March 2, 1999
UK HEAD COACH TUBBY SMITH QUOTES
On the season and the upcoming SEC Tournament:
“We’re focusing on what we need to do at this point in time and gettingready for the SEC Tournament. We’re trying to focus on the positive thingswe’ve accomplished this year so we can go into the SEC feeling good aboutwhat we’ve been able to accomplish. We’ve lost some tough games on the roadand at home. But when I look at the stats from last year and this year,there’s not much difference in the teams. The ball bounces certain ways incertain years, and obviously this wasn’t our year to get the properbounces, along with some other things. But I thought overall, looking backon the regular season, we went up against people like Kansas, Duke, UCLAand the teams in Puerto Rico. We knew we had a tough schedule ahead of usthis year, with so many players leaving, so I’m very proud of our guys andthe way they’ve responded and played. We have to raise our level ofintensity and our level of play in the SEC Tournament, of course, and playa lot better than we have played. I was curious to find out we’ve turnedthe ball over less this year than we did last year, which is a shock to me.But it’s been pretty obvious in games we’ve lost, we haven’t made thethree-point shot with consistency, and we’ve turned the ball over more thanwe’d like. But we’re looking ahead to the tournament. It will be verybalanced. Obviously, the favorite will be Auburn because of what they’vebeen able to accomplish this year in the regular season. Tennessee isplaying well at this point in time. I was very impressed. They held theircomposure when we had an opportunity to extend the lead. Making the clutchplays and the clutch baskets is a real key to us playing well and winningat the SEC Tournament.”
On UK’s three-point shooting:
“We probably need to take more threes. At Tulsa we wanted to be a goodthree-point shooting team, and there would be nights we’d miss eight or 10in a row. My assistant would say we needed to shoot more threes, and we’dbe 0-for-15. But there’s something to that. As far as getting confidenceback, you have to shoot it in order to make it. But we need to get up morethrees. We have some good three-point shooters. Scott started off the yearpretty tough on three-point shooting, and Wayne didn’t shoot it as well ashe did last year. But overall, we shoot it well in practice and inindividual workouts. We’re probably just not getting up enough threes.”
“Wayne needs to shoot more threes, and so do Scott [Padgett], Heshimu[Evans] and Desmond [Allison]. They all need to shoot more threes. But theyhave to be open threes. They can’t just come down and jack it up. I thinkthey’ll work harder to get open. Most times, it’s best to shoot it intransition, or after the ball goes inside and then back out. We’re notgetting that inside-out pass. When the big guys touch the ball, we feelpretty good about that because they’ve become better passers.”
On Ole Miss and South Carolina:
“South Carolina has won some big games at the end of the year. They beatGeorgia on Senior Day. B.J. McKie has been carrying that team all yearlong. But there have also been some games where they’ve been beaten prettysoundly. Ole Miss is very tough. At 18-11, they’re very capable. They’vehad some good wins this year. When we beat them, that was one of our betterwins of the year, because that’s a tough place to play. Keith Carter is anexcellent player, and he should be first team all-conference, as shouldMcKie. Both Carter and McKie have pro potential. Ole Miss is a little morephysical, and more aggressive defensively and attacking offensively. Butboth teams are similar in a lot of ways, except their records. They don’thave a lot of size, but they have excellent athletes.”
On taping practice:
“The team knows there are areas they need to get better. The only way toevaluate who’s doing those things better is to film practice. Sometimes youcan’t tell unless you count how many times a guy sets a screen, boxes out,or rebounds. We can keep stats in practice, but it’s better to watch it onfilm and it’s better for them to see themselves. That is the key.”
On how losing four players from last year’s team has affected this year’steam:
“It’s always going to affect you in some way. But we have some verytalented players in Scott, Wayne, Heshimu, Tayshaun [Prince], Desmond andJules [Camara]. It’s just a matter of those guys becoming mature. I knewlosing four experienced players and replacing them with five freshmen wouldbe a big challenge. Scott and Wayne are the only real starters we have back>from last year.”
On the team’s personality:
“I haven’t seen my stamp on this team. The dynamics of the team usuallytake on that of the coach. We haven’t been as aggressive, even though Ithink I’ve been aggressive. Maybe I need to motivate them in a differentway. We don’t have the veteran, experienced players who have been throughthe wars, like Jeff Sheppard, Cameron Mills and Allen Edwards. Even Scott,Heshimu and Wayne haven’t had the experience of those three guys. They justneed to take on another personality. The freshmen and sophomores have tounderstand their roles and how to pick each other up. But I knew this wouldbe the case because we have a very young team.”
On UK’s season being a disappointment:
“It’s only disappointing in that any loss is a disappointment. But I wouldnever say that this season has been a disappointment. Other than the waythe ball has bounced a couple of times, I’ve been very pleased with thisgroup. They have responded to the challenge of playing such a toughschedule. It’s constant bombardment here with media scrutiny and pressure.Then when you don’t win every game, that just compounds it. It’s moreinternal than external. Scott, Heshimu and Wayne want to go out in a blaze,and they will. But that’s where you have psychological fatigue.”
