What Pat Kelsey, Louisville Players Said After 79-68 Win vs. Pitt

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Make that seven-in-a-row for the Louisville men's basketball program, winning their rematch with Pitt thanks to phenomenal efforts from Chucky Hepburn and Terrence Edwards Jr.

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

“I have some special guests here. As you know, I’ve been away for a long time in the Carolinas for the majority of my career, but being back here in Louisville, it’s very close to Cincinnati, like our season tickets spiked with all the Kelsey family. I have a bunch of my uncles and cousins and things like that here. I invited them into this. I'm proud of our guys. I think the first thing I want to say is the atmosphere was phenomenal. It was phenomenal. I told our guys, you've earned that. They worked their butt off, and they're having a phenomenal season. We talk about, how this team reflects the character, the toughness, the grit of the city of Louisville. Our fan base sees that and to come out the way they did tonight, that was a big, big, big time college basketball atmosphere. I give our marketing staff a lot of credit for the idea to come up with the stripe out and challenge the fan base. They were unbelievably coachable. They followed through, and the stripe out was awesome. I thought our student body was terrific. They made a major impact in the game. The students and the fan base, it was special tonight. I had goosebumps when I walked out, and they were a major, major factor in the game.

I got a lot of respect for Pitt, for Jeff (Capel). I think their backcourt is as talented as any in our conference. They're a handful to deal with. I love when I get in those huddles and I don't have to say anything but our leaders, our upperclassmen, which is everybody on our team, were already saying the things that I was going to say. It was going to come down to getting stops and getting big rebounds. I think they were 2 for 15 the last 17 field goal attempts. A couple of them, we had some missed assignments, and they just missed open looks. But overall, our guys buckled down, got a big stop. I mean, Chucky had a game that he's going to tell his grandchildren about. That stretch of four minutes before half was as amazing of a point guard play. It kind of looked like Steph Curry out there. Even the one after the whistle, he kind of threw up and it went in. I played basketball my whole life, and I've never been in a zone like that. I struggled to score in an empty gym. And they say when the basket looks like the ocean, it's really fun to play that way. And I don't know what that's like, but Chucky was feeling it that way tonight. I thought it's great to have Terrence Edwards III, Trey’s newborn son at his first college basketball game tonight. That was awesome. Noah (Waterman) got his 1,000th point. James Scott had four steals and had a big block down the stretch. It was just a really, really good team effort and unbelievable atmosphere.”

On Chucky’s run in the first half

“Just 0-0. That's what we always say when we get to those media timeouts, 0-0. It's about how you respond. We were facing some adversity. We didn’t play the cleanest offensive game in the world. I mean, obviously Chucky was magical, but you know, we just reset, especially in that last eight minutes. We call it winning time. You know, we just, we just buckled down and got stops and rebounds. But no matter what's going on in the game, if we're on a big run, or if we're getting scored on, we got to correct some things and clean some stuff up. It's always 0-0, and we just try to stay consistent. We're not going to do something different throughout the course of the game. We're going to be the same and just get back to our principles.”

On the environment

“The only thing we're going to talk about is the next one we play on Wednesday, not worried about the game after that. I'm sure not worried about the conference tournament, the NCAA tournament. You guys know me well enough that it's the next thing, and that's all we worry about. But you're right. You feel it in the city. The city's buzzing. Everybody told me about night games on Saturday. Look out. We're proud to have an impact in downtown, in this city, because of the excitement that's come back. People are flooding into the restaurants and the bars, and they were there all day, having a great time. Maybe added a little bit of juice to the game tonight, but you feel it. (You) feel it when you go around town. People are excited. The town's buzzing about Louisville basketball, and it's really, really cool.”

(On Chucky Hepburn being the ultimate team player)

“That list came out, whatever it is, the [Bob Cousy] Award? Or whatever it was, and Chuck is not on it, right? You watched that game tonight, you tell me he's not one of the top 10 point guards in the United States of America. That's a freaking joke. He's special. He's special. We have a special group. It's his makeup. You talked about his selflessness like he could have made that last layup and had 39 [points] and he gave it to J’Vonne [Hadley]. You know, we drew something up for [Hepburn] coming out of half, because he had like, a million points. He goes, ‘Man, they're going to be draped all over me, put [Terrence Edwards Jr.] in that position. [Pitt’s defense will] follow me off the exit screen or open up James for the for the lob.’ That's special, you know, and we got a group of guys like that. They’re so much fun to coach. They're about winning. They're not about their accolades or statistics, and that's what makes them great.”

