Jan. 22, 2003
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UK Head Coach Tubby Smith
Opening statement…
“I thought we played excellent defense for the most part. I thought we really put focus in after a sluggish start – a lot of which had to do with Auburn. They have a very good defensive team. They’re very athletic. We told our players to put a body on them and do a good job there. I thought we were able to contain Marquis Daniels and that was a big key to the game.”
On playing with a bigger lineup at times…
“I thought our big lineup was a big key, too. When we had Marquis (Estill) and Jules (Camara) we took away some of their shots at the basket and did a better job at post defense. Whenever you can force 26 turnovers, you’re doing a good job there. I was pleased with the bench – another key to the game that was productive.”
On Chuck Hayes defending Auburn’s Marquis Daniels…
“We gave (Marquis Daniels) many different looks, different physiques. We could put a strong, bulky guy like Chuck Hayes on him. (Marquis Daniels) may be quicker than Chuck, but (Hayes) was able to put his body on him and stop him from penetrating. Chuck is our most versatile defender because he can go out on the perimeter and go inside to guard post players.”
On Kentucky’s runs…
“I thought those runs were keyed not necessarily by making shots, but defensive stops – blocked shots -limiting them to one shot. They killed us on the boards, but late in the game we did a good job of limiting them to only one shot.”
Kentucky Players
1 Cliff Hawkins, Guard
On the play of Gerald Fitch…
“He’s got confidence. He’s going to make his shots because of strong confidence.”
On scoring coming off the bench…
“Every time I come off the bench I try to bring a spark. That’s what I tried to do tonight.”
On the upcoming road games…
“They’re just another challenge for us. We’re playing good now and I think that as long as we keep playing defense the way we are now, we’ll keep winning.”
40 Jules Camara, Forward
On Auburn’s interior defense…
“They were collapsing inside a lot on Marquis (Estill). We did a good job of going inside and then kicking it back out.”
On Auburn’s physical play…
“They’re a good team. They’re really strong and that made it hard for our big guys to get the ball and make a good move to the basket.”
On the magnitude of this game with Alabama coming up on Saturday…
“This was big, but in the SEC every game is big. We’ve seen that any team can win at any time, so we have to make sure we win and home and then go out and steal some on the road.”
On his play over the last few games…
“I feel pretty good right now. I just need to keep doing what I can to help the team. I need to keep playing well on defense and offensively I just need to relax and let the game come to me.”
4 Gerald Fitch, Guard
On his performance in the second half…
“I struggled in the first half and I was critical of myself, and that made me force my shot. In the second half, I just tried to stay positive and do what I know I can and I got my confidence back.”
On Marquis Estill’s passing out of the post…
“Marquis always creates double teams and he’s a great passer out of the post. I was just getting open and he was finding me.”
On getting a win against a good team…
“It was big. It was one more step toward the SEC title and that’s what we want.”
Auburn Head Coach Cliff Ellis
On UK guard Gerald Fitch…
“You have to give credit to (Gerald) Fitch. He made key plays and I thought he was the major difference in the game – his shots were big.”
On 26 turnovers…
“They forced them, they play right up in you. That to me is their strongest asset, as is ours. I think both teams’ strongest asset is how well and how hard we play defense. The game was going to be a 60s game, the reason they had higher 60s was (Gerald) Fitch. The reason we had the 50s was turnovers.”
On first loss in the Southeastern Conference…
“We’re at Kentucky tonight and at Georgia later this week so we know we’re going to have battles – there are 16 tough games we have to play. We were in it – we had the lead in the second half but Fitch hit some shots and we turned the ball over.”
On the loss…
“I thought it was a ball game in which both teams took a lot of pride in their defense. We made a nice run in the second half, but (Gerald) Fitch just hit some big shots that stretched it out. That was the big thing. Our turnovers, Kentucky’s defense and Fitch. They took us out of things that we wanted to do.”
On UK’s physical play…
“They’re a solid basketball team. They are physical and they’re strong. They play a certain way that their games are going to be ugly, but they’re good at it. This point in the season it’s probably they way you want to be. That physical stuff will wear on you. It wore us down and got to us in the second half.”
On UK guard Keith Bogans defending Marquis Daniels…
“I thought he did a good job. I thought they did a nice job all around. I thought they were very intense in all areas, especially defensively. They went to their press and that took us out of a lot of things we wanted to do.”
Auburn Players
4 Marco Killingsworth, Forward
On how Kentucky was able to make its run in the second half…
“We’re a young team and we made some mental mistakes tonight. The crowd got loud and we couldn’t hear things coming from the bench at times. (Gerald) Fitch hit a couple of threes and the crowd got behind them. They were making threes and we were making twos, and that doesn’t add up. I don’t think we got rattled, but we’re young and Kentucky has a great team. We need to execute better on our press offense.”
On what Kentucky’s defense did to slow him down after his fast start…
“About midway through the first half they started doubling me and pinching down. I couldn’t get as many open looks as I did early and it made it tougher for me to get shots.”
3 Marquis Daniels, Guard
On how Kentucky pulled away…
“Kentucky has a great club. They pressed us hard and got up and down the floor. We had some breakdowns mentally. The crowd did a good job of getting behind Kentucky and they played a big role in the second half.”
On the UK defense…
“They have the best press defense we’ve seen and they play great help defense. They did a good job with their defensive rotations and forced us into some turnovers where we were trying to go one-on-one and didn’t take care of the ball.”
