CARDINALS

Transcript: Pitino pre-tournament Q&A

Jeff Greer

Louisville Courier Journal

Louisville coach Rick Pitino works the court during a game against Pitt on Sunday in Pittsburgh.

Here's the full transcript from Rick Pitino's 30-minute Q&A on Tuesday before Louisville leaves for the NCAA tournament. The Cards will practice Wednesday morning and depart Louisville around 1 p.m.

Related: A few quick thoughts from Pitino's Tuesday press conference

They have an open practice in Seattle on Thursday -- and more press conferences.

Here's everything from today's conversation:

Opening statement: We've had enough practice for about three weeks of games and our guys are definitely improving and looking forward to the opening of March Madness. We're going to leave tomorrow about 1 o'clock and head out west and enjoy Seattle.

Q: You said the Pacific Ocean -- this puts you close …

Pitino: Yeah, we really did want to go west. We're excited about it. We went west to Portland last time around and had a great trip (2012). We won't be going to Phoenix next, but if we get lucky, we'll come home and go to Syracuse.

Q: Had you seen UC-Irvine before the draw?

Pitino: I didn't, but the video guys, they were one of five or six teams we were looking at that potentially could be that type of seed if we were a four or five.

Q: What are your impressions of them?

Pitino: They shoot it very well. Obviously, they can make the three and they have the tallest player in college basketball, 7-6, and he's a great rim protector. They have a terrific power forward and they're certainly a formidable opponent.

Q: How does the big guy change things around the rim?

Pitino: Well, if he gets close to the basket, he's going to score, obviously. With his size he can probably dunk without jumping and he's fairly mobile. He doesn't play a lot of minutes; they have a 7-2 guy that backs him up and another 6-10, so great size, great shooting, really good guard play, good wing play and a terrific power forward.

Q: You were talking about making a change at the five spot right after the North Carolina game …

Pitino: Well, we probably could make some changes. It all depended on matchups. If we were going against a small outfit, we'd play Montrezl a lot at five and Jaylen at four. We've had a lot of different things we could do in this time off, but now with the size they play we probably wouldn't go in that direction.

Q: Can anybody in the Big West that can generate pressure comparable to what you do?

Pitino: I don't know the league too well, to be honest with you. I have just studied (UC-Irvine).

Q: Have you seen anybody apply pressure you thought was comparable?

Pitino: I don't think comparable, but I've seen pressure, yeah.

Q: What do you like about this time of year?

Pitino: I just think it's the most exciting few weeks on all of sports. The Super Bowl is obviously very big, but it's just one game and this is so many games and the excitement mounts with each round. It's just a great time of year for everybody, followers of college basketball, fans, media, gamblers, every degenerate around.

Q: Why did you want to go west?

Pitino: Every team is different, and this team for some reason got very distracted around family and friends. I don't know why, couldn't figure it out. More than any team I've coached in 40 years, this team just got very distracted. Maybe it's the world of social media and listening to Twitter and fans, maybe it's the fact that they're very young. I'm not sure what it was, but I wanted to get away.

Q: Is the chemistry good on this team?

Pitino: It's great now. I think they had to get to know each other and I had to cut out the trash talking and the belittling of young players.

Q: Do you feel good about where this team is going into the tournament?

Pitino: I feel great. I thought the last two weeks of the season we played really good basketball. We played a great half against North Carolina and there's two weaknesses we've fallen into a trap in every lost -- challenged shots. We were 2-for-12. Like I've said many times, here at Louisville we've been 22 percent on challenged shots. This year we're 8 percent. So at the end of that game, 8 of the 12 shots we took were challenged. And the other thing is when we give up offensive rebounds, we play poorly. So those are two things we've really spent a lot of time working on.

Q: How has Chinanu responded to you telling him you need more?

Pitino: I didn't really talk to him as much as I talked to the team about we've got to get more production out of the five spot. I said, I don't expect you to shoot jump shots, I expect you to get putbacks off offensive rebounds. I told Chinanu and all the players, I don't expect you to play two games in a trapping system and get no blocked shots.

Q: Mangok (Mathiang) seemed to gain some confidence …

Pitino: Mango and Q give us the most consistent energy in practice, along with Terry. Terry's very good also.

Q: What about Wayne and the way he's taken to heart what you keep driving at?

