Jan. 19, 2012

Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 

Kentucky Head Coach Matthew Mitchell

On the game:
“It was a really great game. Hats off to Georgia being down a couple of players, especially losing their point guard for a game like this puts them in a difficult situation. I thought they competed and were extremely well-coached, as always, so it was a tough game for us. I’m really proud of our team for fighting once again from behind on the road and finding a way to win. It’s just a real testament to our team each and every night.”

On the defense:

“The press was just not there tonight. Georgia did a great job. We were not aggresive enough in it. When we called time out, I hated to do it but I had to take the press off. I just told them to see if we could get some energy in the half-court defense. That really worked. The players somehow had a little more confidence in their half-court defense. That happens sometimes in a long season, so thank goodness we were able to spark a rally with our half-court defense. I thought the story of the game was we turned the turnovers around. We were 10 to their four in the first half and then they were 10 to our six in the second half. I think we are a double-digit turnover team as far as forcing that in a half and we got that going with our half-court defense.”

Georgia Head Coach Andy Landers

On tonight’s game:

“It was a gutsy performance. We were really short-handed against the team that plays the most players in our conference. I was pleased with the way our kids made plays offensively. I thought they were very good at times and executed well. Kentucky was able to make adjustments as the game went on that made them even more effective. Defensively, we didn’t disrupt enough. We weren’t as effective as we could have been and that resulted in some drives to the basket. It was a good effort.”

On the pace of the game:
“We couldn’t prepare for the pace of the game. We took Monday and Tuesday off and just talked about the game. We felt it would be a fast-paced game. We felt like both teams would want to do that in different ways. It ended up being a chess game of half-court defenses.”

On lessons from the game:
“We understand that we have the ability to make plays and do things offensively. On defense, when we are playing zone you have to disrupt the other team. You can’t stay back and wait for them to do whatever it is they want to do.”