On this week’s games against Tennessee and Auburn …“Well, I will tell you that I think both programs probably have surprised all of us coaches in the league in that what they’ve done and how they’ve played this year. And both done it different ways. I mean, Tennessee playing an aggressive, attacking zone and an open offense and driving the ball and Auburn pressing and being physical and beating you on the bounce and offensive rebounding. Going on the road and winning in this league, which is really difficult, both of those teams have done that. Like I said, this league, top to bottom, we’re there. We’re literally there. I’m so happy. I was so happy to see an article say, ‘You can say it over and over. It doesn’t make it true.’ And that people now are realizing that we got a bunch of teams. And just because we’re beating each other does not make us weak. It means we’re really strong. Every game is coming down to a one-bucket game, including our games.”On how much he works with Alex Poythress during his recovery …“Well, I’m not doing anything with him because they just tell me when the bus leaves. I’m not the physical therapist and the trainer and all that stuff. Now they tell me how far along he is. My thing to Alex all the time is, does it still hurt? Does it really hurt when you have to stretch? Because Brad went through it. I know how painful it is. And he says, ‘Yes, it’s killer.’ I said, ‘Lovely, it’s exactly what you need. It’s exactly the thing that’s going to get you to that next point in your career. Just saw him this morning, asked him how his knee was. He said, ‘I’m doing better, Coach.’ So, great kid.”On how much he includes Poythress in team activities …“He comes with the team and he’s at meetings and all those things. I mean, it’s hard. Ask Willie. Last year when he gets hurt in the NCAA Tournament run, if you’re not in the fray, you’re in the back lines, you’re watching with binoculars, it’s hard. They come back, you don’t feel what they feel. You didn’t have the same emotion that they had. But he’s doing great.”On what lessons he took from long unbeaten runs at Memphis and UMass …“Well, the reality of it is the kids have to manage those things. It’s not me because I’m not out there on the court. But I’ve got one job, and my first time we did this at UMass, I knew we were slipping. But we kept winning so I put my head in the sand. I was just like, ‘Let these guys go do their thing.’ And I had done it years before we went that because we went on win streaks in previous years – 17, 15, whatever they were at UMass – and what you get as a coach, you win and you want to move on to the next game and you try to put your head in the sand when you have issues that you gotta deal with. I did a little bit of the same but got better at Memphis. I’m trying really hard not to do that here, to do my job, to correct them, to be tough on them, to not worry about score and coach them. But it’s hard. They’re looking at me like, ‘We’re up 25 and haven’t lost and you’re losing your mind.’ My point being, if I allow it now then I gotta allow it in March. And if in March I allow it and it costs us a game, that’s on me. That’s not on these kids. And so I’m trying really hard to just stay focused on what’s at hand. Don’t put my head in the sand. If there’s issues, I bring them out. If there’s issues in the team that I’m not liking what I feel, I bring them out. Even if I’m wrong, I bring them out. Let’s talk about this. And they’ll, ‘Look, Coach, you’re just dreaming. What were you doing? You’re reading a book and things pop in your mind? We’re fine.’ So that’s the kind of stuff that we do and what I’m continuing to do. These kids, I don’t think they’re worried about, let’s try to win every game. They’re worried about trying to win the next game and how do we play. My message to this team is going to be real simple. Today, it’s going to be, our strength is in the pack, more than any team that I’ve ever coached. And I’ve coached a lot of good teams. More than any team I’ve coached, the strength is in the pack. And I said, ‘It doesn’t mean we don’t have some aggressive, tough wolves that’ll come after you.’ But by themselves, they’re not the same. In the pack, we have a little swag about us. We’re a little more aggressive. We’re really about each other. Guys aren’t afraid to step out and risk. This team more than others–when you had Anthony (Davis) or John (Wall) or DeMarcus (Cousins) and I could go back to Marcus Camby and Derrick Rose and Lou Roe and some of the guys we had. Tyreke Evans. You know, we were a good and we were efficient, but we knew that one guy could go do this and carry us. That’s not what we have. The strength of this team is in the pack.”On Anthony Davis talking to Willie Cauley-Stein at LSU and whether he arranged it …“No, but here’s what’s great about it. All our players that went through here are watching this team, and they want to help. They want the team to be great. But the best thing that Anthony did – instead of just talking to (Cauley-Stein), he came to the game and watched him. So there’s B.S., that ‘You did this’ or ‘I tried this’ or this or that. There’s no B.S. If you want to do this, this is what you have to be or you can’t do that. What I’m doing here, you can’t be in this thing. And so then it’s – I can say it all I want. Anthony Davis is busting up against being the best player in the NBA. And he comes back, he talked to Karl Towns. He grabbed Karl after the game and told him. It means something coming from me, but coming from those guys is huge.”On if leaving one day early could impact UK’s normal routine …“Well, you must know me well. I’m a creature of habit. For however many years I’ve been a head coach we’ve done it the same way. Offense is different, defense is different, players are different, but what we do as a family, how we travel, how are meals are, is very consistent. This was a change. We had no choice. Today, you’re right, my concern is how do we do this and not get off point? So, we’re going to go over this afternoon and do shooting and individual work. We have the main arena from 12-2, but we’re only going to be there for about an hour and it’s not going to be knocking each other out. But if I let them go all day, and they’re going to sleep, and we get up to eat, and they go back to sleep, and then they sleep all night, then they get up for breakfast, and then they go back to sleep, and then we go to a shootaround and they go back to sleep, we will be sleepwalking in that game Tuesday. So, we’re going to come back and practice later today, probably 4 o’clock, 5 o’clock, have a great meal, let them lay around, have a meeting and try to get back to the rhythm of what we do. But, yes, I’m a creature of habit. I’m meatloaf and potatoes, unless they don’t have it, then I may try a steak.”