Everything Rick Pitino said Thursday

Here is the complete, 4,500-word transcript of everything Louisville coach Rick Pitino had to say, including his candid opinions on the influence of shoe companies on AAU teams and recruiting, from Thursday's news conference to preview the new season. We've reordered the transcripts to move the full comments about the AAU to the second position after his opening statement because they are likely the quotes of the most interest, if you're reading along.

Opening statement

We have pretty much a brand new team. We have built a culture the last three years, a great culture of winning, capping off with the winningest class in the history of Louisville with last year's class. And now what we're concentrating on is building that same culture, and one of the things that becomes difficult is when you have six or seven new players, when you have foreign players, it's not only that you have to get them stronger physically and stronger mentally, but you're introducing them to a whole new culture.

That's what we're trying to do with Anas (Osama Mahmoud) and Matz (Stockman), and it takes a lot of patience when you deal with 7-footers because they're not ready physically, not ready mentally. The good news is we have a starting five that's terrific, really understands the culture, and they're obviously doing a very good job of developing it through the bench. The bench right now is the thing that really needs to come up.

These Red-White games coming up are going to tell us an awful a lot. Sometimes when you play exhibition games they don't tell you an awful lot, but when you play against size and quickness against each other, we're going to know stamina-wise - because there are very few substitutes - who's ready to play.

Printed remarks continue below this video of the complete press conference

That's what the Red-White thing is all about because the two units play almost the whole game with very few breaks and very few substitutes. So it's a week from this Sunday at 2 o'clock, and we'll know a lot about our basketball team at that point. Right now we're just working our way through all of it, getting guys in great shape, getting guys' stamina up to par, working on the fundamentals of our style. It'll tell an awful lot a week from Sunday.

How do you react to the Big Ten's decision to guarantee scholarships essentially in duration? Do you think that's going to be something the ACC has to do?

The players we recruit at our level. (Aside to sports information director Kenny Klein) Kenny, can you think of -- I've been here 13 years now -- how many players I didn't renew in their scholarship? I don't think personally it happened one time. There have been times where the university asked people to leave, but I don't think there's been one time. I would say that's true of almost every single place. If you asked somebody who's there 10 years, it may have happened once or twice. So I think that's more PR than it is reality. We have so many other issues that we should be dealing with and correcting. That's nice PR for the conference to do that, and I'm sure the ACC will follow suit like you just mentioned, but it's really more PR than it is -- we have other issues we should be dealing with right now.

Anything in particular on your list?

I think we need to deal with the ... What I personally don't like, and I've seen it over the past five years, I don't like -- I can't recuirt a kid because he wears Nike in the AAU circuit. I mean that's -- I've never heard of such a thing, and it's happening in our world. Or, he's on the Adidas circuit so the Nike schools don't want to recruit him. I never thought that shoes would be the reason you wouldn't recruit players. It's a factor. I think we need to deal with that. We need to get the shoe companies out of the lives of young athletes. We need to get it back to where parents and coaches have more of a say than peripheral people. That's easier said than done. I don't know how to do that. That's like trying to get the runners out of the game. We try our best to do that, but I don't know how to do that.

Do you think you're at a disadvantage not being a Nike school?

I think our pool shrinks. Our pool shrinks. But, that being said, in the last few years we're having some of the best recruiting classes that we've had in the last 13. It almost makes us -- I realized looking back on it how much time and effort I've wasted because I wouldn't believe what I just said.

Are there players who specifically said they can't come play for you because you're not ...

No, they don't say they can't come, but the outside influences from the shoe companies and the AAU coaches know that if that kid goes to an Adidas school, he may not get renewed by Nike. It's the outside influence. It's not actually the kid who cares. But you know, if you guys are influential in a young person's life and you said, 'boy, you should really go to Kentucky, they're a Nike school.' He doesn't have to say a Nike school, he just has to say Kentucky. Everybody's in that court because you're all working for that shoe company. I think that's a bigger problem than whether you guarantee scholarships, but nobody wants to talk about that. Why nobody wants to talk about that is because it's money related. Any time it's money related, schools -- University of Louisville makes a lot of money through Adidas, so you don't really ... I think it needs to be cleaned up.

