UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS & PR
MEN’S BASKETBALL
UK at AUBURN POSTGAME MEDIA
JAN. 16, 2021
AUBURN ARENA – AUBURN, ALA.
Head Coach John Calipari
On the team fighting today but coming up short …
“All the tough plays and rebounds we needed to make, I just took guys out today. If you get beat to the ball, get out and let someone else play. We defended the way you defend to win games and no one wanted to shoot. They passed up until I yelled at them to shoot the ball. We missed wide-open shots and we had our chances. I’m disappointed. We came out of a couple of timeouts and didn’t do what we were trying to do. We let one slip away on the road. We should have been up big at the half and I can’t believe we weren’t. How we came in and guarded the things we did, we gave up two critical 3s. Guys just didn’t leave their feet. We were running through guys. We aren’t going to have that much gap on anyone we play from here on in.”
On how he gets his team to peak as he has normally done to make the NCAA Tournament …
“If we are skilled basketball players, we could have made easy plays and we didn’t. We made the hardest one. In a game like this, three baskets break the game open. We were still not there yet. The toughness on drives. We said we are going straight up and we are not trying to block any of these drives, we had three guys go like that. We have to figure out what’s next and how we get this thing on offense. We are a different kind of team. Inside-out 3s and how we play, we are built differently. But when you’re trying to throw to the post and that guy isn’t catching it, that becomes tough. Olivier (Sarr) has got to start dominating games. I’m telling you, stop worrying about offense and go rebound. Drive to get fouled instead of flipping and avoiding. There are points in the game where I’m proud of these guys and there are other points in the game that I’m thinking, what in the world are we doing?”
On why Dontaie Allen didn’t play more and the decision to go big …
“At the end of the day, we were running plays for Dontaie and he wouldn’t shoot the ball. That’s why I took him out the first time. One time we ran two things for him with shots and he wouldn’t take them. Dontaie wasn’t the issue. When you defend like we are defending, you have to figure out how to space the count, play offensively. How do we make them place extra passes and low turnovers? I tried to go zone and then I had a guy break down during the zone. You can see I’m frustrated. We are here. We still have our chances. Not giving up on anybody. Trying to figure it out. The toughness this team needs to play with. First half they had 10 or 12 offensive rebounds. What?! We should be a better offensive team. It got rough and we should be able to battle back.”
On why Dontaie Allen and Jacob Toppin didn’t start the second half after leading the team in scoring in the first half …
“One of the things we talked about – with Lance (Ware) too – I want to win every game I coach, but on the other side, I’m not trying to take anyone’s heart away. You can sub them three minutes in and go. We didn’t start the half that bad. That wasn’t the case. It’s not like substituting a quarterback; he played a bad quarter so I’m going to play a different one. You don’t coach that way. What you do is sub them in. Dontaie got great looks in the second half. He got fouled, but they were going at him defensively. We had a lot of breakdowns and could have changed lineups. At the end of the day, we got out-toughed.”
On if he’s at a point where he’s accepting that this isn’t a great offensive team …
“I’ll never stop tweaking and changing. So, it clicks in their minds. They have to feel all of this and how we have to play for each other. We aren’t good enough to go run by people. If we create space and assists, we should be averaging at least 18 assists on our baskets, maybe more. Everyone was trying to score instead of creating shots for each other. We are one of those teams that are trying to figure it out. You can’t just ride one or two guys. And I’ll be honest with you, it may be game to game. Who’s getting more looks and shots. What I like about Lance is that he will fight. Our guard play was just OK. Defensively, what we did with their point probably will be the game plan. Offensive rebounds, that’s what they got and that’s how the game was close. We have to make some open shots. They played well enough to win. They did what they had to do. We gave ourselves a chance at the end, and the tie-up with Keion (Brooks Jr.) I can’t wait to watch it on tape to see if it was foul because it ended the game.”
#0 Jacob Toppin, F, So.
On what the ideal offense looks like for them …
“Basketball. We have to drive and find the open man. Once we buy into team basketball and finding the open man, that’s when we will start winning games.”
On limiting Auburn’s Sharife Cooper in the first half and what changed in the second half …
“Other players on the team were hitting shots and making plays, so we had to change up things. We had to stop other players because Sharife wasn’t doing anything in the first half and others were.”
On how they stay positive …
“We know what kind of team we are and we have shown it in a couple of games. We have to be more consistent and play team basketball. We have to become more consistent and we will start winning.”
On how they find open shots …
“Some players don’t take the shots when it’s open. Maybe it’s mental because they missed the previous one. Once we get mentally strong and do not worry about getting the last shot, we will start making them. We need to focus and dial in more.”
On if missing shots is contagious …
“Maybe. When one person is missing another one is making shots so I don’t think it’s contagious. We all have to step up and make shots and that’s when we will start playing basketball and winning games.”
On why players wouldn’t be bought in at this point in the season …
“I think everyone is dialed in, but we have to become more consistent. Sometimes when we are playing, some players will go off and play “me” basketball, and that’s what we don’t need. We will figure it out and stay consistent.”
On why the team stood for the national anthem today after kneeling at Florida last week …
“We stand for what we believe in. There was no discussion. We decided to lock arms because we are going to stay united and we will fight for what we believe in even if it looks different from what we did before.”
On what Coach Calipari’s message was after the game …
“Toughness. We are supposed to be the tougher team every time and today we weren’t. We did play with effort but not enough toughness. In the first half, they had 12 offensive rebounds, which is unacceptable for any team. We need to find a way to get tougher and play with more grit.”
