Coach Tubby Smith
Southern Cal had a great game plan. They jumped on us early. Itwas a tale of two halves, because we were a totally different team thesecond half. We had some opportunities. They jumped on us early, butour kids showed a lot of heart, a lot of moxy, a lot of grit to recoverafter being down so deep a margin in the first half.
On Saul Smiths last game
It has been a real blessing for me for Saul to have been a part of thegreat tradition that Kentucky has had. Its a dream come true for Sauland for me
and watching him develop into a mature young man, some peopleare not that fortunate. Im really going to miss Saul. You could alwayscount on him to give you the same effort and the same energy. He hashandled everything amazingly well, and Im proud of the way he hashandled the whole situation.
We didnt play with the same passion, with the same intensity thatyou need to play at this level in order to win. I also thought theydid a good job of taking away Tayshaun and making other people takeshots. We felt like we needed to get the ball inside. They caught usstanding around.
On the potential of a Duke-Kentucky rematch
Im sure that (the talk of the rematch) affected us. When you have ayoung team like we have, its hard to keep their focus. Sometimes,before you can recover its too late. Thats part of growing up and partof maturing and handling situations. I think that did have something todo with it.
On the comeback
We came out with more energy and more effort, and I thought that turnedthe game around. We tried to push the ball more in transition, and Ithink defensively that hurt them
but it wasnt enough.
Senior Guard Saul Smith
On falling behind early We thought we were getting open looks, but the shots werent fallingfor us early. Our movement on offense wasnt where we wanted it to be.We dug ourselves a big hole by not playing good defense. It wasnt theiroffense really, we were getting some good looks. We werent finishing.
On playing the last game for his father There are a lot of emotions, definitely. The last four years of mycareer and the last four years of my life have been the best of my 21years. The opportunity to play for my father is something Im going toremember my entire life, because it has been the highlight of my life sofar. How many times do kids even have a father? And I have the specialprivilege to play for him. And not only is he my father, but hes thebest coach in America.
On Tayshaun Prince We kinda expect Tayshaun to be out there, hitting big buckets. Butsome nights, its not going to be there. Some nights, defenses are goingto run two or three players at him, and it is our job as teammates topick him up. We still had a chance to win the ballgame, not matter howmany points he scored. I dont know how many points his man had, but hedid a good job rebounding and distributing the ball well.
Sophomore Guard Keith Bogans
On the comeback We were in a similar situation when we playing Arkansas in SECtournament. We were down 15 points, and we made a run and got back inthe game. But I think today, we were just too far down. They are agreat team, and they just kept making big shots every time we got backin the game.
On the USC zone We faced similar zones to that before but tonights its just that wewerent making shots. There were a few times when we were right underthe basket, and couldnt put the ball in the hole. The whole first 20minutes, the ball just wouldnt go in for us.
On David Bluthenthal He made some big shots. He is a big-time basketball player. Beforethe game, coach told us that he was the best player they had, and heshowed that tonight.
