University of Minnesota Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Maryland
2/18/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Minnesota Head Coach Richard Pitino
Opening Statement…
"It was a fun night. They deserve it. They're good guys and they work hard. They play hard, and and we're not a perfect team right now, but to beat a really good team is exciting, and to beat them the way we beat them. With defense, with rebounds, with free throws, etc. Those guys just made big plays versus a really good team. I'm very happy for our guys, they deserve that."
On the team's emotions after having a losing streak…
"I watched Joey King's speech, and that was awesome for all the right reasons. Joey grew up wanting to play in Minnesota, and that was raw emotion. He's never had a bad practice, and he's never had a bad day. He deserves success, and has dreamed to play here his whole life. It will be freezing out and he will say to me "Isn't it beautiful coach?". He's just one of those guys, and I'm happy he got to experience this tonight. For everyone in the locker room it was sheer enthusiasm and excitement for each other. We were a complete team in that locker room and in that game. When you have a team with just one senior and a bunch of underclassmen, they're really happy for Joey, and they also see what we can become."
On being able to close the game…
"It's insane how many close losses we've had in two years, and I knew it would eventually work out. Nate turned it over to a four-point game, and then Dupree goes and gets the steal, and Joey and Murphy made their free throws. They all did a lot of good things and we made plays when we needed to."
Maryland Head Coach Mark Turgeon
Opening Statement:
"I always like to give the other team credit, and Minnesota did what they had to do tonight. They made a lot of shots and made free throws. The way we played defense in the first half, we weren't very locked in to what we had to do defensively. We stepped up and made free throws in the second half, and I thought our defense was much better in the second half and much more active. We made them take a lot of tough shots and got most of the points at the line. We were a little more efficient offensively in the second half, we were struggling there. […] It was very disappointing and I have to figure out a way to get us going again - we're not ourselves - and getting us ready at the start of the game."
On the team's poise toward the end of the game
"I thought we executed really well to come back to get the lead, did some nice things. At the end, we had two bad possessions in a row. There was the offensive rebound that we gave up that put [Minnesota] at the foul line and Jordan Murphy shot […] and they were up one at that point, and they made two free throws. That was disappointing. At times I thought we were really poised, and on a couple plays we weren't and we just weren't making the right decisions."
On what was different about the team tonight:
"Well early we made some mistakes, stuff that we had worked on, and [Minnesota] made us pay. Then they got confident and got going, and we kind of lost ourselves during that stretch. Every timeout we kept talking about, I was just waiting for us to lock-in defensively and we never did in the first half. In the second half, after we made some adjustments, we were much better. We had trouble making adjustments during timeouts. We have to be able to listen a little better and we have to be able to make our adjustments a little quicker - we can't wait until halftime. […]
On if they had low expectations for this game:
"We had a ton of respect for Minnesota. If you look at their scores lately and what they've done - you know how good Iowa is and thy almost beat Iowa. Their scores have been right there. I don't know why we didn't start better. We put a lot into this game, we just couldn't play like we needed."
Senior Joey King
On having extra energy tonight...
