Pitino opened that after the Reggie and Amir incident happened, there wasn’t a ton to be excited about. The only way to get out of a funk is to practice. Coach noted he had to take away about 15 plays since guys didn’t know their roles at different positions, but now he’s been able to put about five of those plays back in the playbook.
Moving Jamir Harris into the starting lineup helped get the offense going a bit at Penn State. Richard wants Michael Hurt to be more aggressive on the offensive end. Teams are looking at Michael, Bakary (Konate) and Gaston (Diedhou) as non-scoring threats, then they’ll key on our other scoring threats.
“Over the span of time we’ll grow with the group that we have, hopefully we’ll get Amir back too. Both Amir (Coffey) and Reggie (Lynch) played over 25 minutes a night, so there will be an adjustment period with them not in the lineup. Penn State was huge for the belief of our team.”
Coach did note that in society nowadays, losses crush a team’s confidence rather than making them angry about the loss. They try to keep the players off Twitter as much as possible and off message boards as to not read the negative messages. “We still have at shot at the NCAA tournament, but we’re going to have to fight every possession.”
Pitino said that as a coach he’s always evaluating recruiting and what they can do better. Assistant coaches are really the ones that spearhead recruiting, and Richard wants to get on his coaches a bit.
Coming into the year, Eric Curry was the top man off the bench and he tears his ACL. Davonte Fitzgerald is the next guy who hasn’t played in two years and coming off an injury too. “We have to accept what happened, and stick to the plan we had initially. I still believe very much that we’re doing it the right way and building.”
For the Penn State game, eventually enough time had passed from the Reggie/Amir incidents and the team finally moved on. The team finally made the decision that enough was enough, and they had to play better to win games. Dupree (McBrayer), Nate (Mason), and Jordan (Murphy) started to play confident and made shots, then the rest of the team followed.
The big point of discussion on the board: Do teams want to foul when up three in the closing seconds? Richard’s response: “Dupree played bad defense. If he had challenged the shot, it was a very difficult shot. Last year at Michigan we didn’t foul and he hit a half courter, I’ll take my chances there. The numbers actually support not fouling. Do what you trust and stick to it. Bakary (Konate) isn’t a great rebounder, so it depends on your team a bit too. We didn’t have any timeouts. I trust the chances to make them hit a tough shot. We’ve won a lot of games by just playing defense.”
One of the hardest decisions that Pitino is dealing with now is who to play off the bench. During the Penn State game, Isaiah Washington didn’t play much but Jamir Harris did. It is tough to only play a guy a few minutes here and there because they don’t get into a rhythm. “What I love about Jamir is he’s focused and driven. He doesn’t get distracted by nonsense. He wants to get in the gym and work. Obviously, he can shoot but he still must develop defensively and become a better passer. He’s confident because he works really hard.”
Coach believes Jamir can be a difficult on-ball defender since he has quick feet. He does need to work on ball handling and decision making.
Minnesota loses a home game this year since they play Ohio State in New York and are technically listed as the “home team”. It is a bit unfair since they could be playing that game at Williams in front of 10,000 fans, but instead it’s a game on a neutral court: “Those home games in conference are like gold.”
Justin Gaard and Mike Grimm asked about the Vikings potentially playing in the Super Bowl. Pitino responded that it would be fantastic for the state in drawing coverage and positivity towards what we have to offer here.
Maryland has lost a couple of players to injury for the year, but they have a lot of talent that will make this a very tough game. They lost by one to #23-ranked Michigan in their last game. They are led by guards Anthony Cowan and Kevin Huerter. Game is tonight at 7:30PM CST on FS1.
Moving Jamir Harris into the starting lineup helped get the offense going a bit at Penn State. Richard wants Michael Hurt to be more aggressive on the offensive end. Teams are looking at Michael, Bakary (Konate) and Gaston (Diedhou) as non-scoring threats, then they’ll key on our other scoring threats.
“Over the span of time we’ll grow with the group that we have, hopefully we’ll get Amir back too. Both Amir (Coffey) and Reggie (Lynch) played over 25 minutes a night, so there will be an adjustment period with them not in the lineup. Penn State was huge for the belief of our team.”
Coach did note that in society nowadays, losses crush a team’s confidence rather than making them angry about the loss. They try to keep the players off Twitter as much as possible and off message boards as to not read the negative messages. “We still have at shot at the NCAA tournament, but we’re going to have to fight every possession.”
Pitino said that as a coach he’s always evaluating recruiting and what they can do better. Assistant coaches are really the ones that spearhead recruiting, and Richard wants to get on his coaches a bit.
Coming into the year, Eric Curry was the top man off the bench and he tears his ACL. Davonte Fitzgerald is the next guy who hasn’t played in two years and coming off an injury too. “We have to accept what happened, and stick to the plan we had initially. I still believe very much that we’re doing it the right way and building.”
For the Penn State game, eventually enough time had passed from the Reggie/Amir incidents and the team finally moved on. The team finally made the decision that enough was enough, and they had to play better to win games. Dupree (McBrayer), Nate (Mason), and Jordan (Murphy) started to play confident and made shots, then the rest of the team followed.
The big point of discussion on the board: Do teams want to foul when up three in the closing seconds? Richard’s response: “Dupree played bad defense. If he had challenged the shot, it was a very difficult shot. Last year at Michigan we didn’t foul and he hit a half courter, I’ll take my chances there. The numbers actually support not fouling. Do what you trust and stick to it. Bakary (Konate) isn’t a great rebounder, so it depends on your team a bit too. We didn’t have any timeouts. I trust the chances to make them hit a tough shot. We’ve won a lot of games by just playing defense.”
One of the hardest decisions that Pitino is dealing with now is who to play off the bench. During the Penn State game, Isaiah Washington didn’t play much but Jamir Harris did. It is tough to only play a guy a few minutes here and there because they don’t get into a rhythm. “What I love about Jamir is he’s focused and driven. He doesn’t get distracted by nonsense. He wants to get in the gym and work. Obviously, he can shoot but he still must develop defensively and become a better passer. He’s confident because he works really hard.”
Coach believes Jamir can be a difficult on-ball defender since he has quick feet. He does need to work on ball handling and decision making.
Minnesota loses a home game this year since they play Ohio State in New York and are technically listed as the “home team”. It is a bit unfair since they could be playing that game at Williams in front of 10,000 fans, but instead it’s a game on a neutral court: “Those home games in conference are like gold.”
Justin Gaard and Mike Grimm asked about the Vikings potentially playing in the Super Bowl. Pitino responded that it would be fantastic for the state in drawing coverage and positivity towards what we have to offer here.
Maryland has lost a couple of players to injury for the year, but they have a lot of talent that will make this a very tough game. They lost by one to #23-ranked Michigan in their last game. They are led by guards Anthony Cowan and Kevin Huerter. Game is tonight at 7:30PM CST on FS1.
