What Pat Kelsey, Louisville Players Said After 89-81 Win vs. Florida State

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - While their rematch against Florida State was a lot closer than the first matchup, the Louisville men's basketball program still emerged victorious, holding on for an 89-81 win.

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

Head Coach Pat Kelsey

Opening Statement

“I want to start with a couple things real quick. Outside of basketball, I value so much what you guys do in reporting on Louisville basketball, and you guys are all pros, and you pour your heart and soul into your craft. And as we know you know a member of your crew, we lost this week, in Ben Gumbel, way too young, at 28 years old. Somebody that loved what he did. I like to think, a guy whose career was going like this and just taking too early. So, my thoughts, my prayers, my condolences go out to Ben's family. Then the other thing I want to address is, obviously the disaster that's happening right now in the state of Kentucky, with all of the floods. Again, my heartfelt prayers and condolences go out to the families of the 14 victims that lost their lives in the horrible flooding. It's just talking to our team and just a reminder of just how precious life is. In this state, an although you have Kentucky fans and you have Louisville fans, there's such pride in the state of Kentucky and being a Kentuckian. We all mourn the loss of those people. I believe Dana provided a link that people can donate to help the cause of the floods and things like that, and the funerals of the victims. So, if you find it in your heart to make a donation, it would really go a long way. It would mean a lot.

So as far as the game tonight I think the first thing, there's probably a good chance we'll play them again in the conference tournament, because Coach Hamilton's teams are always gritty and tough, and they'll be playing their best basketball there at the end of the year. So, I don't want to say this is the last time I'll play against him, because there's a chance that it won't be but with him retiring, I came into this league 20 something years ago, 22 years ago, when I was at Wake Forest and he was just coming into the league, his longevity, the success that he's had. He's the longest tenured coach in this conference. He's respected, not only in the ACC but around the country, to have sustained success the way he has. His teams always are tough, competitive, gritty, and he's a world class human too. I didn't get to know him personally throughout the years, but now that I'm a head coach in this league, spending time with him at the Spring Meetings. Very genuine person. Is a great heart, and I've really enjoyed getting to know him. And he's got a bunch of basketball left to have this team playing great, but as he moves forward after this year, we all wish him the best as he moves into retirement, but it's important that we all honor him for the stuff that he's done to make this league great. Like they always are, they were tough. They kept coming at us. They never quit. And I thought our guys shot up, showed a lot of resiliency to figure out a way to get a win at the end. There were some spells at the end of the half. There were some spells in the second half, and especially down the stretch, where we could have done a better job with our defense. But at the end of the day, we found a way to get a big win. I thought [Aboubacar] Traore gave us unbelievable energy off the bench. I don't even care what his statistics said. He was a major catalyst in the win. I thought Khani Rooths gave us great minutes, same thing. Just his voice, whether it's in the huddle on the sideline, that stuff matters. You know, big Frankie [Frank Anselem-Ibe] is a huge part of this win as well, just keeping guys locked in, connected. And then we had a bunch of dudes that had big nights. J’Vonne Hadley,18 [points] and 11 [rebounds]. As we know, he's a mismatch problem. Affects the game in so many ways. Chucky Hepburn had an unbelievable stat line. He had five steals, 29 points, got to the free throw line a lot. Terrence [Edwards Jr.] was in foul trouble a lot. So, it was hard for him to get in the rhythm of the game, but I thought he continued to give us great minutes and just to be that presence out there. And we're just lucky and fortunate to come out with a win.”

Chucky Hepburn’s ability to draw fouls

“You know, that's very, very, very efficient basketball, like we say the highest percentage shot in the game is a free throw. So when we talk about the shots we want to generate, you obviously want to try to generate the highest percentage shot in the game first, and that's the free throw. So that's just playing off the attack, playing downhill, but you have to play poised as well. I felt like there were sometimes in the first half we had several guys that were shooting a couple what we call Simone Biles shots around the rim. And if you shoot Simone Biles shots, those are high degree of difficulty shots. She does 8 million twists and all this stuff, and she gets a higher score from that in basketball, if you double clutch and go up and do all this stuff, you still get two points. So when you shoot some odd shots against these guys, that's like a turnover. Turnovers against these guys are touchdowns at the other end. Chucky just plays with such poise when he drives, you know, like he can, you know, he draws contact on a drive, but sometimes he just gets in there and doesn't just play with, kind of, what I say, classical music going on in his head, instead of heavy metal, right? And it looks like there's 700 guys out there. He just stays calm and cool.”

