What Louisville's Mike Pegues, Sydney Curry Said After 92-69 Loss vs. Syracuse

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Louisville's second half slide continued against Syracuse, tumbling 92-69 for their fifth straight loss, falling to under .500 for the first time in nearly two decades.

Here's what interim head coach Mike Pegues and forward Sydney Curry had to say following the loss:

Interim Head Coach Mike Pegues

(Opening Statement)

Obviously, incredibly disappointed. In particular with our defensive effort, and inability to get stops to start the game. No excuse to allow Syracuse, who I understand is a very good offensive team, to get 25 points through the first eight minutes. It's 25 to 14 at the end of the first eight minutes of the game. They go 9-10 from the field, 4-4 from three. We talked a lot going into this game about their big four - Jimmy Boeheim and Buddy Boeheim, and Joe Girard and Caleb Swider - and trying to take away their rhythm threes, and make the game hard on them. We didn't do that. Unfortunately, right now, our team isn't doing a good enough job - it goes without saying - of understanding the significance of getting stops. We're a talented team, we're not talented enough that we can come out and have a defensive showing like we did pretty much the whole night. Giving up way too many threes and way too many points.

(On trying to keep the team in a positive headspace despite the losing)

Well, on Monday, we'll come in and we'll watch film, and hopefully learn from where we went wrong defensively. I thought to start the game, our off the ball defense when they got into a ball screen was awful. We didn't have guys where they needed to be, so we gave up dunks, and then we didn't give up layups and dunks, we gave up threes. I would like to think that the guys will come in with the right attitude. We talked about that in the locker room postgame, about having more of a serious nature, and a maturity level about us to come in and learn on Monday from the film and what eventually has to be carried over to the court. We got to do a far better job of being able to get stops.

(On what the main defensive issue was)

We flat out didn't have guys that understood their job. If they understood it, they certainly didn't do it. I don't know if it was so much effort, I think that our guys intended to play hard, and at times did play hard. But it was more so of a lack of defensive execution, and an inability to make multiple efforts. Defense is hard, especially against a good team that spreads you out the way that Syracuse does. Oftentimes, you have to be able to go from helping cover for a teammate, and then recovering your man, and be able to take away a rhythm three, as well as guard the ball. Far too often throughout the game, certainly to start the game, we couldn't do that. We had multiple guys that just couldn't get that job done. So it's my job to find five guys that can defend at a high level, and not make excuses when it comes to that.

(On if he's surprised to see his guys come out the way they did, given their effort over the last two games)

I thought that we went down early on and we battled back, and it was maybe 11 or 10 at one point, so I felt pretty good. Quite frankly, Syracuse made some really tough shots at times. Sometimes, they made some shots - Buddy Boehiem, Joe Girard - and we were right there. It's the ones that were wide open that we just can't afford to give up. Syracuse's zone does present some problems, we knew that going into the game. We thought we had a pretty good game plan against it Obviously our coaching staff, myself, that starts with me. We got to create an even game plan for our guys. I think we got some good looks at times, and they didn't go in. Then we made some mistakes. We jumped a pass, or we turned the ball over against their zone. They play it every day, so they're really good at it, and they take advantage of that type of stuff. We just couldn't string together stops to keep ourselves keep ourselves in the game.

(On if the lack of falling shots psychologically affects their defense on the other end)

We got some good looks. The Dome is a weird place to play. We got a lot of shots up this morning. We adjusted our pregame routine so that the guys can get a lot of shots up before the game. Unfortunately, we got some looks that we just didn't knock down. When you're playing Syracuse, a team that is as efficient as they are offensively, you got to be able to make some shots to stay in the game. At halftime, we were 2-16 from three, and I told the guys, "hey, let's get stops". We were down 17, let's get some stops, and eventually they'll start to go in. Quite frankly, they really didn't start to fall. Noah (Locke) made a couple at the end, that really didn't impact the game, but it was good for him to see the ball go through. Hopefully that carries over to Wednesday.

(On J.J. Traynor's lack of playing time this season)

We're gonna talk with J.J. and his family this week about something that they wanted to talk to us about. It's certainly not anything personal. J.J. has been working hard. He's a good kid, he's got a bright future. Playing J.J. tonight, to be quite honest, it wouldn't have saved the day. We got to be able to get some stops, and we got to be able to make some shots.

(On Roosevelt Wheeler's status)

Hopefully we can get Rose back in practice on Monday. He's still struggling with meeting the baseline expectations for return to play. He took a pretty good knock (against Duke), and he hasn't quite recovered yet. He's still having problems with loud noises, lights and whatnot. I'll leave that in the doctor's hands and our trainer's hands, and hopefully we can get him out there for Notre Dame on Wednesday.

(On what the team has to do to makeup for missing Malik Williams)

I would tell you this, honestly. Their length is good, right? Everybody wants length at the rim. But at the same time, we literally don't have a body where it needs to be. If there's a big body, or a body for that matter, where we need it given the ball screen defense, then they don't get dunks. They don't get wide open layups. We had to change up our defensive coverage to switching one through five, because we couldn't handle our traditional ball screen defensive coverage. That's on me to find five guys that can can do that. If I got to play five guys 40 minutes because they know what they're doing on the defensive end, then that's what I'm going to do. Because at this point, we got to find a way to win a game.

(On of he was worried that a letdown was in store given the effort that was put forth in the previous two games)

No letdowns. I'm not into letdowns. We got to be the same team every day. We had a good game plan, or so we thought, coming into it. They exposed our ball screen defense, we couldn't get stops, we didn't talk to start the game. The one thing that bothered me was the lack of enthusiasm, in particular on the defensive end. We couldn't have talked about it more. I'm a little pissed off with our guys, in the sense that the enthusiasm and attention to detail was not there. As an interim head coach stepping into what I know has been a tough situation for our guys, there will be no excuses. You will show up every day. You will have a level of enthusiasm, attention to detail and toughness on every possession. And if not, I have to find five guys that will.

Forward Sydney Curry

(Photo of Mike Pegues: Matt Stone - Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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