On North Carolina:
“After watching the tape, I think we did some good things, but it is only one win. Each game is different, so our concentration has been on staying focused on the areas that we haven’t done well. We haven’t been screening well, we haven’t passed the ball well, so those are some things we have to get better at. I thought our defense was pretty sound, playing predominantly zone, which was effective. We are a better zone team than man-to-man team right now.”
 Coach Tubby Smith |
On Eastern Kentucky:
“Travis [Ford] has done a good job there. They are very quick and athletic, and they really push the ball. They create a lot of problems because of their quickness. They hold their opponents to 34 or 35 percent and they have played some pretty good opponents. They have outrebounded people, so we are going to have to be ready to play. Also, we have to realize that they will be a much different team than North Carolina. Eastern Kentucky has a lot more quickness I think, and they know how to take advantage of it.”
On Marquis Estill:
“He is a pretty good offensive player. Marquis is running the floor better because his knees are better. He has always had the offensive skills, now it is just a matter of getting tougher defensively. He is a tough kid, it is just trying to get him to stay down, and a lot of it has to do with his knees. Opportunity to play helps. When you get to play, you are going to do better.
“Congratulations to him on getting SEC Player of the Week. I thought he was very deserving of it and did a good job. So he can hopefully build on what he did in that game and carry it over to Eastern Kentucky. He has something unique that Jason [Parker] and Marvin [Stone] can’t and don’t bring to the table. He is really skilled offensively. He has outside perimeter skills as far as shooting the ball.”
“When you get down by 10, you don’t really make it up in a hurry. We didn’t give in and I don’t think our guys gave up. I don’t know if it was anything in particular, but I thought Cliff’s [Hawkins] play was pretty inspiring, as well as Marquis [Estill]. I think the guys sitting on the bench looked up and saw that they were giving it their all, so lets give it our all. I thought Saul was very composed. He showed great leadership in keeping the guys focused.”
On the bench play:
“Everybody can’t be a starter. They are all part of the team. We win as a team, we lose as a team. That is their responsibility to come in and play to their potential. That means we expect them to do something positive, we don’t expect them to do something negative. They should be on the bench, watching and seeing what the other players maybe are not doing and try to make that adjustment. At least that is what you hope they are doing, that is what we tell them to do. They should be mentally ready to go in the game and do that.”
On Cliff Hawkins:
“He is a freshman and it takes time, so I knew it would take time for him to become comfortable with our system and with his role, what he was going to be asked to do on this team. That is to give it his all. And if the freshmen just do that, I am happy. It is when they try to do more, that is when they get in trouble.”
On Estill blocking shots:
“He has great wingspan, with long arms and a very strong upper body. He has good timing on his ability to reach shots. His wingspan is so long he gets the shots you don’t think he is going to get. And it takes a lot of upper body strength to do that because you are going to get hit and get bumped, and you have to be able to control your upper body in order to block shots.”
“There were a number of times in the game that passes were off-target and people had to reach for them. That took the guy out of the shot. We have to constantly make them aware of it and constantly work on it. I was happy with just 12 turnovers because that meant we were taking care of the ball. I think a lot had to do with our screens and that people were getting open.”
“I wasn’t too concerned about blocked shots until we lost Jules Camara because Jules was fourth in the conference in blocked shots. In my opinion, Jules was just as good a shot blocker as Jamaal [Magloire]. I think that Marquis [Estill] is now naturally in a position to block shots. When we talk about areas we have to outwork and out hustle people, that is one area you can do it in. You can block shots, take the charge. Whenever somebody goes to the basket we expect one of a few things to happen. Either take the charge, block the shot, or do not give up three-point plays. So that is where the toughness and aggressiveness that I think Marquis gives us comes in. He has more height than Jason [Parker] and he is more physical than Marvin [Stone].”
On the performance of other Cats:
“I thought it was just a great team effort. Tayshaun [Prince] and Keith [Bogans] stepped up in the second half and made shots and big plays. Erik Daniels is a guy worth noting–he has played amazing. If he keeps that up, he will make a big difference in the team; he has already. He is always versatile. He has good hands, he can run, he is a good passer and he is coachable.”
