ESPN.com’s Myron Medcalf posted an article today about the Louisville men’s basketball team and how it has been tough to replace the leadership of Peyton Siva and Gorgui Dieng, as well as the loss of Chane Behanan. I will post some of the more interesting quotes from the article.
To read the full article on ESPN.com, click here.
Russ Smith
“It’s different. It’s a lot of sacrificing that you have to make. I’m willing to do it, but it’s really tough and Peyton had, probably the toughest job last year, managing everybody. And he did a good job with it. I’m just trying to follow in his footsteps.”
Kevin Ware on missing Peyton Siva
“That’s what we miss. That’s the key ingredient to what we miss on this team. I kind of feel like Russ is a legitimate leader. But … nobody on this team is Peyton Siva when it comes to being a leader and understanding if there’s something wrong, you’ve got to speak on it. If it’s something on the court, he’s going to get in your ear about it. That’s probably one of the biggest things we’re missing. I know a lot of people would say Gorgui’s defense or Gorgui’s shot-blocking. But we’ve got players who can block shots and do things like that. But you can’t really replace a leader.”
Rick Pitino
“I don’t think you replace a leadership of a Peyton. But I think Luke and Russ and Montrezl do a good job of that.”
“I don’t think it really has been a challenge, to be honest with you,” Pitino said. “We went through some tough times losing Chane, expecting Kevin. It’s like losing graduation midway through, you don’t like to lose players. But we’ve kept our focus. We’re getting better defensively. [Mangok Mathiang] is improving. So I definitely like what I see. We’re getting better as a basketball team.”
Bingo! I was just talking to someone about this after the Memphis State loss. The team looked lost and doing all kinds of silly one-on-one stuff in the final 3 minutes of that game. Peyton would have stopped that nonsense the first time he saw it. We REALLY miss him.