What Pat Kelsey, Louisville Players Said After 81-67 Win vs. Virginia

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - For the first time ever, the Louisville men's basketball program has pulled off a regular season sweep over Virginia, winning the home leg 81-67 on Saturday.

Here's what head coach Pat Kelsey, guard/forward Terrence Edwards Jr. and shooting guard Reyne Smith had to say following the win:

Head Coach Pat Kelsey

(Opening Statement)

“I have a lot of respect for Coach [Ron] Sanchez. We came up in the business together as assistants – he was a long-time assistant for one of the greatest coaches in the history of college basketball. I’m talking 30 or 40 times over the last 20 years, I’ve called him just to ask defensive questions when they were at Washington State and when he was an assistant at Virginia before he went to Charlotte. He’s just a world-class guy with tough circumstances, but he’s got those guys playing really hard. The team that we played against at Virginia versus the team that I saw tonight – they were very physical from the very beginning and tried to disrupt our flow. You could tell the adjustments that they made and they’re a good team. They’re a good team, and they’re going to continue to get better and better and be a force as we approach conference tournament time and things like that. But I thought our guys responded to that. Offensively, we got off to a good start – we were able to get into rhythm even though they were trying to really pressure us and not let us move to our spots. I thought our screening was good, our actions were good. We were able to generate some open shots early on and really got going and that great start helped a lot. I thought the crowd was phenomenal. I know there were a bunch of initiatives in town to really drive attendance here today. Somebody told me it’s the highest attendance in the last three years, and we felt it. It was a huge boost at different points in the game. When you hear that Yum! roar and the crowd gets on their feet, it really just injects energy into us. It’s such a factor and it was a great, great atmosphere today, so a big shoutout to our fanbase. I think our defense continues to be our calling card throughout the course of this winning streak. I think everybody knows we can really score the ball. Our guys are playing in rhythm, connected, really understanding their roles, and the concepts are just second-nature now, but the thing that’s been carrying us has been our defense and we’ve got to continue to guard at this level. We play a very good team on Tuesday down in Dallas in SMU, one of the most talented and dangerous teams in our entire conference. It’s going to be a tough environment, and we’ve got to have two great days getting ready.”

(On the physicality of the game and how the physicality of the team continues to grow)

“We want to be the most physical team every time we take the floor. Relentless effort and playing hard with grit and intensity and [Virginia] makes it hard. They are very well-schooled in their mover-blocker scheme – they screen you and then screen you again, and they do a phenomenal job of reading those screens. If you make a mistake and shortcut the screen, they’re going to flare you and they put it on time and you just can’t turn off mentally. You’ve got to stay engaged and continue to execute your system. They’ve done a good job of mixing pick and rolls with their off-ball mover-blocker, so now you’ve got to go from guarding all the off-ball screens to all of a sudden being put into a pick and roll. They do not let you turn off. In terms of the number of possessions in a game, they’re one of the slowest paced teams in the country, and they force you to stay locked in deep into possessions, and I think that’s what our guys did. Not perfect, we made a bunch of mistakes, but nobody ever is perfect. They stayed engaged and continued to guard as they continued to grind us and screen us.”

(On the mindset during the eight-game win streak)

“Next thing. Next thing. That’s all we talk about. I’ve said this a bunch of times in these press conferences – the most important thing in the history of our program is the next thing we do. I love that you guys are talking about an eight-game winning streak, because that’s good for our program. It puts people in the seats, recruits notice it, so keep writing it! But we’re not talking about. We are going to have a great recovery day tomorrow. It’ll be a mental day, we’ll be excellent in our film session, we won’t do anything physical, we’ll walk through, and this game will no longer exist when they wake up tomorrow. We celebrate the wins, because we work hard. A lot of time is put in, and we celebrate in that locker room. We do our dance, we hoot, we holler, we cheer, because I think it’s important to have joy in your work as well. You can tell that our guys are playing with joy. Good things happen to their teammates, and these guys in huddle are smiling and dancing, and I love that. Joy in your work, but it’s just about having the best preparation day in the program’s history tomorrow and we’ll do that again on Monday. It’s a short turnaround with a travel day and then we’ll go to Texas and play against a really good team, so there is no such thing as an eight-game winning streak. All that’s over – it’s SMU.”

(On the fan support)

“We talk about the energy that the crowd gave us today. The heart and soul of any college basketball program is their student body. That’s the epicenter. It is their team. When you look up there [the student section] and that big section - it’s not like it’s a spattering of people, they’re packed in there like sardines - they are making an impact in the game. I heard Sean Miller talk about it the other day when Xavier beat Villanova, I saw a clip of his and he was just saying “That was the push, we don’t beat them without [the students].” I feel the same way when our student body makes an impact in the game like that. The Yum! was a difference maker today. Let’s keep that going.”

