BleedGopher
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Pitino was on 1500 just now. These notes aren't verbatim, but they are close:
Pitino on walk-on tryouts this Thursday…We are looking to add another guard and another wing. This is something we take very seriously and hopefully we can find a few guys that can help. We did them last year, we hope the numbers (of those trying out) get bigger. We’ll keep an open eye and you never know what you can get.
Pitino on who will take the biggest step from last year to this year…Interesting question. I think you’ll be familiar with a lot of faces. Deandre, Andre, Joey, Elliot, Mo, all those guys will be what they were last year. Hopefully they take a step forward, Andre getting healthy. Daquein is taking a step forward. The new guys are fitting nicely. Nate Mason is probably the best defensive guard we have on the team, to have him come in and contribute right away will be huge. Bakaray has potential. He is not where Mo and Elliot are offensively, but he can bring a lot defensively. Carlos can bring a lot defensively. Josh Martin can be like a Bird Man type of player and can effect a lot of different areas of the game.
Pitino on Mathieu and how fatherhood has changed him…I don’t think a whole lot. Anyone who has a couple of months old child knows you aren’t sleeping. Night time is a scary deal and we joke about that every now and then. He’s a mature kid already and its not like fatherhood needed to mature him.
Pitino on Mo Walker…Mo took a giant step last year (from the year before) and I don’t know if you’ll see that realistically. What I challenge both of those guys on (Mo and Elliot) is let’s have not only a healthy competition, but lets see who separates themselves. Who is going to make me start them by playing well. They are both playing well which is a good problem to have. Mo is getting better at rebounding and needs to show emotion like Elliot does.
Pitino on guard rotation…I don’t know if anyone is going to beat out Deandre at the starting PG spot. He is one of a few guys on the team who can’t play multiple positions. Andre can play the 1, 2 and 3. Carlos can play the 2 and 3. Unless McNeil challenges Morris like he’s been doing, both could start. The Mo and Elliot thing is up in the air. I don’t think Joey is going to lose his starting spot to Martin because Joey gets it right now.
Pitino on Carlos Morris…He is different than Austin Hollins. Austin was such a good presence on the court. Carlos’ biggest problem is he is a mute on the basketball court. He never ever speaks. He’ll get more comfortable with that as time goes on. He’s just a shy kid. Talent wise he’s very good. He can go by guys, he’s slithery and he can defend. He can impact right away we just need to get him to communicate more.
Pitino on communicating with his Dad with the game upcoming…It’s going to be weird because we’re so ingrained with each other’s programs and talk about practice. I don’t think that will change. There isn’t even a little part of me that wants him to fail on the basketball court, maybe on the golf course, but not the basketball court and I think he thinks that way as well about me. We talk about a home-and-home annually. We are trying to get to his level and we’re not there as it takes years to get there. If not Louisville we’re trying to get a home-and-home with a marquee game next year. We want to add a marquee opponent.
Pitino on if the team can get to where he wants us playing defensively…I can’t put a time limit on it. We’re going to lose a lot of guys this year. Five practices in, it looks like we have the mindset and physical nature to play how we want to play defensively. We’re taking a step forward in that direction. It takes time. Look at our football team right now, in year 4 and how strong that program is looking. We’re moving towards that.
Pitino on the increased attention…When you grow up as Rick Pitino’s son in Lexington, that’s the biggest spotlight you will get. The nice part of this town, is 99% of the people you meet in Minnesota are Gopher fans. That’s what makes this job so special. In Kentucky, you walk into a restaurant and half the place are Louisville fans and half are Kentucky fans.
Go Gophers!!
Pitino on walk-on tryouts this Thursday…We are looking to add another guard and another wing. This is something we take very seriously and hopefully we can find a few guys that can help. We did them last year, we hope the numbers (of those trying out) get bigger. We’ll keep an open eye and you never know what you can get.
Pitino on who will take the biggest step from last year to this year…Interesting question. I think you’ll be familiar with a lot of faces. Deandre, Andre, Joey, Elliot, Mo, all those guys will be what they were last year. Hopefully they take a step forward, Andre getting healthy. Daquein is taking a step forward. The new guys are fitting nicely. Nate Mason is probably the best defensive guard we have on the team, to have him come in and contribute right away will be huge. Bakaray has potential. He is not where Mo and Elliot are offensively, but he can bring a lot defensively. Carlos can bring a lot defensively. Josh Martin can be like a Bird Man type of player and can effect a lot of different areas of the game.
Pitino on Mathieu and how fatherhood has changed him…I don’t think a whole lot. Anyone who has a couple of months old child knows you aren’t sleeping. Night time is a scary deal and we joke about that every now and then. He’s a mature kid already and its not like fatherhood needed to mature him.
Pitino on Mo Walker…Mo took a giant step last year (from the year before) and I don’t know if you’ll see that realistically. What I challenge both of those guys on (Mo and Elliot) is let’s have not only a healthy competition, but lets see who separates themselves. Who is going to make me start them by playing well. They are both playing well which is a good problem to have. Mo is getting better at rebounding and needs to show emotion like Elliot does.
Pitino on guard rotation…I don’t know if anyone is going to beat out Deandre at the starting PG spot. He is one of a few guys on the team who can’t play multiple positions. Andre can play the 1, 2 and 3. Carlos can play the 2 and 3. Unless McNeil challenges Morris like he’s been doing, both could start. The Mo and Elliot thing is up in the air. I don’t think Joey is going to lose his starting spot to Martin because Joey gets it right now.
Pitino on Carlos Morris…He is different than Austin Hollins. Austin was such a good presence on the court. Carlos’ biggest problem is he is a mute on the basketball court. He never ever speaks. He’ll get more comfortable with that as time goes on. He’s just a shy kid. Talent wise he’s very good. He can go by guys, he’s slithery and he can defend. He can impact right away we just need to get him to communicate more.
Pitino on communicating with his Dad with the game upcoming…It’s going to be weird because we’re so ingrained with each other’s programs and talk about practice. I don’t think that will change. There isn’t even a little part of me that wants him to fail on the basketball court, maybe on the golf course, but not the basketball court and I think he thinks that way as well about me. We talk about a home-and-home annually. We are trying to get to his level and we’re not there as it takes years to get there. If not Louisville we’re trying to get a home-and-home with a marquee game next year. We want to add a marquee opponent.
Pitino on if the team can get to where he wants us playing defensively…I can’t put a time limit on it. We’re going to lose a lot of guys this year. Five practices in, it looks like we have the mindset and physical nature to play how we want to play defensively. We’re taking a step forward in that direction. It takes time. Look at our football team right now, in year 4 and how strong that program is looking. We’re moving towards that.
Pitino on the increased attention…When you grow up as Rick Pitino’s son in Lexington, that’s the biggest spotlight you will get. The nice part of this town, is 99% of the people you meet in Minnesota are Gopher fans. That’s what makes this job so special. In Kentucky, you walk into a restaurant and half the place are Louisville fans and half are Kentucky fans.
Go Gophers!!
