March 13, 2000
Tubby Smith
3/13/2000
Pre-St. Bonaventure (NCAA Tournament)
“Desmond (Allison) obviously made a very bad mistake and used very poorjudgement in driving under the influence. I am very concerned about hisstate of mind at this point. This is the first real problem we’ve had withDesmond. We had to discipline him during a game earlier in the year becauseof class attendance and tardiness. To be out after 3 o’clock in the morningis disappointing, especially with us going into the NCAA Tournament andcoming off a tough to Arkansas. I expected more from him in terms ofleadership.”
“At this point in time, we feel the system will have to take its course asfar as investigation is concerned within the administration and the legalsystem. It has had a real tough effect on all the players, because theywere very close to Desmond. He is a very likeable guy and the players enjoybeing around him. At this point in time, he is no longer considered a partof this basketball team. The University’s policy is that if he isconvicted, he will forfeit his scholarship. We haven’t talked past that, asfar as what his future will be.”
“We hope that he does understand the magnitude of what he has done andlearns from it, as well as our other players. For him to jeopardize theintegrity and the image of this program is very distressing because we workvery hard to educate our players. I do not see that we have a real problemwith the rest of our team. We have been monitoring them very closely. It ishard to monitor them after two or three in the morning.”
“Desmond is probably going to go home for spring break, and then he’llprobably continue to keep his scholarship for the rest of the semester. Ifhe decides to do that, he’ll have to go through the counseling and theother things the administration has set up. If he does decide to leavehere, we want him to leave in good standing because that is ourresponsibility, to make sure we help him become a better person. That way,we can forgive him and go on from there. I have been in touch with his highschool coach, his mother, and everyone else to try and give him as muchsupport as possible.”
On the Arkansas game:“This was a tough loss against a very good Arkansas team that went on towin the Southeastern Conference Tournament. They proved that they were thebetter team in this tournament. They forced us into turnovers which theywere able to capitalize on.”
On the Cats’ upcoming game against NCAA first-round opponent St. Bonaventure:”It will be a real challenge to get our players focused on St. Bonaventureand not allow the distraction of what has happened to Desmond affect theirplay. That is our toughest challenge right now, but our kids are prettymotivated. They realize what not having Desmond has done to our team. Wehad 10 players available, and now we only have nine players available.Depth is always a problem. It was the biggest problem we had againstArkansas, because they ran so many people at us and we didn’t have ananswer for them. Some guys are going to have to step up their level ofplay. We’ll have to ask more out of Jules Camara and the bench, especiallyguys like Todd (Tackett) and Marvin (Stone), guys who haven’t played asmuch. You will probably see us make a lot more adjustments. You’ll probablysee Saul (Smith) and J.P. (Blevins) on the court more at the same timetogether.”
“St. Bonaventure presents a real challenge with a player like Tim Winn, whois an outstanding point guard. He is probably the best all-around pointguard to ever play at St. Bonaventure and probably one of the best pointguards we are going to face this year. They have a lot of depth andtalented people at every position. (Caswell) Cyrus is an excellent shotblocker inside, and they have quite a few Canadian players on their team.They have beaten Dayton and Temple this year, so they have some big wins.We’ll have to be at our best because we have such a limited number ofplayers.”
On players being responsible for their actions:“Desmond is being responsible and punished for his mistake. I don’t knowwhat else you can do. It is our responsibility as teachers, leaders,coaches and parents to do all we can. However, we can’t watch them all thetime. They have to be held accountable for their own actions and suffer theconsequences when they break a rule or law. It is just an unfortunatesituation. Desmond is a kid who grew up in a tough, tough area of Tampa.Some kids come from environments where you help to try and change theirbehavior and do all you can for them. The toughest part of this job isworrying about kids, how they’ll respond, and what they are doing when wearen’t around.”
On the adjustments in the starting lineup:“I think Jules is ready, and we’ll rotate Tayshaun (Prince) to the smallforward spot. We will look at moving Saul to the shooting guard and playingJ.P. at shooting guard more, too. I have tried to play guys to give themopportunities to improve and gain some confidence. With Desmond not beinghere, it creates a real void because he gave us athleticism at 6-foot-5 and215 pounds.”
