GopherLady
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I know not everyone is as big of a Kendal Shell fan as I am, but you've got to be happy for a kid that's worked his butt off to play so well tonight. His team and Pitino also raved about him. Here are my notes...
Richard Pitino
• That team has played a lot of teams in a short amount of time. 58% from the field is great, we only shot 4 challenged shots, against Louisville it was 18. Carlos Morris was very efficient, that's what he needs to do.
• I just hate when guys feel like they aren't comfortable on offense, they need to feel that way. Morris saw it, every shot he took was very good, and that's why he played a good game.
• It's growth, I don't know how much stock I'm going to put into tonight. I do think this team has done a good job the last 2 games to impose our will, it's hard sometimes to play a team like this, and get up for it. There were probably about 8000 there, that's good. The crowd has been great, a lot to build off of.
• I liked Morris and Mason a lot while recruiting them. They had the ability to do a lot of things. I think they showed that. I think that Nate is certainly the most ready of any of the guys. I don't consider Carlos a Freshman, but he is a newcomer.
• I like our perimeter rotation a lot, this time, if a guy makes a mistake I can pull him out and explain it to him, and we won't drop off on defense.
• Everywhere besides the power forward spot I'm comfortable with our depth. Every possession is so important.
• Their identity now, defensively, is that they can really wear guys out. We want to take guys out of what they want to do. Andre played a great game last game I thought he was phenomenal, great attitude and defense. Both Dres need to separate themselves from others, and everyone will follow suit. Since the Louisville game, the light bulb went on a little bit that if you want to be noticed, we press every possession is for you two to be at the front of the press.
• I think it starts with the front of our press, the guards, everyone is watching them, if they're setting traps, speed dribble, then everyone follows suit. We want to bring that constant heat. It starts with those guys, it starts with the guys at the front.
• Elliott hardly played, and that had nothing to do with anything. A game like tonight is great for guys off the bench to get some time.
• We've got 3 very tough games, a tough week and a half.
• What makes Nate Mason different? Confidence would be the word. Nate's out there, he's the one guys vs. Louisville where the lights weren't too bright for him. Very solid across the board about everything.
• We've been pressing, when you speed up guys, they talk quick shots….our big guys are blocking out then. That's a huge focal point. Andre had
• Kendal Shell - I'm happy with him. We always talk about Mo, but he lost a lot of weight, he's in great shape. He's a special kid, every single day, he's got a great attitude, he works his butt off. If he's on the maroon team and they win and the gold team has to run a sprint, he's running the sprint regardless. He's a guy I would hire in a heartbeat, in any profession. He's going to get a great job because he's got great character, works his butt off and is extremely smart.
Mo Walker:
Kendal had a great game today, it's good to see him getting shots off. He's put in work for 4 years now, so games like this, it's time for him to shine.
How did they not overlook this game? I was told this was going to be a lot of a mental game, we were coming off just one day of prep, we usually play down to our opponents, but we just played our game and didn't change anything.
He said we needed to do a better job on the boards (at halftime)
On Pitino getting on him for not rebounding last game: He gave me a little bit of a hard time. I made a little more of an effort to grab the rebounds today that the last game.
DeAndre Mathieu:
We got to impose our will a little more, we just need to keep getting better.
On not overlooking this opponent: Coach told us not to overlook this opponent. Last year we played a D2 opponent, Chaminade, and we were down 7 at half we know we can be beat by anyone on anyday.
On Kendal Shell - That's big time man. It's always good to see Kendal come off the bench and go off like that. He's been working. We're happy for Kendal. He's fiery, he's always up, he's always playing hard, he goes hard everyday, he's the ultimate team player, we love him.
Kendal Shell:
I just knew I was going to get in soon, I don't know how many more opportunities I'd get with this much time on the court so I needed to take advantage of it and do everything I could to play. I told myself if I'm open, I'm going to shoot it, and that's what I did. Me and Nate we play together at practice on the gold squad, so we always play together, anytime I'm open he always seems to find me and it worked out and I found him a couple of times too. He was definitely looking for me. He let me know early that I needed to score.
On the bench going crazy when he hit his 3 pointer: They're always on my side through everything, it was cool to see them get up like that. I knew when I scored that I wanted to get a couple more, so I couldn’t get too excited when they were yelling like that.
When I was shooting, I didn't even keep track of how many I had. I just tried to keep going.
At the beginning of the season the biggest thing was focusing on ourselves and not the other team. Once the Big 10 starts, it will be really big. Right now, we're focusing on getting our identity like Coach said, and getting better each day, and just worry about what we're going to do. That's the only thing we can control.
On buying into Pitino's philosophy of not focusing on scoring - I think the last game was the biggest step for us, and this game continued it. It showed that we can be unselfish, there's not one person on this team that wouldn't want another person scoring more than them, that's big. In our past 3 years, this is the team that's been the most unselfish, we're just so close to each other, we want everyone to do well.
