Richard Pitino:
- Maryland in my opinion can compete for a Big Ten title. Very good young team. Our guys have a lot of respect for Maryland. Bruno Fernando and Jalen Smith are both NBA prospects. They have one of the better frontcourts in the country.
- Told Amir that we do need him to score. It's not so much always telling him that he needs to score now, but we need to continue for him to be aggressive. It's not like I'm watching shootaround or stretching and thinking "oh, he had a great shootaround, he's got that look." That's overrated. Amir's a pretty steady guy.
- We've beaten eight high-major opponents and we're 12-2. We've found a way to win starting two freshman, with Eric out, and with Dupree going through what he's going through.
- Dupree, when healthy, is getting steals and deflections. He's got long arms and active hands.
- Eric looked good against Wisconsin. He'll start to get his timing back.
- Dupree and Gabe are the two players that we've been switching on and off defending point guards. Gabe's terrific at getting over ball screens.
- I always hear about our team that not having a point guard is a concern. Amir is our starting point guard and he's pretty good at it. Teams don't press like they used to.
- I went with Brock Stull over Isaiah early against Wisconsin because I thought the game fit Stull. He was adjusting well throughout the course of the game. That was a physical game.
- Ryan Saunders and I have had lunch a couple times. I went to the Timberwolves game last night. I really like Thibs a lot, so it's really disappointing he was fired, but that's the business. Ryan Saunders and I have talked a lot of basketball. We text back and forth throughout the season. He's a huge fan. He follows us greatly. He's a great basketball mind and he loves the Gophers.
- Bruno Fernando and Jalen Smith are really talented and a completely different matchup than Happ. Athletic, talented, and it will be a battle in the paint.
- You have to be careful with the shots you choose to take against Fernando and Smith. You need better shot selection than against Happ and Reuvers.
- Area of most improvement from Daniel since the starting of the season is attitude and understanding of our system. He was the man in high school and he's done a good job of buying in mentally.
- We were preparing for Wisconsin the entire week before the game.
- That feeling of hitting big shots in the Big Ten was why I came here.
- Pouring water on Pitino in the locker room and celebrating in the locker room brought back memories of doing the same thing with Coach Jeter at Milwaukee.
- Talked with Coach before the season and kind of said the target point was January 1 to have everything kind of click and be where I needed to be physically and mentally. I'm there now.
- Amir is leading Big Ten play in scoring. He'll do things where you're like "wow."
