Postgame Quotes: #1 Kentucky 66, Vols 48

Feb. 17, 2015

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TENNESSEE HEAD COACH Donnie Tyndall

(Opening Statement)
"I said before we played tonight, that is arguably one of the most talented teams ever assembled and certainly there are going to be people who debate that. That's a really talented team and that's a well-coached team. They not only play together, they play hard, physical. They are multi talented. They have guards who can make plays, they have shooters, and they obviously have great size and length. I thought our kids really competed. We said before the game there would be three keys, to try and stay even on the glass, which we did. Then try to play with twelve turnovers or less, which we didn't quite accomplish. Finally, we would have to make a minimum of ten three pointers. We were close on the turnovers, we did it on the glass, but we didn't shoot the ball very well. All that is credited to Kentucky because they are a heck of a defensive team at every position, challenges and bothers shots, and certainly bothered us some tonight."

(On going from four-point deficit to 18)
"I think if I remember correctly, we make them miss, they offensive rebound, scored, cut it to six, then we come right back down and throw it away, where they can lay it in the goal, where it goes four to eight. If we rebound that ball and they don't lay it in, it stays at four and we got a chance to cut it to one or two. But, give Kentucky credit; they made stops when they had to. I thought our guards did a pretty good job at trying to drive the ball. When you get in the paint, you have to penetrate to pass and their length is so big, sometimes you can't see the open man. So if you try to force it over top of him, that's when they change and challenge shots. Think about this, we had nineteen offensive rebounds against that team, that tells me you are playing really hard."

(On being a night for learning)
"Guys are getting better, and some nights it shows and some nights it doesn't, but I know they are getting better based on what I see every day in practice. I thought both Willie and Tariq did a couple nice things tonight. Willie played nineteen minutes, scored a couple balls. Tariq had that great put back basket and a shot or two. They're just young and have to get stronger, and that's the difference between their freshman and our freshman, is that those guys already have NBA bodies and our guys have to grow and mature, but they're working at it."

(On competing without shooting from outside)
"I think we tried to defend and did a good job rebounding the ball. If you make ten threes, like we'd hoped to, now that's 24 more points, obviously. The complexion of the game changes but you're not going to beat that team if you don't shoot the ball from behind the three point line because they don't give you enough baskets around the rim or two point opportunities."

(On heavy defense on Richardson)
"I think we had so much ball-screen action in our offense today and we were going to switch ball-screens anyway so we might as well start with him, and then when we switch, he would be switching onto a big guy, and the perimeter of the smaller player would switch back onto Josh."

(On pivotal four-point swing)
"Well we had a chance to make a huge stop and we got Kevin lifted and fouled and with one on the shot clock, that really hurts. They miss one free throw and the one that they miss, we don't block out, and then they offensive rebound and get an and-one. Those are two things that you can control, being disciplined at the end of the possession and getting the free throw block outs. Those are two things we could and should control and we didn't in those two instances."

(On Robert Hubbs III)
"I think in both the last couple games Robert Hubbs III hasn't looked quite as aggressive as he did a couple weeks ago, but credit the defense. I think both teams we have played have been solid defensively particularly tonight. He just has to stay aggressive and continue to work everyday in practice and improve."

(On Kentucky's program and depth when one guy is off another guy is on)
"Someone asked me before the game, they said you know they don't really have a superstar because they have a few guys that average eight or nine or ten (points) but I said if those guys were on another team in our league they would average 16, 17 or 18 (points). They are not necessarily superstars on that team as deep as they are but they have so many weapons. I love (Devin) Booker's game. He was 5-16 and I thought we did a decent job on him, but he is so poised and his game is compact. He is confident. He has a great way about him for a freshman."

(On the way Tennessee responded after the LSU loss)
"Like I have said all year long we have a very coachable, hard working group. Guys that are resilient. They don't hang their head or pout. That is what I was so disappointed with in the first half with the LSU game because that was the first time all year that we hadn't played Tennessee basketball. We responded in the second half but it was just too late. I thought we came out tonight. We competed and battled for 40 minutes. We were just down maybe the last eight or ten minutes of the game."

(On thoughts of tonight's effort against Kentucky)
"I thought our effort was fine both halves and really the entire 40 minutes. We certainly made some mistakes, but from an efforts standpoint when you go get 19 offensive rebounds against a team of that size, length and athleticism that shows you are playing hard. Just at times we were down and we weren't quite big enough to finish possessions at both ends of the floor."

(On the full court pressure against Josh Richardson)
"That is basically a lot of team's ammo trying to make him earn every bounce by picking him up on the full court, wearing him down and sometimes trapping or switching balls screens. I thought Josh for the most part did a good job tonight handling the pressure. He struggled a little bit assist to turnover wise. Those guards, (Tyler) Ulis and the Harrison twins, wear on you. They do that to a lot of folks."

