University of Minnesota Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Miami
11/29/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Recap | Notes | Photo Gallery
Minnesota Head Coach Richard Pitino
Opening statement...
"Credit to Miami, they made some terrific plays at the end of the game, and they were a talented team, a well-coached team and we certainly squandered some opportunities that we needed not to. Terrific crowd ... it's always disappointing when you don't win with an environment like that. That was awesome, one of the best I've seen since I've been here, so greatly appreciated. Felt like another February game, it's not even December 1st. So, you know, we've got to take a deep breath and get healthy, see where Dupree is at on Friday and hope to get healthy and get into the weekend for a though Rutgers team."
On what happened to Dupree McBrayer…
"He's got an infection in his leg, and we are just really getting him some medicine every night … so it's kind of a day-by-day thing so we don't really know… We'll see on Friday."
On what the key differences in the game were…
"I thought they made big plays at the end and we didn't. So you've got to give them credit."
On the shot difference in the second half, and if Miami were hitting tougher shots and defended better…
"Probably both. I think we've got to defend better. I mean, whenever a team shoots 56% you're not going to win the game. So, they made some though ones, maybe with some execution by us, maybe with some talent by them. So probably a little bit of both, but they're a good team."
On Isaiah Washington's first start…
"Wasn't great you know, but again, I told Isaiah that you were put in a difficult position with Dupree out … nationally televised game versus a terrific defensive team, talented team. And I told him, I said Nate has had days like this, Dupree, Murph, all the older guys have had days like you just had so don't get down on yourself, learn from it, grow. Every freshman in the country has that but we had to play, because we didn't have a lot of depth at the guard spot."
Miami Head Coach Jim Larranaga
On the Big Ten/ACC Challenge...
"I think the ACC and the Big Ten probably both consider themselves the best conference in the country. When we compete against each other, there is a lot of pride at stake. I've watched a lot of games, I watched the Virginia vs. Wisconsin game, I watched the Maryland at Syracuse game, and the teams are very evenly matched. I felt like this should be a very close game as well and I was not surprised by the competition and by how well we played, and how well they played. They got a terrific team and they showed that the great schedule that they played; winning at Providence, beating Alabama, those are tough teams and Minnesota played well. I'm happy with our performance."
On fending off the late run and shooting well...
"Well, we had a number of guys step up at a critical point in the second half. I felt that DJ, his bank 3 was very good timing for us, he hit another 3 I believe in the second half. He had double-figure points, we had five guys with double figures again. Lonnie Walker came in with active hands and contributed to a couple of Minnesota's turnovers, and led to baskets at our end."
On Miami's Bruce Brown being the calming force down the stretch...
"Yeah it's funny, we really have 3 point guards on this side and we start all of them in the second half. They can all handle, and our objective was to create more ball screen situations for their bigs. If you let those big guys just hang around the basket they'll get every rebound and block a lot of shots. We needed to spread them out a little bit, and those three guards are really good at attacking."
Senior Nate Mason
On overall thoughts on tonight's game...
"We just didn't execute down the stretch. Obviously, we could have played better, just a lot of learning things we can take away from this game. The film session is going to be deep and detailed, we'll be able to learn from it and grow."
On dealing with injuries on the team...
"It was a little tough. Guys got to step up, so we just got to go in and look at film and improve our game and our chemistry as a team till we get better."
On Isaiah Washington's struggles and helping him learn from it...
"I think he played pretty well. For the minutes he had to play, who he had to guard. It's tough for a freshman to step up like that. I think Coach kind of threw him in the fire, but he played pretty well for the most part of the game. But like Coach said everyone goes through it, we want to be here for him and work on some things with him."
On what was different between Miami's film and how they played tonight...
"Miami played really well tonight. They really ran the pick and roll really well and we didn't defend it well at all. I think that was the main key of the game. They executed very well down the stretch and it was a lot of defense as well. We have to go over that and learn from that and dissect it and go over film and learn how to defend that better."
Sophomore Amir Coffey
On helping Isaiah Washington learn from this game...
"Every player goes through games like that, so we're going to have his back. Everyone can't play great all the time so there's always going to be games where they don't play at their best."
On the intensity of the home crowd...
"I kept looking around and not seeing any empty seats, which was pretty cool. It got pretty loud in there also, so that was a great showing of our fans."
On the locker room atmosphere after the first loss of the season...
"Obviously, the leaders on the team were talking and keeping us in high spirits. As much as we want to, we're not going to go out there and win every game, so we'll be back and keeping each other in high spirits and having each other's back as we go through practice."
