March 13, 2008

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POST-GAME QUOTESHEET

Big East Quarterfinal Round, Pitt vs. Louisville, March 13, 2008

                       

Quoting Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon, Ronald Ramon, Sam Young and DeJuan Blair

 

COACH DIXON:  I know you want to talk to these guys, they made all the plays.  It's a great win for us.  Played hard.  Thought we battled through some things.  We had the foul trouble early.  Got performances by everybody.  Bradley Wanamaker gave us great minutes, Tyrell Biggs, Gilbert Brown, and our bench was terrific for us, and that was big.  Proud of them.

 

Battle through against a very good team, and made plays all the way through.  And we defended well.  And like I said, our defense has been getting better and better since we've been back to somewhat good health besides the three guys that are out for the year.  But we're getting better and better for practice.  We've really looked at these last four games in this tournament for us to be ourselves, be the team that we can be, and that's what we're becoming.  So proud of these guys, every one of them.  They just, they battled.  That's really the best way to sum it up.

 

Q.  From the first game you played them, it looked like you double-teamed Padgett a lot more.  What kind of adjustments did you make defensively from the first time?

 

COACH DIXON:  We made a lot of adjustments, actually.  To be honest, these guys won this game.  I felt like I didn't do a good job coaching the last game.  So I lost the last game, these guys won this game.

 

We made some adjustments, we had to shut down Padgett.  But we held them to 37%, they know the numbers.  I asked them what the game was, I asked them the numbers and they knew exactly what they were.  We held them at 37%.  What did they shoot last time, guys?

DeJuan Blair:  57%.

COACH DIXON:  57%.  So we knew exactly.  As soon as they got off the floor they wanted to know.

So they battled.  They contested shots and they're just getting better.  It's a young group that keeps getting better.

 

Q.  Last night you predicted that DeJuan would bounce back with a big game.  Can you talk about what he did and the way he came back.

 

COACH DIXON:  You're playing against one of the best players in the country right there in Padgett.  I have tremendous confidence in him, I've always had.  And he got in some foul trouble, got double-teamed.  There's some things he's going to get used to, and it's happening more and more the better and better he gets.  He just got some foul trouble.  But again, 16 points, 8 rebounds against two of the best big guys in the country says a lot about him.

 

I thought his defense was very good.  I thought Sam helped him out in a lot of ways, too, defensively.  And I can't say enough about Sam, too.  Sam is just getting smarter and smarter on the floor.  He's kind of become really our general out there as far as what we're doing defensively.  Recognizing things, and it's just talk about being most improved.  They talk about a shot, I'm talking about how much smarter and aware, and how the guys are just feeding off of his knowledge.

 

Q.  If you go by seeds, this technically goes down as an upset.  But is that an unfair characterization considering what this league is like?

 

COACH DIXON:  I think with our team it's probably -- I don't think anybody really knew what to make of our team with all the injuries.  This is a team that had to change in midstream three, four times in what they were doing.  We're finding ourselves.  I think we're on our way.  We have, and we're just getting better and better.

 

But these guys are the guys that made the plays, so you need to talk to them about what they did.  But we're getting better.  And it's because we've got seniors like Keith (Benjamin) and Ronald, and these guys are just getting better and better here, too.  Inside DeJuan and Sam on the defensive men.

 

Q.  You talked about it yesterday, and you saw the team coming together, when did that happen?

 

COACH DIXON:  No, this is just about being able to practice.  We weren't able to practice for a number of days with our injuries.  Levance (Fields) wasn't practicing.  This past week before our DePaul game he was able to practice for the first time.  We had three good practices.  We got after it.  We did the things we do.  More drills, blockout drills.  The aggression and physicality that we usually have.  And that's been coming.  We just haven't been able to do it.  And when we did, I felt this thing would be going our way and you'd see this team coming into their own and just getting better.  Teams get better.  Certain teams get better at different times of the year.

 

This one because of the injuries that really no one can really compare it to someone else.  You lose four guys for nearly a year, we're finding ourselves and our freshmen are getting better.  But again, these are the guys that made the plays, so ask them the questions.

 

Q.  Levance is coming back, battling that pressure up and down the floor all night long, you've got any concern about how much legs he'll have left for tomorrow?

