miller's shot. I think our guys did a very good job on him, but he's a great player and I love him. This young man had 19 rebounds against us last time, and he didn't have an offensive rebound in the game. There weren't that many because they shot such a high percentage. He did have four rebounds. So it was a pretty good job. Q. Rick, you already referred to this, you said whoever wins the next game is going to have to play a helluva game. Whoever beats Kentucky, what are they going to have to do to beat them? COACH PITINO: Well, I think a little bit at the end, you've got to get the shot‑blocker. What they do is if you run a pick‑and‑roll, he stays in the lane. You got to get your people to seal him, bother him, duck in on him, overpower him. Gorgui is not at that stage to do that yet. Early in the game he bailed out of a couple of nice jump hooks. He's just learning. He's going to get to that state. Are they beatable? No question about it, because Vanderbilt did it. But you're going to have to play great offense, great defense, and you got to bring your A‑plus game and they have to have a B game. That's what has to happen. They're a great ballclub. You have to get one or two guys in foul trouble. But, you know, Kansas and Ohio State are capable of having an A‑plus game, and so are we. We just didn't have it. Q. Coach, you were able to dominate the offensive glass. Not all of those chances were converted. Was that mostly Davis' doing? COACH PITINO: What were you saying? Q. Was his presence inside the primary reason you weren't able to get those opportunities? COACH PITINO: You can get second‑chance opportunities against shot‑blockers because when he goes, he's going to leave his man. But then you have to either throw it out and get an easy shot or you have to finish. We didn't finish inside. We kept missing inside. Sometimes when you go against a shot‑blocker, there's a lot of offensive opportunities to rebound. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, guys. COACH PITINO: We really appreciate your coverage, guys. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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