Kentucky-Tennessee Tech Postgame Quotes
Kentucky-Tennessee Tech Postgame Press Conference
Clive M. Beck Center
Dec. 3, 2023
Head Coach Kyra Elzy
On Ajae Petty’s performance…
“You know, I was so proud of Ajae, for her to have 33 points, 15 rebounds, but I love that she’s selfless right now. I walked into the locker room and I mentioned her name, you know, I was gonna go down the list and she goes, ‘What about Cassidy Rowe coach? She took three charges.’ So right now, it doesn’t matter who gets the credit but super proud of her. She’s put a lot of hard work in. And yes, they were smaller, but she still found a way to score even when they double teamed her so that’s big growth for her.”
On trials and tribulations on boards…
“You know, I thought their guards started really crashing in the second half and we have to do a better job of finding a body defensively. We need five people on the boards. Finding the body and box out I thought a couple of times we got caught leaking out trying to run but I said guys you can’t run without the basketball so we got to do a better job of boxing out there.”
On watching film of Tennessee Tech…
“Yes, I watched film before every game that is mandatory. That’s a requirement. I don’t know any head coach that goes into a game without watching film. So that’s mandatory. But we knew they were going to be tough. They’re well coached by coach (Kim) Rosamond. I’ve known her since college, they execute well. They’re hungry for win just like we are so it was gonna be a battle and we knew that. One of the things I talked to our players about is coming off such a high with Boston College now. Do we have the maturity to come back and refocus and reset and we did.”
On the turnovers and miscommunications…
“I like how you put that, crashing into each other. Yes, we were falling over each other. I don’t know what that is. But you know, when I talked to them, we would like to our goal was 12 or fewer turnovers. I thought I talked to them about aggressive turnovers. If we’re traveling the ball we’re turning it over because how we play we can’t be afraid to turn the ball over but we there’s a fine line. I thought we threw some passes over the top that we could have kept it and flowed into the offense so we got to be better there. 17 turnovers, that’s too many. And we’ll go back to the drawing board.”
On adjusting after halftime
“Well, in our timeout, we talked about, you know, make the easy play but I wasn’t worried about our offense. I was worried about we weren’t settling in defensively getting stops we weren’t switching like we were supposed to be switching Petty got caught behind and they turned to made it easy score. So just refocus and we cannot rest offensively. So we had to generate some points from our defense but we need to fly around. And then when we did that, we got defensive stops when we didn’t they made us pay for it and they saw it and also just keep the ball moving offensively. I thought they started sticking too long, which can cause turnovers as well as we’re just looking at the post.”
On Tennessee Techs defense…
“Well, I think we were looking for [Ajae] Petty but you still have to keep the ball moving. So you might have to throw it to the top let her duck in reverse it. Let her flash instead of just staring her down in one spot.“
On Cassidy Rowe’s performance…
“So proud of Cassidy Rowe, three charges and we needed every one of them. I got out there, I was like what is it, and she was like I can’t feel anything right now coach. I was like well just lay here for a minute. But that is a testament to her toughness. She’s willing to lay it on the line for this team. That’s part of her role, she started today, was solid, six assists today. So that was big. So we talked to her about being a grown up moment and I thought she grew up in this game.”
On Emma King’s performance…
“She’s a fifth-year senior. She knows exactly what I’m looking for. She’s able to settle us in on the court. She understands the offense she understands the defense but more importantly, she’s producing right now – 14 points today and seven rebounds. So that’s what a fifth-year senior needs to be able to do for you but super proud of her. She’s always put in the work so it’s good to see her hard work pay off.”
On Janae Walker getting minutes today…
“Well, we’re gonna need Janae [Walker]. She’s a big body post, she’s gonna have to come in and sub for Ajae Petty. Obviously, she’s a freshman and there’s a learning curve. But what we talked to her about is selling out defensively, trying to get rebounds. But really trying to keep her focused on the defensive end so she doesn’t think too much offensively. And so she’ll continue to learn and grow and we’re gonna need her to.”
On the atmosphere today…
“Yeah, listen, Transylvania has been awesome to us. We are honored to play here and that they’re giving us their home gym to allow it to be ours. It does get really loud and the timeouts between the fans screaming you know, the band playing. So I feel like I’m screaming all the time, and they’re just looking so now just take my pen and write it on the board so that we can get it or move the pieces. But that’s a great problem to have. We would rather have a great atmosphere with our fans in the house. I think we feed off their energy.”
On the common-intentional fouls late in the fourth quarter…
“Yes, I’m not for sure exactly what happened. I looked over to talk to a coach, I turned around and they were laying on the floor. But you know, it’s part of basketball. I like the toughness of our team. Obviously they’re trying to battle to win. You’re going to have those type of plays. It’s basketball, it’s going to be physical. I’m glad we made three or four free throws out of it. So we’ll take it all right.”
On the identity of the team…
“I think we’re still, you know, working on that. But like I’ve always said, we have to lay our hat on the defensive end. We have to fly around. We have to sell out. We just have to play so hard. We’re talented but not talented enough not to play hard. So we have to sell out every game and we have to play together. It doesn’t matter who gets the credit. And then transition offense we got to rebound and run or steal the ball and run and that the identity of our team and we have to be tough.”
Player Quotes
#13, Ajae Petty, F, Sr.
On guards setting Ajae Petty up for success…
“My guards did a great job just looking for me, going in I was just talking with my guards. We just talked about … let me just go to work. I think Cas [Cassidy Rowe] did a great job just trying to look for me, Saniah [Tyler] did a great job, Eniya [Russell] always does a good job, Emma [King] right here planted the four spot, she is always looking for the high and low. I think everyone did a good job.”
On how Tennessee Tech challenged them…
“Tennessee Tech was a good team, they came in confident, and they worked extremely hard, it was fun playing against them. But I think everybody trusted the work that we put in throughout day in and day out and we got results.”
On keeping their heads in the game…
“I think it was a lot of leadership on the floor and talking to each other and making adjustments that we needed to make. Emma [King] came and picked me up after I missed a free throw, she came up and clapped and touching and being positive on the floor when things were going the wrong way. Just continuing to play.”
#34, Emma King, G, Gr.
On being asked to do things she has never done before and how it fits the team concept…
“Right, [Kyra] Elzy keeps talking about next man up and that’s kind of the mentality we have to have. I’m just ready to fill whatever role they ask me and if it’s the four last game it was the five, so be it. I’m just ready to step into it and embrace the challenge.”
On how scrappiness of the team contributed to victory …
“Yeah, absolutely. One thing I feel like I just love about this team is I feel like when one person is playing hard, like we just kind of feed off of that and so it was so fun to see people fly around like [Ajae] Petty got mad at me because I was trying to go get the board but like I’m glad that Petty is mad at me because that means we are both crashing the boards and we’re both just being scrappy and trying to get it and that’s really like what we feed off of that’s what our offensive feeds off of just being able to push the ball and it’s just really fun being able to play especially when all five of us on the floor on at the same time on that same wavelength and we are just playing for each other.”
On Maaliya Owens being hard to contain today …
“She’s a great player. And she, I’ve played with her, I’ve played against her for years. She’s a great player and she has just always hunted shots and that’s something she never quits moving and that was something we talked about going into this game you have to be ready to guard her because even if she doesn’t have the ball, she’s looking to get the ball. And so, she’s gonna wear down any defender that guards her and she did a great job today she stepped up big today and she hit shots for them.”
