GopherLady
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about points. That is the key that he's trying to get through to his players.
Here are my rough notes, just typing as they talk. Not verbatim, but you get the idea
.
Nate Mason
• On Mathieu - He's terrific, he set the tone for us and made everyone else play better
• Pitino told us Dont hold our heads, we need to come back the next day and work*
Mo Walker
• It felt really good on the home floor
• What they improved upon - Pressure defensively, all our guards came in and really heated it up
• I took the turnovers from him (joking that he got Mathieu's TO's)
• I'm impressed by the way Nate's been playing, he's been playing with confidence.*
DeAndre Matthieu
• It feels good to have a good one out there after how I played against Louisville. I feel like I'm back in my groove, I'm finding my niche and I'm learning I can play hard without fouling.
• Today the lanes were just opening up I wasn't really anticipating getting in the lane that much. They're really a good defensive team on film, they did a good job of stopping down guys driving, but the lanes just opened up and I got some easy looks.
• On playing timid against Louisville because of the foul issues: The 2nd half, I definitely was playing timid, I relaxed. Coach really was on me these last few days about upping my pressure and being the most intense player in the country. His Dad even told me that guys really look at if you if you can pick up a guy 50, 74 feet, they'll give you a contract somewhere, so I took that into mind and just made my defense better. *
• Rick Pitino's words of wisdom: He told us we need to establish our identity, his guards are really really really aggressive on defensive and we felt we backed down on them a little bit, but we took the next few days of practice and worked on pressuring the ball all the time, all over the floor and it showed today. *
• I'm really hard on myself when I don't have a good game. I tell myself not to have a bad game and I had 2 bad games in a row, so I tried to bounce back today and really asserted myself in practice.
• The most important stat to him? Steals, because it says I was playing hard and getting out there.
• What about Fouls? Staying out of foul trouble really helps me build the stats because I'm actually getting to play in the game and not sitting on the sidelines.
Richard Pitino:
• That was probably our best defensive performance since I've been here. It all started with our guards.
• We told DeAndre you're 5'9" if you want to be noticed, get steals, deflections, stop worrying about your points.
• Andre Hollins was tremendous, and he wasn't concerned about his points which was great to see
• We need to get to having an identity as a team, this is the way we want to play, you need to impose your will, we didn't let them run their sets, we took a good job of taking Fant and T.J. Prince out of the game.
• You don't normally open up your season against a top 10 opponent. Our guys learned from it, they did a great job in the 1st half of defending without fouling.
• They learned from those Louisville guards, they are not physically better than our guards. They are little guards too. If they want to separate themselves, they need to not worry about points.
• Andre set the tone for not worrying about scoring, and if DeAndre gets to that point, we're in good shape. We need to get McNeil, and Morris to buy into that too.
• The ball pressure was the best part, before we didn't let them run a lot of plays, we scrambled out with our guards, our 2nd rotations were really really good, we learned from Louisville in that regard. There's not reasdon we can't get to that level.
• Nate's going to be a really good player, I think he showed that tonight. Andre and DeAndre are willing to teach and help them learn.
• I think guys are comfortable with Mo in the low post, they know if they throw it to him, he'll score. He needs to make some quicker moves. There's no reason Mo can't be one of the top low post threats in the conference, aside from Kaminsky, there's no one else.
• We tell the bigs to block out, and the guards come in and rebound. Our guards should get a lot of rebounds because of that, because their guys are going back in transition.
• Elliott brought great energy off the bench, I like him off the bench.
• Morris has a similar mindset as Malik does, wanting to shoot the ball. We chart paint touches for him, he had 9 tonight, and he needs at least 10. He needs to get paint touches and stop worrying about shooting so many jump shots. To stop shooting jump shots all the time, drive the basketball. I don't want him looking at the bench seeing if they should shoot or not, I want my guys to play with freedom.
• On Josh Martin - He's not ready, he's nervous I think. He needs to get reps, he's a great kid, he works hard, he's a freshman. Bakary is the same way, he's nervous.
We got better today, we got better after the 2 practices following Louisville. You've got a team that was beating St. John's at halftime. I like the mindset of our team right now.
