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00:00 this before any questions and any players come in. The most disappointing part of
00:06 everything is how much fun it was to be around this group. I wanted at least two
00:11 more days and then after that two more days after that I mean that locker room
00:16 was like a NCAA tournament loss. Those guys were really you know devastated you
00:26 know they were just they they were such a great team. They're great players but
00:32 they were such a great team and it was just I've had so much fun this week and
00:39 seriously for the city of Louisville from all the texts and people calling me
00:48 and leaving me messages and to see this and you felt it was palpable around town
00:55 to bring excitement and I didn't know how this TBT was going to turn out. We
01:01 certainly didn't know it's going to be like this beyond the expectations for
01:05 for what the product was and the games. I mean that was ridiculous how intense
01:11 that game was against a really really good team. So for me that's just I'm just
01:19 so impressed by every component. Our team you know the staff, the city, the fans. I
01:27 mean there was a postgame show the other night by Ethan Moore for an hour for a
01:33 TBT game. This was like an NCAA tournament game to our players, to the
01:38 fans, to the city to bring it in the summer. That's incredible.
01:47 Coach, the investment from the fans throughout this tournament just to see
01:51 the reaction from the highs and the lows. What did that mean to you and your team?
01:54 Again, when we started this we just were no we didn't know what to expect and
01:59 this place was like Freedom Hall mid-2000s, early 2000s before the Young
02:07 Center opened, right? I mean you guys saw it. It was incredible. It was amazing. I came
02:12 to two Louisville games while I was still coaching at Monsignor Pace. Came up
02:18 here for two games and to me it was similar as far as the electricity, the
02:24 fans, the excitement. Unmatched. What a great city to play basketball in.
02:33 You guys got ahead 62-56 and had multiple chances to end it. Does the pressure build as you know you just have to get that one basket?
02:42 Yeah, you know you're kind of, you know we had some good looks. I mean there was
02:47 about three or four times Nanu or Shane could have just tipped the ball in and
02:51 just came in and out. A shot came in and out. We had one timeout which is what we
02:56 called to get on the walk-through on the back screen and he was open and it was
03:02 on the left side but he just missed it and again it just the ball seeped out of
03:08 our hands a couple of times. We got some really good stops. Our team was not
03:13 offensive sensitive even though we weren't scoring we were still guarding
03:17 really hard. You know we had a bad reach in by Shane just being aggressive and
03:22 then you lose on the bank three. What are you gonna do? That's the basketball gods.
03:27 You know that's just the way the game goes. I've been part of both sides of it
03:31 so hats off to the Cuther cats. Our team played amazing.
03:37 Mark, when you look at just this group and everything that happened this year I
03:41 mean you guys, I know it's early but you seem trying to stay together and try to keep going at this team.
03:46 Yeah, I mean guys in locker room are like wait till next year we'll get this going. I mean yeah and you know we
03:52 wish them all well in professional careers coming up but every single one
03:57 of them, to a man, came up to me and we're just like that was so much fun. Thank you
04:01 and yeah I'd love to have them all back. It was amazing.
04:04 You mentioned what it meant to the fans to be able to see these guys back out on the floor.
04:08 What did it mean to the players to be able to see that these guys in the crowd
04:11 still know and love them as much as they do?
04:13 Yeah, I mean I can't speak for them but you can see it like in the introductions and then the scoreboard and then
04:22 cheering for those guys. Even Luke last night when he went in for a minute or
04:26 two or two nights ago and you heard Luke. I mean that's just amazing and for
04:31 these guys and how they guard it. I mean that's an example for everybody, for
04:37 anybody that plays basketball, for little kids who came to this game, to middle
04:43 schoolers, to high schoolers, to college players who are at this game. The
04:46 intensity, the effort by our guys was amazing and they felt that and to play in
04:51 front of their own fans, can't beat that.
04:53 I think Peyton said earlier last week that he's talked to some of the newer guys at Louisville saying that you know ten years later people still come up to him.
05:01 Remember him and want to see him play like that. Do you think that obviously like with this week that kind of exemplifies that feeling?