(On attempting to wear Kentucky down with the full court press)
"I just don't think there will be too many teams (that can). I watched the game against Louisville that is arguably the best pressing team in the country. They couldn't wear them down. I just don't think you are going to wear that team down with as many weapons as they have. They keep fresh bodies in there. They do a great job of rotating them in and out. We didn't try to force tempo or trap a whole bunch just because we didn't want them to play advantage basketball out of the traps. We tried to wear on them but they probably wore on us at the end of the day."

(On the mentality of the team now)
"I hope our guys will bounce back. I certainly expect them to. We went through a rough patch the last six or eight games. That is part of college basketball. You had some high moments early in the year and now we are going through some tough times here. We have to respond. There is a lot of basketball left to be played. We have great leadership in Josh (Richardson) and Armani (Moore). We are going to give them tomorrow off but I told them I totally expect them on Thursday to bounce back and be ready to go."

TENNESSEE SENIOR GUARD Josh Richardson

(On whether you're proud of the effort)
"Yea, I think we played hard. I think we hung in there for a little while. I'm not huge on moral victories and we still lost the game."

(On the difference in the first 30 minutes of the game compared to the last 10 minutes)
"I don't think we were executing as well as we were in the first half. I think our aggression was there. I just don't think we were running our stuff like we know how too."

(On getting good looks but missing shots)
"It's always frustrating, but when you're playing a team that has like 7 guys that are over 6'9 looks are gonna be tough. We just had to capitalize and we didn't do that tonight."

TENNESSEE JUNIOR GUARD Kevin Punter

(On matching up with Kentucky and playing well)
"In the beginning I think we matched up well. Those guys started missing a few shots and I think we rebounded well pretty well. Towards the end of the game those guys started making shots."

(On slowing down Kentucky with the zone defense)
"We've been practicing, being more poised, being more confident, and flying around. Tonight we showed it. In the first half we flew around, got to where we needed to get to, and forced those guys to miss shots."

(On taking steps forward tonight)
"You can definitely take some positives our of it even though we lost. Get practicing hard, keep grinding at it."

TENNESSEE JUNIOR GUARD Armani Moore

(On the game)
"I feel like we did a pretty good job executing on offense, we weren't settling too much, we were getting to the rim, drawing fouls, getting and-ones and stuff like that. We did a good job of boxing out in the first half, I felt like we were really showing them that we could be in the game."

(On Kentucky's defense in the second half)
"I think a couple of times we got caught up in the score, if they hit a three we tried to come down and match them. I think that is kind of where we beat ourselves, we had a couple crucial times where we turned the ball over and let them get some easy twos and then sometimes we didn't box out and allowed them to get the rebound over us and sometimes it turned into and-ones. So if you just take out probably three of our mistakes it would have been a closer ball game."

(On being down by four at the half)
"It gives me confidence to know that we can do something really great things this year if we just all buy into what Coach Tyndall is trying to do. We just have to keep on trucking. You can't win them all but what you can do is stay in the film room and focus on what we were doing wrong and hopefully next game come out and make some adjustments."

(On the challenge of Kentucky's depth)
"It is all about boxing out and trying to be tougher than the other but sometimes you come up short. But that is why you have to do other things almost perfect so that you can give yourself a chance. But I thought we did well tonight, I thought we competed as a team, we showed that we can play with them. It is unfortunate that we came up short but our team did a good job of competing tonight. "

KENTUCKY HEAD COACH JOHN CALIPARI

(Opening Statement)

"It's hard to play against that zone. I told Donnie [Tyndall] that he's done a great job with what they did. They were prepared for us. They took away, there were two or three offenses we wanted to run that we couldn't run. They battled us a little bit, they got the better of us, but we made some plays down the stretch of the [first] half to make sure we had a little gap.

"Trey Lyles fought like crazy and rebounded. Karl [Towns], in the second half, played. I was really disappointed in those fouls and they were fouls. They were just a plain push. Why would you do that? Are you going to do that in March? Is that the play you'll make in March, then foul a shooter? And he fouled him. So there are things that we've got to know and grow from.

"I thought our guard play was pretty good. Aaron [Harrison] was pretty good, he'll be fine, I'm not worried about him. The other three were pretty darn good. Played Trey at some four, I was trying some different things. But give them credit. We were able to get a gap when we were able to rebound the ball."

(On Devin Booker being 2 of 9 from 3-point range)
"That's what makes him what he is. He's not just a 3-point shooter now. He defends, he rebounds, he does all those other things so when he isn't making shots, I can leave him in the game. We have some other guys that if they aren't making shots, then you don't defensive rebound, guys run by you and tip balls in, you have to give something if you're not shooting."

(On the difference on defense in the second half)
"Karl [Towns] was in there, that makes a big difference. Now, Willie [Cauley-Stein] can roam a little bit more. I thought we did a better job of staying in front of people."

