UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
UK-MIDDLE TENNESSEE
DEC. 15, 2018
MEMORIAL COLISEUM – LEXINGTON, KY.
Head Coach Matthew Mitchell
Opening Statement…
“Proud of the team. Great victory today. Thought Middle Tennessee, as always, played very, very hard. Very tough team to play against. Proud of the team for coming out and getting control of the game with tremendous effort and energy. This is a great, great win for us.”
On third-quarter shooting.…
“I think the third quarter was a tough one for us, certainly because MTSU came out inspired and played hard. But, I think we lost a little focus there after an awesome first half and the players did not have quite the same pop that we did in the first half, and I thought that MTSU made some good adjustments. They’re a good team. I never dreamed that we would just run away and hide from them. I knew they had a run in them. So, you have to give them a lot of credit. They made some great plays and I think it was a product of them playing some good basketball.”
On seeing offensive success from Blair Green and KeKe McKinney…
“They were so key to us getting control of the game. Whatever runs MTSU were able to make in the second half, we still had a manageable and workable lead because of their stepping up and making some plays in the first half. When you look at the strategy of MTSU, they were going to try to force those two kids to make some shots. When they stepped up and made some shots, big boost for them as individuals, but a huge boost for our team and I thought that every time their shots went in, it was a big momentum builder for us, an energizer. We have got such a close team and a great group that really care about each other and they know how important everyone’s role is and when someone is really stepping forward and fulfilling their role, it energizes our team because of our closeness. I thought that was huge. The coaching staff planning in the game, we were able to get them into some good spots. We could make some shots and just a good team effort. We are real proud of the assistant coaches and the entire team. That was some good stuff. We have got to build on that because our post core is very important. They have got to pull their weight and they want to. This will be a good time of year to make sure we get some extra reps with them.”
On Blair making big plays throughout the season…
“Well, time will tell that. She did need a game where she made some shots. She had not been seeing the ball go in the basket a lot and I think it is a big relief for her. You talk about a conscientious person and someone who has a strong desire to win for her team. Team first. Team all the way is her mentality. But, she is struggling and definitely feels like a contribution that she could make scoring. That was awesome to see her go 3 for 3. Big for our team. I just can’t tell you enough in this particular game in the way that they play defense, they were going to challenge those kids to make shots early and her going 3 for 3 in the first half was a big bonus for us.”
On embracing improvement…
“I think what is important for our team right now is to embrace the process of trying to improve and get better. There is not much wiggle room for us. If we are not playing max effort and max positive attitude, we look really, really different. It is so important for us right now to maintain a positive attitude, to come every single day and build the habits of staying strong with max effort. I think those two things can really help us be the team we want to be.”
On bouncing back after a loss at Louisville…
“Very happy. So concerned about the game. MTSU is a very good team, well coached, well prepared, always going to have a plan for you. Happy about that. If you think about our players, they played an extremely emotional game last Sunday. They were so disappointed and then they had to turn around and start final exams and people have to understand how hard we are working in the classroom and what we are trying to achieve. We have very consciences students. So, that entire week up until Thursday, they are trying to balance to get better as a team, but also be strong with their exams. This is a tough stretch. Tough six-day stretch for our players. To come out and play that way in the first half, I can’t tell you how proud I was of them. It was an outstanding effort and they were flying around. You have to give them credit for when the momentum shifted, went to MTSU, we were able to find a way to wrestle it back and be a good team and just really, really proud of our players. Happy they have some relief now from the tremendous ground of what September through December is, and they deserve some rest tomorrow. We have to hit it hard again this week and try to get better. Last week was a tough week and really proud of the way they played today.”
On having other student-athletes speak to the team for inspiration…
“Well, we have a voluntary devotional on game day right after our game-day practice that players and staff are invited to, not required, but invited to come. We have a good group of staff and players that come to that. So, this year, Maci (Morris) is very involved in FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) on their leadership council. She and I have been leading those for a long time. This year, we just thought we would get some different people to come in and talk to us if they were so moved. He (FCA leader) did an outstanding job. He can come back anytime he wants to because he did such a great job. He encouraged us and lifted us up and just an outstanding young man.”
