Projo College Hoops

By KEVIN McNAMARA

Providence College's hoop team is flying to Louisville this afternoon to get ready for Wednesday night's game against the Cardinals. While the game has huge post-season implications for the Friars, don't think that it does not mean much to the Cardinals (19-5) as well.

After his team ripped (99-54) DePaul on Sunday, 'Ville coach Rick Pitino had a lot to say about his team, the PC game and life in the Big East. Here are some choice excerpts:

On the Friars: ``We are playing a Providence team that is exactly like Notre Dame. They probably take more threes than any team we face. They make quite a few so we have to be healthy."

On his team, which lost a few games early on and just got blown out last week at Notre Dame:
``I will be frank. I have said it all season long. I just have not liked the way we have been practicing. They give good effort and they pay attention to detail, the things we want to get better at. You know on paper you are going to be pretty good, but I have not believed one day that we were a very good basketball team. I believed that we could do certain things and we play hard. (Saturday) was the first time all season I thought we could be a good basketball team. First time all year I thought we did things from an execution stand point that stuck out. I thought we did that because the team played mostly zone, but I thought we executed in practice; getting other people shots. A lot of people think it is our shooting but it is our passing. Guys are open and we are a second late. We are also forcing some things. We're going for the home run pass when we could (make) a simple bounce pass."

On the reaction to last week's Notre Dame defeat: "You may think that I went after them, but I really didn't. What I put on the board tonight was: Duke, Villanova, Arizona Cardinals, Notre Dame; my point being, they just came from a 30-point loss. What you guys did not understand is that two years ago we left our locker room saying that we needed to win seven out of eight to make it to the tournament. We had to go at Pitt who was number three in the country; at Marquette and beat them. You didn't realize what you were going into. Now, you don't realize, if Kyle McAlarney walks out of that door, he loses - his chances at the NCAA tournament is over. They (Notre Dame) have to beat Louisville. You didn't realize what was at stake. I would be upset if we lost by one or 30 but I would only be upset just until I woke up the next morning. Then I would concentrate on what is important. You have to understand that you can lose to anybody in a given night. You have to be ready to play. You have to come ready to play. We didn't take it as hard. If we would have lost by three I would have been just as disappointed. Am I disappointed we got blown out? Certainly. It is not going to help getting upset past that night, you have to move on and play."

 Tags  PC basketball Rick Pitino

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