UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL POSTGAME QUOTES
No. 11 KENTUCKY vs. No. 13 INDIANA
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2020
MEMORIAL COLISEUM – LEXINGTON, KY.
Associate Head Coach Niya Butts
On her head-coaching experience and how it was to step into that role …
“Thanks for the question, Mechelle. For me, it was an easier transition because I do have experience as a head coach but the circumstances made it a little bit tougher. The good thing was that IU was my scout. So the late-game switch was a little bit comfortable for me because it was my scout and I was already prepared for them at a deeper level. Our team responded so well and we have been resilient all season long. This was no different. They wanted to come out and play and we didn’t play well in the first half. I challenged them in the second half to come out and play better and be more physical than Indiana. Frankly, they were beating us at every area at halftime. So we just challenged them to come out and play better in the second half and we did.”
On Coach Elzy and if she was watching the game today …
“Yeah, she was definitely watching it and following the game with us. She is feeling OK. She is feeling well and I don’t want to comment any further on that, but she was definitely aware of the game and how we played.”
On the Kentucky-Indiana rivalry …
“The thing about me is that I feel pride in every game and I think every game is a big game and every game is a rivalry. You got two teams that are coming in there that have worked their tails off and played and practiced all season long waiting for this day, especially in a situation like we have now with the pandemic. But they are all huge and I feel an incredible sense of pride to No. 1 be able to coach at Kentucky and No. 2 playing a school like Indiana and as well of a coached team as they are. It is certainly a big deal for us and it was a big deal for me.”
On the slow start …
“The slow start was Indiana. Obviously, we did not do what we were supposed to do defensively but quite frankly they whopped us in the first half. They were beating us with what we like to do. They were pushing the ball at us and we didn’t get back in transition. I have to give a lot of credit to them as a team and program because they did what they set out to do. But we bounced back. We knew the kind of basketball that we can play and what we are capable of and we did that in the second half. In terms of inside, sure we gave up a little bit of size there and we are a tougher team that we showed in the first half and we came out and proved that.”
On Chasity Patterson’s experience …
“It is incredible what she can do because she can score. She is a threat offensively and a threat defensively. As far as our team goes, we are a team of weapons, I like to say. We have players that at any point in time can step up and make a play offensively and defensively. You saw that in the second half. Our energy is incredible. We talked about that after the game, energy is what it is all about and you can feed off of that. Either it is going to be good energy and it is going to be bad energy. For us in the second half, we had really good energy. I felt really good on the sideline coaching them down the stretch.”
On what the team can improve on …
“Transition defense. And if I could answer it again, it would be transition defense. And if you need another answer, it would be transition defense.”
On how to improve transition defense …
“It starts with stopping the ball. We have to get the ball stopped, identify it and who has the ball and hassle the ball handler. We did not do that at all in the first half. They just ran every play and got to any spot they wanted to get to. We have to get back and stop that. We have what we call a get-back player and that player is responsible for getting back and protecting the basket so that everybody else can fill in and we did not do that at all. We will address that and we just have to buckle down and make sure that we have that for 40 minutes.”
On if Indiana got passive …
“I am not sure on the passiveness of Indiana, but I know that we got more aggressive down the stretch. That was a good thing for us and in the second half, we outscored them 49-32 and that was because we got aggressive. In the first half, I thought that we were kind of being passive in my mind and were not being aggressive going to the rim. We were wanting calls that we were not getting and so in the second half we wanted to go out and make a play. We have to attack the basket and we have to be the aggressor and I thought we did that in the second half.”
On Robyn Benton …
“I am not sure we have enough time to talk about the importance of Robyn Benton and what she has been able to add to our team this year. She helps us on both sides of the ball. If you have been following us, in all of our games she has the most timely scorers probably of any player as well as defensive possessions. She makes plays when we absolutely have to have them. We are so proud of the effort that she is giving our team and the boast she is giving our team on both ends of the floor.”
#44 Dre’una Edwards, F, R-So.
On your third straight double-double…
“I feel like, the whole team, we started out slow, this is a very great team that we had to go against. This is the bets team that we’ve played so far, so we just had to turn it around. I mean, the coaches got after us at halftime, and we had to do what we had to do.”
On how you make the turnaround that you did in the game…
“I feel like they definitely gave it to us in the first half, but like I said, the coaches came out at halftime and they told us what it was and they gave us the truth. They said get after it, we’ve got to play our game, and that’s what we did.”
On if the players care about the Kentucky vs. Indiana rivalry and if they’d like to see it continue…
“It’s definitely a fun rivalry. Like you said, we haven’t played them in a long time, so we was ready to get after it, and you know, we have to come how we come.”
