According to Rick Pitino, Sunday’s loss to Pace University was his perfect Christmas present.
“If I asked for anything for a Christmas present, it was this loss because Stony Brook just beat Manhattan by 50 points and they’ll come in and take us to the woodshed if we rebound like that,” Pitino said after the loss. “We learned a lot about what we need to work on tonight. That’s what exhibition games are for.”
Here is an excerpt of Pitino’s postgame comments from the New York Post:
“It wasn’t our injuries that lost the game, it was Pace’s play,” Pitino said. “I’m really happy they won. I’m glad we didn’t come back against them. They deserved this victory and we did not. A much smaller team dominated us on the backboard, and that can’t be.
“If I asked for anything for a Christmas present, it was this loss because Stony Brook just beat Manhattan by 50 points and they’ll come in and take us to the woodshed if we rebound like that. … We learned a lot about what we need to work on tonight. That’s what exhibition games are for.”
