“I think we are in a great mood, but we’re ornery right now. Nobody wants to play, perform or have an outcome like we had at Florida, but it’s an opportunity to learn. Every team in the country, whether you’re No. 1 in the country or you’re 356th in the country, every team is going to have an ebb and flow to their season. Every game is a learning opportunity, and that’s how we look at it. We came in this morning, we had a great film session with the guys; showed them where we did some good things and showed them where we did some things that cost us some different possessions that could have changed the way the outcome of the game went, but take nothing away from Florida. They responded to their home court and their home-court advantage that they had, and they played. But there were still some things we saw on the tape that we could have done better offensively and defensively that we’ve done in the past. We just have to back to what we were doing.”   

“We don’t buy into that. We are around Malik every day and we know how much he cares about winning and what it means to him. He knows he didn’t play his best on both ends of the floor in that game. I can see – not to excuse any of it – but I could see where it’s your birthday, you’re on the road and the opposing team’s student section starts singing you happy birthday. That could throw you off a little bit. But it still did not take away from how the loss hurt him.” 

“The thing with Malik is he’s different than anyone else on this team and his light is a little bit greener than some other guys on this team because of his ability to score in different ways. That’s what makes him special. That’s what makes him different. We also gotta understand – not just Malik, but our whole team – we’ve gotta understand time, score, situation, the value of a shot given whatever the circumstance of that moment in time in the game. Some of those shots – and not just from Malik but, our team as a whole – led to some of those easy opportunities that Florida got going the other way. And so watching the tape – that was one of the things we watched on the tape this morning is, were the shots we took – good shot or bad shot – could we have gotten a better shot in this situation given the time and score? And I think that was part of the learning curve this team has because we’re so young. Winning on the high school level and winning on the college level is a totally different game. And that’s one the things this young team is learning individually and collectively is what winning basketball means in certain situations.” 

“It’s a good change of pace. The one thing we have are the attributes to be a fantastic zone team. We’re long, we’re athletic, we cover a lot of ground. It’s a work in progress like our man defense, like man offense. It’s a work in progress. The one thing about the zone right now: We’ve been effective in it. When we watch on tape, the times that teams have scored against the zone is usually somewhere where we broke down and they slide or a communication (issue) that we possibly could have contested that shot. But it’s a great change of pace for us if teams get it going against our man.”  

“No, because we had just gotten seven straight stops when we went to the zone, so I’ll take that percentage any day. And it was two 3s against our zone and one against the man. On that third possession we switched to man. It was just, seeing it on tape, a learning experience. We had two of our wing guys run to the same side of the floor in transition, which led to one of those 3s. And then one of our slides or shifts we didn’t do correctly. But it’s something the guys are still learning to play. We haven’t practiced it a lot, but the guys are getting better at it and you can see its effectiveness on the floor. We just try to eliminate the mistakes we make in it and take away the 3-point line and still take away the paint.” 

“No. When you grade the tapes the last two games we played, of the 30 possessions we’ve played it, we’ve gotten stops 21 of the 30 times. So I think we would take that percentage any day of the week. And of the nine times they scored, the majority of the times they score was a breakdown on our end — not so much effective zone offense either way, although you’ve gotta give those guys credit for making those shots.” 

“When you go back and watch the tape, it wasn’t so much effort. I thought our guys were going after the glass. A little bit of their spacing offensively led to that. The four-out system that they run leaves one guy near the basket, and so now they’ve got guys flying, and then they’re big on the wing. The one thing is, our guards have to rebound better. When you see a guard like (Chris) Chiozza, who is a fantastic player but is 5-9, 5-10, 5-11, come up with nine rebounds and some of our bigger, more athletic guards don’t come up with as many as he did, we’ve gotta get better rebounding from our guards because our bigs are doing a fairly good job holding it down in there.”