I've always wished the NCAA would do it -- I've written letters about it -- I wish the NCAA would run the camps in the summertime so then everybody gets explained to them all the NCAA rules -- what you can do, what you can't do -- by the NCAA. So they run the camps and they tell us when to go in and watch and they legislate all of that. That would be a great way to spend all that money, that war chest that they have. I don't think they want to do that.

And by the way, I'm not speaking about a personal situation that just happened to us. That really wasn't the case, believe it or not. I'm talking about, in the last five years, I've seen a tremendous change on this. Believe me, it's a very competitive thing by these shoe companies to get players. I mean they're going out and recruiting like us in the summertime. 'Let's get this kid in EYBL and this kid in Adidas Nation,' and they're competing like us for recruits. It's very tough to address because our pockets are lined with their money.

Do you think there's a relationship between their money and high school players?

I think the high school players are all getting shoes and they're all getting uniforms to play in the AAU circuit. I don't think there's anything illegal, but they're all getting shoes and apparel and the AAU programs are getting taken care of by the shoe companies. We all know that. It's out in the open. Some of these AAU programs get paid a lot of money to run their program. There are the elite programs, and some of them are very good, very good. But what I've learned is, if I go in and there's a Nike program and they're getting paid a grand sum of money, Louisville's not going to come in and recruit them. It doesn't make sense because they might get that grand sum of money down the road if they don't go to those schools. Same thing with Adidas. If they're an Adidas school, the Nike ...

I just learned this. I never believed it until the last couple of years. That's a problem that needs more addressing, not to go off on this tangent, but that's a problem that's really prevalent in basketball.

Do you think there are a lot of other coaches who feel the same way?

I'm sure the Nike coaches don't feel that way (laughs). Because they're winning the battle.

Why have you been successful (recruiting) despite that advantage?

It took me a long time to realize who I'm going after and we've finally done a good job with that.

So you stay away from Nike kids?

No, not stay away, we just know the programs that are really influenced -- the really marquee programs -- that are influenced by them. It's not just Nike. Under Armour's a big player in this now. Under Armour's become the second-largest (apparel) company in the United States, right? They're competing and competing hard. I wish it wasn't there. I think it's going to be there a long, long time, as long as we're getting paid by those schools.

If that's the case, then how do you adjust long-term? Do you recommend going to Nike?

No, no. I don't think that's the answer. The answer for us is to find out what athlete is involved in which AAU program. How loyal is he to that AAU program? What outside influences in that program push him and direct him toward Nike schools. So we have to do our homework and be very diligent. Obviously the last two years, we've been very diligent because we've had great success.

Before the new Adidas deal, was that something you addressed with Tom or anybody in the athletic department?

I have my own choices to make for which shoe company. I'm sort of separate from the university in that regard, though we're sort of tied in together. I'm very comfortable where we are with Adidas because we're having great success. If I didn't feel we were having great success, I would recommend that we go with Under Armour or go with Nike, whoever it may be. It was my fault, not the shoe company or the university, that I didn't do a good enough job finding out and researching how big certain factors are with certain people. It's nobody's fault but my own.

Is there a concern, being one of the higher-profile programs, that whatever comes that way that you're connected with them vs. Nike?

As long as you do your homework, you're fine. I didn't do my homework. The shoe companies aren't to blame. They're playing the ultimate competitive game. Who can be No. 1? Right now, Nike's No. 1. Under Armour's making a push. They're competing like we're competing. We've got to make sure that we know that it doesn't matter to the kids. Those kids are the kids we want to go after.

On Chris Jones and Akoy Agau's availability (EDITOR'S NOTE, this was actually Pitino's first question of the news conference):

Chris has been back for a month. Akoy and Jaylen have just come back within the week.

On Jaylen Johnson's condition:

He hasn't practiced a day since he's been here. First was academic reasons. Now it's been – I don't know the exact way to describe it – tendonitis in the quad. What they do is they take blood out, they centrifuge it and put it back it in. I'm not sure. But he hasn't practiced. He just came back just yesterday.

