Richard Pitino
- Happy with the way the played and watching film. "About as good as we could play against a good team."
- Scheduled the game against UT-Arlington thinking they'd be an NCAA Tournament team.
- We need to be ready, we need our fans to be ready. Everyone in our building, everyone in the profession knows this will be a tremendous challenge.
- Arkansas and St. John's are much improved. It's fun to have these teams in our building. Gopher fans have always wanted good competition coming here to play. We need our fans; our fans are awesome.
- "It's human nature to see a team like UT-Arlington and not know much about them, but they're really, really good...You can't really look ahead (to St. John's) when we're playing a team as good as we're playing tomorrow."
- Akeem bring something the other guys don't.
- UT-Arlington is one of the best rebounding teams in the country. Our guys in the locker room respect them.
- Not going to live with Reggie Lynch's foul trouble. We're going to keep drilling him. Happy that he played so hard without fouling in game one.
- Akeem's a versatile guy. Has been kind of a shooter so far here, but he can attack the basket and we want him to keep doing it all.
- Our fans are loyal and will stick by you. We had a horrible year last year, and they still come back. Against Maryland last year, we were 0-12 in conference and had 10,000 or more fans there. There are very, very few places in college basketball where that would happen. I think there's this negative narrative here with fans, but that's just not true. To be in a major city with all these things to do and pro sports teams, you wouldn't expect the support we have. If you look at all other programs in major cities, I think we're pretty unique with the support we have, especially considering how much we lost last season.
- Want the fans to understand tomorrow how much we need them. It will be a war.
- Surprised with how much fan support is here, was not expecting it when he came here. "If you look at programs in every major city (they don't have the same support). That's why this place is unique."
- Arlington is kind of like UL-Lafayette but a much more together team. Their identity is rebounding.
- Fouling's been a struggle for me. In practice, I'm working on not going for too many shot blocks when I don't need to.
- Eric will get on himself if he misses a layup or fouls and I make sure to tell him it's all good. Try to be a mentor for him.
- In the back of our head, we want to make the NCAA Tournament. That's the long-term goal but we're taking things one game at a time.
- Arlington is a very skilled team.
- It's going to be a war -- a battle on the boards and a battle on the floor.
- Really balanced scoring and share of duties in game one. Good to see.
- More direct with communication to Eric Curry than Reggie. Always in Curry's ear about plays and playing hard. He always looks to pass, so I'm telling him it's time to score when you're down there.
- Chemistry at an all-time high. More cohesive than last season.
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