Louisville Head Coach Chris Mack Postgame quotes
Opening statement
“Obviously a nail bitter and it came down to the last few possessions. I thought Carlik had the ability to get in the lane and did a good job of containing the ball and gapping off people that we needed to gap off of. They got a really good look at it with DJ Steward at the top, but it was off of a scrambled situation. It was one of those things where an offensive rebound got kicked out and at that point, guys are just trying to rotate out and scramble. I’m really thankful that he missed the shot. Some things that stuck out. I thought David Johnson’s defense on Matthew Hurt was exceptional. Just watching him in games, prior to ours, any time Matt had a guard on him, if a team switched a ball screen or if they had a smaller player, they would post him up. They posted Quinn up to start the second half and a couple of mistakes by Quinn with a couple great plays by Matt, we didn’t feel comfortable continuing to go down that route. Then, Quinn got another foul, so we put David on him. I don’t know how many times he touched the ball in the post, but it couldn’t have been more than one or two for the last 15 minutes or so. We’re very fortunate because he’s a special offensive player. One of the coaches was saying, ‘Who do you want to put on him? You want to put Dre, Quinn, Sam, David on him?’ I said, ‘The shots he hit in the first half, it doesn’t matter who we put on him.’ He’s got such a high release and extreme confidence, but obviously in the second half we didn’t allow him to post up with David being on him. I thought that was a huge deal. Carlik being to get into the lane, draw fouls, and knock his free throws in really clenched the game. I thought our guys off the ball, on guys that we felt were more drivers… we really did a good job of keeping the defense tight. That’s what we needed to do in order to win the game. The last thing I’ll say is I felt like they were one of the best offensive rebounding teams in our league. They were averaging over 13 offensive rebounds and to hold them to six, we did the job there. It’s hard, you lose a couple of games in a row and you have young players. They want to win, and their habits aren’t what they need to be yet, but for them so have the resiliency and the fight to come out against Duke and get a win, we’re excited and we’ll take it.”
(On how big of a game this was)
“It’s big and every ACC game is a big win. You are always going to play against some players that you recruited. No matter what team you play in this league, there’s always a guy that got away because this is a high-levels players league. Nobody has more high-level players than Duke, albeit they’re some young kids. You watch a guy like Joey Baker for example, he’s not necessarily their premiere guy and he comes in and bangs a three and does it like he’s as comfortable as he is at a rec center. It’s a big win for our team. Would it have been the end of the world if we lost? No, because I really like our fight. I told our staff I would’ve felt like a Cincinnati Bengals coach after a loss because we weren’t playing for another seven days, which is a long time in college basketball to sit on an L. Happy that we were fortunate enough to be on the winning side.”
(On the next ‘play mentality’ today)
“You get a couple of buckets in a row and you feel like it’s a six-point game, then it’s a turnover three, and Duke’s that program that’s not going to quit. They are going to make big-time plays. That’s really important for our team, the next play mentality. Not getting too high or too low in this league is really important and our young guys are certainly learning that. My biggest thing after our Florida State loss was this, there are certain things that don’t require a skill level that should be non-negotiable. Running back defensively as hard as you can and telling your teammates who you are matching up to. Sometimes we focus on a missed shot that we just had, a missed opportunity of an offensive rebound that went out of my hands, the frustration maybe of the play where a ball should be gotten swung. Instead of being in the present moment of ‘I’ve got to run hard and sprint back and do things that don’t require effort. Our minds, as a newer player is on the wrong things. I don’t know if we took a step up, we were better. I just think that is a non-negotiable. When you play at this level, you have to be able to do things that don’t require skill and require effort. I thought our guys had effort today.”
(On calling a timeout after a second half score)
“I don’t necessarily plan that I want to get a timeout after a score. If a team goes on a run where they score every time, they go down the floor and we aren’t doing things correctly…certainly, every coach when a team goes on an 8-0 run is going to call a timeout. An 8-8 run where you don’t get one defensive stop and you’re really screwed up or whatever it is. We’ve got three in our pocket coming out of halftime and we must make sure that we are functioning on all cylinders the right way in my opinion. I’m just comfortable with that. I’m not going to say we are fine because we’re not fine. Now the ball doesn’t go in the basket a few times in a row and we keep doing the same things defensively, we’re going to find ourselves in a deficit. That was my approach and for us, defense has to be first.”