# 50 Marquis Estill
 Marquis Estill |
“We have to stay mentally focused and not let this win get to our heads. We need to keep the same momentum that we played with against North Carolina. We have to stay with the same consistency that we have been playing with in practice and remained focused when we step onto the court.”
On his shot blocking against UNC:
“Basically I was just coming over to help. A couple of times they (UNC) got dribble penetration into the lane and I had to come over on help defense.”
“Everybody is pretty confident now and feels really good about the win. Everyone is trying to stay focused.”
On being named SEC Player-of-the-Week:
“I feel great about it. I really didn’t find out until a couple minutes ago, but I am pretty excited. It makes me feel good as a player after the struggles both myself and the team have had this season to come out and have a big game against an opponent like North Carolina. It is a privilege really.”
“The extra week of practice got me back into the flow of things, being able to go out and practice again. I felt confident about going into the game with North Carolina. Against Penn State I felt like I was rushing my shots. Having the extra week of practice helped me get my legs back under me.”
On his ability to go inside or outside:
“As a little kid I always stepped out and shot the ball playing in junior leagues. In the summers I have always worked on my jump shot. My coaches have always encouraged me to work on my outside game because it gives me an advantage over a lot of guys my size.”
#24 Marvin Stone
 Marvin Stone |
“We feel good. It was a big win for us. We are going to have to keep playing like that and we should win a lot of games. I am just glad we won. We needed that win.”
“We need wins. We just have to go out there and play hard against Eastern Kentucky and hopefully things will fall into place. We played with great intensity against North Carolina and we have to keep that intensity up as the season continues.”
“Every game we go into, we look to go inside first. It is not going to make much of a difference that EKU does not have a lot of size. Going inside is our first option.”
“The win over North Carolina proved to everyone that we can play with anyone in the country. It is a good feeling for us.”
#10 Keith Bogans
 Keith Bogans |
“Our spirits are up after that big win over North Carolina and I think we are going to carry the way we played on Saturday over to tomorrow night.”
“I think momentum wise, we were on a losing streak, but the victory over UNC is a great way to start a winning streak by building momentum.”
“Last week we were a little down, but we never got down on ourselves. We kept telling ourselves that we needed to work a little harder and that is what we did.”
“We just did exactly what coach asked for. We stuck to the game plan, our shots fell, and when we did what he asked of us, everything went well.”
” I think we were getting better looks at the basket. We were penetrating and finding the open man and we had a lot of time to look at the basket and get a good shot. Those are things that we need to keep working on. The win over UNC shows that when we execute our offensive correctly, we are going to get better looks at the basket.”
“I don’t think coach was any different. I think he was a little more calm than he usually is. We just went out and played basketball and stuck to the game plan. The main thing is that we just played.”
“Going into the game, I wanted to get my teammates involved early. If I got some early assists, I knew my shot would come once the defense backed off me a little more instead of leaving my teammate open.”
On playing against friend Joe Forte:
“Joe was a little upset after the game, but I told him what goes around comes around, so we have got to keep our head up because we might see North Carolina again.”
#11 Saul Smith
On carrying the success against North Carolina into the Eastern Kentucky game:
“We played really well, and we have to continue that. It starts with the upperclassmen. We have to maintain the intensity and desire we showed against North Carolina. It’s like our game against Jacksonville State. We went out and played hard, and the young guys followed. We found ourselves against Carolina, and now we just have to continue to play hard. While Eastern isn’t as talented as UNC, it is still a game with an instate rival and we will have to play hard to win. We have to take the game in stride and play like we know how to play. We can’t play down to our opponent. We have to play as well as we can play.”
On Erik Daniels coming into Kentucky without all the hoopla of a star recruit:
“I wouldn’t say it is easier for him. It certainly makes him less uptight because he isn’t in the position that Jason Parker is where he will be criticized every game. It has panned out great for him and the team.”
On Cliff Hawkins:
“He’s done a tremendous job. He worked on his jump shot over the summer, and he always had the ability to penetrate and pass. His asthma limits his minutes on the court, but when he can get over that some, you will see him play 30-35 minutes a game.”