On UK’s SEC road losses:
“Those were all tough places to play. Arkansas is one of the toughestplaces to play in the country, Tennessee had their first sell-out crowd,and Florida had the best atmosphere of anywhere I’ve seen this year. Weresponded to those challenges as well as anyone in the country. I knowwe’ll do the same in tournament play, because we’ve been hardened by thoseatmospheres and those challenges.”
On differences between last year’s team and this year’s team:
“We’re pretty good, but we’re not good enough to just blow people away. Weweren’t good enough to do that last year, either. We’re outscoring peoplemore this year than last year. With that in mind, we’ve been right ontarget with most of the things we’ve done. The schedule takes its toll onyou, but you saw how the freshmen got better. Maybe the veteran players arewearing down a little bit.”
On the play of Tayshaun Prince in the Tennessee game:
“I thought he played outstanding. He missed some shots, but he mixed it upwell. I’m starting to see him get more physical, and I knew that would comeas he got stronger. We talked about going inside more, taking the ball tothe basket and getting to the free throw line.”
On UK’s leaders:
“Everybody is different and everybody leads differently. No two teams arethe same. We have a bunch of leaders this year. Wayne is an excellentleader, and so are Scott, Heshimu, Saul [Smith} and Jamaal [Magloire].There are a lot of leaders on this team. What it came to last year was oneguy became the spokesman, and that was Jeff Sheppard. We haven’t had onesingle person speaking for the team.”
On UK’s chances in the post-season:
“What I like about our team is we can do a lot of different things. We’revery versatile. We can play a lot of different ways. That’s why I think wecan go a long way in post-season play.”
UK Player Quotes
Jamaal Magloire
“I have the upmost confidence in the team, coach and myself. We get betterwith every game and it’s all we can ask.”
“We might have played better in December than now. We have the fundamentalsand the consistency and now we just have to put it all together.”
On his position as a leader:
“I definitely feel I have taken a leader role. I have been fortunate enoughto play in two finals games. I feel I can say I know what it takes to win.We need to get the freshmen going and win.”
On this year compared to last year:
“I felt more confident last year. (Jeff Sheppard, Cameron Mills and AllenEdwards) knew what they were doing. The role is new to me. I am not asenior, but I am ready for the challenge. I want to help the team.”
On his expectations for the SEC and NCAA tournaments:
“I think we are going to do real well. I expect us to go a long way. I amnot going to worry. I am just going to execute.”
Heshimu Evans
“I am very confident. We are going into a new season. We are 0-0. We havelost games, but I think we have a great opportunity to win the SEC and goon the NCAA tournament. I feel good about it.”
“My confidence isn’t lacking. I am good in certain things. Now I am lookingforward to the NCAA Tournament and showing what I can do.”
On Coach Smith’s comment about the three-point shooting:
“We just have to go and take more shots. That is key with our team. Scott,Wayne and I need to get more shots up and make more shots. The key, though,is to first take them.”
On his feelings going into the SEC Tournament:“We have 8 losses going into the SEC Tournament. Now we have a 0-0 slate.If teams that weren’t doing well before feel great going into thetournament, why shouldn’t we?”
Wayne Turner
On being taken out of the Tennessee game:
“I totally agree with Coach’s concern with taking care of the basketball.That was really important in the game. As a point guard and a senior, in abig game like that, turnovers are big, especially late in the game.”
“I can understand it. Coach is the one who makes the decisions. All I coulddo was cheer my teammates on. As the clock was winding down, they made somebig plays to win. The way I played didn’t help. But it’s over now, and nowwe’re looking forward to the SEC Tournament. We just want to work ongetting better today and tomorrow.”
“It’s in the past. I’ll make sure I don’t put myself in that positionagain. I’ve dealt with it and it’s over now. It’s not going to break myconcentration. For me to be down and worry about it is selfish, and I’m nota selfish person. The team needs my abilities and my contributions.”
On UK’s ballhandling:
“We realize how important taking care of the ball is. With most of ourlosses, turnovers have been the case. We need to take better care of theball and make better decisions.”
Scott Padgett
On post-season play:
“The best thing about post-season is that you can throw the regular seasonrecords away. We didn’t have the best regular season under our standards.But now we can start 0-0 and hopefully go 9-0.”
On what UK needs to do to win:
“We need to get out there, press and run more. We want to try to get up anddown the court more, and into our transition more.”
On what UK needs to improve:
“There are a lot of little things that are beating us. If we can cut downon the little mistakes, we can be a great basketball team.”
On comparing this year’s team to last year’s team:
“Last year, we knew we were on a roll. This year, it’s not big things thatare going wrong, but all the little things have been adding up.Defensively, we’ve been playing extremely well. But all the little mistakeson offense have been costing us.”
