Feb. 15, 2003
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UK Coach Tubby Smith Post-game Quotes
Opening statement…
“This was a very tough game. (LSU Coach) John Brady always does an excellent job preparing his team. We convinced our players that this would be a battle and we would have to raise our intensity. We overcame adversity, with foul trouble and not making shots early. But Gerald (Fitch) got hot and we were able to get the ball inside. And I think our missing the early shots was mostly because of LSU’s defensive intensity. We also had some careless turnovers at the end.”
On inside play…
“Chuck (Hayes) really set the tone. He’s got that bad back and was having back spasms during the game, but he is courageous and very tough – he pounded the boards, did a good job getting second and third shots. He and Erik (Daniels) were outstanding on the boards. But we do need to do some work on our post defense.”
On the hype surrounding the game…
“This will give us a lot to work on. I was worried that we might be complacent, with so much hype surrounding the game, this being our 14th win in a row. And that hype will continue to grow. We have got to learn how to handle this prosperity. But I’m proud of the way we fought today.”
On Antwain Barbour…
“Antwain (Barbour) gave us a big lift. He’s been good in practice and he played awfully well today. But that’s what we expect from him. When he can do that for us, it gives us so much more versatility. He can come in for a big guy or play out on the wing. Most guys just need to get those minutes to keep getting better, and that’s tough, but he’s getting there.”
On LSU’s run…
“Jaime (Lloreda) and Ronald (Dupree) are both very talented. (Collis) Temple hit a few three’s. We knew this team wasn’t going to fold – they don’t beat themselves. They picked up the defensive intensity and started controlling the tempo, which cause a lot of turnovers on our part.”
On LSU’s inside presence…
“They do a very good job doubling in the post. So then you can never get a one-on-one look inside and you have to kick the ball out. We didn’t handle that very well. Once we passed it out we needed to reverse the ball, find the weak side.”
On learning from the game…
“We did win the game when we were struggling. We have been able to learn from our victories. We played good defense when we had to. We really picked it up in the second half.”
On reasons for the late run…
“The pace of the game – we were trying to give them the knock-out punch. Cliff threw the ball away and Antwain had a turnover right in front of our bench. We just needed to be more patient. The clock was our ally. Of course, we’ve not been in that situation this year, so we can learn from that.”
LSU Coach John Brady Post-game Quotes
On the game…
“I don’t like to lose. When we’re losing, I don’t sleep well. I take it personally. It bothers me. But I liked our team today. I was proud of them. Based on what other teams had done here in the past, our team definitely showed up. We gave up 16 points on careless turnovers, and they weren’t pressing very much. In the second half, we played well. We just missed some quality shots. We were having some inconsistent play from the perimeter. In the second half, we were able to stabilize the game.”
On what Tubby Smith has done at Kentucky…
“I have to compliment Tubby Smith in what he has done with this team. The turning point for them, and I have said this before, was the second half against Vanderbilt when they went small and turned up the defensive intensity. They have done that ever since. That’s why I was proud of my guys in this game.”
On his game plan…
“We came up her to be patient. We came up here to play half-court offense and slow the game down. We wanted to keep them from getting breakaway dunks and getting the open three on the break. My whole idea was to have a chance to win with six minutes left in the game. It didn’t quite work like that, but we played hard and cut it to five with about three minutes to go. Even in losing, we can take some positives from this game.”
UK Player Post-game Quotes
Keith Bogans, G
On Kentucky’s outside shooting…
“We didn’t shoot good from the outside. I thought in the first half they did a good job of trapping the post players and stopping the outside shots. In the second half, we were able to hit more shots.”
“This is the type of game we needed to get our focus back. You’d like to play well all the time but it doesn’t always happen that way.”
Antoine Barbour, G
On his playing time…
“I just try to come off the bench and pick us up anyway I can — just picking up loose balls, getting on the floor to help however I can.”
On this type of game…
“We just had to get the buckets down low and play better defense. It just keeps us humble.”
Gerald Fitch, G
“We made a lot of defensive mistakes tonight, but we came out with a win and you can’t ask for more than that.”
“A game like this really humbles us a lot. I think we got a little too comfortable out there and they made us pay for it. Coach Smith has stressed on staying humble and I don’t think that will be a problem after this game.”
“I struggled a lot offensively tonight, especially in the first half, and hitting those threes (in the second half) gave me more confidence. I got some open looks and was able to hit them and that gave us some breathing room.”
Erik Daniels, F
“We made too many mistakes tonight and I think that will just make us more hungry for the next game because we don’t want to have a letdown like that again.”
“Offensively, we weren’t too good day. Our big men weren’t real involved and we had to step it up on the defensive end to make up for that.”
“I always get fired up to guard the other team’s best player. Our coaches do a great job of scouting so we know what the other teams like to do an I just try to take that away.”
LSU Player Post-game Quotes
Ronald Dupree, F
On UK’s defense forcing turnovers…
“They get into the passing lanes effectively enough to cause turnovers and make a team timid. To counter that you have to make sure you’re sharp coming off the screens and catching the ball. We shouldn’t turn the ball over in one-on-one situations, like coming up the court. They’re just great at getting into passing lanes. They always get their hands up and tip balls.”
On UK’s run in second half…
“We were right there. The second half they kind of took off on us because they started knocking down their perimeter shots. (Keith) Bogans played solid. He was the only perimeter threat they had in the game until that stretch in the second half. If you eliminate the stretch they had with those threes, the game goes down to the wire. We wanted to keep it close to the end and we let it get away from us at the end.”
Collis Temple III, G
On UK’s strengths…
“They’re a very good defensive team, but I think we did it to ourselves today. Not taking anything away from the way they play defense, but we got the shots we wanted and didn’t make them.”
On UK’s second-half shooting…
“They started separating, but one thing I told our guys is that we couldn’t give up. That’s how we were able to make the run we did at the end. We kept on playing and scrapping. I think they’ve been beating teams by a 21 to 23-point average here and we weren’t going to let that happen.”
Torris Bright, G
On UK’s play…
“They help each other and they have great chemistry. They have great help-defense and teams that play help-defense are hard to drive and score on.”