Pitino: I really think the whole team's playing well. I like the way everybody's playing right now. Losing to Notre Dame is no disgrace and losing to North Carolina, we played good enough to beat Carolina. I knew that Notre Dame would be a very tough matchup for us. Anytime you put four shooters and you play small against a team. . .it's difficult for some of our bigs to get out on them. It's a poor matchup.

Q: Numerous people look at your draw and think it's almost ideal … How far as a coach can you look ahead?

Pitino: When you say numerous people, people who know what they're talking about … I've been an analyst and sometimes you have to be a contrarian to the group and sometimes you have to give your opinion. They're never right; if they're right 50 percent of the time, it's very difficult.

The only sure thing in looking at it as an analyst myself is that Kentucky's in a league of their own. Anybody who's not in Kentucky's region is very happy, including myself. And everybody else can be beat.

So when I look at our bracket, I don't think it's necessarily good, I don't think it's necessarily bad. I think Irvine's a very tough opening matchup and then you go against a style of play … Northern Iowa is a carbon copy of Virginia; it's almost identical to a certain degree in the way they play offense and defense. Then you have Wyoming, who probably is one of the best defensive teams in the country. So is it an ideal matchup? Probably not. But we're used to it from playing Virginia twice and playing some of the other teams. And with Irvine, we know what we're up against.

So I don't think it's an ideal matchup; I don't think there is such a thing. Somebody said to me, Notre Dame is an ideal matchup for Kentucky, and he knew what he was talking about. I said that's the worst matchup for Notre Dame, so everybody has a difference of opinion in terms of analyzing matchups.

Then you go against a style of play that's like, Northern Iowa is a carbon copy of Virginia, almost identical to a certain degree, in the way they play offense and defense. Then you have Wyoming, who probably is one of the best defensive teams in the country. So, you know, is it an ideal matchup, probably not. But we're used to it from playing Virginia twice. And some of the other teams. With Irvine, we know what we're up against. I don't think it's an ideal matchup. I don't think there is such a team. Somebody said to me, and I'll give you an example, 'Notre Dame is not a good matchup for Kentucky.' And he knew what he was talking about. I said, that's the worst matchup for Notre Dame, Kentucky, so everybody has a difference of opinion is what I'm saying in that, in terms of analyzing matchups.

Q: In terms of having a short window for the second game, do you scout a little differently?

Pitino: We'll study Northern Iowa and Wyoming all week long, but the players will focus in on Irvine.

Q: Are the players in a routine about that?

Pitino: They're pretty much, they know exactly what to expect like clockwork this time of the season.

Q: Seems like that's an important thing for your teams.

Pitino: Yeah, like I said, we're very pleased with where we are right now and as long as we don't take challenged shots, we're going to move the ball, take good shots and shoot a decent percentage. And the more we shoot a decent percentage the more we'll get our pressure on and good things happen.

Q: How do you feel about Snider's improvement?

Pitino: I think Quentin is playing good basketball. I think he's getting the most out of his opportunity and making other people better. He's improving his defense. I may have to use David Levitch. this time of year I may have to use David because we're going to see some zones, and he's very good at penetrating zones, hitting shots, so may have to play him a little bit. Irvine is mostly a zone team.

Q: You mentioned playing Montrezl and Jaylen. How much of that have you done?

Pitino: I like the way Jaylen is playing. I don't necessarily like them as a combination. I like the way Jaylen is playing right now. He's been very active in practice. Like I said, Jaylen and Matz have improved the most of all the freshmen, but they also had the furthest to come.

Q: Was it like a light went on?

Pitino: I just think he's never been in great shape in his life, and he's finally getting into great shape.

Q: What does this team need the most from Terry?

Pitino: Just don't take challenged shots.

Q: Does he know when he's taking a challenged shot, or does he find out later?

Pitino: Yeah, he knows. He definitely knows it the next day. (Laughs.) We show them the percentages. Sometimes, look, there's nothing you can do about it. The clock's winding down. I think that's only about 10, 15 percent of the time. I told him he has to pass the ball more inside instead of -- he takes D-Wade to a new level because he falls down like D-Wade, too.

Q: Do you think the possibility of being in Seattle will maybe kick-start Shaqquan (Aaron)?