“Obviously defensively. We’ve gotta play better. Our transition defense, we can’t give up as many easy baskets in transition. The layups we gave up, I mean, I think they shot 48 percent. But if you take away the transition baskets where they got layups, they would’ve been in the low 40s. And again, a lot of the transition baskets they got were off of the shot we took at the other end, which might have been a good shot but not the best shot we could have got at that moment that lead to breakouts. So, defensive rebounding, we always want to improve and get better. ”

“Cute is another term for the highlight-type play instead of the right play where I can make this simple pass. It has got to be a look-away, or it has to be highlight lob pass, or I got an easy layup but there isn’t a degree of difficulty to it so I’ve gotta do something else to get that ball to go in. That is the cute plays that, when we don’t make those, they end up going the other way and they are leading to some of the turnovers. Where we have been a low turnover team for the majority of the season, but you look at these last four losses, we have turned the ball over on unnecessary plays. And a lot of those are those cute plays, which lead to turnovers going the other way. And those turnovers, just like you see us converting turnovers at a high rate, that’s what other good college teams do.”

“I’m not sure what you are referring to. Yeah, I can’t comment on that because I am not sure what you are referring to.”

“The shots that were taken. The time and the score and recognizing situations. You know, we have been a team that has shared the ball all year long. That’s what Cal’s teams have always done. He has gotten his team of really good players to sacrifice for one another. We have done that all year long, and so part of the film session this morning was going back and watching some of our recent games where we really guarded and we really shared the ball with each other. And for some reason these last few games, we haven’t. But now it’s been addressed and that is one of the things that we look to improve.”

“I mean, I don’t think our confidence is ever rattled. We just want to put together a complete performance. But give teams credit for how they’re playing us. I mean, that’s a big part of where our struggles have been. Teams, like we do, are going to watch tape. You’re going to be scouted. We’re going to scout our opponents and we are going to try to make you play away from your strengths and play to your weaknesses. That’s what teams are doing to us. And so again, showing the guys on tape will hopefully improve that. But LSU is a team that – they’ve got size, they’ve got talent at the guard position. They’ve struggled in the win-loss column, but when you watch them on tape preparing for them, they are a team that’s quite capable. So for any game, we are not worried about the opponent. We want to worry about us. But LSU is more than a capable team to come in here and give us a game.”

“Well, I would like to say over through the course of a career, but around here a career is not very long. So we need that learning curve to be a little bit faster. Depending on a player’s background and how they have been coached before they got here, that learning curve could be a little bit steeper. But we’ve got some high-IQ players on this team from top to bottom. And so we’ll figure it out, and watching the tape and pointing it out and showing where we can get better in that area is always going to be a great corrector.”

“We would have to talk to the trainer. I just know, coming off the flu that he (De’AAron Fox) had that was pretty serve – it’s not only been running through our team, but it has been running through campus. He still had some hangovers of that in the Florida game. You’ve got to commend him for the effort and the fight that he put forth in that Florida game. The team needs him and he went out there and battled through it. So I expect him to play tomorrow. The condition of him, I am not sure. I haven’t seen the doctors today. 

“He played well. Again, short practice time. He has been gone for it seems like a couple of months with the illness. But what he did in that game going 2 for 4 from the 3 is what we need from him. He’s gotta to be a guy that spaces the floor, that hopefully opens up  the drive-and-attack lanes for Malik (Monk) and De’Aaron and Isaiah (Briscoe), and he did that in that game.” 

“He’s not adverse to zones. He just likes to say that. He just likes the accountable of man-to-man. He’s liked what he’s seen out of the zone and how it can change the pace of a game if a team gets it going like Florida did. It helped us get back in the game, getting seven straight stops in the zone. It is something that we will use from time to time but we are a man-to-man team and he is a man-to-man coach, and that is where his identity has always been for a long time and he has had a lot of success with it.” 

“It’s the same as usual, you know we’re just having a tough time and we’re going to get past it.”

“They’re emphasizing on me and they are going to double team. That’s about it. I just gotta come out with the same energy I always have and hopefully it will change.”

“Our energy and enthusiasm. Just coming out with that intensity. Every game matters. We came out a little lackadaisical in our last games and it hurt us.”