(On Tyler Ulis)
"He did good. Tyler did good. Andrew [Harrison] did good. I was on Andrew because he wasn't attacking. I said `If you aren't attacking, I'm not putting you in the game. I don't care of you turn the ball over, when you catch it, if you just pass it, you're coming out.' And then when he attacks, now we have both he and Tyler attacking, we're running down hill at you, we've become the aggressor. He did it later in the half, then he did it in the second half."

(On not having to use his "beer muscles line)
"We had three guys on the team that had never heard of `beer muscles.' I was very happy about that."

(On the team having options)
"Obviously, I'd rather have options that have to play five guys, although I've done that before. It's much harder, they're begging and there are games that you just can't win because they can't be up every game. When you have this many guys, you just need five to play well. Then, who are those five? They've been different every game and we just ride the five that are playing well. Now, I'd rather play all nine, but you put a guy in and it can't get a rebound, can't come down with a ball, misses this, misses this, he can't be in. You've got to perform. I'll say it again, it's not communism. You've got to earn your minutes and deserve to be on that court."

(On how Karl-Anthony Towns handled the second half)
"He did good. He's learning. He's young."

(On defensive rebounding)
"We didn't outrebound them and they got 19 offensive rebounds and there was a clip with three minutes to go where they got five rebounds in a row. So we've got some work to do. We got them on free throws. We don't want to give up a free throw, we rebound misses. But we didn't on that play."

(On starting 26-0 for the third time)
"Every one of the teams has been different. This team is the deepest of the three. The UMass team played five, six, my guards played 38 minutes. Totally different. The Memphis team, we were pretty good defensively, but we didn't have the size this team has. Our center was 6'7, 6'8, our forward was 6'7, 6'5, 6'5, then we had this kid Derrick Rose."

(On the 26-0 start)
"I'll probably mention it tomorrow, what they've done. At a school like Kentucky, to hold the records that they're holding, it's incredible stuff now. But there's so much more. We don't need all this other stuff that's out there. I'm watching closely all these shows that are saying how to beat us because I want to make sure that I learn what to do when they say `This is what you do to beat them.' I'm watching those shows so closely."

(On emphasizing that everyone wants to beat UK)
"When we have a 30-point blowout, the TV rating isn't as high, but when it is a close game, it is like an NFL football game's number. Maybe that is because they want to see us win a close game. I don't know. It's natural, and there is nothing wrong with it."

(On shutting down Tennessee's shooters)
"Whoever is the aggressor is going to win. They were the aggressor in the first half. We made a couple of shots that gave us a little gap. We were the aggressor in the second half. We went to LSU, and they were the aggressor, especially to start the game. Mississippi, they were the aggressor. That is why I keep telling them, 'You have to come out and play. If you're not attacking, I am taking you out. You won't play.' That is the way people are going to get us. We have to be the aggressor. Florida was the same way. They came right at us."

(On weathering slow starts)
"What I do is if our players come out like they did, I sub within a minute. They aren't ready, so I try my other guys. We try another group. Normally, you can't do that. You have to ride it out with those guys. You can call a timeout and yell at them. Now, it's like, 'You're okay. No big deal. Just come over here and sit down. We are going to play these guys.' That is the advantage we have."

(On winning comfortably despite poor shooting)
"We defended. We guarded. They missed free throws. Listen, we still aren't where we need to be. We are growing. I want every individual player on this team, when you watch them, you say, 'He is getting better.' If you're not saying that, then I am not doing my job."

(On Booker adding a boost in the first half)
"He missed a bunch of shots, and I was getting upset. I wanted to start the game posting the ball. So what did we do? We shot threes. We shot five, six, seven threes. The key was we are going to get it in. Well, obviously, we didn't, so at halftime, I reinforced it. We were going to post the ball, but then our first four shots were threes. He did good stuff. What I loved, though, was he rebounded. Down the stretch, he was the one who got all of those balls."

(On getting better)
"We are playing to get better. If that means we win more games, then that is fine. We are playing to get better. There are areas of offense and defense we are focusing on. That is what we are doing."

KENTUCKY CENTER WILLIE CAULEY-STEIN

(On the change in the second half)
"We just rebounded way better. They were outrebounding us in the first half and we made up for it in the second half."

(On the fear of playing sluggish)
"We as players just have to know that it is going to be tough everywhere we go. Especially now we have this huge target on our back, the country wants us to lose, they want to see us lose. We just have to come in like they are trying to kill us type stuff. We are not trying to let them get off on us, that is the mentality that you have to come in with, if you don't then it is going to look like we are sluggish or looks like we aren't trying to play. That is not it at all. We have to fight back."

KENTUCKY GUARD DEVIN BOOKER

(On what happens if players aren't hitting)
"This is the most talented team I have ever played on in my life. My high school team was a lot different. Even when I am not doing good, we have so many other players on the team who are good that I don't have to worry about missing. I am more into them than myself. They make the game easier for me. I had open shots, and if I miss them, they rebound them. I feel like it is a win-win situation. I feel like we have a great team."

University of Tennessee Athletics

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