Head Coach Tubby Smith
“Well it was a win, but it wasn’t pretty. We did well to get a 17-point lead,but we didn’t finish the ball game the way I had hoped we would. They hit sometough three’s late in the game and (Marcus) Hicks made a couple there at theend. He played a great game and I was very impressed with his game. OleMiss isstruggling right now, but Rod Barnes is a good coach and I know he’ll get themturned around.”
“They gave us problems with their quickness tonight. We were able tooutreboundthem and score pretty well inside, but I think (Rahim) Lockhart was a littleunder the weather out there.”
“I was glad to see us hit some three’s tonight, especially Keith. He hit acouple three’s, but he still only shot 40 percent. We’ve been working hard toget better and we just have to keep our guys concentrating. Our free-throwshooting slipped tonight especially, with only 23-39, but it looks like with ayoung team, we’re really going to have to try hard to keep them focused andconcentrating on hitting those shots.”
“We did some good things tonight. We rebounded the ball well and had fewerturnovers than assists, so some good things came out of this game.”
“Jamaal (Magloire) made some 15-foot jumpers and made himself feel confident.He’s been putting in extra time, working hard and I think he has a moreseriousmind.”
“Jamaal held his composure well tonight. That’s a sign of maturity. Thephysical style is his style of play, but I think he has learned that the extrastuff does more harm than good. He has realized that there are more positivesthat come from not retaliating.”
“I don’t think we are gun shy. I keeping telling them to shoot: The only timeyou make it is when you shoot it. Keith was shooting when he had the looks, hejust wasn’t ready to shoot sometimes.”
“I know we are going on the road for a stretch, but we’re not looking pastVanderbilt. Playing in Nashville against them is always tough, so based on howwe played tonight, we know that we have to improve between now and then.”
UK Player Quotes
#42 Jamaal Magloire
“I think I played okay. I will do whatever it takes to make this teamsuccessful. I know my role on this team. If teams start to collapse on me, Ifeel confident that I can kick it out to my teammates who will knock downshots. I have a lot of faith in them.”
“I play physical, and I knew they were a physical team. I took a lot of lumpstonight, but I feel that I have become calmer the more guys seem to come afterme. The SEC is a tough physical conference to play in, but my style of playwon’t change.”
“I think people are starting to respect me as a good free throw shooter, andthat excites me because I really work hard at my free throws.”
#11 Saul Smith
“We went in tonight knowing that we had to knock down threes. We’ve had sometrouble in the past couple of games, but Keith (Bogans) really did welltonight.”
On Jamaal Magloire’s play?
“Jamaal is becoming our leader. People talk about his physical play. Nobodytalks about him rebounding, hustling or making free throws. He is playinggreatand helping this team win.”
On upcoming road games?
“The SEC on the road is one of the toughest conferences in America. Youhave totune the crowd out and go out every night like you are the better team. Ournon-conference games had hostile environments that got us ready for games likethis, but this road trip will be a good test for us. We feel that we areready.”
#21 Tayshaun Prince
“We were just sluggish (tonight). It is hard to get into a groove when youhavea bad start. We came out strong, but didn’t get the jump we should have. Wejust needed to focus.”
On the upcoming game?
“We are going to come out of today’s game with a fresh start. We should playdifferent than we did today. We need to put this game behind us and lookforward to the next. We will keep talking about what we did wrong and putsomeintensity into the next game.”
“It is a bad thing to stop shooting. We need to keep trying to get into arhythm. We had a really awful performance on the perimeter, but we just needto get past it.”
#10 Keith Bogans
On his shot selection?
“Coach told me not to rush my shots tonight. I was ready to shoot. I am usedto penetrating and a couple of times I got stuck between shooting orpenetrating. I don’t want to take the bad shot.”
“It is very frustrating. We kept our heads up though and kept shooting. Weknew that the shots would fall. We know our defense is our backbone. As longas we have a great defense, the shots will start to fall.”
Coach Rod Barnes
“Our team came out tonight and gave a great effort. We didn’t play as well aswe needed to play to be successful though. Kentucky has a great group of guys,and they a great job on offense and defense. Their kids are really buying intowhat Coach Tubby Smith is doing. They are not the most talented team that hasever played here, but they are a team that plays the game right. They do agreat job on the offensive boards and play good defense. For the most part, Iwas pleased with our kids tonight. We came out and gave a valiant effortagainst a very good basketball team.”
On the stretch in the second half where UK hit three consecutivethree-pointers:
“That was a key stretch for us because they had missed a couple of threes andwe had a chance to get back in it. If we had knocked another shot down,then wecould have cut it to four and had a chance to win it in the end.”
On the play of Marcus Hicks:
“More than anything, the play of Rahim Lockhart and his success has taken awayfrom Marcus Hicks getting the basketball. The last two games, he had only fiveattempts in each game. We had to get him the basketball in a position where hecould score. That is exactly what happened.”
Ole Miss Player Quotes
#24 Marcus Hicks, F
On Kentucky:
“They’re a great team. They’ve got a lot of speed and height. They have somegood role players, they play together, and they’ve got a great coach. Theymadethemselves available and hit some shots.”
On his game:
“I think I had a great game tonight. They gave me the ball in the right spots,and I was able to score. I was able to post up and put it in the basket,but wejust didn’t do enough to win.”
On the team’s play:
“We felt like we played pretty good tonight even though we lost the game.Despite some recent losses, we feel like things are going to get better.”
