University of Minnesota Athletics
Postgame Quotes
3/5/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 5, 2015
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Minnesota Head Coach Richard Pitino
On Wisconsin'sability to get the ball inside inthe first half:
Opening statement:
"Wisconsin is a good team, besides Kentucky, in my opinion. Not that I've watched everybody, but that's about as impressive of a team as I've seen. You gotta give them a lot of credit. They were a really, really hard match-up. I thought that the beginning of the game we were getting some good looks and we were just missing them for whatever reason. They were building the lead, obviously, but I thought we were playing somewhat well. But they just make you pay. They're a great team, and that's what great teams do. So, you gotta give them a lot of credit and just understand that we get to regroup and get ready for Sunday, but [Wisconsin] is a very, very good team."
On the difference in the Gophers after the first half:
"We started pressuring them more. I thought we were getting frustrated that shots weren't going in in the beginning, the first couple minutes, and it was deflating us. We were missing chippies, we were getting good looks, and I thought that deflated us a little bit, and I thought we started to understand, 'Okay, we're not gonna get frustrated with it and just stay the course.'"
On if Bakary Konate took a step forward tonight:
"Absolutely. We started getting stops and Bakary came into the game. I'm very, very excited about him, 'cause he's got size. When we went on that run to get stops, it was because of him. He's just a presence. He's a big presence. Even [Gaston Diedhiou], who's not quite ready to play in that kind of game, but he's a presence. I'm excited to build around those guys. I am. I thought Bakary was really good tonight. Probably the best game he's played."
Wisconsin Head Coach Bo RyanOn taking a tough loss tonight:
"It was extremely tough. Wisconsin made shots.They were tough to turn the ball over against. It's definitely tough to get back in the game against a team like that."
On the execution of the gameplan:
"I thought we did a good job on the offensive end. We could have gotten a couple more shots to fall. On the defensive end, we didn't do a good job on getting out to open shooters. We needed to stop Frank Kaminsky and we did not do a good job of that."
On the challenges of playing tough opponents:
"It's not really that much different for me. Coach Pitino talked about me being more aggressive and that's really the most important thing to do for games like this."
On bouncing back for the end of the season:
"We just need to keep our heads up. We need to get ready for Sunday and get ready for the Big Ten Tournament. We need to stay positive."
On Wisconsin'sability to get the ball inside inthe first half:
"Yeah, being patient. They were working it defensively. It wasn't like it was easy to make that pass in there. We had to work our angles. Post players had to move positions. We got a couple where we went back behind the guy on the defense. That really helped our guys gain some confidence. But when you shoot sevenout of 10 from the three, we've had some of those same shots against other teams and shot twoout of 10. Like I told Richard [Pitino], we shot it really well and they made their explosion and we countered that. We shot well, especially in that first half."
On if he hadone major concern coming into the game, like the pressure playing in this building, and the crowd:
"Yeah, pressure because you never know how you're going to react on the road, but for a sophomore I thought Bronson [Koenig] did pretty well. I thought Nigel [Hayes] did a real good job of helping relieve the pressure. Frank [Kaminsky] relieved the pressure at times. It was nice to have five guys who came to play and five guys who can shoot from the inside or outside. It's a good combination and that's why they have the record that they have right now."
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