(There was a possession in the second half when they were trying to post up Hurt and Williamson and Johnson would not let them throw to the post. Is that something you’ve been working on? That’s an effort play, you’ve got to be proud of that.)
“Effort and awareness. We knew that Duke, especially if they go two or three times down the floor without a score, they’re going to put Hurt on the block. If they could pin down and have him post up after they pin down, they could backscreen him in there or they could ball screen and roll him in there. That was a huge emphasis. As you saw in the first half, if he touches the ball and he’s got such a high release that once he gets above his chin, it’s going in, or it’s going up at least and today it was going in. We knew once the guard was on him with David they were going to try to post him, because he doesn’t have necessary the quickness matchup with David on the perimeter. I thought David did a phenomenal job and collectively, that’s Duke’s lowest point total of the year. I think 67 was the lowest coming in and so Jalen Johnson’s back and although he didn’t have a great game, getting them back to full strength and for us to hold them to 65, I’m proud of our guys’ effort.”
(Carlik, to hit those free throws after playing 40 minutes, that says something about... that's got to be a little fatigue factor in there and he just played right through everything.)
“I don't worry about Carlik in the pivotal moments of the game. I was really shocked, to be quite honest, that he missed that chippy layup after he got all the way down there. I'm sure he'd like to have that one back, I'm used to that thing going in. But he's a gamer, he's been that way his whole life, and this level, this stage, doesn't affect that.”
(What’s the conversation between you and your staff? Mike has no timeouts left, you're up three, and then you call the timeout. How did you weigh that up to decide to take the timeout there?)
“Well, I want you to think about this: Some of the end game situations where Hunter Cattoor for Virginia Tech got a three-point shot really uncontested, although it was further out. It was the lack of communication again. Young players, inexperienced guys, in that moment. At the end of the Kentucky game, they get a look right in front of the bench, because we don't match up properly. And so I would rather him draw something up that we have to defend to make sure that our guys know maybe we're switching handoffs and ball screens., what they may run, and that first shots, a lot of times don't beat you, second shots do, which almost happened today with DJ Steward. So, almost like the dad that walks out on the baseball field during T-ball and tells his son where to run from first to second. That was my entrance stage left.”
Opening statement
“Obviously a nail bitter and it came down to the last few possessions. I thought Carlik had the ability to get in the lane and did a good job of containing the ball and gapping off people that we needed to gap off of. They got a really good look at it with DJ Steward at the top, but it was off of a scrambled situation. It was one of those things where an offensive rebound got kicked out and at that point, guys are just trying to rotate out and scramble. I’m really thankful that he missed the shot. Some things that stuck out. I thought David Johnson’s defense on Matthew Hurt was exceptional. Just watching him in games, prior to ours, any time Matt had a guard on him, if a team switched a ball screen or if they had a smaller player, they would post him up. They posted Quinn up to start the second half and a couple of mistakes by Quinn with a couple great plays by Matt, we didn’t feel comfortable continuing to go down that route. Then, Quinn got another foul, so we put David on him. I don’t know how many times he touched the ball in the post, but it couldn’t have been more than one or two for the last 15 minutes or so. We’re very fortunate because he’s a special offensive player. One of the coaches was saying, ‘Who do you want to put on him? You want to put Dre, Quinn, Sam, David on him?’ I said, ‘The shots he hit in the first half, it doesn’t matter who we put on him.’ He’s got such a high release and extreme confidence, but obviously in the second half we didn’t allow him to post up with David being on him. I thought that was a huge deal. Carlik being to get into the lane, draw fouls, and knock his free throws in really clenched the game. I thought our guys off the ball, on guys that we felt were more drivers… we really did a good job of keeping the defense tight. That’s what we needed to do in order to win the game. The last thing I’ll say is I felt like they were one of the best offensive rebounding teams in our league. They were averaging over 13 offensive rebounds and to hold them to six, we did the job there. It’s hard, you lose a couple of games in a row and you have young players. They want to win, and their habits aren’t what they need to be yet, but for them so have the resiliency and the fight to come out against Duke and get a win, we’re excited and we’ll take it.”