Pitino: I don't. I don't think that has anything to do with it because Shaqquan's not going to play much in Seattle. He's been out hurt this week and he's just coming back and he's turning the ball over a lot. I don't expect Shaqquan to change because he's going home. I think Shaqquan's problem is physical weakness, turning the ball over too much ... It's not because he's homesick.

Q: If Kentucky is in a league by itself, first, what separates them in your mind from everybody else, and who is closest?

Pitino: They're undefeated. Kentucky can beat you so many different ways. Kentucky had, first of all, the best team they've played against is their second team. And there are so many things at his disposal. If the backcourt's not playing well -- the twins -- he comes with a lottery pick and one of the premier point guards in the nation. God forbid if someone doesn't attempt to block a shot or offensive rebound, they're coming right out of the game and some other aircraft carrier's coming into the game. He's got that luxury of being able to substitute based on effort, based on play.

They have a great transition game. They pass and shoot it well. Their third offense is -- nobody has stopped it all year -- their offensive rebounding. Nobody has been able to keep them off the glass. That's why they're undefeated. That said, what's it going to take to beat them? There's a lot of opinions to that. My own personal opinion is Wisconsin probably is the closest team because of their size and shooting ability and their style of play. But that being said, I think it's going to take a (1985) Villanova performance to beat them and Kentucky is going to have to not play that well. Villanova that night was almost perfect against Georgetown.

Kentucky has not played well and shot poor percentages in games and still won because of their offensive rebounding and their post game. Their post game is awesome. Their bench is awesome. They're very well drilled at every fundamental. It's going to take a team that plays a perfect game to beat them.

Q: Do you tell that to Steve (Masiello)?

Pitino: I don't think ... I think Steve just has to hope for the best. Have a good time in Louisville ... if he gets by Hampton, obviously.

Q: You mentioned Villanova ... What about them this year?

Pitino: They're a great team. This is one of Jay (Wright)'s better teams. Their different than a Kentucky or a Wisconsin. They front the post. They rely on their quickness. They rely on great perimeter play, great ball handling, great defense. They win most of 50-50 balls because of their quickness. They're a different type of basketball team, but they're very, very effective.

Q: You see Irvine's stat sheet and you see two guys who shoot north of 45 percent from 3 -- are they just great shooters, is it ball movement?

Pitino: They're great shooters and they release it quick. You've got to -- obviously, when they throw it inside, if you give help, they're going to throw it outside and they're going to get shots. That's why they're in the tournament -- because they can shoot the 3 and their power forward's great.

Q: You said you'd narrowed it down to maybe five or six teams you might play based on seed. What's the process that you go through?

Pitino: You try to figure out where you're at. We thought there was an 80 percent chance we were a 4 seed and 20 percent chance we were a 5 seed, so we looked at, based on calculations and Lunardi and all the people that give you information, who we thought would play a 4 seed and who would play a 5 seed. Then you develop you film ... Most of the time it's not a difficult process of figuring out the pool of teams you could play.

Q: How has the NCAA tournament changed?

Pitino: Because of social media, it's so gigantic. I think there's so many more people interested in this time of year. Everybody's interested. Everybody's gonna fill out a bracket. Everybody's gonna try to win a contest. Everybody's involved.

I always tell a funny story because I was in the pros at the time: I was with the Knicks, and all the guys on the team were filling out their brackets. We had a pool. It got to be -- the way it worked was, let's say a 12 was playing a 5, if the 12 wins, you get 12 points. If the 5 wins, you get five points. You pick a 1 seed constantly, you get one. It's total points at the end all the way through. This friend of my wife's, Lillian, had this cousin named Luigi. He was from Italy, moved over here. It's when Valparaiso got hot. He was the only one who picked Valparaiso. He wound up winning $3,000 on this pool because he thought Valparaiso was an Italian university.

There are so many naive people in this world who get involved in this and they become fans of March Madness because there are so many upsets, so many buzzer beaters, so many exciting times in this. I just remember so many exciting things happened, not only at Providence but at Kentucky, at Louisville -- so many things that are exciting. You're down 20 points, and West Virginia's made 11 3s and you think you have no shot and you're walking up that ... at the Pit (in Albuquerque) and it's a big steep walk and you only six and a half players because (Otis George) has a stress fracture and you think you're dead, you can't play zone anymore, you only played zone the last two months -- what do you do? Then you come back and you win it and you think back on those moments and you just say, 'Wow, this is incredible.'

