Rick Pitino Playing Quotations

He's playing on one leg. We're a banged-up team, a young team. Our backs are to the wall a little bit in this league.

I think Connecticut is a very easy game. They're playing to be number one in the country. It's senior afternoon. It's on national television. It should be an easy game.

The whole NIT we're playing great defense, that's what we're trying to stress. We talked about, we can't hang our heads because we had injuries, we can't hang our heads because we're young. If you can head to the NIT Final Four, it means you're playing good basketball.

I've tried to talk to him about it. He's not playing with Francisco, Larry (O'Bannon) and Ellis. And they know every little move that each other makes. He's playing with all new people. They don't know each other. He's got to let the game come to him and trust his teammates. And the more he goes inside to (center) David (Padgett) the more open shots he's going to get.

It's a big hindrance. If we were playing in the Maui Classic, we'd be in seriously bad shape. But we're not. We're starting at home. We think we can withstand these injuries.