Kentucky-FGCU Postgame Quotes
KENTUCKY WOMEN’S BASKETBALL POSTGAME QUOTES
KENTUCKY VS. FGCU
MEMORIAL COLISEUM – LEXINGTON, KY.
DECEMBER 18, 2022
Kentucky Head Coach Kyra Elzy
On if the effort from today was better …
“I thought we had better effort and energy. But what I told the team in the locker room is that, that’s the price of admission. That’s the expectation. We should do that all the time. But I did think we brought that today, which we were looking for. But also, the final result, we’re trying to win. It can’t just be effort and energy when we’re trying to win. I was proud that we got to the free throw like 25 times and made 23 of them. We’ve been looking for that 80 percent. I thought we rebounded the ball well, but at the end of the day, 20 turnovers and they scored 32 points off of it.”
On the team’s discipline at the end of the game…
“What I talked to them about, I did think we flew around defensively, but we made costly defensive mistakes when it mattered. We talked about if people get by us, try to build a wall, make people score over us. If we’re going to foul them, we need to foul them on the floor. It can’t be an and-one. So, we’ll have to continue to go back and work on that during practice.”
On what she can do as a coach to ensure the team still has shooting confidence …
“When you’re on the sideline, you just keep telling them, ‘that’s a good shot for you. Take the shot. You can hit those.’ Just try to feed them with confidence in practice. Go back and work on it, and work on it with the defense, so it stimulates a game. But at the end of the day, we have to be able to knock those layups down. All of them are capable of doing so. I think it’s more mental now, of seeing the ball not go into the basket. So, we’ll continue to work on it, and just try to give them confidence, because we’re a better shooting team than what we’re showing.”
On if it is time to press the panic button for the season…
“I mean, it’s a long season. This is a marathon, not a sprint. We have one more (non-conference) game and that’s the most important game on our schedule to try to focus on. We can’t bury our head in the sand. We have got to find a way to go back, go to work and find a way to get a win and get back on the winning side of things.”
On why the team continues to have a slow start in the beginning of each game…
“Well, definitely not our intention to go in the game starting slow. We would love to get off to a quick start. I do think sometimes what happens offensively does affect us. Whether we miss an outside shot or a layup, which is deflating since we hadn’t been shooting the ball well. So sometimes I think we’re playing in rewind instead of fast forward. Then it shows on the defensive side where we’re not mentally locked in because we’re still thinking about the layup or the open shot that we’ve missed. We’re going to have to get off to better starts. The staff and I will have to go back and reevaluate. What are some things we can do to help the team in that area?”
On Maddie Scherr’s statement about the team not hating losing bad enough …
“I agree with Maddie because we’re losing. So, obviously we don’t hate it enough because we haven’t figured out how to win yet. So, I back her in that statement and I actually love it. That’s a competitor. We hate to lose. You know, this program is built around winning and that is the standard. That is the expectation and that’s never going to change.”
UK Student-Athletes
#22, Maddie Scherr, G
On today’s outcome …
“I think the way we came out was way too slow. I think it was an 8-0 run and we weren’t ready and that starts with our mindset coming out on the floor. It’s definitely unacceptable. I think (FGCU) scoring 32 points on our turnovers lost us the game right there, too. We have to take better care of the ball and playing like every possession matters.”
On playing through offensive struggles …
“I just want to win. I know I shot terrible from the field today and I was aware of that, but I want to win. That means doing everything else for my team, even if I’m not hitting shots. It’s just a mindset and I think, as a team, we don’t hate losing enough.”
#21, Nyah Leveretter, F
On the slow start …
“I think we dug ourselves too deep of a hole too early. I mean there’s only a small room for error so we can’t be doing that. We have to be more disciplined.”
On the team’s mindset…
“When it comes to mentally locking in, we need to realize when we notice people (are down) and rallying everyone back together so that we can on the same page and so that we don’t have those slow starts.”
