Head Coach Tubby Smith
Opening Statement…
“Since we got back from the Arkansas game we have really tried to evaluate where we had our breakdowns. I thought defensively we had major breakdowns, although if we had made some shots it would have eliminated some of those breakdowns. There were very glaring problems with our lack of ball pressure, which allowed Arkansas to break us down with penetration. That is something we have to be conscious of, especially with Auburn coming in because they have the type of team that can stretch you with their outside shooting, much like Arkansas did, and then isolate guys one-on-one and let them penetrate. Arkansas beat us in a lot of different areas. They got the ball inside and scored on us. They made threes. I thought we did what we had to do to take care of the ball, but we couldn’t capitalize on it. We worked hard in practice yesterday to improve our defensive intensity and we shot more because Tayshaun, Keith and Saul didn’t shoot well against Arkansas. In fact, no one in our starting group shot well. Our bench was where we had a lot of positive things happen. Erik, Cliff, Marvin and Marquis as well as J.P. all played well and we need to utilize our bench more because I thought Tayshaun and Keith logged too many minutes and it caught up with us at the end of the game.”
On Auburn…
“Auburn is the type of team that can beat you in many ways. They have some guys that are performing extremely well this season. In Marquis Daniels they probably have an All-SEC performer. They have the SEC assist leader in Jamison Brewer who can push the ball up in the open floor and find the open man. In Adam Harrington and Scott Pohlman they have two excellent perimeter shooters. Not only do they shoot it well, but they move all the time and they can handle the ball extremely well. Kyle Davis is leading the league in blocked shots so they have a very good ball club. In eight of their 11 losses, they have either had a chance to tie or win the game on the last possession. They are very close to being an outstanding team.”
On Saul and Senior Night…
“Anytime it’s Senior Night, you reflect back about how far the young man has come and how much you’re going to miss him for all he has done for the program. Saul will be the last connection to the 1998 championship team. I think he has done an excellent job in his leadership role. It will be an emotional night because there are a lot of things riding on this game. We have an opportunity to wrap up the No.1 seed for the SEC tournament. We’ve got a chance to get 20 wins by the end of the regular season. I don’t think it will be as big of a night as it would if we had two or three seniors. I don’t anticipate it being too much of an emotional night.”
“It has never been trying for me coaching my son. It has been fun and the best thing to happen to me. It might not have been fun for other folks, but has been the best thing for me.”
On describing Saul…
“He is really a tough, cool customer if you ask me. I think that is the personality and demeanor of what we as parents have taught our kids. We’ve tried to teach them how to keep their cool and stay composed under any trying and stressful situation. I am not sure that I could endure what Saul has, and only he could express his feelings about that.”
On a late-season loss…
“A loss usually doesn’t last very long with players. Success can usually create more distractions that losing. When you start winning you have to be concerned about whether you are better than you think you are. It is my job to keep reminding the team that they are not very good, and it showed Sunday. If we don’t come out every day in practice and work to get better than we are going to get worse, and we reminded them of that yesterday in practice. In the Arkansas game, I didn’t sense the urgency that we needed to have at the defensive end. I thought we were focused and ready to play, but I thought we backed down because of their aggressiveness and pressure.”
On the team’s level of conditioning…
“I think were in great shape. I thought we might have kept Keith and Tayshaun in the game a little too long. Those were decisions we had to make at the time because players that we would have been subbing for Keith and Tayshaun were in foul trouble.”
UK Player Quotes
#11 Saul Smith
On his favorite memory of playing at Kentucky…
“My favorite memory is the 1998 national championship season and getting to play for the title. After this season, hopefully I’ll have something better to think about than that, which is hopefully another title. But also the fact that I get to build all these great relationships with my teammates and all the great people I have been around.”
On what tomorrow night will be like…
“I really don’t know what it is going to be like and how I am going to react until the time comes. I am going to try to control my emotions because I can’t be overwhelmed because I have a game to play afterwards. I have to try to control myself.”