On thoughts after the third quarter…
“Well, I thought that was an important time for us. I just thought that we were disappointed with the result of the third quarter. It was not what we wanted. If anyone had told me before the game that they would give me a fifteen-point lead and you can go play for ten minutes, I would’ve taken that deal. Maybe as deflated as people felt, we needed to be really encouraged that we had worked hard enough that we had earned a fifteen-point lead going into the fourth quarter on our home court and we needed to go and play a good fourth quarter. We do that and we are going to win the game. We really needed to win this game. This was a big bounce-back game for us that we needed to win. Excited about that.”
UK Student-Athletes
#5, Blair Green, Fr., G
On her shots going in at the start of the game…
“Yeah, it finally helped me get my confidence up, but I just got to give a shout out to our post players. We’ve been getting in the gym, getting lots of shots up, so that definitely helped a lot.”
On being perfect from the arc today…
“Just getting back in the gym and forgetting about the previous games, while pushing forward. That’s what helps build my confidence.”
#4, Maci Morris, Sr., G
On why the team shot well in the first half…
“We were just executing really well, people were getting open shots and we were hitting them. Anytime we can do that, it’s a good sign. It just carries the momentum and we were hustling a lot on the defensive end as well. We made the team get in a hurry and play at a faster pace than what they wanted.”
On a second-half slump, compared to MTSU…
“I think it was more on us. We let them run their plays, and No.1 for them is a very good player and kept driving. We needed to focus in and stop her along with No. 00. They had big games tonight, and we just need to focus on getting stops.”
#3, KeKe McKinney, So., F
On getting off to a hot start…
“It wasn’t easy, but we knew that we needed to bounce back from that tough loss. First five minutes was very important for us and I feel like we came out strong.”
On how confident you are in your teammates…
“I think we are pretty confident, like Blair said. We’ve been in the gym a lot lately working on our shot, just so we can help take that pressure off Maci and Taylor (Murray) that’s been scoring a lot, they need more help from us scoring wise.”
On being out of school and having more time….
“It’s great, it gives us more time to focus on basketball and not have to worry about school. You don’t have to juggle both school and basketball, so it’s very nice.”
Middle Tennessee Head Coach Rick Insell
Opening statement…
“Not a whole lot to say. They just shot the ball extremely well. Their pressure took our freshman point guard totally out of it. She had two points, which is probably her worst game, but they had a lot to do with it. They made her think, they used their length and their lateral quickness to trap her. When she picked her dribble up, she just couldn’t get it out. We aren’t playing in high school anymore, we are in Division I basketball and you’re playing one of the best programs in the country. You’ve got to know that you can’t drive across the center line and pick your dribble up. I thought when we executed the basketball we got a lot out of our offense. Our shooters didn’t knock down shots, we had two young ladies that went 0-5, one went 0-3 and another 0-2 in the first half and the ball game at that time was an eight-point ball game. If those shots went, that would have made them make adjustments and would have gotten some of the pressure off of us, but it didn’t go and it just fed into them getting after us on defense. Matthew does a good job. You got to give Matthew Mitchell a lot of credit in the fact that he plays Middle Tennessee. Most of your SEC schools won’t even look at us. He plays us every year, he has taken some losses and gotten some wins, but it was a good RPI game for him and a good RPI game for us.”
On the turnovers Kentucky forced…
“Well, we knew coming in that Matthew changed his strategies and philosophies in the fact that he had a lot of lateral quickness and had been scoring a lot of points out of that. That kept him in the game Sunday against Louisville and he has already beaten two or three good programs with his defensive tenacity that his kids have got, they bought into it. We knew that coming in, we worked on it for four or five days. When we got here, we did something we haven’t been working on and they took advantage of it. I think in the first half they had 15 points off of our turnovers. It was 21-22 points a game, cut that in half, you knock down three threes and it’s a different ball game.”
On how much better Kentucky is now compared to this time a year ago…
“Well, Rhyne Howard makes a good team… she does so much. But, you’ve got three players that could start for anybody in the SEC. Rhyne Howard is one of them, Maci Morris is a gifted shooter, and then your point guard Taylor Murray doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, she is tough. I think they have three as good of players as anybody. They keep getting better. They are going to cause some problems in the SEC. I think they are as good as Tennessee. Mississippi State is pretty good, but you never know on a night when you get them here at home and you shoot and rebound the ball well, anything could happen. I think he is getting a lot out of his team. I think he has a lot better ball team than they were last year. Last year I think we just out-toughed them, I don’t think either one of us played that well. This year, they have gotten stronger and are more experienced and seem to have a little bit more of a swagger about them.”
