March 9, 1999
KENTUCKY BASKETBALL HEAD COACH TUBBY SMITH QUOTES
On going to the tournament-
“I just want to say how excited we are to be going to New Orleans as a No.3 seed and playing against a great New Mexico State team. Lou Henson is oneof the best coaches in college basketball. I was fortunate to coach againsthim when he was at Illinois and I was at Tulsa. His teams are alwayswell-disciplined and solid defensively and offensively. They areoutstanding three-point shooters. We’ll have to step up and be ready tochallenge them. We’ve had some trouble making threes and guarding threes aswell, so that’s something we’ll have to work extremely hard on.”
On New Mexico State-
“Charles Gosa is very athletic. He’s 6-9, agile, and quick. He can give youproblems because he can put it on the floor, he runs extremely well, he hasgood hands and he has a lot of athleticism. Billy Keys reminds me of ArthurLee at Stanford. He can put it on the floor, he can shoot with range, he’squick and he has great hands. I’ve been impressed with their entire team.Coach Henson plays a lot of people. He’s got a lot of guys who can do a lotof different things. Aaron Brodt does a great job for them. He’s veryimpressive. I’ve also been impressed with Eric Channing. He’s one of thetop three-point shooters in the country. They have a lot of weapons ontheir team.”
On what UK improved on in the SEC Tournament-
“We took care of the ball better than we had in the games that we lost,especially on the road. We had worked on it, but the types of teams weplayed and the atmosphere we were in helped as well. Most teams turn theball over more on the road. That’s been one of our primary concerns.Getting to the free throw line was also important. It gets your opponent infoul trouble, even if you don’t make a lot of them.”
On UK’s improved shooting in the tournament-
“A lot of it had to do with a different style of play. Arkansas is a teamyou’ll get open looks against. We had those same looks at Arkansas, but wewere in Bud Walton Arena with 20,000 people screaming at us. That’s a bigdifference. [On Friday], Wayne Turner had only made five all year long, buthe had some good looks and they were leaving him open. When you get intournament play and you have breakdowns like that, and you make thatdecision not to guard people and they make those shots, it’s hard torecover from that. You don’t have another game to make up for it. Whenpeople are pressing us and running and we can get a lot of open looks intransition, that’s a big key. We screened better as well. Jamaal Magloiredid a good job screening and Scott Padgett made some threes off screens.That was a big help.”
On Wayne Turner-
“He’s our point guard and it all starts with him. When the ball is in hishands and he’s pushing it up the court, the other team has to keep up andrun the whole time. Arkansas did a good job early in the game denying himthe ball and making him have to work. He gives as much on the defensive endas anyone on the court, and that wears him down when he’s trying to handlethe ball. Scott can help with that because he has the ability to see overthe top of double teams and things like that. But Wayne has been good forsome time now. He has the ability to penetrate and break down teams thatwant to run and play in transition. That’s when he’s at his best.”
On Desmond Allison-
“We want him to do a great job defensively. He’s a freshman and he’s stilllearning. We didn’t put him in there to be a scorer. He fulfills the roleof being unselfish, mixing it up and playing great defense. He’s athletic,physical, ready to play and he’s mature. It just takes time to learn thesystem and make the adjustment from high school.”
On Jamaal Magloire-
“He’s been playing with a lot of fire and energy. He loves playing in biggames and now the tournament is coming up. When you get to tournament time,defense is the key, and that’s what Jamaal does bestdefending the post,blocking shots and rebounding.”
On Tayshaun Prince-
“Tayshaun has been doing it all year long. He is still maturing. He’s puton 30 pounds since he came here, and I knew it would take time for hisstamina and endurance to catch up with the weight he’s put on. He’s anintelligent player and he understands the game.”
