More from Pitino on Chane Behanan:
I think Chane Behanan is a heck of a basketball player. I really do. I think he has to grow up a little bit, mature a little bit. The person has to catch up to the basketball player and once it does, look out. Look it. He’s going to be one terrific basketball player. All college guys are like that some of my teammates 40-50 years ago were that way. They matured. Look at Russ Smith. Look at how much he’s matured right now. It just happened last week. So it’ll happen for him, the light will come on.
On Montrezl Harrell in the press:
Sometimes you can run and trap you have to run and jump. That’s the key to our pressure. You can’t trap a good guard like a Peyton Siva. So you have to run and jump instead of run and trap. When you go sideline you can run and trap and rotate properly. He has to learn those things and that’s why I worked on it tonight. We won’t press Manhattan, but we know we’re going to press some Big East teams.
(Opening statement) “There was such a size differential, it was tough to tell how we played. We did some good things. We got to work on our press for the first time. You don’ know how much is legitimate because they are such a small basketball team. Not only are they small, but their back court is extremely small and they don’t have much size in the front court. It is very difficult to tell how we played. We did some good things, and we got some minutes for some guys that needed to get their minutes.”
(Can Chane Behanan take away anything from the way Montrezl Harrell played tonight?) “I would have you ask him, but he can’t speak to you. I am not a big suspension guy. All my life I have believed in running guys until their legs fall off. This was more of ‘if you do this, you will get to play and if you don’t do this, it’s pointed out that you will miss so many games.’ If you miss a class, you run. If you are late to practice, you run. So it is all spelled out what has to be done. I didn’t suspend him, he suspended himself. I am not trying to send any messages here. If you say to your son to be home at midnight and he shows up at 3 a.m., then he can’t go out the next weekend.”
(Is Kevin Ware’s suspension the same as Chane Behanan’s and do you anticipate it being just a one game suspension) “I hope so. I take what they do very seriously. Both are great guys and I like them a lot, but Chane’s problems are from this summer. He had to do certain things to get back on the court, and he didn’t do them. I hope he (Chane Behanan) is ready for the Manhattan game. I say hope because he should have done his other work that he didn’t get done. He should be back for Manhattan, but I am not sure.”
(Can Montrezl Harrell be a double-double guy against better competition) “I am not sure yet. It is tough to tell. He is a relentless worker. Seth Greenberg, who recruited him to Virginia Tech, said he was a very good offensive rebounder, but not a good defensive rebounder. That stuck out to me. We are trying to get him to block out and create space. He rebounds a lot with his wingspan. He has Gorgui (Dieng’s) wingspan at 6-8. The two of those guys aren’t great jumpers, but their wingspan is awesome. You didn’t see it tonight, but Zach (Price) has been playing good basketball. He brought the ball down too much tonight, but he has been doing a good job as well. I think he is going to be a great player down the road. I really have a lot of confidence in that young man. I think Russ Smith has made the biggest transition from a player in one week than I have seen in a long time. He has gone from totally out of control, to totally in control. He did a lot of great things tonight. He didn’t take bad shots that led to run outs at the other end of transition. I am really excited because when you have Russ and Peyton in the back court, you have two lightning quick guards who are both under control at all times.”
(On Wayne Blackshear’s good stretch of play in the first half) “It is one thing when you are injured. It is another thing when you’re in a sling all the time. You can’t run or work on your legs. All you have to do is tie up. It will take some time for him to get back with his skills, but he is definitely going to come back. It is the same correlation with Russ (Smith) during his freshman year coming off knee surgery. Then, he has a Jones fracture in his foot and he didn’t look as good. Wayne is definitely going to come around, but if you rush him, he will lose his confidence. We have to be very patient with him, and I am. He is a great kid. I think with two months of good basketball, he will be back.”