05:08 Oh I mean there wasn't, I mean he never took a playoff and I don't see any times. We might have had some
05:15 miscommunications, we might have had some some coverage where we were
05:19 compromised defensively but from a from an effort standpoint, from being locked
05:25 in to talking. I mean it was a clinic so for people to watch that. Someone told me
05:31 that and I might be mistaken that Coach Payne was clipping some of the stuff
05:35 from the TBT game. Is that I mean so you want to take some stuff, there's a lot of
05:39 stuff I'll take from this game for whatever team I coach in the future. I'll
05:43 use a lot of stuff from this because these guys bought into it and were just
05:47 unbelievable defensively.
05:51 As far as remembering this game, next year looking towards coaching this again, will you use a game like this as motivation?
06:01 Or is it one that you kind of push to the back and start over fresh next year?
06:05 Yeah it's a while to think about that bank shot three which I'll just say this I don't know about next year but that will be
06:13 haunting my dreams for the next two or three nights. Thankfully Emory and I are
06:17 going to go see the movie Barbie today. So I'll feel it right? You getting a slushie? Maybe some popcorn for sure right?
06:26 Okay so you know this things I've been doing this and I've all you know
06:32 there's winning and then there's misery as far as coaching it goes. So but I've
06:37 got this this little thing right here like and it just you know so yeah next
06:43 year we'll we might use this tool and whatever team I coach I'll talk about
06:50 those type of situations as well.
06:57 You talked about the guys being able to keep up on defense when the shots weren't falling and then I even saw you late in the game you were out on the court and you were in a stance like just like trying to get them all you know like got locked in.
07:07 Did it take much from you to just you know to keep them focused on the defensive side?
07:12 Or was that something that they just all pitched in together and they just had that same focus throughout?
07:19 Well that's something we've done all week and a lot of these guys coming in had defensive DNA.
07:25 Just it's in their blood these guys know how to guard. They've been taught the right way.
07:30 They guard hard consistently and then we just amped it up all week and then they had pride.
07:36 Every one of them has personal pride. You saw them everything was everything was contested.
07:41 Every shot was contested. Every cut was contested. Every pass was contested and that was consistent throughout the game for us.
07:48 So yeah I mean I didn't really need to that's just me getting so excited and that's my coaching style.
07:55 I've always been intense when I coach but these guys battled and at the end you know we had some high ball screens for us and then we had some post touches just ball didn't drop.
08:06 Shane wanted to use this to possibly reignite his career again. Do you think he did that?
08:11 I would think so right. I mean you know he didn't get a chance to get a lot of perimeter opportunities but you watch him even at the end of the game he was guarding a wing and he was doing a tremendous job staying with him.
08:28 Switching on any of the actions they had cross screens. You know he can do a lot of things. He can play around the basket.
08:35 He can play from the perimeter. He can shoot it and he can guard multiple positions. So yeah I'm hoping this transfers over to where he can make some money playing the game again for sure.
08:47 Mark you've been in basketball a long time. What lesson do you take from an experience like this for yourself or to others that you can come together for a week have this much fun and have this kind of experience?
08:59 Yeah I mean it was just I don't know if it's a lesson. I just think it was just an amazing week and it's unfortunate you know for me. You just want to keep it going.
09:11 It was just for this week and a half because we had our guys on last Tuesday. Incredible. It was just a tremendous experience and I've coached a lot of teams. I've coached a lot of places.
09:23 Again you take something from everything. There's something you know right now it's hard to look back on but in the next few days when it really you know you start watching the film which that will take a few days as well.
09:36 Yeah you take it and you learn something from all of that for sure.
09:40 Do you think Russ at times was possibly trying to do too much?
09:44 Yeah but that's and I don't know if I would say trying to do too much because I would say Coach Patino at least 2,104 times said no no no great job Russ and probably this week I said 72 times no no no great job Russ.
10:03 It is what it is. That ball falls. You know they were collapsing on him. He made some good plays. Was he trying to do it too much? Yes. Was it out of selfishness? No. It was trying to help the team.
10:17 And again defensively he was just a menace. So when I see guys defend that well I don't really have a big problem sometimes when they're attacking and trying to maybe force some of the action.
10:29 Last couple questions. Thanks Coach.
10:32 Thank you.