On who will step up and become UK’s defensive stopper:“We have to step up as a team because we didn’t play good team defenseagainst Arkansas. They were able to take us off the dribble. Guys did notrotate into position in order to help stop Arkansas’ penetration. We gotcaught defending one-one-one, which is impossible to do. Individually,Jamaal needs to step up because he has to be a real presence inside. Noneof us were clicking on all cylinders. Jamaal had a good game, but I didn’tthink he had the inside presence that he normally has as far as blockingshots. Against St. Bonaventure he is going to have to step up because theyhave a good front line.”
UK Player Quotes
#4 Steve Masiello
“When you’re faced with situations like the one involving Desmond, all youcan do is deal with it. We’ve been faced with adversity before and we’vedealt with it. We’ll do the same now. Unfortunately, this is a specialsituation. People make decisions and everyone is accountable for thosedecisions. The pressure of a loss is not a factor. I feel like I’ve let theteam down somewhat by not recognizing the problem.”
“We held a team meeting last night, but I’m not at liberty to discuss whatwas said. I’m not disappointed in Desmond. People make mistakes. I knowthat I’ve made plenty of them. We want to help Desmond out. We’re here forhim.”
“We’d rather not have to deal with the situation, but we can’t turn ourback and say it won’t affect us. To deal with the situation gives uscharacter, on and off the court.”
On St. Bonaventure:“Jamaal and I know some people on the team that are from New York andCanada. They are very talented and like to pressure the ball. They havegreat senior leadership in Tim Winn. Some people may feel that oursituation gives St. Bonaventure an advantage in the game.”
#11 Saul Smith
“It’s been a tough couple of days. I’m not very excited, at a time when Ishould be the most excited. I have to be excited to play against St.Bonaventure, a great A-10 team. We have to put the distractions of thisweekend aside and get ready to play. There were a lot of surprises in thetournament. We can’t complain about the five-seed, considering we didn’twin our last game or our tournament. We feel really good about playingclose to home.”
On his reaction to the news about Desmond:“I was definitely stunned. Practice yesterday wasn’t how it should havebeen because of the incident. Like Coach (Smith) said, it’s a distractionand a disruption. Practice this morning wasn’t extremely fun because wewere missing our teammate and friend. It’s very frustrating. You never wantthis to happen—there’s never a good time for it. I’m just happy no onegot hurt.”
On St. Bonaventure:“They definitely aren’t a team we’ll walk over. They beat Dayton, who beatus. That has to tell you something. They also made it to their conferencefinal and made a good run at the championship.”
On how he feels the season has gone up to this point:“Overall, I feel we’ve come a long way as a team. After losing transfersand our good friend John Stewart, it’s been hard. John passed away a yearago yesterday. We took some time to remember him and pray for him and hisfamily last night.”
#42 Jamaal Magloire
On Desmond Allison: “We all know that he is a good person. He just made a mistake and we willhave to move on from it. He is a mature young person and realizes theseverity of his actions. But his personality will overcome anything he hasdone. I may be a little disappointed in his actions, but we can’t judge himfor what he has done. He just needs to be surrounded by those who careabout him so we can help him move on through this difficult time.”
On how the team will do in his absence: “We all know his value to this team and his value to the whole universitycommunity. We have had adversity before and have overcome it and done well.I know, personally, I play better in these situations by just taking mygame to another level. I like to take on challenges like this. WithoutDesmond we will have less to work with, but we will be ready to step up.”
On the team: “We are the best team in the country, the hardest working team in thecountry and we will show that in the tournament. We have been downplayedand overlooked all year. It gives us a lot to prove in the tournament”
On the team’s chances in the tournament: “We are going to do well. We will persevere and make a serious run for thechampionship.”
On first-round opponent St. Bonaventure: “They are a good team. We feel like they are good enough to go to the FinalFour. We will have to play a great ball game against them to win.”