(On honoring Bill Olsen and the Dirt Bowl uniforms)

“Gosh, Bill Olsen. I hadn’t really gotten to know him much in my first nine months here, but when Josh [Heird] came to me, and a group of former players and donors stepped up, and this idea came up, I found out a lot about him. Then, I had an opportunity to meet him and spend a lot of time with him the other day. Bill Olsen is as responsible as anybody for the dynasty, for the brand - for the elite brand - that Louisville Athletics is. He was an assistant basketball coach, [he] recruited a lot of those guys for Coach [Denny] Crum that were on the national championship teams. Those guys adore him, they belove him. He’s a former Marine. The guys said when Coach Crum would go out of town recruiting and Coach Olsen would take over practice, they would be like “Oh my gosh, this is going to be brutal.” He was a hard driver, but they love him. Then he became an administrator, became the athletic director for 17 years. He oversaw Final Fours and he built the athletic department and the teams. Bill Olsen is big time. It was so touching to be able to be a part of that ceremony and help unveil that and see his emotion and his family. It was really, really, really cool, so I’m proud of him.

The other thing I want to say real quick is how cool it was that our guys were wearing the Dirt Bowl uniforms today. The Dirt Bowl is stinking awesome! So, Shawnee Park, in the summer, a long time tradition since [1969]. This outdoor, playground basketball league that is like famous here. To hear the guys over the years talk about how that tradition is built. It’s on the west side - I’m a west side guy in Cincinnati. It’s awesome. This is such a basketball town. The heart and soul of this town is, I believe, basketball, and that is the grassroots of grassroots. For us to be able to honor the Dirt Bowl today and wear those uniforms is a really, really cool thing, and I thought it was special.”

Guard/Forward Terrence Edwards Jr. and Shooting Guard Reyne Smith

(It was the largest crowd of the year and in the last three years, do you guys sense the buzz around town surrounding the team?)

(Terrence Edwards Jr):

“Yeah. I’m not going to sit here and front like we don’t notice. That’s just what we’re trying to build here, we came here for that. We all came here to turn this thing around and we had to trust the process to be able to do that. We had to get hit in the mouth to be able to do what we’re doing now. So, we’re just going to keep building, keep going to practice and keep believing in each other.”

(How far do you think your all-around game has developed this year, specifically on the defensive end and as a distributor on the offensive end?)

Terrence Edwards, Jr.

“I feel like I’ve gotten better since I’ve been here in one season than I ever have in my career. My teammates give me that confidence to go out there and just be a playmaker, whether I’m scoring. Even the defensive end I’ve got guys like Reyne (Smith) just firing me up to guard these types of guys and that’s just a part of really wanting to win. It’s just been great.”

(On the new jersey which were a tribute to the Dirt Bowl)

Reyne Smith

“First of all the jerseys are sweet. It gets you excited to put them on and get ready for the game. It’s super exciting getting new jerseys, especially for something like the Dirt Bowl. When we first got here in the summer while it was going on, Peyton (Siva) talked to us about all the history of it. Obviously with the jersey announcement we learned a little more and it’s great to involve the whole city of Louisville and basketball in Louisville and bring the community in. Yeah, these jerseys are sweet.”

Terrence Edwards, Jr.

“To pick up on what Reyne was saying, I kind of didn’t know in the summer what we were doing at the moment when they said some of the guys needed to come out to the Dirt Bowl. And once we left, and we got these jerseys, last night, me and my girlfriend looked into it and the history of it’s great to be able to pay tribute to the city of Louisville and come out in these jerseys and play in them.”

(On what the team has gotten better at in the last six to eight weeks)

Terrence Edwards, Jr.

“I’d say just being connected as a unit – everybody’s on the same page right now. We knew it was going to be this way, but we had to take a little bit of time for us to gel together and try put this thing together, but it’s been great, going out there and trying to do it together every single night.”

Reyne Smith

“The consistent approach that we have every single day coming to practice. We experienced a little losing streak at the start of the season. We were the exact same then as we are now, we’re just kind of keeping it consistent every day. I’ve been a part of really good teams in my career, I’ve gone on a 20-game win streak and seeing that progression and not getting caught up in the highs and lows of it, just coming in and focusing on the next game and that preparation, because what you’ve done before that doesn’t matter the next time.”

(On adjusting to the physicality of Virginia and the ACC overall)

Reyne Smith

“You’ve got to give them credit, they’re playing super hard all the time, super physical. You kind of know that going in and you’ve got to meet and exceed that. The first time we played them in the first half especially, we got a little out-toughed during moments in that game and as the second half progressed, we became more physical. That was one of the main keys to the game today, we knew they were going to be physical and play super hard all the time and it doesn’t stop so you’ve got to give them credit. And all the guys on our team credit for coming in and exceeding that.”

(On how the team stays in the moment)

Terrence Edwards, Jr.

“Like Reyne said earlier, he’s been part of great teams. All of the players on our team [have done] this before, going on a streak. But, just holding each other accountable. We’ve got older guys that have been through it already. Our main thing is to get to March. And to get to March, you’ve got to be consistent and be able to keep winning, don’t worry about what’s next. Right now, we’ll celebrate this win and tomorrow we’re going to move on and get ready for SMU. We’re just living in the moment, all of the guys know what to do in these situations.”

(Photo of Pat Kelsey: Mark Konezny - Imagn Images)

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