Jan. 7, 2003
Head Coach Tubby Smith
On where his team is heading into conference play…
“You’re always evaluating and looking for ways to improve. We want to find out when and where a player can help the most. The return of Cliff (Hawkins) and Antwain Barbour adds a lot of athleticism to the team, but we have to work out the chemistry of the team and finding playing time where they can contribute the most. Cliff’s return has been excellent. He’s brought a lot energy and his assist-to-turnover ratio has been great. The only thing he needs to work on is being careful with his judgment when he gets fatigued – we need to keep him fresh. Antwain is working on overcoming the fear of injuring himself again. He needs some time on the court to get back in the groove with his game. I think this is the first time he’s had to miss action and that takes a lot to overcome. Since he’s been back we’ve had four or five games, so he hasn’t had a lot of time to get in shape in practice. He’s a kid that’s really focused and really rises to the challenge. When the pressure comes as we move into conference play, he’ll raise his level of play.”
On his impressions of Tennessee forward Ron Slay…
“He’s unbelievable. He’s a young man that’s worked extremely hard. He plays with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. He put in the work necessary to recover from his injury last year and that’s showing in the way he’s playing this season. He’s a guy that enjoys playing and you can tell he loves playing the game and has a passion for it.”
On the emotion Slay plays with…
“That’s his personality. He’s always played that well. As long as that emotion doesn’t get to the extreme where it leads to altercations or belittling the opponent I don’t see any problem with it. He’s not disrespectful with his actions.”
On if he’d like to see his team show more emotion…
“I think it has its place. We just want our guys to play hard. If playing with emotion fits their personality that’s fine, but I don’t want them to create another personality. Playing that way works for Ron Slay, but for most of us it probably doesn’t work.”
On how Ron Slay has been so effective this season…
“He’s scoring inside, he’s leading the league in free throws and he’s shooting with range. His mobility is great and he’s worked extremely hard at getting stronger. He’s been impressive on tape.”
Gymnastics coach Leah Little stopped by to show Tubby what he would be wearing at Friday’s Excite Nite |
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On keeping Marquis Estill out of foul trouble…
“Whoever he’s guarding he has to work harder at keeping the ball off people in the post. No matter who he’s playing he gets into foul trouble when he allows the ball to be entered into the scoring area and then tries to play defense afterward. He has to start playing defense before they get the ball, that’s the big key with him. The other thing is when we get beat off the dribble he needs to keep himself between the player and the basket. His time has gone down because he hasn’t been as aggressive, so he needs to continue to be aggressive, if he fouls we’ll just have to deal with it.”
On Cliff Hawkins becoming fatigued on the court…
“Cliff’s in pretty good shape. Asking him to play more than 25 minutes is a lot. He’s averaging about 20 minutes a game and that’s about what he can contribute. He’ll probably add more as we go along. The pace of the game has us pressing more and he sets the tempo pressuring the ball. He’s done a good job there. Offensively is where he can control himself and get a little more settled. He doesn’t need to work himself to death and get worn down on the offensive end.”
On the option of starting Hawkins to speed the tempo of the game from the start…
“We’ve thought about it. The problem is that puts both our point guards on the floor at the same time and gives us problems with out rotations. We’re still debating whether he’ll start or not. If he does I’m not sure who you take out of the lineup.”
UK PLAYERS
Chuck Hayes
On Tennessee forward Ron Slay…
“He’s playing really well. I just went up against one big guy in (Ohio’s Brandon) Hunter, so I’m sure I won’t mind going up against Slay.”
On Slay’s emotional play…
“It’s all mental, really. He tries to get you out of your game and get into your head. You just have to tune that out and let the game come to you.”
On Slay’s versatility as a big man…
“A big guy that can do it all keeps you on your toes. That’s one of the things that’s good about Slay, he can step outside or post up. We’re just going to have to respect every part of his game and contain him.”
On what he can do to help limit Slay…
“I don’t talk, if I do, I get out of my game. The best thing I can do is play hard and take away everything he likes to do. If I do that, then I can get my game going and take him out of his.”
Gerald Fitch
On whether Ron Slay is unstoppable or not…
“He’s been playing really well, but everybody can be stopped. I’m sure he has a lot of confidence in his game, but we just need to come out and match his intensity.”
On the team’s readiness going into conference play…
“This is what basketball is all about, especially at Kentucky. We know every team is going to be going after us, but that’s why you come here, for games like this in the SEC.”
About starting conference play on the road…
“Personally, I like going on the road, it gives us a bigger challenge. We have guys who like to play basketball, so, there won’t be any complaints about playing on the road.”
Cliff Hawkins
On the perception that Ron Slay is a bad guy…
“Ron is the type of guy who likes to have fun playing the game. He shows a lot of emotion and if you knew him you would think he was an interesting and funny guy.”
On stepping up the defensive pressure…
“We’ve been trying to do that a lot in the past couple of games. We want to go out and put a lot of pressure on (UT) especially with them having a freshman guard. We just want to get them out of their offense and we think that will help us.”
On contributing as a starter or coming off the bench…
“It really doesn’t matter to me. I’m just happy to be back out there and contributing to the team in any way I can.”
On the team’s progress through the first part of the season…
“I think we’ve done some good things. We accomplished some things we wanted to work on, but we have some things to improve on to be one of the top teams in the country.”
