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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: LEXINGTONMarch 23, 2013Larry EustachyColton IversonGreg SmithLEXINGTON, KENTUCKY Louisville – 82 THE MODERATOR: All right. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us here in Lexington, Kentucky, Rupp Arena. Coach, if you want to begin at this time. Thank you. COACH EUSTACHY: Well, you know, I don't want this game to define our season. I told the guys that with a lot of tears in the locker room, and this is one of the few teams, it's the only team, I didn't want the season to end. I real wanted to go to practice on Monday, but we caught a as well-coached team as I've every played against and that's -- I think that's saying something. I don't want to put the pressure on Rick and his guys, but they're special. I think they're a special group. They need a little luck like everybody does to win it all, but that's as impressive team as I've been against, certainly. Certainly this year I think these guys would be. I've been back to the great Kansas teams. They're just special. I'm telling you, they were well prepared and I can't say enough about Coach Pitino and how he gets his guys to play for 40 minutes as impressive as I've ever seen. THE MODERATOR: Questions now for the student-athletes. We have Greg Smith and Colton Iverson. Q. Greg, I'm wondering if you can describe if there was a difference between seeing Louisville's pressure on tape and then seeing it in person live? GREG SMITH: It was a little different. You know, we've seen them against North Carolina A&T and some other teams and kind of get prepared for it, but you see the bodies out there flying around and doing what they do., it's a lot different. You kind of the got to get used to the speed a little bit. We knew it was coming and we wanted to handle it better. Q. This question is for Colton. You guys don't normally get outrebound. Tonight, this afternoon, you did. Did they do anything in particular that made it tough for you on the boards? COLTON IVERSON: No, they didn't do anything special. I mean, they're just big and physical. We didn't block out necessarily as well as we usually do, and, I mean, there was no special recipe to this game. They just outworked us. It's not something that we can live on. Q. For each player, what is it like going against that press? How would you describe it? GREG SMITH: I just describe it as just total chaos. You know, some of those guys are just so fast, and you may think that you have an open lane or, you know, the passing or you think the pass is coming and they close it down so quick. You know, it's a really good team, you know. They really have each other's backs as far as their traps and the different stuff they throw at different people. Q. Or either of the players, did it feel like you were playing in a home gym with all the red and did it affect you guys that much, do you think? COLTON IVERSON: It's a bit of a rhetorical question, yeah, it's a home court advantage. There's a sea of red out there. They're obviously very loud, and supported their team obviously very well. Q. Colton, can you sort of describe your matchup with Gorgui Dieng, what he did well, what he took away from you? COLTON IVERSON: I mean, he was big and physical. He's a very good player. He works hard and he buys into what Coach Pitino is telling them to do. Obviously it's tough to get shots up. He did a very good job getting around me in the post, denying the ball, and, I mean, we knew it was going to be a tough game going into a tough matchup. But, I thought we canceled each other out pretty well. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for the student-athletes? All right. Thank you fellas. Congratulations on a great season. We'll continue now with Coach Larry Eustachy and questions for the coach. Q. Coach, you going into halftime shooting 55.6 percent, you're down by 14. How unusual is that, in your mind, and how much of that do you just attribute to being unable to get the ball up the court? COACH EUSTACHY: Well, you know, first of all, I'm an honorary Kentucky Colonel. Did any of you know that? You didn't know that? Yeah, I got the Rupp award, whenever that was. They made me a colonel. I wasn't treated very well (laughter) by the host team, or whatever you want to call them. So, maybe I'll get two bucks off a bucket or something for it, but they -- it was just -- we just got ambushed. We were as prepared as we could be, but you just can't -- it's like the free throw. You can't simulate how they come at you and I knew it. I thought if we could do certain things, we could hang with them, I really did. Like somebody asked, you really don't know how good they are until you have to sit there and watch them come at you, and they just keep coming at you and keep coming at you. Our guys have no quit in them, none of us do, we kept trying. You know, you look at this box score and it seemed like they got every rebound and it seemed like they made every shot, and they shot it well, but you look at all their box scores and this game is close and all of a sudden it's 26. The stats don't really indicate just how well prepared and detailed this team that we just lost to is. Again, I haven't gone against somebody like that in a long, long time. So, it was -- you just couldn't simulate how it was going to be. Q. Coach, in your opening statement you said this was one of the best teams you faced. Were you meaning this year or are you meaning in your career? COACH EUSTACHY: I'm meaning in my career. You know, because, first of all, they really don't match the eye test, when you look at them on paper and they look six foot but those guards play about 6-10. They just really -- then when you see them on the court, obviously they've worked on their bodies, they've built them up, they're strong, they're physical, they are relentless and they just keep coming at you. I can't think of a lapse that they had, and I have not seen that for a long, long time, and I really can't remember when I have seen it. So, obviously the only loss in their last 15 or so games was five overtimes, right, so obviously they bring it every night. Like I say, that's a tribute to Rick. That is extremely hard to get your players to do and a tribute to the players. Seems like -- they remind us of our guys, you know, they're very close and they're close knit. We just couldn't match them from the beginning. Q. You mentioned the preparation for you guys. Was there anything in particular that they took away from you all or that they defended particularly well or attacked well? COACH EUSTACHY: Well, you know, you just can't prepare for that press. You get what you put into it, into a team in practice, and we've spent our time on a lot -- on just certain things to get us here. This team -- our team won one league game on the road last year. We won four this year. We got demolished by Murray State in the first round. We won our first round game. So, we've made some big improvement. But it's like the free throw again, you cannot simulate the press that they're going to throw at you, if that makes any sense at all. Just can't simulate it. They just come at you. And in spite of you telling Greg Smith, you put it on the floor, they're going to take it from you, they force you into it. Their pressure forces you -- Colton Iverson is bringing the ball up the court. I challenge you to find him ever doing that this year. They bring that out in you, and certainly that wasn't the plan. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Q. Coach, you talked a lot about how much fun you've had with these guys this year. With these five seniors what are you going to miss the most about them? COACH EUSTACHY: I just started talking and I started bawling. I've never had a team where, you know, like I've joked about it, but I'd like to make bed checks and I wake half of them up at night, you know, just to make bed check. I mean, they're just such good guys and they showed up every day and their character. We might have got outmatched with some physical things and everything today, but nobody has out-charactered us. That's what I'm saying.  They're on our level of character, which I believe the people I know at Louisville that they are, then they're something special, because I'm going to miss our character and our accountability the most. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for the Coach? All right. COACH EUSTACHY: Thank you all. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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