Pitino
- Obviously excited about Friday. From a preparation standpoint, we're focused on us and then all three teams that we could play. We'll leave tomorrow.
- We didn't play well in the last six, seven minutes against Wisconsin. We really did not play well offensively. We were trying to play for ourselves.
- It's always nice to be recognized for something (on B1G Coach of the Year). I'm not going to rub it off like it's not. No offense to you guys, but to get it from the coaches, I appreciate that, being the young guy here. Like anything else, you move on. Gotta prepare for Friday.
- It can't hurt in recruiting with local kids (on B1G Coach of the Year). It's a little bit better than last year when everyone wanted me fired so we need to ride that momentum the best we can, especially for me because I'm young and haven't had much of a track record because I haven't been doing this a long time. Everything you can do personally to build your brand can certainly help with recruiting.
- I'm happy for our All-B1G players. It means something to them, and it should. For a guy like Nate Mason, who stuck it out and believed in us, for him to get First Team is great. Jordan really turned it on to get recognized.
- We've been really composed this year, except for the end of that Wisconsin game. For a young team, they haven't really seemed frazzled, which is nice. But it's a whole new ballgame in single elimination tournaments. We don't have a lot of guys who had been there before. Last year we had like four guys. We just gotta get our guys settled in emotionally and focused on executing. I think they've been pretty good so far.
- Length is great for us defensively. Amir is 6'7". Akeem actually has great length, long arms. Dupree has long arms. Our success has a lot to do with length. They're also really committed to defense. For a young team, they're really committed to the scouting report. They care about it. They ask questions. That's kind of rare for young guys.
- The Big Ten Tournament is a lot more fun when you're playing for seeding in the Tournament. It's a lot less pressure when you're on the bubble. Our guys have dealt with that pretty well.
- I would prefer for it the Tournament to be in Chicago or Indianapolis because it's a shorter trip, but I get why it's in DC. DC is an awesome city. I think next year will be different because you're in New York and a week early.
- I don't think the expectations played into Murphy's slump at the start of the season. It was a new team and his role was going to change a little bit. He was at the top of team's scouting reports and he had to adjust. He's focused on getting those garbage buckets and rebounding now, and he's more productive in a big way.
- We don't press a lot because I don't think we have a lot of depth in our backcourt.
- Amir is a tough kid. He's a gamer. He's been durable. He's reliable and normally freshman are not reliable.
- I thought the beauty of having Davonte was that Amir could grow slowly. Nate learned under Andre Hollins. Eric Curry is learning under Murph and Reggie. But Davonte got hurt, so maybe it's helped Amir because he's had to learn on the court.
- We had a really tough practice yesterday, kind of a preseason-type practice, just to get them a little big tougher, condition them. We'll really scale back today and tomorrow. Once you get to DC, it's really hard to get productive practices in. We really need to get offensive flow back.
- Just feeling it out with Akeem and Dupree and their minutes. There's no plan going into games with how much they'll play.
- Don't think Akeem's back is still bothering him.
- I need to get our guys confident. That's my job right now. We need to be excited about the position we put ourselves in.