How many practices have you had?

I'm not sure. We started last week.

On what he likes about the starting five:

I think they're all playing extremely well – I couldn't pick out one - although this is one of the better backcourts I've been around because they share the position like Peyton (Siva) and Russ (Smith) shared the position. These guys (Chris Jones and Terry Rozier) share the position, and whoever gets the outlet is the point guard, and the other guy becomes the '2.' They play very well with each other, Terry and Chris. Chris has been remarkable because we have been on him and it's taken a long time to get there, but he's lost 10 pounds and I call him now Mighty Mouse. I asked him if he knew the cartoon Mighty Mouse. He asked if it's from the Tom and Jerry production, and I said, 'No, it's not and I'm going to try to pull it out in some way.' But he's very strong, very quick. The thing about 5-9 guards is that most of the time, 90 percent of the time, they're a detriment. But with him, he's a tremendous asset being 5-9 because he's so strong, he can pick you up full-court. You can't lose him. He's so quick you can't lose him. There are other 5-9 guys who weigh 145, 150 pounds. That's not the case with Chris; he's one of the strongest guys on our team. His height is a tremendous asset to us. Terry is playing great basketball. Wayne (Blackshear) has been terrific. Montrezl Harrell has added a lot to his game, and Mangok (Mathiang) has improved like you would expect. All five are playing good basketball right now.

On what Harrell has added:

He's added a very accurate 16-foot jump shot. He's handling the ball better, bending his knees better. We've just got to get him playing better defense right now. The only thing he's not doing better is he was a much better defender last year, and he's got to pick that up.

On Mathiang's progress:

He was a little – I don't know if it's a word – robotical, a little stiff. He's no longer that way. He's got better offensive moves in the low post. He's stronger – you'll notice it right away in his biceps. He's much stronger. It's much more difficult to get somebody with his lower body (stronger). I've had players like that through my coaching career, you can't really get guys the lower body that much bigger. But his upper body is much bigger.

On Mathiang losing that stiffness:

I think just by repetition of offensive moves, working on his footwork. He's a much better basketball player this year, as you would expect. His goal is to be as good as Gorgui (Dieng) someday, and he always talks about that.

On where U of L is in the ACC rankings:

I haven't seen (preseason rankings). I don't know where we fit. If I had to pick, based on what's coming back – and I always look at experience – and Carolina is very experienced with their returning players. I don't know who's No. 1 or 2. If Virginia has four starters back, you have to put them up there. We're a new basketball team. I wouldn't know how we fit in the conference that outside of Syracuse, Pitt and Notre Dame I really know very little about.

On comparing the challenge to four year ago:

As we spoke four years ago, I want to build a new culture, and you always do with Louisville first. We told our players to buy into it, if you do everything humanly possible to have success with the name on the front, without question the name on the back is going to benefit. The players see that. They see Luke Hancock, that if he doesn't make the Memphis Grizzlies, has two major job offers already in business waiting for him back there. They see Tim Henderson already with a job. They see Russ Smith with a guaranteed contract. They see Stephan Van Treese in Japan with a guaranteed contract. So they've seen with that winningest class the name on the back has been taken care of with each one of them. That's what we're trying to instill. It's a little more difficult with this group because you have a big Norwegian and a big Egyptian. They don't know anything about these people or these classes. I told the guys just yesterday that there's a certain swear word that I don't think is good to use in practice, and we have learned that what they've done is they know the counter to that is in Norwegian, so they all swear now in Norwegian. You won't hear them, and you won't know what they're saying, although the Norwegian word for the one word is very close and you'll figure it out.

Give us a letter as a hint:

I like the name Frank. That's one of my favorite names.

