GopherLady
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Here are the post game notes, obviously not verbatim. Tom Crean did not come up to the media room after the game. Akeem Springs was hilarious, media kept on asking him questions and he kept deflecting to talk about Nate Mason. You can tell what a team player he is, he even came into the presser and mentioned Nate being the Boston Scientific Heart of The Game.
Akeem Springs:
• It felt good to contribute after a tough game
• Coach called the play out, when I got the ball, I'm like "where's Nate?" I couldn't find him, I took a shot, missed and chased it down.
• Did Pitino make the call for you? Akeem: It wasn't for me.
• Eric Curry needs a lot of credit, for taking that ball out.
• As soon as you released it, did you know it was going to be a miss? Nope. After a certain point, I realized it was short, so tried to make the play on the ball.
• We have a long way to go, it speaks to us being a good team, when you have one of your better 3 point shooters not making plays, and win.
• When you have the best guard in the conference, Nate Mason, go off…it speaks to how tough you are.
• If you see me on the bench, I'll be upset for a second, but it's more on the defensive side. I'm into it, locked in, yell, and try to help anyway I can.
• No, it's definitely the 1st one, maybe 5 shots, but 10. I'm in the gym a TON (Murphy adds - religiously), you just rep it out, and you might miss a few, and rep it out and they start falling.
• How did your confidence not waiver? (He kept bringing it back to Nate) Nate Mason had 30. My confidence doesn't sway.
• When Pitino took him out? Coach is always mad at me. That doesn't really get to me, I didn't think I was done for the game. I just come to Nate, stay engaged, I'm kneeling in front of our bench and engaged.
Jordan Murphy:
• It was a tough battle, those dudes are really really talented. To Eric's credit, he did one of the best jobs on Bryant that I've seen in the league.
Nate Mason:
• We started out horrible, and came back in the 2nd half. Says a lot about Akeem to take that shot that he did. Luckily he hit the last one
• On 4 TO's - it was one of the biggest key points that we talked about at halftime. We wanted to take care of the 2nd half.
• When did you feel you had it going tonight? Warm-ups. My cousin came into town, and I wanted to play well for him. I guess it was a little good luck charm. It was practice, everyone was going hard. We all came in and worked. Coach put us through a lot of shooting drills.
Richard Pitino:
• Pitino on Nate Mason, Springs, and Eric Curry making the winning play of the game for the Gophers. (video)
• Eric defensively did a lot of great things. Akeem was so off, he was missing layups, but he willed it in.
• I said a few things, and told them to stay confident. To his credit, he kept fighting, he's a confident kid, this is going to turn for you, and it did.
• It was clear as day. It was supposed to be a dribble hand-off for Amir, and evidently, it was not clear as day. Murph didn't set a ball screen.
• On Mason - They were jumping out on ball screens. He's a tough cover, he can shoot from the 3, mid-range, and a terrific defender, he's playing very versatile. I don't have to coach him a whole lot, he kind of coaches himself, he stayed confident and
• Curry on Bryant. Reggie leads the country with and ones, we've got to fix that. Eric was a game changer off the bench.
• Reggie staying on the court - he gives up more and ones than I've ever seen a big guy do, he's got to learn from it. I thought he was improving.
• Quickest he lost his jacket - I've been very good the last 2 years, I don't think I've gotten a T, I was yelling at Reggie, so I got a technical yelling at my player. That was the quickest ever.
• On Akeem - At the end of the day, he made a basket that won the game.
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Akeem Springs:
• It felt good to contribute after a tough game
• Coach called the play out, when I got the ball, I'm like "where's Nate?" I couldn't find him, I took a shot, missed and chased it down.
• Did Pitino make the call for you? Akeem: It wasn't for me.
• Eric Curry needs a lot of credit, for taking that ball out.
• As soon as you released it, did you know it was going to be a miss? Nope. After a certain point, I realized it was short, so tried to make the play on the ball.
• We have a long way to go, it speaks to us being a good team, when you have one of your better 3 point shooters not making plays, and win.
• When you have the best guard in the conference, Nate Mason, go off…it speaks to how tough you are.
• If you see me on the bench, I'll be upset for a second, but it's more on the defensive side. I'm into it, locked in, yell, and try to help anyway I can.
• No, it's definitely the 1st one, maybe 5 shots, but 10. I'm in the gym a TON (Murphy adds - religiously), you just rep it out, and you might miss a few, and rep it out and they start falling.
• How did your confidence not waiver? (He kept bringing it back to Nate) Nate Mason had 30. My confidence doesn't sway.
• When Pitino took him out? Coach is always mad at me. That doesn't really get to me, I didn't think I was done for the game. I just come to Nate, stay engaged, I'm kneeling in front of our bench and engaged.
Jordan Murphy:
• It was a tough battle, those dudes are really really talented. To Eric's credit, he did one of the best jobs on Bryant that I've seen in the league.
Nate Mason:
• We started out horrible, and came back in the 2nd half. Says a lot about Akeem to take that shot that he did. Luckily he hit the last one
• On 4 TO's - it was one of the biggest key points that we talked about at halftime. We wanted to take care of the 2nd half.
• When did you feel you had it going tonight? Warm-ups. My cousin came into town, and I wanted to play well for him. I guess it was a little good luck charm. It was practice, everyone was going hard. We all came in and worked. Coach put us through a lot of shooting drills.
Richard Pitino:
• Pitino on Nate Mason, Springs, and Eric Curry making the winning play of the game for the Gophers. (video)
• Eric defensively did a lot of great things. Akeem was so off, he was missing layups, but he willed it in.
• I said a few things, and told them to stay confident. To his credit, he kept fighting, he's a confident kid, this is going to turn for you, and it did.
• It was clear as day. It was supposed to be a dribble hand-off for Amir, and evidently, it was not clear as day. Murph didn't set a ball screen.
• On Mason - They were jumping out on ball screens. He's a tough cover, he can shoot from the 3, mid-range, and a terrific defender, he's playing very versatile. I don't have to coach him a whole lot, he kind of coaches himself, he stayed confident and
• Curry on Bryant. Reggie leads the country with and ones, we've got to fix that. Eric was a game changer off the bench.
• Reggie staying on the court - he gives up more and ones than I've ever seen a big guy do, he's got to learn from it. I thought he was improving.
• Quickest he lost his jacket - I've been very good the last 2 years, I don't think I've gotten a T, I was yelling at Reggie, so I got a technical yelling at my player. That was the quickest ever.
• On Akeem - At the end of the day, he made a basket that won the game.
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