Courtesy of UofLSports.com.
Rick Pitino
(Opening Statement) "Besides almost having an aneurism at halftime it was a pretty good game. We tried to warn our guys, even against Connecticut, in the first half Providence was up for most of the half. I think they ended the half down three. When you run and shoot quickly with this team, they will blow everybody out. You have to make them play defense; take your time; and get the offensive glass. We just did not do a good job; we just did not understand it. I don't know how many times we have told them that. It was a great second half. We had 34 deflections, not much for the first half. Preston Knowles had 12 of them. That is really high for one person to have. He did a terrific job, Andre (McGee) and Preston did a great job."
(On Louisville's second half defense) "They are a great offensive basketball team. I told our guys they are Notre Dame on steroids. That is a bad word to use right now, but what they do is they can all take you off the bounce. When they play Marshon Brooks at the four-spot they are tough to guard. Our guys did a very good job of pressing and a very good job on defense in the second half."
(On Preston Knowles' technical) "He deserved it, but it was the second thing. Geoff McDermott locked his arm and he took two hands and pushed him. It is always the second guy that gets caught. It can change the whole complexion of the game, so you have to be careful."
(On Providence) "They are a fun team. Keno Davis is doing a fantastic job with that basketball team. It is a fun style to play and very difficult to defend. They can pass and beat you off the bounce. He is doing a wonderful job with that basketball team. They have eight seniors; they can make the tournament. I am really impressed by what they can do."
(On home crowd) "This crowd is always a factor. When we got on the break and played good defense they came alive. This crowd has gone from a pro crowd when we were in Conference USA, to a major college crowd. We were a pro crowd; arrived late and left early. Now it is every night they get fired up for the BIG EAST."
(On Terrence Williams' and overall team health) "We are good and he is a 100%. We just had to get him through that last game. Their health is good."
(On keeping up team health) "We have been doing a lot of work with individual instruction for like 35 minutes. We only practice about an hour and twenty minutes. We get all of our offensive work in the morning. I find that if we break it up and do offensive shooting and skill work in the morning; then only practice an hour and twenty minutes you are fresh. If you combine it then you practice for two hours especially this time of year, in this conference it is hard. Everybody right now is a little fatigued. Cincinnati is the only one that has a week off to prepare for us. We are going to have to make some changes and we expect them to make some changes."
(On Louisville's ball movement) "Ball movement and play movement is a match up zone. We wanted to really create four guys moving. West Virginia did a great job of that and we did a very good job tonight. Some of the other teams will have four guys watching the one guy dribble. You have attack the inside and certainly Twill. I told Earl (Clark) and Twill you have to stop being a good college basketball player. If you think you are an NBA player basketball, you have to be an NBA player. You have to pick it up. Twill did that tonight and Earl did a lot of great things."
Keno Davis
(Opening statement) "I think what I told my team after the game was that for 20 minutes, we played like we had a chance out there. Then they obviously showed that they were a better team out there than we are now. With four games left we have to improve as a team. We need to be able to play through more physical contact, which has not been good for us as of late. Even though it doesn't get any easier, this is as tough as it gets as well. So we are looking forward to our last four games of the BIG EAST going into the conference tournament with an eight and six record and see if we can scratch off a couple wins and make a push for it."
(On offensive struggles in second half compared to first half) "We play a very up-tempo style, but so does Louisville. In certain games we wear out our opponent. That obviously didn't happen tonight. It shows just how they stress conditioning, how they are able to play a 94 foot game. It's not an ideal matchup for us to go up against a team that does a lot of the same things we do. They just do those things a little better than us right now, and they have players that are little better than us at doing it. It was a tough match-up for us. I'm very proud of my team's effort over the forty minutes, even though it got away from us in the second half."
(On Terrence Williams) "I don't know where to start. He has the ability to not just be a scorer, but be somebody that makes the players around him better. He can go and get a huge scoring night, but he can also beat you in a lot other ways. He can beat you with the passing, beat you with his defense, and beat you with his rebounding. So to be able to be so versatile and do so many things, you can't really game plan against that. When you look at the scouting report and say what do we need to take away from him? Well he does everything that shows you what a great player he is."
(On team's chances of making it to the NCAA tournament) "Well we need to win some games. With four games left and an 8-6 record, we have the ability to finish in the top half of the BIG EAST. If we finish in the top half, I don't know if that guarantees us an NCAA tournament bid we might have to win a game in New York, but I don't know. I don't think anybody really knows. Depends on what happens all around the country but if we play at the level we did tonight- I think we'll be okay. As far as wins and losses, if that puts us into the NCAA tournament then that's great. If it doesn't, all we can control is hard we play. It's just the schedule doe not get to much easier."
(On whether any U of L players surprised him) "Not really, when you have a team in the top 10, you don't question their players' talent of Coach Pitino's team. They are completely worthy of their national ranking and when they are playing at their highest level there is nobody in the country they can't beat. I will be looking forward to watching them play in the NCAA tournament and hopefully we'll be along there with them. They are as good a team as there is in the conference. I think the top four or five teams in the conference are arguably the top four or five teams in the country. So that is what we get for being in the Big East."