Jan. 28, 2010
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Kentucky Head Coach Matthew Mitchell
Opening statement …
“Our team earned this win tonight. It was a very difficult night. LSU has a very good basketball team. We’re excited to have been able to come down here and get a good win through a lot of hard work and a lot of hustle.”
On what was said at halftime after LSU tied the score …
“We talked about the first 16 minutes that we had done a great job. We told the players that’s how good LSU is; in four minutes, 16 minutes of hard work could go away. We wanted to try to focus the best we could on four-minute segments in the second half. Our whole thing the entire time was to try to out-work the Tigers tonight. We tried to play with a lot of heart and a lot of energy.”
On how big of a win this was for Kentucky …
“It’s a big win for our team. We had not had much success on the road in the league. If you have any aspirations of going to the NCAA tournament, you need to win games on the road. To come in and beat a quality team that we have a lot of respect for is great for our program and great for our place in the standings.”
On what led to their successful run in the second half …
“I thought we did it on the defensive end, and the big key was finishing plays. We were able to get some rebounds that were very tough; LSU is a powerful rebounding team. We were able to get a few loose balls. Our team has to outhustle people; we have to work harder than people. I thought our players never stopped believing. I told them to not let the fact that LSU was making a run bother us and keep believing. I credit the players. They got out there and made plays tonight, and made shots and defensive plays. It was a great effort for our team.”
On ending the drought against LSU …
“It’s nice, but that’s low on the list of priorities. We needed this win for this particular team. This particular team hadn’t lost 15 or 16 in a row. This particular team had never lost to LSU. We need to get a one-game winning streak just for this season. Our players have done an unbelievable job of working hard and getting themselves in top physical condition and fundamentally sound and it’s paying off for them now. We had some big wins this season, and this is a big one. The way life is in the SEC we’ll have to put this one behind us pretty quickly and stay humble and hungry and get back to work and try to win another one on Sunday.”
