Associate Head Coach Kenny Payne
On whether Calipari wanted to get ejected …
“No, I think it happened so fast we couldn’t really react to it. Unfortunate, for me especially, having to coach the game at a critical point where the game is turning in their favor, but these kids are resilient. They deserve all the credit. When you come to a school like Kentucky it’s not talked about a lot, but you have to overcome adversity. We teach it, we talk about it every day. Things aren’t going to go your way in a game, just like life. How are you going to handle it? Who are you? What are you about? You may get a bad whistle, you may not. The team may play hot, they may play out of their minds. You’ve gotta find a way to get a win. We talk about this from the day we recruit them until the day they’re in it. And so to see these kids fight through and come out the way they did is really gratifying.”
On outscoring Arkansas 15-2 after Calipari’s ejection …
“What we talked about was, look, it’s crunch time. It’s an execution game. So the last thing they’re expecting us to do is to rebound and push the ball up the court. Well, that’s what we did. We rebound the ball, we fly up first and then if we don’t have it we’re going to execute. By doing that, we got a couple of layups, we got a wide-open 3 and it opened the game up for us to give us a cushion.”
On how big of a mountain they climbed to win this game …
“I think it was a huge mountain. I think first of all, Coach Barbee doing the zone stuff was unbelievable. It gave us the ability to play Ashton Hagans with four fouls, which we need him on the floor. But on the other end, we ran a play called—it’s Ashton’s play where he gets to make decisions and like a true point guard he made the right decisions, which allowed the lead to go to 15-2 in that spurt.”
On the lift they got from Johnny Juzang and Keion Brooks …
“The whole time I’m telling Keion, ‘You have to grow up today. So I’m not taking you out. I need to know that you can get through this. I need to know that—you’re taking a test. How are you going to do on this test?’ He passed. I’m so proud of him because he’s had a hard road. The pressure that he’s been under to perform is a lot. The game is coming fast. He stood up and he came through for us. Really big. Big day for him today.”
On UK’s defense …
“I think we’re a good defensive team. I think we’re athletic. If we can find a way to keep you in front of us, our length comes into play. Our athleticism comes into play. But at the end of the day, guys, we had 48 rebounds, they had 28. That’s a lot. That’s a lot of rebounding.”
On the rebounding of UK’s guards …
“Immanuel Quickley had 10. Thought he did a great job. I thought he did a great job down the stretch of leading us, being a leader. Guys, at the end of the day, our veterans have to be good. You look across the country and you see all these teams, there’s not a lot of wiggle room for anybody. Nobody’s more talented than anybody else. We say this every day: We can beat anybody or we can lose to anyone. Well, if you’ve got sophomores and juniors—for us, at Kentucky, that’s veterans. So those guys have to lead us and they did a great job tonight.”
On the expectation that UK will face a lot of close games and how much solace they take from the way the team handled that …
“A lot of solace. I’m really proud of the guys. Again, we teach—the last 10 minutes of a game, the last eight minutes of a game is winning time for us. So regardless of what has happened before that, it’s going to come down to those last pivotal minutes of the game. You better embrace it. We talk about it in practice. We look at it on film. We talk about it when we watch NBA games and playoff atmospheres. It’s going to come down to critical points in games. How are you going to handle it? It’s not going to be easy. Guys are going make tough shots at critical times. You better make sure that we’re executing defensively and executing offensively.”
#3 Tyrese Maxey, Fr., G
On what he thought when John Calipari got ejected …
“Honestly, I was just thinking we’re going to have to rally and find a way to win the game.”
On if it felt like it was done intentionally to motivate the team …
“I don’t know if he got the technical on purpose. I personally just think he was speaking his mind at the time and it happened, and we had to rally and win.”
On if it sparked them …
“I mean, I think we trusted our training. Coach Cal had set the pedigree at Camp Cal for three weeks. Keion Brooks made some big plays down the stretch. Nick (Richards) did. And I think we trusted training and went out there and got it done.”
On what the first few minutes of the second half were like …
“We just had to stick together. We’re on the road in a hostile environment. I was proud of my teammates. We came together when we needed it and just got it done.”
On how much they needed to establish they could step on the gas after giving up a big lead for the second game in a row …
“Coach Cal was saying that we don’t understand yet that when we get up 10 or 12, we’ve gotta push the lead to 20 or 25. That’s going to come with growth and I feel like we’re getting better. Today we finished out the game pretty well. We were down four. I don’t remember how much it was. I’m proud of my teammates.”
#4 Nick Richards, Jr., F
On the second-half adversity and how they overcame it …
“That just shows what kind of team we are. As I’ve been saying before, this team has a will to win. Nothing was going our way. Our coach got tossed out of the game, our main point guard went out of the game (because of foul trouble) and guys stepped up. Keion stepped up. Tyrese stepped up. Everybody stepped up today. I think it was a good win for us.”
On what he thought when Coach Cal got tossed and what they said to each other when they huddled up right after…
“We got this. It’s a regular game. We went over the scouting report and the game plan before the game. We knew what we were going to do. That’s what we did.”
On what Calipari said to them after the game …
“He said he was proud of us even though he got tossed out of the game. He was proud of us that we fought through it.”
On the environment, especially after Calipari was ejected …
“You could tell the whole entire arena wanted us to lose. We just fought through it. Our guys, they stepped up. We fought through adversity today and came out with a big W.”
