What Head Coach Chris Mack Said After 86-64 Win vs. Prairie View A&M
(Photo of David Johnson, Chris Mack: Jamie Rhodes/USA TODAY Sports)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Thanks to a career night from forward Jae'Lyn Withers, Louisville overcame another sloppy start to defeat Prairie View A&M 86-64 and move to 3-0 on the season.
Here's what Louisville head coach Chris Mack had to say following the win:
(Opening Statement)
I give a lot of credit to Prairie View. I thought that their kids played really hard and competed. They didn't let a double-digit deficit get them down. They just kept on swinging and it's what we saw from them on film. I thought they have a very quick team. They play really hard, a little frenetic at times. I thought that one positive thing that we did was kept our turnovers down to 11, which one point early in the game we already had six. So, to go like the last 32 minutes or so with just five turnovers was a positive. We had a lot of negatives too. We have a lot of young players; therefore, sometimes we have to learn lessons the hard way. We sort of sensed that before the game, that our readiness wasn't what it needed to be and that's on all of us, coaches and players. We are also shorthanded, so there's a little fatigue factor, but the body will do what the mind tells it and sometimes our mind drifts because we are a young as a team. You can't learn on the bench, unfortunately, you have to learn the lessons sometimes on the floor. We are happy that we won, and we know we have an incredible opponent with a lot of talent coming in on Tuesday.
(What turned the team around tonight early in the game)
I thought early on we turned the ball over a little bit too much. We knew that they were going to be antsy in passing lanes. We knew that they do a really good job of flocking to the ball and I thought we settled early. When we didn't turn the ball over, we settled for three-point shots. I think at one point, we took like six shots and we were 1-6, and our team's not the three-point shooting team that we were a year ago. We have got to be able to get the ball in the paint. We did that in the second half. We were in the bonus in the first four minutes of the second half and that's because we were trying to pound it in the lane. We took our time, and the game changes when you get a team in foul trouble. Although, I think we could have taken advantage inside even more than we did, we still shot 21 free throws in the second half. So, settling down on offense, not settling for threes, not turning the ball over changed the game for us. I don't think that we were great defensively really the entire game, but give their kids some credit
(On David Johnson's performance)
They were making Carlik's (Jones) touches pretty tough for him. It helped having two guys that are really good with the ball. David (Johnson), when he slows down, he's a much better player, he's so much more effective. He still has those good moments and those poor moments, as a sophomore I expect way more good moments, way more consistency, and I know he's expecting that also. Prairie View really tries to speed you up as you all noticed. The majority of teams that we play are not that frenetic, are not that challenging in the passing lanes, quick to double, so regardless David has to play slow got to play slow and composed against teams like Prairie View. I thought when he was good, whether it was posting, whether it was getting to in the lane and just rising up and using his size, he was really good, but a couple of turnovers and a few errant plays because he was sped up. We have to get him to slow the game down a little bit more, especially against frenetic teams. Overall, he got much better as he settled in as time went on.
(On Jae'Lyn Withers' performance)
He did a really good job of finishing around the basket, especially on dump offs. He was around the rim, did a really good job of catching passes in traffic and finishing. He ends up going to the line three to five times and was much more engaged and much more ready on the offensive end. Defensively, we were switching so many things. I thought the ball was in the lane, way, way too much. We have got to be able to, not just one of us, but every guy, stay big, stay in the play, do it without fouling. None of our big guys did the job that we needed them to do and hopefully it was lesson learned, but Jae' Lyn played much better tonight than the last two games and quite honestly we needed him because a few of his counterparts didn't play as well.
(On getting rest for players)
We have three perimeter players that are true perimeter players, that are healthy. That's not good because usually your one, two, and three play on the perimeter, unless you are playing some type of convoluted triangle Big-Man game. So, for the coaching staff we felt like it was important early in the game, we were going to put JJ (Traynor) in for at one of the three perimeter players, Dre (Davis), David (Johnson), or Carlik (Jones), and move Quinn (Slazinski) over to the three so we would have some more guard inventory on the bench to start subbing guards out. It was what it was, we feel comfortable with Dave being at the point and played that position primarily last year. We have five games in 9,10,11 days, so we need him to be able to play all five
(On getting to young players ready from the start)
I think it takes all of us. It takes the coaching staff, it takes every player on the team, it takes walk ons. It takes the guys that are injured as well. I just thought we had a little bit of a too cool approach. We have a lot of young guys; we have a lot of sophomores that didn't play last year and a lot of freshmen. We have a lot of guys injured for the very first time in their careers, so it is sort of easy to look up in the stands and smile, but we need everybody locked in. I thought Prairie View played their tails off, Bryon (Smith) did a really good job preparing his team and being ready, but maybe we looked at the front of their jersey and thought we can just play cool and cool doesn't win. Cool doesn't win, it doesn't win games. Hopefully it is a lesson learned for our young guys and our entire team, our entire coaching staff. We thought that we were prepared, we knew what they were going to run, and we knew that they were going to play hard, but we didn't set the tone the right way.
(On Samuell Williamson's and Charles Minlend's status)
Sam (Williamson) dislocated his big toe, and he is day to day. It is like if you dislocate a finger, you are able to pop that sucker back in and tape it together with the next finger and be are ready to go. Unfortunately, you can't do that with the big toe, but he is day to day. Yesterday morning he woke up, he wasn't in a whole lot of pain, there wasn't a whole lot of swelling, only a little bit of bruising, which is a good sign. He is going to be listed as day to day and Sam is a tough kid who will play when he's ready. Charles (Minlend), he's too far away for me to say like, "Hey, we're expecting him any game now ". The original diagnosis, I don't know when he was injured the exact date, was six weeks from that moment, that was a minimum we expected. So, we will see where he is when that timeline comes up, but obviously he won't play in the bubble, as we get further into December, we will focus more on when Charles is able to come back.
(On Josh Nickelberry)
Josh (Nickelberry) is frustrated. He is dealing with the ramifications of arthroscopic surgery, some guys are good to go after four to six weeks, some guys bodies heals a little differently. Josh is one of those guys right now. He is doing everything he can in the training room. I feel like I have the best trainer in the country and a busy one at that. I can't tell you specifically when we expect Josh back. I don't feel like he's going to play during our time here in the bubble. So, we have to worry about the guys that are healthy enough to play but he's doing everything he can to get back.
(On the cancellation of UNC Greensboro and Winthrop, whether this will affect their game with UNC Greensboro later this week)
I don't believe it will. I think that's why they postponed the game, obviously North Carolina and South Carolina are fairly close, and they should be able to figure out when they can replay it, if it's not going to be played during bubble. I really don't know. I just got off the court. I just found out that it was postponed, but from my understanding that cancellation won't have any effect on our game against UNC Greensboro.
(On Western Kentucky and Charles Bassey)
They are a good team. They have a lot of talented players. Coach (Rick) Stansbury changes some things up defensively, they have got some really good playmakers, that add some shooting with the Davidson transfer. I tried to do my best over the offseason to talk Charles into moving on to the NBA, but he wouldn't do it, so, we are going to have to contend with one of the best frontcourt players in the entire country on Tuesday night. If we rebound like we did tonight, we will be in some trouble, he is really good, we saw that last year with two of our experienced post players, Malik (Williams) and Steven (Enoch, but I don't see those guys on our bench right now, so we are going to have to do it some young guys and figure out a way to slow him down.
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