UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
MEN’S BASKETBALL
SEC MEN’S BASKETBALL TELECONFERENCE
FEB. 18, 2019
 
Head Coach John Calipari
 
On this week’s games against Missouri and Auburn …
“It’s another tough week. This league is as good as any in the country and everybody you play has a chance to win. I don’t care what the matchup is. You’re not walking in thinking, ‘Yeah, we can get this one.’ I’m happy with how we played last game defensively, but we’ve played a couple of bad halves defensively and it’s cost us.”
 
On Auburn’s 3-point shooting …
“Well there’s all kinds of different ways of playing this game. They put a heavy emphasis on the 3-point shot and probably rightfully so for their team because they can make them in bunches. We had them down pretty good at Auburn and all of the sudden they make three or four 3’s in a row and it’s like anybody’s ball game. So, I think they’re playing to their strength. Austin Wiley is really good though. I coached him. I had him at the USA Basketball. Really good, and a great kid. So they can beat you more than just one way though.”
 
On Missouri …
“Well, again, Cuonzo (Martin) is coaching his team and playing the way they have to play to win. One, you know his teams are always going to be good defensively. They’re going to lock you down and they’re going to turn down ball screens. They’re going to fight you on pick-and-rolls, fight you on pin downs. Then offensively they’re playing through Tillman as much as they can, yet they’re taking around 25 3’s a game, making eight. Whatever their record is there were two or three other games they had a chance to win. They played at Tennessee and had their chances and did a great job in a hostile environment. We know that they’re good enough to beat us. We know that. Having their best player go down early, affected their team. But they’ve recovered from that.”