Or Austin Peay -- we're getting killed and they carried a guy off the foul line, he misses two, we call timeout, get the play and we win it. Austin Peay is out and we go on to the Final Four. There are so many moments that are incredible, incredible comeback moments, and then there's obviously the different type of -- in 1996, when we're ... you're 27-point favorites and god forbid if anyone comes within 16 points of an unbeatable team, they think you're going to lose. The stress and pressure mounts, and there's so many different emotions in this tournament that make it a lot of fun, looking back on it.

You also hope there's more moments happening. Every team out there -- there's no question that Manhattan is dreaming of that perfect game that they could beat Kentucky, if they get by Hampton, and everybody's thinking of that. That's what makes it so great. Somebody's gonna be Cinderella. Somebody's gonna step up. Somebody's gonna have those moments of a lifetime.

Q: Will a 16 ever beat a 1?

Pitino: Yeah, it's gonna happen. It's difficult, but it can definitely happen because somebody can get hot, somebody can have that type of game. Look, we all witnessed the Miracle on Ice and what happened with the young kids in the Olympics. If that can happen, anything can happen in sports. I remember losing to John Thompson last game of the year by 30 points in the Big East semifinals and then right before that we lost by 28, 35 points at his place, and we come to Louisville and who do we have to play? Georgetown, and it was never a game. We led by 20 at halftime. It was never a game. I think the ending was 15. I walked out not believing what just happened.

You get all those moments, and sometimes there's no rhyme or reason for any of it. Even when we lost to Morehead in the first round, everybody's all shock, shock, shock, and I said, 'What's wrong with these Louisville fans? Do they know how good Kenneth Faried is?' You didn't. I did because I studied every film. I thought he was the best rebounder in college basketball and they had a terrific 2 guard and we had Preston Knowles go out with a broken ankle and everybody was in shock. If you know anything about basketball, it wasn't a shock.

Q: How much different is your mindset when you go in as a heavy favorite, as you were in '96 or two years ago?

Pitino: The only time I got nervous was the first game. The first game always bothers me. Anytime in the tournament, I'm bothered by the first game. You don't know how your team is going to come out, you don't know what to expect.

After the first game, I have a blast. I just get caught up in the emotion of it all, the passion of it all. But the first game always bothers you because you don't know if you're going to have jitters or not. You don't know what to expect.

Q: In '96 you lose in the SEC tournament and I remember you saying that you were "a little delighted" that you had lost?

Pitino: I didn't intentionally lose. But benching Antoine Walker, I was hoping we would have some adversity at that point. Because he really didn't deserve to be benched but I did.

I think that what John (Calipari) has done is exactly what he should have done. You don't want to lose with that type of team _ and I certainly didn't want to lose _ because you have a chance at history, to do something nobody has ever done in the game. But I was pleased at that point in time because I thought we were just beating the hell out of people by so many points that we just needed to stay hungry and humble, so that loss was good for us. And then we went on and played great from that point on.

Q: Is there an unusual burden for a No. 1 overall seed?

Pitino: Well, they're going to ask a lot of questions on do you ever think a 16 could ever beat a 1. No, I don't think there's a big burden.

I think that you're supposed to win, and that's the burden. But I think that once you get by the first round, you're fine. It's just getting by that first round, for everybody, whether you're a 1 seed, a 12 seed it doesn't matter. You just want to get by that first round. And when you're a 4-seed, 5-seed, a 6-seed, a 3-seed, a 7-seed — you know that first round game is going to be tough.

Q: Will you watch the "I Hate Christian Laettner" documentary?

Pitino: They asked me to be a part of it and I said no because I don't hate Christian Laettner. My wife showed me a few clips of the stomp on her phone. He would have been thrown out of the game today because they would have gone to the monitor. I don't hate the guy. I've never hated him. I thought he was one of the greatest college basketball players of all time. I will say: I hate the fans that keep reminding me of that moment (laughs).

Q: Do you tell your players to watch other tourney games?

Pitino: I don't tell them either way. I watch every single game. I'm a fan, a big fan, of March Madness.

I love the pros. I've always loved the pros because I grew up a pro guy and not a college guy. I got caught up in it all the time and people would ask, 'Do you miss college?' And I never missed college in the pros, except March Madness. I always missed that time of year. I just think it's so special for the kids. So special for the fans. The pageantry has gotten great.