(On how big of a game this was)
“It’s big and every ACC game is a big win. You are always going to play against some players that you recruited. No matter what team you play in this league, there’s always a guy that got away because this is a high-levels players league. Nobody has more high-level players than Duke, albeit they’re some young kids. You watch a guy like Joey Baker for example, he’s not necessarily their premiere guy and he comes in and bangs a three and does it like he’s as comfortable as he is at a rec center. It’s a big win for our team. Would it have been the end of the world if we lost? No, because I really like our fight. I told our staff I would’ve felt like a Cincinnati Bengals coach after a loss because we weren’t playing for another seven days, which is a long time in college basketball to sit on an L. Happy that we were fortunate enough to be on the winning side.”
(On the next ‘play mentality’ today)
“You get a couple of buckets in a row and you feel like it’s a six-point game, then it’s a turnover three, and Duke’s that program that’s not going to quit. They are going to make big-time plays. That’s really important for our team, the next play mentality. Not getting too high or too low in this league is really important and our young guys are certainly learning that. My biggest thing after our Florida State loss was this, there are certain things that don’t require a skill level that should be non-negotiable. Running back defensively as hard as you can and telling your teammates who you are matching up to. Sometimes we focus on a missed shot that we just had, a missed opportunity of an offensive rebound that went out of my hands, the frustration maybe of the play where a ball should be gotten swung. Instead of being in the present moment of ‘I’ve got to run hard and sprint back and do things that don’t require effort. Our minds, as a newer player is on the wrong things. I don’t know if we took a step up, we were better. I just think that is a non-negotiable. When you play at this level, you have to be able to do things that don’t require skill and require effort. I thought our guys had effort today.”
(On calling a timeout after a second half score)
“I don’t necessarily plan that I want to get a timeout after a score. If a team goes on a run where they score every time, they go down the floor and we aren’t doing things correctly…certainly, every coach when a team goes on an 8-0 run is going to call a timeout. An 8-8 run where you don’t get one defensive stop and you’re really screwed up or whatever it is. We’ve got three in our pocket coming out of halftime and we must make sure that we are functioning on all cylinders the right way in my opinion. I’m just comfortable with that. I’m not going to say we are fine because we’re not fine. Now the ball doesn’t go in the basket a few times in a row and we keep doing the same things defensively, we’re going to find ourselves in a deficit. That was my approach and for us, defense has to be first.”
(There was a possession in the second half when they were trying to post up Hurt and Williamson and Johnson would not let them throw to the post. Is that something you’ve been working on? That’s an effort play, you’ve got to be proud of that.)
“Effort and awareness. We knew that Duke, especially if they go two or three times down the floor without a score, they’re going to put Hurt on the block. If they could pin down and have him post up after they pin down, they could backscreen him in there or they could ball screen and roll him in there. That was a huge emphasis. As you saw in the first half, if he touches the ball and he’s got such a high release that once he gets above his chin, it’s going in, or it’s going up at least and today it was going in. We knew once the guard was on him with David they were going to try to post him, because he doesn’t have necessary the quickness matchup with David on the perimeter. I thought David did a phenomenal job and collectively, that’s Duke’s lowest point total of the year. I think 67 was the lowest coming in and so Jalen Johnson’s back and although he didn’t have a great game, getting them back to full strength and for us to hold them to 65, I’m proud of our guys’ effort.”
(Carlik, to hit those free throws after playing 40 minutes, that says something about... that's got to be a little fatigue factor in there and he just played right through everything.)
“I don't worry about Carlik in the pivotal moments of the game. I was really shocked, to be quite honest, that he missed that chippy layup after he got all the way down there. I'm sure he'd like to have that one back, I'm used to that thing going in. But he's a gamer, he's been that way his whole life, and this level, this stage, doesn't affect that.”
(What’s the conversation between you and your staff? Mike has no timeouts left, you're up three, and then you call the timeout. How did you weigh that up to decide to take the timeout there?)
“Well, I want you to think about this: Some of the end game situations where Hunter Cattoor for Virginia Tech got a three-point shot really uncontested, although it was further out. It was the lack of communication again. Young players, inexperienced guys, in that moment. At the end of the Kentucky game, they get a look right in front of the bench, because we don't match up properly. And so I would rather him draw something up that we have to defend to make sure that our guys know maybe we're switching handoffs and ball screens., what they may run, and that first shots, a lot of times don't beat you, second shots do, which almost happened today with DJ Steward. So, almost like the dad that walks out on the baseball field during T-ball and tells his son where to run from first to second. That was my entrance stage left.”