On his worst memory…
“My worst memory is all the losses. I hate losing. The 1999 loss to Michigan St. in the NCAA tournament was pretty tough because that team had a lot of similarities to the ’98 team. We were playing really well in the SEC tournament going into the NCAA tournament and we felt like we could beat some good teams. We beat Kansas in an emotional game and then we beat Miami of Ohio, then we played against Michigan St. and felt like we were at the hump. We really felt that if we had won that game it would have been a different story at the Final Four.”
On what to expect from Auburn…
“We have a really big challenge ahead of us tomorrow night. We have a lot at stake. It is no more pressure than any other game because every game is pressure packed when you play at UK. Tomorrow night’s game is for the SEC title. We want to win. We don’t want to share the title with anybody. We want the title to be ours and the only way we can do that is to go out tomorrow being focused and ready to play.”
On his most difficult moment…
“The time I really remember was when Nate Knight decided that basketball wasn’t the thing he wanted to do, so he left. Then it dawned on me that I was going to be the only senior the next season. Everything fell on my shoulders at that time. It was an emotional time for me.”
# 14 Erik Daniels
On improving as a player…
“It was really frustrating sitting there (in the first games) watching, but I still had to keep working. As the season has gone along, I’ve started playing more, and I started getting into the lineup more. I’ve been working on my right hand since the beginning of the season and that’s been helping me with my game.”
On Saul Smith…
“I’m going to miss his leadership. It’s really hard on him on the road. The posters and the fans and suggestions they give, it’s real hard.”
#3 J.P. Blevins
On Saul Smith…
“Saul’s the kind of guy who always know what’s going on, on the floor. He was raised in a basketball environment. He’s knowledgeable of the game, and from that standpoint he brings a lot of leadership to the team.
On the opponents fans…
“You have to give him a lot of credit for being able to tolerate that. He has to put on a tough outer covering, which is easier said than done, but he has. I can’t imagine being in his shoes dealing with what he’s had to deal with. He’s going to get the credit he deserves, not only for being a leader for this team, but also for the four hard years he’s put in.”
On Coach Smith’s confidence in the bench…
“We’ve felt all year long that our bench is going to take us deep in March. If we can get a lot of good play off the bench, then we can really go far. Every guy over there feels confident that he can come in and get the job done. We feel like we can go 10 deep and that can be pivotal for us down the stretch.”
On the Auburn game…
“We feel confident at home. We feel like we can defend our turf well. We know Auburn is a dangerous team. They have a lot of weapons. We have to be ready. If we win, we clinch a tie for the SEC and can go down to Florida and win it outright on Sunday. It’s a huge game.”
#21 Tayshaun Prince
On Saul…
“Saul’s been through a lot, but I think this year has paid off for him. Every time he goes out on the court he leaves it all out there. That’s one thing you can always ask for from Saul is that he will give it his best. If everybody does what he does and gives 110%, then we’ll win every game. Everyone knows what he goes through on road games, which are tough on him, but I think things will be good for him. It’s going to be something special tomorrow.”
On the Auburn game…
“Tomorrow’s game is going to be very emotional; everyone’s going to have an energy high.”
On the drain of the season…
“Everyone is doing fine… some people are having small, little, ticky-tacky injuries, but it is nothing major. It’s something you have to deal with. You’re going to get bruises here and there and twisted ankles over the course of the game. The mental part of it has to be there, and it is.”
#10 Keith Bogans
On Saul Smith…
“We’ll miss his leadership. He knows what we’ve got to do. He knows what it takes to win a championship. He works hard and sets the tone. The thing I’ll miss about him most is that he works harder than anybody else. A lot of people think he doesn’t have to work as hard because he’s the coach’s son, but, by far, he works the hardest. He deserves a lot (tomorrow night). I don’t think I could go through all that he has. I have to take my hat off to him. He really knows how to control himself.”
On the Arkansas game…
“We played well up until those last five or 10 minutes and we just could not make the shots.”
On the Auburn game…
“They are an athletic team, and they shoot the ball well. We are just going to focus on what we do well.”
