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March 30, 2008

Recap |  Box Score |  AP Photos  |  Photo Gallery 

Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
(On the match-up) "We congratulate North Carolina on making it to the Final Four. It's a much deserved victory. I'm real proud of our guys. They played their hearts out. They had a few turnovers down the stretch that really shot us in the foot. Some guys were giving everything they had, giving their hearts and souls, trying to get a victory. Tyler Hansbrough made two shots that we prayed they were going to take. It just shows what an All-American he is to make those shots.

(On the play of UNC) "Turnover hurt us down the stretch. They made some real difficult shots. I don't think the transition game was a factor for them. They made all their free throws and we turned it over at crucial times. But we did some good thing offensively tonight, we shot a really good percentage. They were a little bit better than us, but our guys hung tough in a tough environment.

(On the play of Tyler Hansbrough) "He is a heck of a basketball player. It was the first time I've seen him up close. Some pro team is really lucky. I haven't seen a guy play every possession. I've coached against Michael (Jordan) in his prime, (Charles) Barkely in his prime, Kareem (Abdul-Jabar) when he left, Magic (Johnson), and all the great ones. I've been fortunate enough to watch and observe all those guys. Certainly, he doesn't have all those skills of those superstars. But, just like shooting, rebounding, playing defense, passing are skills, working hard is an acquired skill. Every NBA coach would love to have a player not only that works hard but has a lot of talent. The shots he made were unbelievable because they were under duress and he had very little time to get it off. He came up big and you got to give credit to a great basketball player."

Louisville Junior Forward Terrence Williams
(On seeing Hansbrough first hand) "I've never seen a player like that. He deserves everything he gets."

Louisville Senior Center David Padgett
(On the play of Tyler Hansbrough) "He deserves all the success he gets. Like coach said, I've never played against someone that hard. Big time players make big time plays and he made two big time plays at the end."

(On what went wrong and when) "They hit some big shots when it counted. You have to give them credit. You have to give people credit when they make big plays and that's what they did."

(On UNC's play tonight) "They are one of the best offensive teams in the country. They played well tonight and did a good job rebounding the basketball. It's tough when you dig yourself a hole like that. I thought our guys did a good job trying to get back into it. They were the better basketball team.

Louisville Senior Forward Juan Palacios
(On the game overall) "They played extremely hard and we made a lot of turnovers at the beginning of the game. That's what made the difference in the first half of the game. We had 20 minutes to give it our all. If you play as hard as you can, you're going to be happy with yourself.

(On his feelings after the game) "A little bit disappointed. Even though we had a great season, we had a lot of talent and we had a goal in mind when the season started and that was to make it to the Final Four. They deserve it. They were the No. 1 team in the country for most of the year and they played great."

(On Tyler Hansbrough) "He had a great game. He made some crucial shots at the end of the game. They were unbelievable. We played great defense and he still made the shots."

(On North Carolina's defense) "We were trying to get the back doors, and they were pressuring the ball really well. The second half we kind of got used to it and were able to make some shots."

(On the accomplishments of the team this season) "The beginning of the year we had our ups and downs and I don't think people thought we could make it this far with all the problems that we had, all the injuries. It's an accomplishment to make it to the Elite Eight."

(On what Coach Pitino said after the game) "We couldn't hang our heads. They could have beat us by 25 or 30 points like they've been doing to other teams, but we came back and it was a tough game. We've got to be proud of ourselves that we were able to come back and give them a game."

Louisville Sophomore Guard Edgar Sosa
(On how he feels about next year) "I feel confident. If everybody returns and we've got some great freshmen coming in, I won't be surprised if we make another run like this. We have great freshmen coming in and we have great returning players."

(On North Carolina pulling ahead after Louisville tied the game) "We tied it up at 59 and we had two crucial turnovers. (Tyler) Hansbrough hit two incredible shots. He was getting to the line, offensive rebounding. If we could have just done the little things it might have been a different outcome, but the clock is at zero, they ended up winning the game and it's too late to say "what if" and "if we could have."

(On the energy required to come from behind) "It was a hard fight. We had to come back from 12 down to the No. 1 team in the country. They're a great team. Sometimes we slipped up and let them get easy runs and sometimes we didn't kill the glass. That's just the morale of the story. They out-rebounded us. When it comes down to playing one of the most talented teams in the country, you've got to limit their shots and get to the glass and that's something that we just didn't do tonight.