(On where Hepburn’s sixt three ranks among best moments in Kelsey’s coaching career)

“The place went crazy, those Yum! Roars, I talked about in one of my first press conferences. Like the Augusta [National Golf Club] roar, the [Tiger Woods] roar that you hear at Augusta National. There's a different decibel level that it hits here when things get crazy, and it was that way tonight. I'm real blessed because we have two true point guards, and you remember, Chucky was hurt and missed a game recently, and [Edwards Jr.] had like, 27 [points] and 10 [rebounds], you know? I mean, you got two closers, we got bunch of closers, but I thought [Edwards Jr.] was really good tonight and made some huge buckets when we really, really needed him. I've talked many times to you guys about the improvement of his defense ever since the start of conference play, I think he's been one of the better defensive guards in the whole conference.”

(On Louisville’s defense down the stretch)

“That's, that's what closed out the game for sure, No. 15 (Jaland Lowe) is a dynamic guard. He puts fouls on you. He's as fast and quick twitch as any guard we're going to play against. He's got this uncanny knack when he gets to the rim and if you come over second row, like James was coming over to try to block his shots. He's got this ability, like, at the last second, to go whoop and fire that thing for threes. We call it matrix, right? So, you've seen the movie The Matrix, you know, like when the bullets are flying over the guy's head, and they watch it. Well, [Lowe] throws these passes that, if you ball watch, he's going to find that dude. They got too many open looks off of that. We actually got lucky a couple times that they missed some of those open looks. But we knew it was going to come to a one on one challenge, because [Lowe is] a terrific one-on-one player. He wants to go left, and you try everything in your power to keep him from going left, and he gets to his left somehow, some way. We start switching pick and rolls to not get two [defenders] on the ball and get spread out. Then we needed everybody to sit down and guard and try to have a crowded floor. I thought we did that, and then we had to go get the rebound. That was, that was huge.”

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

(On if Chucky was aware of how many points he had)

Chucky Hepburn: “I was aware, but it's just the type of player I am. You know, I don't really care about scoring the most points. I saw J’Vonne [Hadley] coming down, and [Hadley] jumps higher than I do, so I wanted to just send off the game with a bang. And I knew [Hadley] was going to come down and bang it.”

(On if it feels good to have tougher games like this when heading into March)

Chucky Hepburn: “Yeah, any team win like that. You know, when it gets to winning time and we come out on top, it's great for us. It shows a great sign. I think at Virginia Tech, we kind of struggled during winning time, we didn't close the gap. And we’ve just got to find ways to be able to keep our foot on the gas and I feel like we did that tonight.”

(On strong home environment tonight)

Chucky Hepburn: “One hundred percent the fanbase was so great tonight. We felt that energy, it was like the game against Tennessee, it was one of those types of energy games. So, we knew we couldn’t lose tonight. We had to dig deep and just try and make plays to win the game. Going down the stretch in March, that is what we are going to need the love and support from the fanbase. Because we plan on playing a long time in March and going into April, so buckle up.”

Terrence Edwards Jr.: “I thought it was great. I’ve probably played in a million games in my career, and I think it was the best environment I’ve ever experienced. Coming out for warmups and seeing everybody already coming in and you just feel that energy. We got to give a big shoutout to the crowd because we’ve been in that situation on the road, and we’ve never really had this situation here at home. Like Chucky said we’re going to need this fanbase to travel with us while we keep playing all the way through April.”

(On if Terrence has ever seen anything like what Chucky did tonight)

Terrence Edwards Jr.: “Nah. I was just talking about that. I’ve probably never seen anyone get that hot and go on a little run like that by themselves, that kind of opened the game. And at times we were struggling offensively, so him coming out, doing that, just boosted us and got us over the hump.”

(On what they have learned from your recent close games)

Terrence Edwards Jr: We know there is a target on our back, and we just got to accept that, and we have. Watching film on guys we don’t underestimate them, going into the game and respecting our opponent and knowing that they’re going to give us their best shot. That’s what we need late in the year, going into the ACC Tournament and in March Madness, if we are trying to make a Final Four or Elite Eight run. So, we need to be tested, just to get comfortable in the last war and be able to come out on top.”

(On the things that he has focused on to become better defensive player)

Terrence Edwards Jr.: “Really, just knowing what guys do, studying more of the game and an opponent that we're about to go against. I felt like I wasn't doing that at the mid-major level, so I made that transition here, and I knew I had to really study guys and be ready for their best tendencies and stuff. And then once I started doing that, I started being able to guard better, because I'm already know what they are going to do. And J’Vonne [Hadley] and Chucky [Hepburn] already been good defenders that their last school. So, playing with those guys in practice and seeing what they do on the defensive end just makes you want to play defense. So, I most definitely give a shout out to them, and the coaching staff who put me in those positions to show that I can guard too.”

(Photo of Chucky Hepburn, Pat Kelsey: Clare Grant - Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

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