On if you were aware of how loud Memorial Coliseum got in the fourth quarter…
“Yes, definitely. I heard the fans, I heard our bench. I really give props to our teammates for hyping us up and keeping us motivated throughout the whole game. I mean, even when I was down, even when other teammates was down, we had teammates on the bench screaming and running across the floor, you know, talking to us and all, and the fans, they just made it so much better.”
On Robyn Benton’s 3-pointer in the fourth quarter…
“Man, I say I’m a dog, Robyn’s a dog. We already knew what she was capable of. We already knew that she was going to hit the shot, we wasn’t worried at all.”
#10 Rhyne Howard, G, Jr.
On coming from behind to defeat Indiana…
“Um, it’s great that we fought together, we battled and pulled it out, because a lot of people doubted us, and they thought that we were going to lose. So, for us it was just, coming together as a whole and coming together as one, and proving those doubters wrong, and proving that we can be the team that we think we can be, and we can be a top tier team.”
On getting back into the flow and picking back up where you left off last year…
“Um, it was definitely tough, even with what happened, but, because I haven’t played since March, so coming back from it, my first game, it was still hard, but my teammates were there for me, my coaches were there for me. They continue to give me a confidence boost and push me, and I just had to come out and play.”
On this team being able to score and taking pressure off of you…
“I definitely think that with what we have, the threats that we have, is going to open the floor, and not just for me, but for everybody. Like you said, we have a ton of scorers, everyone can shoot, everyone can get to the basket and make a play, so teams aren’t going to be able to focus on just me, or focus on whoever has the hot hand that game.”
On this team being though a lot and Kentucky’s resiliency…
“One of the main things that Coach (Kyra) Elzy harps on is resilience, so we knew that it was going to be adversity coming into this game. We knew that Indiana was going to be a tough team, but Coach (Niya) Butts prepared us, and she did her best with short notice, and we just battled together. She was harping on us in the beginning because we were playing terrible, and she brought us in, as she should, and we pulled it together and fought it out.”
On what Kentucky did to cause trouble in Indiana’s offense out of the half…
“At the beginning, we weren’t communicating as well. We were often loss, so everyone’s man was cutting to the basket and just getting open looks. But, after halftime, we talked about it and we made sure to now who the get back was and we just focused in and found our man in transition defense because we knew that that’s what was killing us.”
On what it means to be a dawg to you…
“To be a dawg, you know, just lay down and do the dirty work when the time is right. Dre (Dre’una Edwards) is a dawg. She’s going to go down there in the post, she’s going to work, she’s going to make the big plays. Robyn (Benton) is a dawg, she’s going to lock down on defense, hit the 3s when we need them, everyone’s a dawg in their own way, everyone is going to make plays, and we’re looking to do the dirty work that other teams might not want to do.”
Indiana Head Coach Teri Moren
Opening statement …
“It’s disappointing because we feel like we’re a defensive-minded team. So that was disappointing. Shots weren’t falling tonight for Grace Berger. I thought she struggled. I thought Ali Patberg struggled not necessarily because of their press, I just thought we were sort of in between of being an aggressive team and being a passive team and being an aggressive team and being a passive team. Like I said to our team, we weren’t consistent enough and we needed to be aggressive for 40 minutes and I just thought that we didn’t do that. Not watching the film, I’ll be interested to see how many post touches we could have had, should have had, didn’t have. We’ve got to be better on a lot of counts, but to go on the road, something that has been a challenge for everybody, give Kentucky credit for coming back. I know they’ve had some challenges as well. But disappointed that the Hoosiers were not as sound as we needed to be defensively in the second half. We had a lot of good shot attempts, a lot of missed bunnies, a lot of uncharacteristic layups as well. We’ve got to go back to work.”
On how the game changed after early success …
“I just thought that we weren’t’ aggressive. Ali Patberg, we tried to push her up to hit Danielle Patterson on an out of bounds and she fades away and she comes down and she is short on some of her shots. The word passive is just the best way I can describe it. We didn’t do as well as I thought on the defensive boards in the second half. In the first half, I thought we were really good in limiting their shot attempts, so I thought we lost that a little bit in the second half. They went to their zone and that slowed us down just a tad, and we became passive from beyond the arc and having to make decisions with a late shot clock was frustrating to watch from here on the sidelines. Our guards have to be much better.”
On leaving Ali Patberg and Jaelynn Penn in the game with foul trouble …
“That’s one of the things where you have to make a decision, and it’s a tough one. But, she’s a veteran, a senior, a sixth-year senior and so you lean on your wisdom of just trusting your kids and your players. Ali is someone that knows that she has to be on the floor for us and Jaelynn {Penn) the same thing. This isn’t the first time they’ve had to play with foul trouble, it’s happened a lot in their career’s unfortunately but give them credit for being able to not foul out. That was their challenge, to stay in the game and help us. We just struggled really terribly in the fourth quarter.”
