Really proud of my guys. I thought this was one of our better performances from start to finish. As a coach, I was really worried about this game. I think any coach in this situation because you’re already worried about your guys going home for Christmas. These are sometimes the most difficult games because you’re done with exams, everyone is gone, you know that after the game is over with you’ll get a chance to have a break. So sometime mentally you can check out and already be gone. I thought our guys did a great job of not doing that.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence, I thought we had really good preparation for this game with yesterday maybe being the best practice we’ve had since I’ve been here. We were very sharp, really efficient , really together - high energy and I thought that led to how we performed today. This was a good defensive team that we beat and that we scored against. Again really proud of us - we had multiple guys step up and do some really good things for us, as evident late in the game with under a minute left we took a charge and everyone was excited. It was really good to see that and see guys making plays together and being excited about something defensively. We dominated the glass. I thought we did a good job with valuing the basketball, and we forced them into 20+ turnovers. So again really proud of our team, we get a good break right now and have a chance to come back and get to work and get better.

You’ve seen a lot of freshmen in your time, have you ever seen three of them score 20?

I probably have. I probably have, but it hasn’t happened a lot. Again I thought all three of those guys I thought they were very efficient. I thought they let the game come to them, I thought ‘Diese got us started with his energy on the offensive glass. X (Xavier Johnson) did a really good job of just kind of letting the game come to him and getting everyone involved. I thought Trey did some really good things especially late in the game we put him at the point. I thought he was just under-control and maybe looked maybe a little bit better than he has been all year.

So it was exciting to see that, but I thought other guys - I thought Malik (Ellison) was really good in his first game off the bench. I thought he came in and he rebounded, he defended, he passed - I thought he did a really good job. I thought Khameron Davis, his energy when he got in game was contagious and we went on a big run when he got in. Kene (Chukwuka) on the offensive glass did a really good job. Terrell (Brown) keeping balls alive, so it was a really good team performance for us and I’m proud of all of them.

On the freshmen, how much farther along are they now compared to where they were six weeks ago?

They’ve showed me glimpses. They’ve all played well, but they’re freshmen. They’ve been up and down. They’ve had moments where they look really good and they’ve had other moments where they look like freshmen. Tonight was a night where they all looked pretty good. One of the things with the freshmen that you hope to get is consistency, and that’s what we’re trying to get from all of them. X has probably been the one that has been closest to being consistent, but he had a couple of careless turnovers tonight. They’re all workers. They’ve all been accepted by their teammates, they’re all really good teammates. They’re all about the team and so they’ve done a good job of growing.

How pleased are you with the little things like taking charges and making free throws, things like that?

I’m pleased with that tonight and I think that we’ve done a good job of trying to take charges all year. Our free throws have been up and down - we’ve been inconsistent. We were very, very good tonight. The little things are huge for us and we’re trying to master them. I told the guys late in the game that there is no such thing as minutes that aren’t important. Don’t play the score, we’re trying to build habits. That’s something that we don’t have yet and what we’re trying to build are championship habits because that’s what we all came here to do and we have to understand that in order to do that, it has to be every day. It has to become a part of our DNA and become second nature. We’re taking the steps to make that happen but we’re not there yet and I think that they understand that. They’ve come mostly every day with the right mindset of trying to get better and as a coach, that’s all you can ask for. There’s a lot of things that I’d like for us to do better. I’d like for us to rebound better, I’d like for us to shoot it a little bit better, I’d like for us to value the ball more, I’d like the ball to keep moving a little bit more, I’d like for us to have a better grasp of some of the things that we’re trying to look at, but we’re growing. We’re getting better in each of those areas, but their attitude and their effort, all of those things, have been at a high level since I’ve been here.

What do you think allowed your defense to turn them over as much as it did?

I thought we were in the passing lanes. Coming in we knew this was a team that wasn’t necessarily a great 3-point shooting team. They had three guys that we talked about that were the shooters for them, the guys that can make 3’s, but most of their stuff was inside. So we tried to pack it in and we tried to condense it. I thought this was a team we could zone. We hadn’t played much zone - I think the West Virginia game in the second half was the one time extended possessions of zone. I thought that was very good for us and we just stayed with it in the first half. I wanted to come out in the second half in man, but I made the change and said, ‘let’s go back to zone’ because I knew they were probably working and diagraming plays. Our zone wasn’t good to start the second half so we went back to man. I just think the energy level, understanding the scouting report, understanding the game plan - just being active. I think being active and being connected allowed us to do that.

Was a big thing for you that you didn’t take your foot off the gas tonight?

That’s something we talked about at halftime, we don’t want to play the score. We’re trying to build these habits and every minute for us is important. We have a man down and an important part of our team, so we got valuable minutes today in real live game situations with different guys initiating our offense, that has primarily been Xavier and Sidy (N’dir) and so those minutes of getting Malik and those minutes of getting Trey there, that was really, really important for us and I thought they both did a good job in those situations and so that’s what we talked about at halftime and that’s what we talked about at every timeout of the importance of every possession and trying to build those habits and today we did a good job of that.

What was the process of getting Onyebuchi Ezeakudo on the team?

He’s been with us, he’s been a practice player for us. He had actually gone home for Christmas break, he had finished his finals and went home and when we found out about the extent of Sidy’s injury we got him back. He’s actually a good player and he’s a guy that’s really helped us in practice and really helped us in preparation in this game.

Are you where you thought you would be?

I don’t know how to answer that, because I don’t know where I thought we’d be. I never looked like, ok our record here at this point - I try to focus on each day. So I’m not the right person to ask, because I’m not a guy that looks too far ahead with our current team. As a program I look ahead, but with our current team I try to focus on each day.

What prompted putting Jared (Wilson-Frame) into the starting lineup?

We started Jared in the second half of our last game, Maryland Eastern-Shore. I thought he did a good job so we just went with it, and that’s what we’ve done in practice since then and we just went with it. Jared’s been like a starter for us and he’s had an unbelievable attitude from the beginning in that role coming off the bench. I thought Malik had a great attitude in the second half of Maryland Eastern-Shore and in the practices leading up to this and tonight.

Starting is important to a lot of people and everyone always wants to know whose starting - I don’t think it’s that big of deal. It’s about playing and what do you do, so we need everyone all-in and just concentrating on Pitt and not thinking about themselves and when we do that we can be the best version of who we can be.