On if Mahmoud and Stockman will both play, and if one may redshirt:

I don't think (they'll both play). I don't expect either one to play, not because they won't develop. My experience with guys like Nazr Mohammed, I remember he was so upset with me that I started a junior-varsity team at Kentucky just for Nazr to play, just to get experience, and we brought junior colleges in play against him. And we all know he's entering his 19th year in the NBA. It's just that big guys take much longer than guards. Like Quentin Snider, offensively it's been a very comfortable transition. Bigs just take time, physically, mentally. Now you're talking about a guy who was trying to escape bullets going home from the square in Egypt. This is a totally different situation for him, and it just takes time. One needs a lot of strength (Mahmoud). The other needs a lot of mental toughness. I don't expect either one to play – not because of their individual development or their deficiencies but because Mangok and Chinanu (Onuaku) are so good. They're just behind those two guys.

On how Russ Smith's absence changes the offense:

We'll know what we're doing and we'll know what plays we're running. (laughter).

On the other newcomers:

When I spoke after the game here in the Louisville, the Derby Classic, they thought Nanu was in pathetic shape. You get to know new players, and he won't turn 18 until November. He's 17 years of age. So the thing, before I judeged what type of player he was, because I went recruiting the first day of individual instruction, and I asked the guys how he did, and they said, 'Coach, you wouldn't believe. He couldn't get through a drill. His conditioning.' When you see him, the physical specimen he's become – his mom and friend didn't recognize him when he went home – when you see the specimen he's become it'll blow you away from that Derby Classic. He's now in great shape. He is a physical specimen with very little body fat on him. Probably 250 pounds of solid muscle. We've got to improve. … Guys like Dwight Howard, Shaquille O'Neal, Wilt Chamberlain over the course of time, the reason they're bad free-throw shooters is the size of their hands. When you take guys with huge hands, they go through all these gimmicks of shooting with one hand, they basically pull the string and shoot like that. What we're trying to develop – and Montrezl is going through a nice period where he's developed it - is just to have a soft touch and not let their hands be a detriment. Matz is going to have to go through that. Nanu is going to have to go through that. The good thing is Montrezl's improved his free-throw shooting.

On defense:

I really won't know until the Red-White game. We're just introducing it. I keep mentioning the word, 'culture.' There's always one game in the tournament where your offense, not necessarily is going to be off, but I'll give you an example – Wichita State, we knew we were going to struggle offensively in that game because every team that played against Wichita State you're going to struggle offensively. So your defense has to win the game for you. There's always 1-2 games in the tournament where your defense has to win it. It's true in every sport. … I don't know right now what our defense is because we haven't played against enough competition, but I know we're going to play against Virginia and Pittsburgh, very similar to a Wichita State, where our defense if it's not as good as them, we're not going to beat them. That's what we have to do. That's the biggest adjustment when you have six new players is we're teaching them three different presses. We're teaching them a matchup zone. We're teaching them man pressure, man switching, and it's difficult. So as we get rolling, we're not going to concentrate so much on 9-13. We're going to concentrate and focus in on the first eight.

On the early season schedule:

That's why the Red-White game is crucial to us. A lot of people think we're going to have a lot of fun with this Minnesota-Louisville game. I know my son, as we all know our children, and when I called him, I said, 'ESPN wants us to play this game. I don't want to play it. I don't want to play you.' It was obvious that when we played FIU, that we were supposed to win. Now the fact that he insisted on playing the game, I knew then and there that he thinks he can beat us. Now that being said, that was before Montrezl Harrell made his decision (to come back to school), but he still thinks he can beat us. He's got four seniors. He's coming off an NIT championship and 25 wins. He knows he has a really good team, and I don't know what he was alluding to, but we played golf against each other and we're very competitive five times this summer, and he beat me all five times and we're exactly the same handicap. The last time we were in Minnesota, he gave me a pat on my (butt), and said 'it's been a tough summer for you. Hope it's not a tough fall.' He fully expects to win that game. I know their team. He knows our team. They're fully capable. If we are like we've been the last three seasons, we won't beat Minnesota because we always start to play really good basketball sometime in January. Those teams you mentioned, from Cleveland State to Ohio State to Indiana, I was with Tom Crean the other day and he really likes his team this year and – going forward to Kentucky and then the ACC, we've got to be ready. In about two weeks we've got to be ready, and I go back to those Red-White games being crucial. You'll be able to judge, and I'll be able to judge, and we'll know more about this basketball team at that point.