Richard Pitino
• That team has played a lot of teams in a short amount of time. 58% from the field is great, we only shot 4 challenged shots, against Louisville it was 18. Carlos Morris was very efficient, that's what he needs to do.
• I just hate when guys feel like they aren't comfortable on offense, they need to feel that way. Morris saw it, every shot he took was very good, and that's why he played a good game.
• It's growth, I don't know how much stock I'm going to put into tonight. I do think this team has done a good job the last 2 games to impose our will, it's hard sometimes to play a team like this, and get up for it. There were probably about 8000 there, that's good. The crowd has been great, a lot to build off of.
• I liked Morris and Mason a lot while recruiting them. They had the ability to do a lot of things. I think they showed that. I think that Nate is certainly the most ready of any of the guys. I don't consider Carlos a Freshman, but he is a newcomer.
• I like our perimeter rotation a lot, this time, if a guy makes a mistake I can pull him out and explain it to him, and we won't drop off on defense.
• Everywhere besides the power forward spot I'm comfortable with our depth. Every possession is so important.
• Their identity now, defensively, is that they can really wear guys out. We want to take guys out of what they want to do. Andre played a great game last game I thought he was phenomenal, great attitude and defense. Both Dres need to separate themselves from others, and everyone will follow suit. Since the Louisville game, the light bulb went on a little bit that if you want to be noticed, we press every possession is for you two to be at the front of the press.
• I think it starts with the front of our press, the guards, everyone is watching them, if they're setting traps, speed dribble, then everyone follows suit. We want to bring that constant heat. It starts with those guys, it starts with the guys at the front.
• Elliott hardly played, and that had nothing to do with anything. A game like tonight is great for guys off the bench to get some time.
• We've got 3 very tough games, a tough week and a half.
• What makes Nate Mason different? Confidence would be the word. Nate's out there, he's the one guys vs. Louisville where the lights weren't too bright for him. Very solid across the board about everything.
• We've been pressing, when you speed up guys, they talk quick shots….our big guys are blocking out then. That's a huge focal point. Andre had
• Kendal Shell - I'm happy with him. We always talk about Mo, but he lost a lot of weight, he's in great shape. He's a special kid, every single day, he's got a great attitude, he works his butt off. If he's on the maroon team and they win and the gold team has to run a sprint, he's running the sprint regardless. He's a guy I would hire in a heartbeat, in any profession. He's going to get a great job because he's got great character, works his butt off and is extremely smart.
Mo Walker:
Kendal had a great game today, it's good to see him getting shots off. He's put in work for 4 years now, so games like this, it's time for him to shine.
How did they not overlook this game? I was told this was going to be a lot of a mental game, we were coming off just one day of prep, we usually play down to our opponents, but we just played our game and didn't change anything.
He said we needed to do a better job on the boards (at halftime)
On Pitino getting on him for not rebounding last game: He gave me a little bit of a hard time. I made a little more of an effort to grab the rebounds today that the last game.
DeAndre Mathieu:
We got to impose our will a little more, we just need to keep getting better.
On not overlooking this opponent: Coach told us not to overlook this opponent. Last year we played a D2 opponent, Chaminade, and we were down 7 at half we know we can be beat by anyone on anyday.
On Kendal Shell - That's big time man. It's always good to see Kendal come off the bench and go off like that. He's been working. We're happy for Kendal. He's fiery, he's always up, he's always playing hard, he goes hard everyday, he's the ultimate team player, we love him.
Kendal Shell:
I just knew I was going to get in soon, I don't know how many more opportunities I'd get with this much time on the court so I needed to take advantage of it and do everything I could to play. I told myself if I'm open, I'm going to shoot it, and that's what I did. Me and Nate we play together at practice on the gold squad, so we always play together, anytime I'm open he always seems to find me and it worked out and I found him a couple of times too. He was definitely looking for me. He let me know early that I needed to score.
On the bench going crazy when he hit his 3 pointer: They're always on my side through everything, it was cool to see them get up like that. I knew when I scored that I wanted to get a couple more, so I couldn’t get too excited when they were yelling like that.
When I was shooting, I didn't even keep track of how many I had. I just tried to keep going.
At the beginning of the season the biggest thing was focusing on ourselves and not the other team. Once the Big 10 starts, it will be really big. Right now, we're focusing on getting our identity like Coach said, and getting better each day, and just worry about what we're going to do. That's the only thing we can control.
On buying into Pitino's philosophy of not focusing on scoring - I think the last game was the biggest step for us, and this game continued it. It showed that we can be unselfish, there's not one person on this team that wouldn't want another person scoring more than them, that's big. In our past 3 years, this is the team that's been the most unselfish, we're just so close to each other, we want everyone to do well.
