University of Minnesota Athletics
Postgame Quotes
12/21/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Recap | Notes | Photo Gallery
Minnesota Head Coach Richard Pitino
On being able to grind out the game and win like the team won last year…
"That's what we need to do. We can't think that we are just going to outscore all these teams. I wrote on the board "What is our identity?" It was very clear what our identity was last year. We don't have one right now. We cant be the team that thinks they are going to put up 90 points on teams. We got to be able to defend. I thought that those practices leading up to this game really got us refocused on that."
On the first half vs. the second half…
"I thought the first ten minutes of the second half were really good. We moved the ball. Isaiah could have had about 10 assists. They had a lot of misses off of some really nice passes. They handled not being able to make shots in the first half and then came out confident in the second half."
On Isaiah having the pass first mentality…
"I think he was jacking early and then he settled in. He just needs to understand when to do it. I don't want to hold him back. I want him to play his game. He has to understand that when you shoot quickly it bails the defense out. It takes away opportunities to get an offensive rebound. I thought he was much better in the second half."
Junior Forward Jordan Murphy
On what changed in the second half…
"Coach was just really stressing to us about our physicality on the boards and how they were outrebounding us. They were really crashing hard on the weak side. We had to really focus on that with our personnel. I think that is what really got the run going."
On if the break helped with the defensive improvement…
"I think for sure it did. The practices during the break were really helpful in focusing on our defense and our 3-point line defense. I think we have done a much better job than we have done in the past."
Sophomore Forward Michael Hurt
On if the break helped with the defensive improvement…
"A big thing for us was 3-point defense and I think we did a much better job this game compared to past games. That was something we really emphasized over break and I thought we did a good job."