Auburn Head Coach Bruce Pearl
Opening statement …
“Beating Kentucky is historic. I thought we had a great team effort. I thought our post guys did a terrific job fronting the post and keeping it out of there. Allen Flanigan was a man out there in every which way – rebounding, defensively, attacking the rim, using his physicality, willingness to take big shots, 8 for 8 from the foul line. You talk about a warrior. But up and down the roster. Devan Cambridge has quietly put together three straight really productive games. JT Thor makes big plays late. Dylan Cardwell is out there against five-star kids, high-major transfers. He didn’t play high school basketball last year, and the year before, he played behind Kofi Cockburn at Oak Hill. Dylan Cardwell is a really, really good young prospect. I’m really proud of our team. Both teams played really hard, and offense was difficult this afternoon.”
On Devan Cambridge’s three-game stretch, coming off the bench …
“Nobody likes to step out of the starting lineup, but he knew Sharife (Cooper) belonged and he was AAU teammates on the Nike circuit with AOT. Jamal (Johnson), Al (Flanigan) and Devan all volunteered. I made the decision to let Devan really have the honor of giving his friend and one of our leaders an opportunity. To Devan’s credit, he’s come back from break and he’s been very focused. That’s why today when Sharife doesn’t have his best game – he still draws nine fouls, he still gets eight assists, he’s still got a great plus-minus – but he also sees, ‘I don’t have to carry us.’ I want him to carry us. But when he doesn’t, we can still win, and that’s a really good sign. It’s play from Devan Cambridge or Allen Flanigan or JT Thor or Dylan Cardwell or Jaylin Williams that makes all the difference in the world.”
On Sharife Cooper playing better in the second half …
“He did. Let me just say this. Think about Sharife Cooper’s week. He finds out on Saturday morning a week ago he’s going to play, and he plays Alabama in a four-point game. And then we travel Tuesday to Georgia, he plays Wednesday against his arch rival in his home state. Then he comes back and plays Kentucky? That’s a pretty tough eight days. I would imagine he’s tired. I would imagine he’s pretty sore because they were physical. And I think missing 72 days of practice – you couldn’t see it right away, but you can see it now.”
On winning the battle on the boards …
“Dylan Cardwell had four big ones (in the first half). JT (Thor) got three. If there’s traffic and there’s a bunch of bodies in there and the ball goes up, 22 in white (Allen Flanigan) is going to get it. Twenty-two in white? He’s going to get it. At the end of the day, it still boils down to defense, rebounding and 50-50 balls. And one of the things I told our team, that’s not where Sharife (Cooper) is going to make us better. We’ve got to grow up in those other areas – and to a certain extent we are – if we’re going to continue to get better.”
On beating Kentucky four seasons in a row …
“I think you’re judged by how you do against the best teams on your schedule, and certainly Kentucky is going to always be as good as anybody on our schedule. Beating Alabama is important, beating Georgia is important. So it matters. We want to make history. I think before I got here, they had lost 17 in a row or something like that. I’m not even sure. But look, you’ve got to take advantage of your opportunity. We played Kentucky at home three years in a row, and the reason why we’ve got them at home is because TV wants the Auburn-Kentucky game because it is competitive. And our program has been one of the top-five programs in the SEC over the last four years or so. So it’s great to make history.”
Allen Flanigan, G, So.
On importance of rebounding better …
“That was a big emphasis in this game just because Kentucky, they have a lot of big post players and big guards that they like to crash down and get the offensive boards. They crashed offensive glass really hard, so just us really turning and finding a man and boxing out so we can get the ball and run in transition.”
On his mindset going into the second half …
“I knew it was a close game. It was going to be a hard fight. But, I knew in order for us to win, we had to attack the glass and be strong and just play through the contact, not looking for fouls, and that suits me well, me using my body to finish at the rim.”
On his thoughts of how Auburn played defensively …
“I feel like we had a better defensive night just sitting down guarding and fronting the post. The post players on Kentucky didn’t have a free night of scoring down there. So, our post players backed it up, play strong and played good defense.”
On the defense when JT Thor is locked in …
“We can be really great. JT is really long, he has great length. He’s not slow, he can move his feet. So, when he’s locked in and active, he shows you what he can do, and that’s what he did tonight.”
Devan Cambridge, G, So.
On the difference between the first half and the second half offensively …
“The first half, we came out and we struggled a little bit on offensive end. We had a great defensive half, though. Really, both halves we played good defensively and that turned into our offense. That got us going. We got downhill. We’re doing a lot better on our free throws. We iced the game with those. I think we were 15 for 21 or something like that.”
On playing well off the bench and giving up his spot so Sharife Cooper could start …
“I still have the same mindset. I was wanting to do that. That’s my brother. Since he’s been here, everybody’s played a better game, everybody in our lineup. To have those big games, I’m excited. I’m planning on keeping on doing that. With Sharife, he’s just fun. He makes the game so much easier. You’ve just got to make shots and run the floor.”
On Allen Flanigan’s physicality and him stepping up …
“That’s his play style – get downhill and playing aggressive. I think he’s about 225 (pounds), strong guy. That’s what he loves to do. They weren’t just going to back down in the second half. He just had to finish plays and get rebounds. He had nine rebounds, which is great. We needed that because the bigs have to box out their bigs and the guards have to rebound down. He did just that.”