On the physicality of playing a team like Florida State

“I think it's important that you always adjust to a game, how it's being called, whether it's, the physicality in a game, whether it's whatever it is. I think good teams can adapt throughout the course of the game. They're always physical. They're always tough. They're always gritty. We knew coming in the game that it was going to be that way. We knew we had to be great in transition. Part of being great in transition was take care of the ball, to play it clean. Because of turnovers for touchdowns. Defensive rebounding was going to be really good big because they have a ton of guys that crash the glass. And then we just said it was going to be a rock fight. It was going to be the rock fight out there, and that's what it was. It's always that way when you play Florida State, because you have be ready for the battle because that's how coach Hamilton's teams plays. They did that tonight. I thought we met that challenge, and it's really good college basketball game.”

On outrebounding Florida State

“I don't know how undersized we are, but even if, when you say we are undersized, I always as my mentor Skip Prosser would say, it's not how big you are, it’s how big you play/ We really, really value rebounding. We preach it. We teach it. We grade it. We celebrate it. Rebounding is like defense, it's an attitude. It's based on toughness. There's obviously a technique to it. On the defensive end, you have hit a box out, pursue the ball. On the offensive end, you know, we pursue the ball as well. We have tough guys that treat those balls in the air like loose balls. For the most part, we've been a very good rebounding team.”

Impact that J’Vonne Hadley brings when he as to play so many minutes as he did against big and physical Florida St. team?

“I’m not here to talk about anyone feeling sorry for us because every team has adversity. But our rotation was a little messed up today because we had some guys sick this week. Like Reyne (Smith) was drained today. He gave us great minutes even though he didn’t have his normal legs. Noah (Waterman) had the same issues. Those guys were ready to play and gave it everything. We had to get them in and out of the game because of fatigue and things like that. So, other guys really had to step up and play more minutes and have more responsibilities. We were dealing with some foul trouble. Chucky (Hepburn), he was in foul trouble. Terrence (Edwards Jr.) was in foul trouble. That’s why it’s so important to get contributions from other guys, Like Aboubacar (Traore) who was huge tonight. J’Vonne played 38 minutes and had to do so many things. He had to play against Malique Ewin, who’s a phenomenal post player and is as good of a post scorer, has great feet and hand as we have in this league. He’s really, really good. I think he was the junior college player of the year last year. We asked J’Vonne (Hadley) to do a lot. We asked him to guard the best perimeter player at times. We asked him to guard the best post player at times. But he just does it with a smile on his face. He’s a lunch pail as lunch pail gets. He’s blue collar and has just had a phenomenal year for us.”

On how the team responded to FSU battling back

“They do what they normally do. We focus so much and talk about that word; response and it is always really big. The circumstances are the stuff that happens to you can’t do anything about. Throughout the year, lose a game. Guys get hurt, guys get sick, you get a tough call against you, you miss some shots, and they did. They continued to battle. They went on runs when we had leads and our guys continued to meet the challenge. I feel like and I’m going to watch the tape, but during those stretches you always give your opponent credit. Coach Hamilton’s a great coach, putting us in actions. But our defense has to be better and more consistent and has been for the better part of two months. I thought we guarded really well for a majority of the game, but we had to many spells where it was too easy to get scored on. The response by our guys. We have closers on this team. I mean, obviously Chucky (Hepburn) is a guy who you can put the ball in his hands. Terrence (Edwards Jr.) is a guy who you can put the ball in his hands. J’Vonne (Hadley) is a guy who you can put the ball in his hands. Those guys can go make a play late in the game when you need them too.”

Guard/Forward Terrence Edwards Jr. and Point Guard Chucky Hepburn

(On playing through foul trouble in a physical game)

Chucky Hepburn - “I think for us to stay out of foul trouble, we have to stop putting ourselves in positions to be in foul trouble. For me, I probably shouldn’t have reached for that third foul, but after that, we’ve just got to shift to the mentality of guarding without fouling. In the second half, we guarded without fouling, but we got too many easy buckets so we’ve got to figure out how to guard without fouling and without allowing easy buckets.”