 

COACH DIXON:  For a normal guy, but with his heart and his competitiveness, he's going to battle through it.  We've got Ronald, too, as well.  So all of our guys handle the ball.  We're a low-turnover team.  We had a few more than we'd normally like to.  But we'll be ready.  We'll be ready.  We won't come out tired.  We'll be ready.

 

Q.  Sam, talk about your instincts during the game, when you decided that you had to defend better and rebound more and stuff like that.  Talk about that.

 

Sam Young:  In the first five or ten minutes of the game I realized that my shot wasn't falling as much as I would like it to.  I figured if I'm out there on the court, I have to do something else.  I have to still contribute defensively, just making sure I'm in the right spot as far as making sure my team is in the right spot.  Get rebounds, block shots.

 

Q.  Ronald, in overtime it was a two-point game, and you drove into the lane, clock was running down and you had a bunch of 6'11" guys in front, can you talk about that lay-up you made.

 

Ronald Ramon:  I was just trying to make a play.  We came down to it, DeJuan had the ball on top of the key, and it was the nine, we ran the play a few times and they adjusted.  So I tried to back cut.  DeJuan made a great pass.  Guys were in the paint, trying to dig the ball.  So the ball got loose, and they were all trying to go for the ball once I got it.  So wide open lay-up, and I just went for it.

 

Q.  DeJuan, they had a lot of lay-ups and dunks in the first half.  What did you do better in the second half to cut that off?

 

DeJuan Blair:  We adjusted to it.  Coach did an excellent job seeing what they were doing.  They were slipping the screen.  So Sam and Terrell did an excellent job just handling the slip-ins.  Our help side was better.  And the guards did an excellent job being in the gaps, helping out on the slips, so we did an excellent job on that.  That was coaching.

 

Q.  DeJuan, what did your coach say to you after your performance last night?

 

DeJuan Blair:  He just said to keep my head up.  That was a tough game yesterday for me.  He just said, "It's over.  That was yesterday.  Worry about tomorrow."  So I just went in my room and just thought about it, thought about what I did wrong, what could I do better tomorrow.  And I adjusted to everything I did.  So my shots were better.  Took my time being patient in the post.

 

My coach had a lot of confidence in me, bringing me the ball, so I just handled it very well.  Kept my head up.  Everybody, all my teammates, my mother and my father called me.  Got a lot of calls from back home.  I'm going to have games like that.  Everybody has (bad) games.  But luckily we're in the tournament, and we get to have another day to redeem yourself.  So I think I did an excellent job at that and get ready for tomorrow.

 

Q.  Ronald, the first time you guys played Louisville, Edgar Sosa had a big game.  What changed in the past couple of weeks that limited him today?

 

Ronald Ramon:  I think it was just about team defense.  We talked about being in the gaps, making sure we saw the ball screen pretty well coming down screens.  So we tried to readjust to some of the things they did to us in the first game.  Being able to practice and going through their plays a few times.  We were able to come out and adjust to it.

 

Q.  Ronald, you've been to the semifinals a couple times in the past few years, what have you learned in the past that you'll expect for tomorrow night?

 

Ronald Ramon:  Play hard.  We've just got to come out and play as a team.  This game's going to be behind us in another five minutes.  We've just got to get ready for tomorrow.  Watch, see who we're going to play, and mentally just get focused.  Come out with the same intensity and same mentality about playing defense.

 

Q.  Ronald, Coach talked about how the team is coming into its own now that it's getting healthy.  For you and players on the court, how different does it feel now than maybe in January or February?

 

Ronald Ramon:  It was different just because guys weren't able to get after it.  Practice is where it starts.  We weren't able to compete, we weren't able to go after each other, do the aggressive drills as we call them.  But now that guys are healthy, we're able to go five-on-five, get after it, making each other better in practice, and I think that's where it starts.  Now we'll be going on the court and playing games, the chemistry's there and we know what we have to do to win games.

 

Q.  You guys played Duke back here in December, how much of that benefited you guys playing them prior to this tournament?

 

Sam Young:  It helped us a lot.  Most teams probably play here once, we played here twice.  We always play, we always have good games.  We always play pretty decent here.  As I said, this is our home away from home.  So I just feed off the energy that the New York guys bring.

 

Quoting Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino and David Padgett

           

COACH PITINO:  As most Big East basketball games, it was hard fought.  We just went cold at the wrong time even with tip-ins and lay-ups toward the end.  Our guys did a good job of fighting back to get into overtime.  Sometimes it's just about making shots, it's a simple explanation.  We just couldn't make shots.  But you've got to give Pitt credit, their defense had a lot to do with it.

