November 30, 1998
#22 Ryan Hogan – Sophomore/Guard
“Our Thanksgiving was a pretty good experience. We had a pig roast and lots of turkey. There were a lot of Kentucky fans there. We were with our basketball family. It’s’ just a different kind of family.”
“I know my uncle (Kevin Grevey) isn’t going to like hearing that I gave up a shot. I’ll be ready from now on. I don’t think I’m nervous. I’m just anxious, because I want to help this team so much.”
#11 Saul Smith – Sophomore/Guard
“I’m not sure if we have an advantage on Kansas. We’re coming off a win where we shot the ball a lot better. We aren’t trying to measure ourselves against them. The United Center is always a joy to play in. We get to play in Michael Jordan’s home. We want to go in there and do our best.”
“You don’t win national championships at your home gym. You have to go out and win on the road. We have to improve our shooting and free throws. We learned that from Pittsburgh and we went out and played better against UCLA.”
#14 Heshimu Evans – Senior/Forward
“It’s going to be a good test for us to play a really good, athletic team like Kansas. A lot of the teams we’re going to face in December and in the SEC have a lot of size, so this will be good preparation for us. As a kid, I always watched Kansas and Kentucky play. It’s going to be exciting to play against them for me. National televisionKansas and Kentuckyhow can you not be excited about that? We’re ready to go.”
“We had a problem shooting the ball in Puerto Rico. It wasn’t a vacation at all because we lost. When we go play anywhere, it’s about business. We came back strong against UCLA.”
#5 Wayne Turner – Senior/Guard
On playing Kansas
“It’s great to get to go up against a team like Kansas. They’re a team similar to Duke and UCLA with all their tradition. It’s every team’s dream to go up against Kansas. This should be a good matchup and an exciting game. They have so many good players. Hopefully, we can go out and play our best game and come out with a victory.”
“I’ve always wanted to go up against the best teams during the regular season like Duke, Kansas and North Carolina. This year, it seems like they are all on our schedule. We just need to stay focused and not get caught up in the hype of the Kentucky-Kansas talk. We just need to focus on what we need to play better if we’re going to beat Kansas.”
“We need to put the loss in Puerto Rico behind us and focus on doing things well in order to get better. That loss is over now. We can only play one game at a time, so we need to focus on the present and what stands in front of us now. If we focus harder and concentrate more on the fundamentals that Coach Smith tells us, we should be a better team.”
#33 Michael Bradley – Sophomore/Center
“We were a little disappointed with the third-place finish in Puerto Rico. We need to concentrate more and be ready to play from the tip. We can’t rely on coming back all the time.”
“I think I’ve improved a lot from last year. I have more confidence in myself and I think my teammates have confidence in me. My role is to help pick up the scoring down low. I just need to get better on my rebounding and my defense. Hopefully, I’ll continue to get better as the year goes along.”
#21 Tayshaun Prince – Freshman/Guard/Forward
“It’s tiring to be on the road so much so early in the season. We all have a lot of schoolwork to catch up on this week. We just have to deal with it though. It’s just a part of college basketball.”
“We definitely have to be ready to play Kansas from the minute the clock starts. It is important that we have a great start. We need to work on boxing out and getting more rebounds and work harder on our transition defense.”
“We learned a lot in Puerto Rico. Against Pittsburgh we just played really bad. It was obvious to us what a terrible game we played when we watched the tape. We need to concentrate more in order to be more succesful.”
#34 Scott Padgett – Senior/ Forward
On the team chemistry
“That won’t come together overnight. The thing people should keep in mind is that we are still a very young team. We have a lot of things ahead of us and it takes awhile to prepare for those things. You can’t really predict when we will get better. It’s just a matter of time and hard work.”
“I’m not too concerned with how I’ve been shooting the ball. I know I am a good shooter. I just need to go out and score the easy buckets early on.”
“When you play a team like Kansas it really gets your juices flowing and gets you pumped up. Kansas is Kansas. We have to be ready to get in there and play from the very beginning in order to secure a win.”
“The loss to Pittsburgh really helped this team a lot. It showed the young guys that we really need to improve. It showed the older guys that we’re not always as good as we think we are.”
