What Minnesota's Richard Pitino Said After Loss to Indiana

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Here's what Minnesota coach Richard Pitino had to say after Indiana's 72-67 victory on Wednesday night at Simon Skojdt Assembly Hall. With the loss, Minnesota fell to 13-16 overall.

Opening Statement

RICHARD PITINO: Obviously, you know credit to Indiana they played really, really hard and physical today. We had that stretch there, I think it was a six-point game, we had a missed dunk. Then we had the missed two free-throws out of three. You know, we had our chances to cut that down, and they made some plays. So, I thought our effort was really, really good. We got tired in the second half, had some live ball turnovers at some costly times, but they're fighting for us, so we have to just give Indiana credit, it is a tough place to play. We just have to move on and get ready for Nebraska.

Q: You could tell early on, or early in the second half that Daniel's had a little bit of trouble finishing inside, is it because of their physical defense they were playing?

PITINO: I mean I thought he was getting good looks. He was right there, you know, he shot about 27 shots. Obviously, they have, they are big, that's a big team. So, certainly give the credit to the defense. I thought he could have easily had thirty plus; he just missed a couple 'chippies.'

Q: How pleased were you with the execution after your called timeouts?

PITINO: Yeah, I mean we were good there, but you only get so many timeouts you need to be able to do it, you know, throughout the course of the game. You have to be able to flow without us calling sets all the time and read and react to what they give us.

Q: Richard, how is this game a little bit different than the one in Minnesota, that Indiana won?

PITINO: Yeah, I mean they controlled it a little better than in Minnesota. You know, I thought every time they threw a punch, I did think we countered. We did a really good job of coming back, and I think maybe those comebacks tired us out a little bit. Obviously, this is one of the toughest places to play in the country as well. I thought we, we fought, it just seemed like we wore down.

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