University of Minnesota Athletics
Postgame Quotes
1/31/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 31, 2015
On how his team played today:
On Minnesota's zone:
On troubles with the shot clock:
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Minnesota Head Coach Richard Pitino
Opening statement:
"It was certainly a good win. We did a lot of good things--defensively, obviously. Offensive was good. [Nebraska] is not a very good team offensively, but they are a great defensive team. To shoot 44 percent and 60 percent in the second half, we were really efficient. Overall, it was a great effort. Mo Walker was really, really good, really efficient. Andre [Hollins] did a lot of good things. Nate [Mason] hit a big shot at the end. Andre was really good today. He had five rebounds, six assists and just one turnover. That's really good. I'm happy with it. We will enjoy a couple of days off and then get ready for Purdue."
On Maurice Walker's performance in the Gophers' second game against Nebraska:
"I think his patience was really good. He was getting good position. I think more than anything, he was really patient and really efficient tonight."
On creating so many Nebraska turnovers:
"I think it was the press. We did a couple of things, like trapping out of the zone. We were really aggressive in the first half. We executed and did what we needed to do. Tim Miles really gets those guys to play hard. They play great defense, so I have a lot of respect for that team and him as a coach."
On the Gophers' effective zone in their first matchup with Nebraska giving them confidence for today:
Yeah, definitely. We knew that we played a good defensive game last time. We just didn't make our free throws, but we're pretty confident in how we played defense this time. I think we played more zone this time and we made stops and got rebounds.
Nebraska Head Coach Tim MilesMinnesota Guard Andre Hollins
On the Gophers' effective zone in their first matchup with Nebraska giving them confidence for today:
Yeah, definitely. We knew that we played a good defensive game last time. We just didn't make our free throws, but we're pretty confident in how we played defense this time. I think we played more zone this time and we made stops and got rebounds.
On Maurice Walker's all-around game today:
He's very active. Mo was very aggressive today. He was everywhere defensively and offensively and that's what we need from him.
On whether the Gophers' zone defense today was stronger than at Nebraska:
I think the second half at Nebraska, we opened our zone up and they penetrated the zone and, today, we stayed tight on the non-shooters. Just targeted [Walter] Pitchford and [Terran] Petteway. We made sure we made their nights difficult. We challenged late on the shooter.
Minnesota Guard DeAndre Mathieu
On who he thought was the difference maker for Minnesota:
Mo Walker. Mo Walker being Mo Walker. That's really all the team we need. He's being dominant in the post and, I think, defensively. The team defensively as a total, as a whole, we really locked up today. That was the big difference. If we do that every game we'll be a lot better.
On how his team played today:
"I thought that we played with more heart today. I thought we played harder, so I saw progress in our demeanor and our effort. You got guys in tears in the locker room, so you can see that the week mattered to them."
On Minnesota's zone:
"I thought they do a good job at getting you to race around a little bit, and we didn't transition well from press to zone on offense. That's what I think was best about it. They get you spread out, and then by the time you are able to get lined up in your zone attack or whatever, now the clock's down. We were trying to switch offenses in the first half and that didn't work very well. In the second half we just went with pure motion and just got our cutters going early and that helped. So I think their ability to press and then seamlessly go into their zone while we were trying to set up zone 'O' was probably our most difficult challenge besides having the 31 possessions and 15 turnovers. That doesn't usually go well."
On troubles with the shot clock:
"We were trying to get deployed, is what I call it, all the right guys in the right place, but guys are interchangeable and I think our guys didn't want to go to a place where they wouldn't be comfortable. For instance let's say Walter Pitchford is more comfortable being on top of the key to run our zone secondary offense but he can also play down low, 4 and 5 can flip and Dave Rivers can play high, and Dave would prefer not to play high, and if they ended up in different spots they'd want to switch spots. Now you're looking at 17 on the shot clock. We went away from that and tried to go to pure motion and a few ideas and I thought that was better for us in the second half."
Players Mentioned
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