Terrence Edwards, Jr. - “It was definitely my teammates keeping my head in it for sure. I got a little frustrated, which I shouldn’t, but frustrated on some calls that I probably shouldn’t have driven to the hole and drop my shoulder, so I’ve just got to go back and watch the film and see where I can get better in that area. Guarding someone like (Jamir Watkins) who is like a foul magnet – I’ve just got to go back and watch the film so next time I can be ready for guys like that.”

(On what went wrong defensively early in the second half)

Chucky Hepburn - “I just feel like we kind of stopped talking to each other in the second half defensively. I felt like we were just kind of on an island and that can’t happen anymore. We’re going to fix that tomorrow at practice and that will be the last game it happens.”

(On the shot at the buzzer)

Chucky Hepburn - “I just knew there were a couple of seconds left on the shot clock and I felt some space and I was just able to get it up there and I felt it go in.”

(On what J’Vonne Hadley brings to the lineup)

Terrence Edwards, Jr.- “He’s a dog. People might think he’s undersized, but he’s so physical and strong that it seems like sometimes there’s never someone that he can’t guard. From 1 through 5 he’s a great defender, I just feel like he can guard 1 through 5 and we don’t have to worry about him in the post because he’s so physically strong, so guys might have length, but you can live with that. You just wall people up and if they’re making it, they’re making it, but it’s going to be a real fight if you’re scoring on him, he just makes everything hard.”

Chucky Hepburn - “I say this all the time, J’Vonne Hadley is probably the most underrated player in the country. He’s not talked about enough. He just does little things, rebounding, he guards 1 through 5. He’s able to score, shoot 3s. I love playing with him, he’s just a great teammate on and off the court and I just love being around him. ‘’

(On their competitiveness and strategy amid foul trouble in second half):

Chucky Hepburn: “It’s just having that winning mentality. We don’t want to lose on our home court anymore. We have a lot of pride when we take the court here at the Yum! Center, so we just know we can’t lose.”

Terrence: Edwards, Jr. - “The last eight minutes of the game, we call that winning time, so we know we’ve got to be at our best in those last eight minutes. In the past we’ve had drop offs in the last eight minutes, like the Wake Forest game and probably some games before that, so we’re just taking pride in those last eight minutes, trying to stretch the lead and be able to come out with the win.”

(On getting tested and staying resilient):

Terrence Edward, Jr. - “I feel like every game is a test. No matter if we win by 15, 20, we just feel like guys want to beat us. We can feel it on the court when the games start with how hard a guy crashes. We feel like every game, no matter if we blow a team out or not, every team is trying to beat us right now. Really every game is like that. It’s physical, it’s going to be chippy, there are going to be foul calls, that’s just what these teams are bringing. The later in the season gets, the tougher the teams get, so we’ve just got to stay consistent in that area.”

(On his scoring aggressiveness against Florida State’s defense):

Chucky Hepburn: “Yeah, that’s what it was. I just realized that I was trying to force it too much, trying to find guys, and that’s the reason why I turned the ball over so much today. But once I got out of that mentality, [I was] just getting downhill, trying to draw fouls, I was able to do that. And I felt like once I got that going, I couldn’t be stopped. I was just able to get downhill and make plays.”

(On the team’s sickness throughout the week and how it affected the game):

Chucky Hepburn: “Honestly, I don’t even know how many people there were, but me and Fatt (Terrence Edwards, Jr.) were cool.”

Terrence Edwards, Jr.: “It’s a no-excuse mentality. We knew with the sickness, with big [events] two weeks in a row, with me having a [new] son and stuff, so I had to come to the game not being with the team, and then Reyne (Smith) not being with the team because he got sick. It’s just not having excuses and try to come out here and get a win. Stuff is going to happen, people are going to get sick, so you’ve just got to be able to come out here and still do your part and bring what you’re going to bring to the team every night.”

(Photo of Pat Kelsey: Pat McDonogh - Special to the Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

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