University of Minnesota Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Purdue
1/27/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 27, 2016
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Minnesota Head Coach Richard Pitino
Opening Statement...
"Battle fought. We made some good plays, but the free throw line really hurt us. I was happy with their effort. I sound like a broken record, but they're getting better. I think we're seeing growth in Nate Mason, seeing growth in Dupree McBrayer. Bakary was better today. Murph wasn't good in the first half, but was better in the second half. Joey had a tough assignment, obviously, with those bigs. I think we out-scored them in the paint pretty good. We did some good things but now I have to figure out how to close games, so we can get some wins. I think the focus has got to be to keep their spirit, to keep them continuing to be excited to be playing the game, and be excited to take advantage of this great opportunity that they have."
On free throws in practice...
"It's pretty good. We're shooting extras, but we can't simulate it. You try. It's definitely mental. It's definitely mental. We had crucial opportunities to make them and we missed them. It wasn't just one guy, and I think it's a little bit mental right now."
On finding an answer for Vince Edwards...
"We don't need to anymore. We don't play them anymore, but he was really good. He obviously was up to the challenge of [Caleb] Swanigan, stepping up and taking over for him. He had a big three out of the time out that we didn't guard very well. He's a good player, and I like him. He adds a little bit of a different versatility when Swanigan's out and he's in. He's tough to hard. When he's hitting threes like that he's really hard to guard."
Senior Joey King
On the play of Nate Mason:
"Nate did a good job controlling the pace. You know they obviously were stuck to the outside which opened up some driving lanes for him. He got in there and was able to dish off, you know, some great passes to Bakary and stuff like that. So I definitely think he did a great job, from a point guard standpoint, controlling the game offensively for us."
Freshman Dupree McBrayer
On the team's feelings after a few close losses:
"I just think we're coming together more as a team. We're letting them know what people's roles are and just things like that. It's making us better because nobody's getting out of character. Everybody knows their role."
Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter
On what carried the team through the second half despite Minnesota's improvements:
"We just kept getting the ball at the rim and then getting nothing out of it. We would have missed dunks, we would have missed layups, we would have missed putbacks. We had chances and we were getting the ball where we wanted it to be. If you knock out the first twelve minutes of the game - we had eight turnovers in the first twelve minutes of the game - and after that we had six turnovers. We did a pretty job going forward, we were getting the ball […] and we were getting some good looks. We had some good perimeter shots and they just didn't go down, but then Minnesota got into a rhythm and did a really good job of driving the ball. We had some breakdowns in our ball screen defense and they were able to get to the rim on some of those things. Then [Dupree] McBrayer is able to drive the basketball and Nate Mason really plays well, I know he got fifteen points on fifteen shots and he was really good in that one stretch that got them going. So it was just a combination of both us not being able to stop them and us actually executing but just not being able to finish."
On Minnesota's strategy of attacking certain players and carrying that strategy throughout the game:
"We stuck with it and we played them until the last five or six minutes, playing the two points together. It's kind of like they do with McBrayer and Mason together. So we did that from a defensive standpoint. Then they were going to press, so we knew there'd be a couple points in there. We have to do a better job of containing the dribble. They got us out in space and broke us down and, more than anything, got to the free throw line. We were fortunate because anytime you battle back like Minnesota did and have the chance to take the lead on a couple free throws and you don't, I thought that was a key moment of the game. It was key that they never got the lead. Anytime you can get that lead and get the crowd into it, sometimes that can be a real momentum swing."
On the player matchups in this game:
"I think [Vince Edwards] has been playing well, and then all of a sudden he got a couple more looks from three than he normally gets. […] The things that opens up for us is that so much attention goes to our centers. I thought [Minnesota] did a great job in the first half of really scraping down on our guys' dribble. We were talking to them about 'you can't dribble against them when they swarm the ball', but our guys just kept doing it. We had a ten point lead, and Hammons had four turnovers at that time and we had eight turnovers as a team. So if we could have taken care of the ball in that stretch that really could have helped us extend that lead. We were also really fortunate that they missed free throws."
Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter
On what carried the team through the second half despite Minnesota's improvements:
"We just kept getting the ball at the rim and then getting nothing out of it. We would have missed dunks, we would have missed layups, we would have missed putbacks. We had chances and we were getting the ball where we wanted it to be. If you knock out the first twelve minutes of the game - we had eight turnovers in the first twelve minutes of the game - and after that we had six turnovers. We did a pretty job going forward, we were getting the ball […] and we were getting some good looks. We had some good perimeter shots and they just didn't go down, but then Minnesota got into a rhythm and did a really good job of driving the ball. We had some breakdowns in our ball screen defense and they were able to get to the rim on some of those things. Then [Dupree] McBrayer is able to drive the basketball and Nate Mason really plays well, I know he got fifteen points on fifteen shots and he was really good in that one stretch that got them going. So it was just a combination of both us not being able to stop them and us actually executing but just not being able to finish."
On Minnesota's strategy of attacking certain players and carrying that strategy throughout the game:
"We stuck with it and we played them until the last five or six minutes, playing the two points together. It's kind of like they do with McBrayer and Mason together. So we did that from a defensive standpoint. Then they were going to press, so we knew there'd be a couple points in there. We have to do a better job of containing the dribble. They got us out in space and broke us down and, more than anything, got to the free throw line. We were fortunate because anytime you battle back like Minnesota did and have the chance to take the lead on a couple free throws and you don't, I thought that was a key moment of the game. It was key that they never got the lead. Anytime you can get that lead and get the crowd into it, sometimes that can be a real momentum swing."
On the player matchups in this game:
"I think [Vince Edwards] has been playing well, and then all of a sudden he got a couple more looks from three than he normally gets. […] The things that opens up for us is that so much attention goes to our centers. I thought [Minnesota] did a great job in the first half of really scraping down on our guys' dribble. We were talking to them about 'you can't dribble against them when they swarm the ball', but our guys just kept doing it. We had a ten point lead, and Hammons had four turnovers at that time and we had eight turnovers as a team. So if we could have taken care of the ball in that stretch that really could have helped us extend that lead. We were also really fortunate that they missed free throws."
Players Mentioned
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