University of Minnesota Athletics
Postgame Quotes
12/11/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Head Coach Richard Pitino:
Opening Statement...
"Well, obviously wasn't very good, but we won and I think we learned a valuable lesson that if you don't play hard like we did in the first half, and you let your offense affect your defense, and you let your offense affect your energy, and you let the elements bother you, you aren't going to play real well. It was a great wake up call for us. We needed it, as painful as it was, it was like going to the dentist, but we needed that. We found a way to win, and it wasn't great, but it's a great lesson for our guys and I think in the end it'll be good for us."
On today's defensive performance…
"I thought we defended, I thought our offensive was obviously we couldn't make a shot, and we just let that affect us. Then I just thought we just had some really good will plays at the end. Jordan obviously was terrific. Drake runs really good stuff, I think Niko Medved is a terrific coach, and once he continues to recruit I think they can do big things, their staff does a good job. I was really concerned with this game. I remember when they came to us, it was a late addition, and they told us they weren't going to be any good, and I told Niko that you lied to me, so credit to them, they were good and we had a nice wake up call."
On if the upcoming break will be a nice reset…
"No doubt. I think we need it. This has been the toughest 12 games, and to play 3 true road games, I've never done that or been a part of that before, so we need it. Our confidence obviously isn't real great right now, going on the road, not playing well. Providence seems like it was 3 months ago, so we need a nice reset and hopefully this break will do that."
On the bench not scoring many points…
"They have to keep working. You know, I think they're inexperienced, and it's been hard to develop them, but we'll get there. Hopefully we can just get some practice because it's been really hard to develop those guys right now."
Drake Head Coach Niko Medved
On being back in Minnesota…
"It was cool. I have spent so much time as a kid and a coach in this arena, it's a great place to play. It would have been a little more fun tonight had we come out on the other end. But that's life and as a coach I am really proud of our guy's effort tonight. We just came up a little short.
Memories in Williams Arena…
"It's not about me, we have a lot of guys from Minnesota and connections to this program. It is fun to see our team compete against such a great team out there and complete the way we did. It's neat to play in front of family, friends and so many people that I know. I could go on and on former player and families. I am glad we played well tonight, I am disappointed that we didn't come up with the win but our kids gave it everything they had.
On first half low scoring pace…
Everybody thought this was going to be a high scoring game and I thought we did a good job of setting the tempo the way we needed it. We got back in transition on defense, we made them a half court team and I think we were able to contain their penetration early to make them a jump shooting team. We battled on the glass the best we could, they [Minnesota] are a great rebounding team. I thought we got the tempo in our favor and did a good job executing. I thought our guys did a phenomenal job of following the game plan and getting the game at our pace, but came up a little short."
Junior Forward Jordan Murphy
On the team's performance...
"I think that we were playing with the weight of the world on our shoulders. Basically, I think we need to just shake all that stuff off and just play our game. We weren't having fun or anything like that, so that is something that coach really stressed to us, to come out there with more energy in the second half and play better defense, so that's what we did."
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Murphy on what he meant by the "weight of the world on his shoulders"...
"I think it's because we lost a couple of games in a row. I think that the pressure of winning this game today was definitely in the back of our minds. I mean I think that we were confident enough that we were going to pull it out, I'll be in there, lure them out, and we would play better defense and that's what we did."
Sophomore Forward Michael Hurt
On the defense having to perform in this game...
"I think for all of us that came off the bench, we had to lock in defensively. They are obviously a very good three-point shooting team; they had 12 threes. Just being solid defensively and rebounding the ball was huge, and just being able to give these guys a blow. We had one day of prep for them, just knowing that these guys are already really tired, hoping that we could sustain the vocal play that they had."