“I don’t know. We were missing shots that we should of made and they were just making all of theirs. That’s pretty much how you sum up rebounding.”

“You should always as a team fully take it personal. I took it personal because I don’t like getting outrebounded by anybody. It’s the way it happened. Onto the next game and better luck.”

“Defense, rebounding, blocking shots. Just talking. When we talk, our defense was much better, so just more talking.” 

“We still have high confidence because it’s not the end of the world. It’s not the end of the season. We still have a couple more games left. We still have high hopes.”

“I’m not surprised because it’s a tradition here. They’re used to winning.”

“We’re just going through a phase right now. We’re humans. We’re just going through the phases and we’ll get back on track.”

“We come to the huddle and are like ‘We need to get more rebounds. Everybody go box out and execute.’”

“It shocked me, but we were missing shots and they were getting out on the break and making shots. That limited our rebounding.”

“You can’t live in the past. You gotta just move forward and that’s what we’re doing.”

“Whatever helps us win I’m fine with it. I’m not going to complain. It’s defense, as long as it helps us, I don’t have a problem.”

“It offsets some of the other teams. So you know, they’ll get confused. They will think we’re in some kind of man, but we’re in zone. It’ll help us moving forward.”

“We just need to go out and have the same demeanor that we usually have. Go out, play ball, have fun and come up with the W.”

“I don’t have a comment on that. That’s my brother, so I’m not going to throw him under the bus. They were singing happy birthday. He smiled. What would you do if a lot of people were singing happy birthday to you? You’re going to grin. It’s onto the next game.”

“It’s weird. We’re a young team, never been in a situation like this. Just have to fight through it. It’s just a weird situation right now.”

“I mean, it caught me off guard, them doing that. We played bad. Winning is on my mind from the jump. So, if anybody took that wrong I’m sorry for that, but that was clever from them to do that. It was funny to me, but I shouldn’t laugh at that moment because I knew cameras were on me.”

“Yeah, of course, he’s always tough on me.”

“I knew it was going to be something because we’re at Kentucky and Cal told me that before. The cameras always on us. But I knew it was going to blow up.”

“As soon as we got to the locker room Cal wanted to meet with us right after.”

“Way more. It’s basically me. He should have said me. I just gotta stick my head in the lane and stay in the lane way more instead of leaking out.”

“Any kind of rebound, just stick my head in there and leave whenever I need to, when I feel like (it’s) the right time to leave. Just play the feel of the ball.”

“I rebounded a lot. In high school I had to because we’d lose every game if I didn’t rebound. But Cal is telling me right now we’re going to lose every game if I don’t start rebounding right now. So, I just gotta pick it up.”

“I mean, not really. People are going to think what they think. I’m just looking past that.”

“That’s what we have to figure out right now. Today we got time for that. Play tomorrow. Then we got a couple more practices. We got time to figure it out, so that’s what we gotta figure out.”

“That’s trying to make the extra no-look (pass), stuff like that. But we’re going to play hard, make mistakes and stuff like that. He just wants the superstar plays or ESPN top-10 plays out of the way.”

“Yeah, of course. But that’s what he’s talking about. I gotta get away from it.”

“I think our confidence is still pretty high, but like I said before, we got a lot of things to work on and that’s why we’re here today.”

“Yeah, of course. As soon as it happened I think I knew pictures and stuff would be up. But like I said, cameras are always on me, Cal said that – he told me before I got here that cameras would be on me. I just gotta watch what I’m doing.”

“It caught me off guard. That’s really the main reason I laughed because it caught me off guard. It was a funny, clever thing that the fans did.”

“It takes away our comfortableness. Like, with (De’Aaron) Fox we didn’t know how much he’d play or anything like that. But that’s not an excuse. We still lost. We still got beat on almost everything. So, we just gotta come out to practice and focus.”

“We’ve been working on zone a lot this year. Coach Barbee said we could be a good (zone) team if we keep communicating and stuff like that. But I think our zone looks pretty good.”