Jan. 2, 2003
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UK Head Coach Tubby Smith
Opening statement…
“I first want to say how much I appreciate a guy like (Alcorn State) Coach (David) Whitney and what he means to college basketball. That’s one of the main reasons we scheduled this game, to get Coach Whitney back home here with his team. I’ve always been impressed with him. His teams are very organized. They’re an extension of him. They exhibit a great deal of sportsmanship. He’s no nonsense, and you see the same thing in his players.”
On the team’s play…
We did some good things tonight. We did a better job defensively, as far as pressuring the ball, forcing turnovers, forcing quick shots. We had good play off the bench. Everybody got in and had good minutes tonight. We were challenging every pass, forcing the ballhandlers to do something. We had kind of gotten away from that the last few games, so tonight we were concentrating on that. When they took the ball to the basket we had people there to block shots. I think 75-80 percent of that was practice. Going through the techniques, we broke down the defense again and just went over the basic fundamentals of guarding the ball — having active hands, your feet in good position, closing on shooters.”
On the team’s versatility…
“I think it helps that we have a full complement of players. I want everybody ready to play. I don’t care about them being comfortable. I just want guys that are playing with intensity every second of the basketball game. You need to have those interchangeable parts. There’ll be times when we have foul trouble or play against a different kind of team, and we have guys that can match up.”
On Erik Daniels…
“Any time you get a chance to start you really ought to play like you’re scared of losing that opportunity. He’s playing relaxed. He brings us another ballhandler. He has a great basketball I.Q. He can see things and create opportunities for people, and that’s just instinct. He’s been a big key to our press. He’s on the ball and making good decisions in the open court when we’re playing our pressure defense. He may give away some size to opposing power forwards, but he looks like he is getting bigger every game.”
UK PLAYERS
Erik Daniels
On his role as a starter…
“I’m playing with a lot of confidence and having fun. I’m getting my teammates involved and coach is giving me the opportunity. When he gave me the chance I just wanted to work that much harder.”
On Coach Smith’s confidence in him…
“It’s nice to know that he has that confidence. I just want to keep playing and helping the team.”
On going home to Cincinnati for Saturday’s game against Ohio…
“It’s going to be real big to go home and play. I’ve got a lot of people coming to see me play. I just want to go out there and play hard for them.”
Chuck Hayes
On the team’s chemistry…
“I think we’re coming together really well. We’re starting to realize that if we come together as a team and do what coach wants, teams will respect us a lot more.”
On the crowd…
“You’re in your own zone, you don’t really notice it. I don’t want to brush off the fans, but you really have to have tunnel vision and focus on what’s going on inside the lines.”
On Wednesday’s practice…
“It was classic, that’s all I can really say. We ran sprints and coach was just really tough on us.”
Kelenna Azubuike
On Wednesday’s practice…
“That was the hardest practice I’ve had in awhile. Coach said he wanted us to play with intensity and I think it really played a part in the way we came out and tonight.”
“We’ve got to keep up our defensive effort throughout the season. It’s really important that we maintain our intensity in all areas of the game if we’re going to be successful this year. Coach let us know that if we’re going to be on the floor then we’re going to be playing as hard as we can.”
Alcorn State Head Coach
Opening statement…
“I thought our guards got a little intimidated and the Wildcats got off to a fast start and we couldn’t recover. We’ve had the same ailment all year long, our turnovers. The only thing I can say about our ball club tonight was that we played very hard to the end.”
On coming home to Kentucky…
“That’s all great but I’m a coach first and coming home is secondary. The first thing was preparing to come in and win a ball game. It was nice to get back home, but second to game that we were here to play.”
On his many accolades in 32 years of coaching…
“When I first got into this business I didn’t think about honors or awards and I don’t think about them now. Any awards or accolades I’ve earned, they are shared with all the teams that I’ve coached down through the years and the coaches I have coached with. It’s not a singular thing – a lot of people are responsible for guiding me throughout my career.”
On UK’s physical play…
“I thought Kentucky was very physical. We’re not used to a really physical style of basketball. I think we lost our poise because of all the bumping and physical play, but that’s the nature of the ball game. You have to play as the referee calls it and you can’t be intimidated.”
ALCORN STATE PLAYERS
2 DeAndre Jones, Guard
On the effectiveness of Kentucky’s guards…
“Their wing players are very crafty players. Tonight they did a good job, played their game and came out with a lot of confidence. (Keith) Bogans is a great player and he was tough to handle, but that’s what I expected coming into the game.”
On getting down 9-0 to start the game…
“All season we’ve been getting off to slow starts. We didn’t play well early and Kentucky turned it on and jumped on us. Once we got settled down we turned it up, but we just didn’t have enough tonight.”
23 Lee Cook, Center
On playing in front of the Rupp Arena crowd…
“Tonight was a beautiful atmosphere. I love to play in front of a crowd like that because it really gets me pumped up. I’d play in front of 24,000 people every game if I could.”
On the interior play from UK…
“Their big men are very physical. I expected them to be real strong and they were. Those guys are athletic and were tough to handle.”
