University of Minnesota Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Illinois
1/23/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Minnesota Head Coach Richard Pitino
On overtime and lack of scoring…
"I thought that they were pretty good at the timeout, at the end of regulation. But obviously we didn't handle that very well."
On the pressure of the game on three-point scoring…
"Probably, its natural. Certainly, I know it's hard on the guys. It's tough. You're working hard, you want to win, and you're just not finding a way to do it. I think we've played well the last three games, keeping ourselves in a position to win the game. That's all I can ask for these guys. We just haven't won. You think about the last three, and we've had opportunities to do it, and we didn't do it. It's a learning experience for these guys. And this was a tough one, but we can't hang our heads, we have to regroup.
On over shooting the three…
"Too much, too much, Joey too much. I don't want to shoot that many. We kept talking about driving the zone, driving the zone, getting two on the ball, attacking. Certainly, we just didn't do that. It was way too many threes."
On the concern of team's emotional response for next game…
"Sure, yeah, that's my job to get them back, and get them ready to go. I thought it was a great environment, fans were awesome. I thought our guys were together, they were connected, they were about each other. We just didn't find a way to win. But that's my job the next couple days. You have to regroup. It's going to be tough tonight and tomorrow, but you got to keep fighting."
Illinois Head Coach John Groce
Opening Statement...
Minnesota Senior Joey King
On the play toward the end of the game:
"I missed a free throw, which is unacceptable. We haven't had too many close, down-to-the-wire games where we're winning recently, so I think it was a little out of the ordinary for us. To be in that position at the end of a game for the first time in a while, it was important that we knock some of those down. I had a pump fake that I should have just shot because I was running the clock. Just silly mistakes that really hurt us at the end."
On how hard it is to be playing better but still not winning:
"It's definitely frustrating that we're getting back into these 5-point games again. The good thing is that we're playing good basketball. We have an overtime game here, and a couple tight losses against some really good teams such as Michigan State and Indiana. The one thing we can't do is just lose our confidence. We've been playing decent offensively and our defense has really stepped up to the plate the last few games. We've been holding teams in the low-40's, high 30's in field goal percentage. We just have to stick with it. That's the most important thing, just not losing our confidence. We have to come out at the beginning of every game knowing that we have a chance to win."
On if he felt the team was timid to attack Illinois' zone:
"I could see that, but at the same time our guards were driving the ball pretty well. I know me and Nate [Mason] shot the three at a high volume but I think we combined for ten of them. So we shot at a decent percentage together, even though we shot such a high volume of them. When you're getting three instead of two, I'll take it. In regards to being timid to attack in the zone, we addressed that at halftime and we didn't do the best job attacking it in the second half. We were able to get them out of it for a few possessions […] but in general, we just didn't do a good enough job attacking it."
Minnesota Freshman Jordan Murphy
On how frustrating it is to let a game like this slip away:
"It's pretty frustrating just knowing that we were so close but we didn't make enough plays just to get it done. To [Illinois]'s credit, they made a lot more plays than us. We almost had them. We almost had them, but almost isn't enough."
On how they felt in overtime:
"Honestly, I don't know how the rest of the guys were feeling. I don't know where my mind was at. I mean I was focused, but I felt like it was still regulation honestly. In overtime, I thought we were going to get it done. That's what was in my mind. […] We were stunned pretty much through the whole overtime, I think. I mean, we just have to get it done. It doesn't get any simpler than that. We got to get it done."
On if it's hard to stay confident toward the end of games instead of being scared of a loss:
"It does creep into our minds, I think, but we can't let it affect us and the way we play at the end of games. Our senior leadership is doing a great job of just keeping us focused on the game and guys have to step up - me included - and that's about it."
