Jan. 11, 2003
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UK Head Coach Tubby Smith Post-Game Quotes
Opening statement…
“This was a good win for us tonight. We did some good things out there. I thought Erik Daniels, especially, played well. We wanted to come out of the locker room with high energy, but we didn’t really do that in the first half. But we have high expectations for them. I was pleased with the defensive effort. We’ve been focused on that and we did better tonight. We improved in one area and then we couldn’t take care of the ball. But South Carolina is a good team and they would keep making runs at us. We just need to be able to put teams away when we get the chance.”
On Kentucky’s use of zone defense…
“[USC] had a lot to do with that. We weren’t good in the man-to-man, and we had some early success with the zone so we stuck with it. We were able to keep up our full-court pressure. We extended their offense and made them shoot over hands for the whole game. We did a good job contesting shots, closing out on shooters.”
On Kentucky’s turnovers…
“We had some breakdowns. We were penetrating and got too deep. We had 22 turnovers and that’s too many. Some of our starters weren’t taking care of the ball and we can’t tolerate that. Maybe they left their feet to pass the ball and the defender closed out. South Carolina is a good defensive team.”
On Kentucky’s bench play…
“I don’t really think in terms of first team and second team. The second team could just as easily play as the first in practice. That keeps pressure on your opposition when there’s no dropoff. Chuck (Hayes) was in some foul trouble and we got good play from guys like Kelenna (Azubuike) and Josh (Carrier). Antwain (Barbour) had some quality minutes. It helps that we can put those guys in at any time.”
UK PLAYERS
Forward Erik Daniels
On his ability to find the open shot…
“You just have to feel it. I try to go where people aren’t and find the open spot on the floor. Basketball is kind of like chess, you just have to outthink your opponent.”
On tying his career high…
“I just want to do whatever will help my team win. Whether it’s grabbing a rebound, taking a charge, or diving for a loose ball doesn’t matter. I just want to win.”
On taking threes…
“I really don’t look to shoot the three much. I’ll take it if I’m open, but luckily tonight it went in for me. Maybe I should start taking them more often.”
Guard Cliff Hawkins
On the keys to beating South Carolina…
“We limited their shots. We held them to a low three-point shooting percentage. The zone defense really helped us out tonight. Our guys were moving around on defense, trying to make things difficult for them.”
On the play of Erik Daniels…
“Erik is just an energetic guy, he’s always moving without the basketball. When he’s always moving, good things are going to happen.”
Forward Chuck Hayes
On Kentucky’s defense of the three-point shot…
“Our defense did its job. We put pressure on the ball and really took away the three-point shot. We just didn’t give them any good looks. We did well in the execution of our defense.”
On the play of the Kentucky bench…
“It’s a positive. If we, the starters, are not doing well, those guys can come off the bench, hit some shots, and give us a spark. And then, we can feed off of them.”
Forward Marquis Estill
“I think we came out ready to play. We did a good job of getting outside and stopping the boards. We took them out of their offense totally today.”
On his first foul…
“I didn’t let that foul bother me. I still continued to play aggressive.”
On the play of Erik Daniels…
“Erik is a great player. He is always moving without the ball. That’s why it’s easy for him to get open and hit baskets.”
Guard Keith Bogans
On starting 2-0 in the SEC…
“Starting 2-0 is the best start I think we’ve had since I’ve been here. It’s nice to be 2-0 at the beginning. When you get down in the SEC, it’s hard to come back.”
On today’s play…
“We came out a little flat. In the second half, we opened up the lead and let them back in. We need to learn that once we get a team down, we can’t let them get back in the game.”
South Carolina Coach Dave Odom
On the loss
“I’m very disappointed that we weren’t able to play a full 40 minutes of basketball. We got off to a good start and about up to the eight-minute mark in the second half, we looked like we were following our game plan. I thought we were executing as well as we could. But I thought Kentucky’s depth became a factor as we began to roll through our lineup.”
On Erik Daniels’ three-pointer before halftime…
“Certainly we were not able to sustain the play that we showed earlier. Unfortunately for us, they opened up a pretty substantial lead going into halftime. Just as the half was winding down I thought we made a little comeback and had something we could hang our hat on at the half. Then Erik Daniels hit the three and stuck the dagger in our hearts.”
On second-half play…
“We didn’t get off to a great start at the beginning of the second half but our players continued to play all the way through. You can’t say that we had any real chance to win the game at the end, but I believe games like this are valuable for you. If only it shows if you stick with your system, if you stick with your game plan and stick with each other, you can turn things around yourself and you don’t have to wait on others to do it for you. “
On playing from behind…
“I was pleased with the way our team reacted to adversity – that’s about the only thing you get out of a game like this. We didn’t play well enough to win. Kentucky did and I congratulate them. I’m very disappointed we didn’t win, we came up here to win and we believed we could win. I’m disappointed it didn’t happen, disappointed for our team, but certainly thankful for the effort they gave tonight. “
On UK’s zone defense…
“Kentucky wisely stayed in the zone, I think that was a good move on their part. It made us continue to play until we proved that we could hit some shots, by the time we hit some shots, we were so far down we didn’t have to get out of the zone. Tubby (Smith) deserves a lot of credit for that.”
On USC’s shooting
“It’s our fifth loss on the road and this stat sheet mirrors our other four losses. We made more field goals in three of those games and did so tonight by one. We also took 15 more three-pointers tonight. But we only went to the line four times. That says nothing about the officiating, it says that we were hoisting up threes and not giving them a chance to foul us.”
SOUTH CAROLINA PLAYERS
15 Carlos Powell, Forward
On the South Carolina mindset down 13 points at halftime…
“We knew that we had to keep fighting. We’re the kind of team that never gives up under any circumstances. We wanted to keep working hard and give ourselves the best chance we could.”
On the reason Kentucky was able to take control of the game in the first half…
“We got too passive on offense. We were settling for passing the ball around the perimeter instead of penetrating their defense. In the second half we got a lot more aggressive and our offense lit up.”
32 Kerbrell Brown, Guard
On what was said at halftime to change South Carolina’s game in the second half…
“Coach told us that we needed to be more aggressive in the second half. He told us to play hard and to fight for the whole game, so that’s what we tried to do after halftime.”
On the confidence of the South Carolina team at halftime…
“We were confident we were going to win the game. We knew we didn’t play our best basketball in the first half, so if we came out more aggressive in the second half we had a good shot at winning.”
