Jan. 26, 2002
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Rupp Arena, Lexington, Ky.
Head Coach Tubby Smith
“I have to compliment Alabama. They made the plays down the stretch. We just didn’t make plays. We haven’t learned to buckle down and make those stops we need. In the end, it’s all about making clutch plays down the stretch. We were throwing it inside a lot to try to get to the line but weren’t getting there. We had some good looks at the basket but couldn’t knock them down. Losing at home is a terrible, terrible blow. We seemed to tighten up. Everything that could probably go wrong did go wrong.”
On UK’s possession when the score was 60-58…
“Marquis could go up strong inside. Tayshaun (Prince) was outside to shoot. Everybody who was supposed to touch the ball touched it, but nobody wanted to shoot it. In those situations you just have to hold your position. I didn’t have a good look but there seemed to be a lot of contact (on Estill).”
On the play of Tayshaun Prince and Keith Bogans…
“Even with them not playing well, we still had chances. But when that happens we need somebody to step up and take charge. Chuck (Hayes) and Erik (Daniels) came into the game and kept us in it. They were really plusses for us.”
“We’re just not playing together and clicking together. Tonight, it was a lot of us not hitting shots.”
UK PLAYERS
Tayshaun Prince
“Every game is a big situation for us. We were at home and came out with a loss, but there are a lot of games left. We’re just going to have to start making our shots.”
“I thought we were ready to play. We had good shots and we played well, we just didn’t make the shots when we had to. At times we were impatient. We tried to make things happen too fast.”
Gerald Fitch
“We just couldn’t make plays tonight. We had shots, but we just couldn’t make them. Alabama came to play. As bad as we played, though, I still think we could have won this game if we had just made plays at the end.”
“There were a lot of times in the game that we lost focus. We just couldn’t make plays or hit shots.”
Chuck Hayes
“We played good on defense tonight, but we just couldn’t hit the big shots when we needed to. They out-muscled us in the end.”
“I feel that I tried to do my best to bring energy to the team, but we were just not hitting our shots tonight.”
Erik Daniels
“We lost a tough game tonight. We just couldn’t maintain our intensity for the full 40 minutes. We just couldn’t hit shots tonight.”
Alabama Head Coach Mark Gottfried
On win…
“I’m very proud of our team. They played with so much determination tonight against a very good Kentucky team and I’m very proud of them. This is something our players should be proud of. It was a great team win, we played good team defense and we’re very excited.”
On second half defense…
“We didn’t do as good as job as we would have liked in the first half in eliminating baskets from 15 feet and in. We talked about it at halftime and we stepped it up in the second half. We had to keep rotating guys on Tayshaun (Prince) – Rod (Grizzard), Kenny (Walker) and Demetrius (Smith) kind of guarded him by committee. You are always fearful that he’s going to make big shots like he has many times in the past.”
On defense…
“We’ve been a pretty good defensive team this year. We have some quickness and our guys are committed to it. That’s something that I’m proud of and that was effective tonight.”
On road win…
“We have some great kids. They’ve been on the road and have not won and that hurts. I think that they have taken some pride knowing that it’s going to get loud, teams are going to make some runs at us but we have to answer that – on both ends. We were able to do that tonight and I’m very proud them.”
On determination of players…
“Every time we called timeout, there was a determined look in their eyes. They were saying to each other that we are not leaving here without a win. I really think that starts with their character.”
On determination…
“We got stung last year and that’s a motivator to us and it should be. We had a good season, we did not get selected to the NCAA Tournament and this group this year wants to make a difference. They’re very determined. They practice that way and they know we still have a long way to go.”
On win at Rupp Arena being one of the biggest in his career…
“It has to be up there. Very rarely to do teams come to Rupp Arena and win. It’s a special place to play and to win here, I have to feel good for everyone involved with our program.”
On controlling game with second half lead…
“It was important for us in the second half not to get down. We were able to stay even or ahead most of the way. I was going to burn every timeout we had trying to stop every run they had. If we ran out of them, that would have been fine, but I just didn’t want our team to get down. The fact that we were able to stay close or even most of the way was good for us.”
On containing Rod Grizzard…
“He didn’t have a great game but he still contributed with some good plays tonight, but different players throughout the year have stepped up and played well. That’s something that has made us more effective, not relying on one person to carry us. We’re playing good team basketball.”
ALABAMA PLAYERS
#25 Mo Williams G
On tonight’s win…
“It was great. Watching Kentucky over the years and knowing the type of tradition they have makes this special. We know our fans are behind us 100 %. As for us, we take it one game at a time. We can’t beat anybody if we don’t play right.”
On the Alabama runs…
“That’s the type of team we are. We’re always going to be up. Something that we have to do is to connect on defense in order to make stops. We executed well on offense tonight. The luxury of our team is people stepping up. Different people stepped up tonight and we got good ball movement.”
On Kentucky’s frustration…
“I guess you could say they played poorly. Their shots just didn’t fall tonight. Shots for us don’t fall sometimes but tonight it happened to be them. I thought we played good defensively.”
# 50 Antoine Pettway G
On tonight’s game…
” Each game is a battle and we are soldiers. We try to win battle after battle and gain victory after victory. We were ready to go to war for this game. We had a lot of hype.”
On Alabama’s defense…
“We were trying to contain and keep them out of the middle. Before the game, Coach (Gottfried) told us that if we could keep them out of the middle, we could live off their jump shots. We were ready to play.”
On becoming a team leader…
“I think my time has come to step up to the table and to be a leader. I’m a sophomore now and I put some added pressure on myself to do well.”
#21 Rod Grizzard
On the victory…
“It feels great to be a part of this, to walk into Rupp Arena and then walk out with a victory. We knew it was going to be hard to play here but everyone in the country knows that our offense can be great and we proved that tonight. It is good to have this victory under our belt. It’s great for our team confidence to come in and do something like this.”
On his shooting…
“I wanted to play a lot better tonight. I had a hard time shooting and was a little off but I stepped up on defense. We all played very hard to come in here and get the win.”
# 35 Erwin Dudley
On the game…
“Right now the season is in our hands and we are taking it one game at a time. To get this victory is great for us. We have a great team here so I don’t think this was a statement game. We came here to play and to show to everyone that we can. We are very excited about coming to Rupp Arena and being able to play our best to win.”
On the last minutes of the game…
“We played our hardest down the stretch. You can’t worry about the calls by the officials, you have to just play the game. You have to fight and play at the end to get the win and that is exactly what we did.”