 

Q.  Last couple of games your guards have been a little off shooting-wise, do you see anything mechanically?

 

COACH PITINO:  I don't.  I think they're open shots just not going in.  I think T-Will's shots were just bad shots.  Runners in the lane and off balance.  I think the ones, two, and threes just collectively had a bad night.  The fours and fives played well.  But sometimes you have a deep bench if can you get some guys to come in, it's a little bit better.  But just collectively everybody had a bad night.  That's, again, a tribute to Pittsburgh's defense.

 

Q.  Which things need to be addressed before the NCAA Tournament?

COACH PITINO:  Well, I'll take a look at the film first.  We've had a good year, and we'll take a look at the film and make our improvements.

 

Q.  Last time you played Pitt they had only four turnovers against the press.  They had their point guard tonight with 17, can you explain what you did differently?

 

COACH PITINO:  We relied on offense last game.  We didn't play good defense at Pitt.  We just shot 57% for the game.  We dominated the glass.  Tonight they dominated the glass early with a lot of offensive rebounds.  We were playing excellent defense, but we would have shot 25% if we would have blocked out better in the first half.  The second half was just a matter of us executing better.  They did a good job of stopping our interior, giving our perimeter players a shot, and we just didn't knock it down.

 

Q.  David, it's nothing new, I guess.  They came at you real hard with double teams.  But did they do anything differently defensively than maybe they did last time?

 

DAVID PADGETT:  No, they were aggressive in their defensive game plan.  You know, they came after me pretty hard when I caught the ball.  They were ready to check the post and did a good job of being aggressive with their defense.

 

Q.  When you said they were aggressive with their defense, was that a surprise to you, were you expecting that?

DAVID PADGETT:  No, we knew.  We knew they were going to probably come after us in the post.  We've got to give them credit.  They played very well on defense, they were very aggressive in what they did.

 

Q.  Rick, you sat behind Pitt's bench last night, is that something that you normally do?

 

COACH PITINO:  It's just where I had the seats.  I would have been across the court.  They were my seats that I had for the tournament.  I didn't know it was Pitt's bench at all.  Didn't gain anything by it.  We know them very well.  Looking at Antigua's warm-up, his outfits, that's about it.  That's the only thing I gained by it.  Orlando looked pretty sharp.

 

Q.  Can you talk about the way Derrick played tonight for you.

 

COACH PITINO:  They played well.  Our front court played well.  Then they started taking away our front court, and we threw it out.  And we had difficulty scoring from that point on.  Generally we don't, but collectively our wing players and our point guards went cold.  Hasn't happened to us this year, but it can happen.

 

Q.  How much does it concern you entering the tournament with two straight losses?

 

COACH PITINO:  Well, obviously you don't follow basketball very well.  Because if you think it's bad to lose to Georgetown at Georgetown, a hard-fought game in Pittsburgh in overtime, you don't follow basketball very much.  Because I think they're two terrific basketball teams that played better than us down the stretch.  So if that's a concern for you, it's not a concern for me.  You worry about it, I won't.  Go home and lose a lot of sleep over it.  Promise?  Okay.  (Smiling).

 

Q.  Which Big East team do you think over the last few weeks are playing the best?

 

COACH PITINO:  I thought we were until tonight.  I think Georgetown had a brilliant shooting.  There's an old cliche, "shooting cures a multitude of sins."  Teams always look much better when they shoot the ball well and you make the outside shot.  When you don't shoot well, you don't look as good, obviously, no matter how well you played defensively.

 

Georgetown looked great tonight.  They shot the ball well.  We didn't, we didn't look as good.  It's just part of the game.  It's always been that way.  So we've got to regroup and make sure.  We took good shots tonight, we just didn't make them.

 

So I think everybody's playing well in the Big East.  I think it's a very evenly balanced conference.  I know we've had close games with the exception of maybe a few this year.  We've had very close games with just about everybody.  And it's a very tough conference, very closely -- I couldn't tell you who is better.  Villanova was playing terrific, they lose.  Syracuse was coming back, playing well.  Notre Dame on a given night.  I think it's just on a given night.

 

But you've got to give Georgetown credit, because they won the championship beating us, and now they're probably the best team right now.  But you never know.  West Virginia's coming on.  They were very aggressive today.  We'll go home and lick our wounds.