It's just an unbelievable time of year. You've got guys, ESPN, just 24 hours a day saying the same things and their picks. And everyone is tuned in and everybody is excited. I never really paid much attention to anyone's opinion on it because I just know it's so difficult to figure it out, especially in the first round. You're going to see things that you haven't seen before in the first round because jitters come in to play.

It surprises you: the better players have the jitters. Guys like Anas (Mahmod) and Matz (Stockman) and people like that…he's running through the square in Egypt hoping he stays alive. He's not worried about March Madness. He's in a war-torn country where it's pretty bad.

He had a very close cousin killed about three weeks ago on the anniversary of something that happened. He had a very close cousin die going across the square. So here's a young man who's seen it all. He won't be nervous; this won't faze him at all.

Good players get nervous because they know they're on that big stage and they want to perform personally, as well as for their team.

Q: Have you ever noticed when Anas is in the game, he smiles constantly.

Pitino: Yeah. I don't think he minds it at all. He thinks this is just fun. He doesn't understand what we're going through here. When he gets pushed underneath the basket and doesn't understand that I'm smiling at him too.

Q: On his former assistants coaching in the tournament

Pitino: I think Marvin now has gone four straight NCAA tournaments. Mick Cronin, who is not coaching, his team is going to be in the tournament. Stevie Mas gets the opportunity, he has a newborn child in town and he gets a chance to see his daughter. He saw her when she was born but gets a chance to spend some time with his daughter. Beating Hampton is really important to him because not only gets a chance to come back here but he gets a chance to spend some time with his daughter. It's exciting for him.

He'll never say it, but he probably wishes he had a different opener. I think he's going to realize how many Kentucky fans are going to be in that building. But it's exciting for his kids because they get to play the best team in college basketball.

This is the first time I think we got what we wanted. Every year, we leave bitching like crazy. This is the first time we got what we wanted. We wanted to get away and go out West. We were hoping to be a 4-seed. We were hoping to stay out of Kentucky's bracket. We were hoping a lot of things. Now we'll probably lose by 30 in the opening round because we're getting what we wished.

It's going to be a great tournament. Everybody thinks they have a shot at this thing. As I look at the brackets, there was only one game — and I won't say which one it was — I thought a lower seed could beat a higher seed. Outside of that, they were all toss-ups to me. This is the toughest I've seen because it's so close.

Texas was playing somebody (Butler) and I was listening to prognosticators talk about it and God, that's a really, really tough matchup for both teams.

I wouldn't be surprised if UCLA got hot now because so many people say they don't belong in the tournament. I've seen that happen so many times that the team that everybody says doesn't belong goes to the Sweet 16.

Q: So when you saw Maryland come up as the 4-seed in that region, there was a sense of relief not being in Kentucky's region?

Pitino: I don't think Kentucky and Louisville should ever play early in the tournament. I don't think North Carolina should ever play Duke early in the tournament. I think they should stay away from that. I think later on, if you're both good enough, you play each other.

I was happy because this Kentucky team, you want to stay away from them early. If you face them in the Final Four, you're happy and you do everything you can to beat them. But you want to stay away from them early. This is a special Kentucky team. We lost last year, but that's just because the refs gave us the shaft (room laughs). Absolutely not -- I'm definitely kidding.

Q: You mentioned the assistants but one more connection — what went through your mind when you saw Georgia State and Kevin Ware make the tournament?

Pitino: I watched the game and I texted his mom during the game. I told her to tell Kevin how proud I am of his effort. He had 15 at halftime and played terrific. It was great to see him come back, not only perform like that but go to the tournament. I know he'll have a lot of great experiences. It's great that he's back healthy and playing again. It was exciting to see.

Obviously, Travis Ford is in the tournament from Oklahoma State. I was excited to see him make it. For me personally, because I've been in this now 40 years or 40-plus years, you have so many people you're connected with.

It's going to be really a lot of fun in Seattle. I know T-Will texted me; he's going to be out there rooting for us. I know Shaqquan is going to be happy to see his Mom and sister. I don't know if his Dad is going to make it up. Peyton can't go but I'm sure we'll see 36 of his closest Samoan family friends that made it in for Senior Night. So we'll be excited to see them as well.