Postgame Quotes

Feb. 7, 2015

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Postgame Quotes

Minnesota 62, Purdue 58

Feb. 7, 2015

Williams Arena

Minnesota Head Coach Richard Pitino

Pitino opening statement...

"Proud of the win. I thought the beginning of the second half was about as good of pressure as we've ever had here in the past two years. That set the tone more than anything. To do that, with that intensity in a conference game against a very good team, was really impressive. That changed the game. They hit some really crazy shots. They banked in three shots. I've never seen that. I thought our guys played really good defense against a very good team. So we're excited about it. We'll take a day off tomorrow and move on."

On Carlos Morris defensively...

"I think that's DeAndre [Mathieu] and Andre [Hollins]. We put so much pressure on the ball. [Morris] was doing a good job of rotating, but he didn't play real well. But other guys stepped up and he just needs to be more patient offensively and not try to rush it. He got some really good steals."

On the team's defense...

"I don't think I coached a very good offensive game. I didn't think I did a good job with that. We wanted to get fouled. I thought that was good. I thought defensively we had a great game plan. We were trapping down with our guards, doing a lot of really good things. Our defense continues to improve returning guys over. We played all zone, hardly played any man, and it continues to get better. We adjusted. We were playing a traditional 2-3 zone against Nebraska. We went with a match-up zone and I thought it was really good today."

Minnesota Senior Guard Andre Hollins

On the team's ability to bounce back in the second half...

"When we play defense the way we did, that really shows that you have a chance. We played really good defense to get ourselves back in the game. We have a lot of confidence and control the things we can, which includes playing hard all the time."

On the defensive success to start the second half...

"That was fun. That was really fun. We got steal after steal. The crowd really got into it. It was great. That is the brand of basketball that we want to play."

Minnesota Senior Forward Maurice Walker

On making a play on the ball at the end of the game...

"I just tried to get to the ball with my hands straight up. I know that sometimes that is called a foul, but good thing it wasn't. He just threw the ball into my hands and I was able to make a nice play."

On the defensive start of the second half...

"We were just really getting after it defensively. Coach mentioned at halftime that we didn't quite have as much intensity as we normally do and we needed to step it up. We take pride in stepping up and creating pressure. Our guards played great, and that really helped us get into the break and we put up a lot of points by doing that."

Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter

On losing a close game...

"Now, it's just we've had two games where we won by a basket and both games have had the best players or the second best players out. We stole a game on the road, hitting a three at the buzzer. We have a good record, but three of those games can be flipped very easily. [Minnesota] is on the other end of that. There are games that they feel like they should have won, and they haven't, and so I think both teams are really similar in that respect. We're not a whole lot different when we played them. That's just how it is."

On whether the turnovers surprised him...

"Yes. I just thought our guys were casual the second half. We had a couple once we got in the half, but we just threw it. You've got to have a sense of where you are and who's around you and Carlos Morris, both times, just came and took the ball from us. We were falling down. It was just one of those things that just kind of snowballed in the wrong direction."

On whether his team should have been more dominant...

"When you dominate in the glass the way we did that first half, we had zero offensive rebounds and we're only up four. We didn't allow them to get any second chance opportunities. [Joey] King got away from us a couple times. We didn't take care of the basketball. That's the difference in the game."

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Players Mentioned

Andre Hollins

Carlos Morris

Maurice Walker