Initial impressions of freshmen Quentin Snider and Shaqquan Aaron?

I'm impressed with Quentin because he's gotten physically stronger. He came in here 13-percent body fat. He's now 7 and change. He's bigger. He's stronger. He's typical of most freshmen -- he can't guard any of us -- but he's offensively a gifted basketball player.

Shaqquan's a different situation. He didn't lie about his weight. I asked him during the summer and he said between 185 and 188. He came in between 165 and 168. He wasn't lying. He got sick. I asked him if he broke his jaw and had his mouth wired. He said, no, he caught some type of bug and he lost 7 or 8 pounds in a week. I'll believe him because he did lose the weight. Like Francisco Garcia, he's very weak physically. Now, he's a talented young man, but Wayne Blackshear dominates him every day physically. He can pass. He can shoot. He can score. He's very gifted like Francisco was, but he's physically very weak so that's (strength coach) Ray Ganong's job right now. It's up to Ray to not let our legions of fans down.

You don't believe that Kentucky's second team is No. 2 in the country, do you?

I really mean this, and don't take this the wrong way when I say this, but I couldn't care less about Kentucky. Everybody always asks me. The reason I never knock Kentucky, like most Louisville people will do, is because I have too much respect for the players I coached for those eight years. So I never say a negative word about Kentucky. On the flip side, I don't care what they have or what they do other than when we get ready to play them. So I never say a negative word about them. I tell the story all the time, and it's taken me – just like it's taken me a long time to find out about this shoe business – it's taken me a long time to figure out how to treat all the 400,00 people in this town who come up to me and say, 'Hey, Coach, I'm a Kentucky fan.' Now I've got it down to a science of how to stop that. It's started by chance in the Atlanta airport when this person came up to me and just out of the clear blue ran up to me and I got nervous from behind and said, 'Coach, I'm a Florida fan.' I just said, 'Go Gators.' And she just looked at me and walked away. So I said to Wyking (Jones), 'That was great. Did you see her just walk away without an answer? I'm going to try that when I get back to Kentucky.' And invariably I'm out to dinner, 'Hey, Coach, I'm a Kentucky fan.' 'Go Cats!' (laughter) They look right at you, and they walk away. So, like the shoe business, it's taken me a long time to master this. So know when somebody runs up to me, 'I played at South Carolina.' 'Go Gamecocks.' (laughter). They immediately leave your table, and you can finish your dinner. I'm learning after 13 years so much about this industry.

On Ebola virus and recruiting in Africa:

I don't think so. I think, like AIDS, we've got to be really well-educated on this, how long does it stay on an outside banister. The whole world's got to be educated like we weren't in the early stages of AIDS. … We've got to make sure we know what we're talking about. It hasn't influenced us at all along those lines because we've got to really understand it. I was watching a show just before I came down here, and the scientist said this is very similar to the AIDS scare that we've had, and we've got to make sure we're well-educated. No, I'm not overly concerned about. … We don't actually go over to Africa. I know Marvin Menzie does when he was here, but we've never physically gone over there. A few of our compliance people may have gone over there with Gorgui for his transcripts.

On the foreign players' knowledge of basketball culture:

The great thing about the foreign players is, what you look for with bigs right away is their footwork. When they don't have really good footwork, it takes a long time for them to develop. The great thing about the foreign players is they start playing soccer as their No. 1 sport. Gorgui's footwork was terrific because he played soccer as a child. Mangok played soccer as a child. That's their No. 1 sport growing up. They don't really learn basketball until the get to like seventh grade or eighth or ninth grade. They all grow up with soccer balls, and their footwork is very, very good. That's not true with Matz. … he didn't grow up with a basketball. I asked a person interviewing me when I went to see Matz in New York to give me the names of three or four great Norwegian players, and he could only name one, and this was a guy who was from Norway. … Anybody else? Go Cards!