Here are my rough notes, just typing as they talk. Not verbatim, but you get the idea
.Nate Mason
• On Mathieu - He's terrific, he set the tone for us and made everyone else play better
• Pitino told us Dont hold our heads, we need to come back the next day and work*
Mo Walker
• It felt really good on the home floor
• What they improved upon - Pressure defensively, all our guards came in and really heated it up
• I took the turnovers from him (joking that he got Mathieu's TO's)
• I'm impressed by the way Nate's been playing, he's been playing with confidence.*
DeAndre Matthieu
• It feels good to have a good one out there after how I played against Louisville. I feel like I'm back in my groove, I'm finding my niche and I'm learning I can play hard without fouling.
• Today the lanes were just opening up I wasn't really anticipating getting in the lane that much. They're really a good defensive team on film, they did a good job of stopping down guys driving, but the lanes just opened up and I got some easy looks.
• On playing timid against Louisville because of the foul issues: The 2nd half, I definitely was playing timid, I relaxed. Coach really was on me these last few days about upping my pressure and being the most intense player in the country. His Dad even told me that guys really look at if you if you can pick up a guy 50, 74 feet, they'll give you a contract somewhere, so I took that into mind and just made my defense better. *
• Rick Pitino's words of wisdom: He told us we need to establish our identity, his guards are really really really aggressive on defensive and we felt we backed down on them a little bit, but we took the next few days of practice and worked on pressuring the ball all the time, all over the floor and it showed today. *
• I'm really hard on myself when I don't have a good game. I tell myself not to have a bad game and I had 2 bad games in a row, so I tried to bounce back today and really asserted myself in practice.
• The most important stat to him? Steals, because it says I was playing hard and getting out there.
• What about Fouls? Staying out of foul trouble really helps me build the stats because I'm actually getting to play in the game and not sitting on the sidelines.
Richard Pitino:
• That was probably our best defensive performance since I've been here. It all started with our guards.
• We told DeAndre you're 5'9" if you want to be noticed, get steals, deflections, stop worrying about your points.
• Andre Hollins was tremendous, and he wasn't concerned about his points which was great to see
• We need to get to having an identity as a team, this is the way we want to play, you need to impose your will, we didn't let them run their sets, we took a good job of taking Fant and T.J. Prince out of the game.
• You don't normally open up your season against a top 10 opponent. Our guys learned from it, they did a great job in the 1st half of defending without fouling.
• They learned from those Louisville guards, they are not physically better than our guards. They are little guards too. If they want to separate themselves, they need to not worry about points.
• Andre set the tone for not worrying about scoring, and if DeAndre gets to that point, we're in good shape. We need to get McNeil, and Morris to buy into that too.
• The ball pressure was the best part, before we didn't let them run a lot of plays, we scrambled out with our guards, our 2nd rotations were really really good, we learned from Louisville in that regard. There's not reasdon we can't get to that level.
• Nate's going to be a really good player, I think he showed that tonight. Andre and DeAndre are willing to teach and help them learn.
• I think guys are comfortable with Mo in the low post, they know if they throw it to him, he'll score. He needs to make some quicker moves. There's no reason Mo can't be one of the top low post threats in the conference, aside from Kaminsky, there's no one else.
• We tell the bigs to block out, and the guards come in and rebound. Our guards should get a lot of rebounds because of that, because their guys are going back in transition.
• Elliott brought great energy off the bench, I like him off the bench.
• Morris has a similar mindset as Malik does, wanting to shoot the ball. We chart paint touches for him, he had 9 tonight, and he needs at least 10. He needs to get paint touches and stop worrying about shooting so many jump shots. To stop shooting jump shots all the time, drive the basketball. I don't want him looking at the bench seeing if they should shoot or not, I want my guys to play with freedom.
• On Josh Martin - He's not ready, he's nervous I think. He needs to get reps, he's a great kid, he works hard, he's a freshman. Bakary is the same way, he's nervous.
We got better today, we got better after the 2 practices following Louisville. You've got a team that was beating St. John's at halftime. I like the mindset of our team right now.
