Dec. 18, 1999
UK Head Coach
“Today was a tremendous defensive effort by all of our players. They worked extremely hard at both ends of the court. On the offensive end they took better care of the basketball and defensively they forced Louisville to take tough shots.”
“Tayshaun started us with the three and got us on our way to our best shooting performance of the season. We rebounded well and that is something that we have been working extremely hard on.”
“We had a good balance on both ends of the court. We had four players score in double figures and all kinds of guys on the boards that allowed us to play some outstanding interior defense.”
“Louisville is a good team and they looked like a team that we just caught on a day when they didn’t shoot the ball very well. When we got up in the second half I thought our guys did a great job of focusing on the game plan.”
“I want to congratulate Jamaal Magloire for becoming the leading shot blocker in the history of Kentucky. That is quite an accomplishment with all the great players who have come through here over the years. I am really proud of what our kids did today and I’m especially proud of Jamaal.”
“I never got caught up in the dark cloud. We just focused on the job at hand and that was preparing our kids for this game.”
“By putting Tayshaun (Prince) at the four, with Bogans at the two, allowed Tayshaun to have a little more mobility and take his man off the dribble. When Tayshaun can get out there on the perimeter and get some open looks to make some shots, he is a pretty good player.”
“Our tough schedule may have contributed somewhat in a game like this, but I think we are just more mature after eight games. We have played a lot of tough teams, but this was really the first time that we put together two good halves of basketball.”
“Keith (Bogans) hit some big time threes for us, but Tayshaun set the tone for us. I think he played harder for longer periods of time than he has recently.”
“This was our first game at home since UNC Asheville so it was great to get back in front of the home fans again. I think our kids always get pumped up when we come back home and especially today against Louisville. Our kids always have a little more motivation to play against Louisville and they were really focused to get the win today.”
“We went with a smaller line-up today to get better ball-handling and because I knew that it would create some match-up problems for them because of our quickness. It took Jules (Camara) out of the game and he is a great player, but it allowed us to do some different things. I thought the ball-handling was a big key for us because we were able to get the ball up the court with more success.”
“Coming out of the first-half we wanted to adjust our zone. Our back people were not coming up and supporting so we went with more of a man-to-man defense. Our defensive effort in the second half was just spectacular. I never would have thought that we would hold Louisville to three baskets in a period.”
“We expect to win against everybody and I know this game is more important than most to the people of the state, but it was just another game that we needed to win for us. We are happy to get the win against such a good team and now we must prepare to play a great Michigan State team.”
Kentucky Player Quotes
#42 Jamaal Magloire
On his new record?
“I am more happy with the win. I am happy the team is becoming more cohesive.”
On breaking the blocked shots record?
“I didn’t know until right before the game. It doesn’t really matter. We all contributed to the win.”
“During the holidays I think the team gets better. We get more time to practice and we are together to bond. We are more cohesive and a better team.”
“I am not surprised (with the win). We made the effort in practice and it showed in the game. Everyone is starting to realize their role. This is helping the team. We are seeing our strengths and we need to continue. This game will definitely be a motivator for us to continue to work hard. We can’t stop here.”
“This was definitely a big game and a big rivalry. We needed to take it seriously and continue to work hard. We can’t fall short. It was a big accomplishment and I look forward to the next game.”
#10 Keith Bogans
On his choice of shots?
“I wasn’t going to force shots. If I was open, I was going to take it. If they game me an opening, I was going to drive to the hole.”
On receiving letters from Louisville fans?
“They were actually for Jamaal. We put it up on the locker room door so everyone would have to read it. Every time we walked into the locker room, we had to read it. We used it as motivation.”
“We feel every game is a must win, especially at home. Since we lost the last four, this will hopefully get us on the right track.”
On the more important factor in the game?
“I think defense. We kept the defensive pressure up. When you play great defense, the offense will come. We stuck with the game plan.”
#11 Saul Smith
“We feel like we have taken all of the criticism in stride. We have had a tough road and we have taken our lumps. We are back on track now and we need to continue to build on this win.”
“We did a great job defensively today. That was what we need to beat them. Louisville is a great team. They can shoot the ball and score. We went out there today and showed them that we were the better team.”
#21 Tayshaun Prince
“We got off to a great start. Our intensity was up the whole game. We were positive and we came off of the Maryland game hungry. Today was just a great team effort.”
On his game opening three-pointer?
“Shooting is contagious. I got off to a great start with that (three-point) shot and the whole team had a great start.”
“We came out and got the job done today. Louisville only scored 12 points in the second half. That is a big feat. They have a great team. We just wanted it more today. This is by far our best performance of the season. Our shots fell and we played hard.”
#32 Desmond Allison
“After the Maryland game, we did a lot of soul searching. We weren’t achieving the goals that we had set for ourselves as a team. We started to meet some of those goals today. We rebounded well, got several deflections and played sound defense.
“We have been getting early leads on teams. We got leads on Maryland and Utah, but we let them back into the game. We needed to keep the intensity up and wear our opponent down. We played hard, especially in the second half, and got a big win.”
Louisville coach Denny Crum
“My congratulations go out to Kentucky. I think they played really well. I was disappointed in our defense. I don’t think we really, for whatever reason, did the job on the defensive end that we are capable of. A lot of times kids get things in their mind, but we did not execute defensively.”
“We’re not big enough so we have to do the job with pressure. We have to force mistakes and we didn’t do that today. We were really passive on the defensive end, particularly in the second half. When they see the film, I think our team will see what happened to us.”
“Kentucky played really well and smart. They took advantage of every mistake we made and we made a lot of them, especially in the second half.”
“I’ve never had a team get just four assists. You can give Kentucky a lot of the credit. Our shot selection wasn’t good and we didn’t make the extra pass very often.”
“If you don’t guard them, they’re going to make open shots. They got a lot of open shots and I think our guys, for some reason, were in a defensive fog. We didn’t guard them at the defensive end, so we got an old-fashioned butt-kicking and that’s the way it’s suppose to be. We got what we earned out there.”
U of L Player Quotes
F Tony Williams
On Louisville’s play in the second half:
“We got outplayed, totally. They played a little harder than we did. We just didn’t play hard today. We were getting some good shots, but we just didn’t hit them. At halftime we were in it. We came back out and didn’t play well.”
On what they learned:
“It is not the end of the world. But we have to play a whole game, 100%. We have to give the full effort in order to win.”
G Quintin Bailey
On their play in the second half:
“Our shots weren’t falling. We were taking bad shots. We kept our heads up telling ourselves we were in the game. We just came out flat. We had too many defensive lapses. We like to run. They didn’t give us the opportunity to run. Kentucky just took us out of our game. We weren’t taking the ball out of bounds quickly enough and our defense just wasn’t good enough.”
F Nate Johnson
On the second half:
“It was real frustrating. I thought we still had a good chance of winning going into halftime. We ran into a brick wall the second half and just could not get the ball in the hole.”
On Kentucky’s team this year compared to the past two Kentucky teams you faced:
“They are very similar. They are real up-tempo and like to push the ball like we do. They hit a lot of open shots today and we didn’t.”
