Lavin's post-game quotes:
On the Red Storm’s emphasis of getting the ball into the paint:
“It was really the main emphasis all day. From our practice yesterday, to our pregame meal, to our pregame talk, at each timeout, at halftime and then down the stretch was to just rebound. I only put one word on the dry erase board today for the first time in my career and that word was rebound and then I just circled it. Usually, I put something like offense or defense or guys that we need to key on and then a motivational quote from Coach Wooden or Lombardi. Anything to try to engage this generation which is a challenge, but for this one I just wrote rebound. I said if we out rebound them we’ll win the game and if we don’t we’ll lose the game. It’s like the line of scrimmage in football. I’m realizing that with each game how to better coach this group of players with 10 freshman and sophomores. I had the youngest team in school history at UCLA and this team is even younger. This group has no post-season experience and no one the team has even been to a post-season. ”
On what the Red Storm’s zone was designed to do for tonight:
“That’s something that we’re tinkering with. We learned some things against Villanova because they hurt us with the three-point shot from the top and the high ball screens so there are times when we have to extend our big and bring him up top to show on some of those screens. Then we kind of raise up on the wings and it almost becomes like a one-three-one against a really good three-point shooting team. What they did late which was a good counter on Mick’s part was they kind of spread us out and attack us off of the bounce. Then we tried to compact them a little bit more with what we call our 23 pack, almost like putting eight in the box for football. We tried to play a little bit tighter and still have shooter location and get a hand up with our length to try to contest their shots.”
On this being a moment of real growth for his team:
“I think so. Before the game even though all I wrote down was rebound, I told them that there’s intersections and crossroads in every season. Sometimes there are multiple crossroads in a season where a team needs a signature win and I said that it’s you guys not me that are the authors of victories, you’re the engineers and architects of victories so why not today. I told them why don’t we take this opportunity today to flip things and out-rebound Cincinnati so we can win. When you’re aggressive you tend have the bounce of the ball to go your way and you hit the shot that D’Angelo did and you tend to get the officials’ call. I think that the aggressive team is the one that seems to make their own breaks in the game if you look throughout the history of sports and I thought we were finally able to get over the hump and finish a game and get a win because we were aggressive from start to finish.”