On how they bounced back after last week’s loss to Texas A&M … 

“We’re committed to getting better defensively and we really took a step forward there I believe. I’m real proud of them. They put a lot of energy and effort into the preparation for Georgia. We have a lot of respect for Georgia. They have some very good players, well-coached and we were just able to kind of jump on them today and get the upper hand quickly. I’m just real excited with the outcome of today’s game. Great win for us.”

On the kind of changes he’s seen in Evelyn in the last two weeks … 

“Well sitting here a week ago, I just felt like we lacked energy. We lacked some vocal energy when it kind of got tough in that Texas A&M game and I think we talked about it. I think we just responded poorly to what was a really close-tight game. We just kind of withdrew into ourselves. So, we were able to meet with every single player and Evelyn just said she was going to do better and be a better leader. She was going to work harder to lead. She was not going to let herself get so down and dejected over a missed shot or a foul or some mistake. She just came out Tuesday, gathered the team and talked with the team. She started early in the week just trying to have a great attitude and have a great spirit of leadership and I think it was more her mental outlook and her emotional stability this week that allowed her. She just looks in rhythm and she just looks a little bit more calm out there and I think of lot of it is because of her attitude.

On the aggressiveness she showed in the first quarter and if that is what he envisioned when she (Evelyn) first got here … 

“I think so and she really today put on a display of skill. She had some good reads today. She made some great shots and made some great plays. Then you have to credit her teammates. They really worked to get her the ball. We got her the ball with under ten seconds on the shot-clock a lot of times and scored at the end of the clock because we were patient. So, you have to give her teammates a lot of credit too.”

On the strength of the conference and how he was able to get them to play to their potential in the last two games after falling out of the polls … 

“Of all the things that have happened around here the polls have never been really anything that really motivated us or me and I wasn’t really even aware of it. We just know what we believe this team is capable of and we try to set out as a coaching staff and as players to be more aggressive this week and just to work harder. So, that was not a factor as far as using that as motivation if anyone thought about it and used it as extra focus that’s fine. But, I certainly didn’t talk about it. We’re just talking about while they’re here trying to make the most of their experience, trying to become the very best player they can be, very best student and very best person and I didn’t feel like we were playing with the kind of effort, energy and enthusiasm we really needed and I think that was the biggest difference this week. As, the players did that and they practiced really hard and we got better.

On today’s crowd … 

“We had a great crowd today. It was alumni day. I was so excited that we played well on alumni day. We’ve had tremendous support. This city has been so supportive and all the people in Big Blue Nation have been so supportive. So, we’re really appreciative of the support that we get.”

On changes she’s made in the last two games…

“I would say in practice, we as a team talk. Like I said the last game, we talk as a team and told each other that it has been awhile since we have actually had fun. I had a meeting with Coach Mitchell, everybody does, and he told me that I need to step up my energy and that I lost my mental focus. I think that my mental focus, and also in practice we are playing. It all started in practice, playing as a team and we just went at it against our practice players and that gave us confidence for the game.”  

On promising Coach Mitchell to get better…

“Before the game today, Coach Mitchell reminded me that I promised to get better and I told him that I got him. I promised him that I would bring the energy no matter what happens in the game. I would use speed and post up— that was my promise.”

On being up by 30 in the first half…

“I don’t think we were surprised. One thing Makayla and Coach Mitchell say is that we need to keep playing. We just need to keep going at it. We weren’t worrying about the points, we just needed to get better and treat the game like we were practicing.” 

On seeing Evelyn elevate as a player…    

“It’s great as a team, and especially when you have the shooter and they have to send four people on her. It’s easier for us, so I don’t complain about it.” 

On opponents finding it hard to double team… 

“Definitely. In practice we practiced it a lot, her expecting to get double teamed. I like when they lead.”  

On playing without a mask… 

“Obviously that mask was not ideal, but I am very thankful that they did that for me because I was in a lot of pain at that time. I was very thankful that they got that for me but, it’s a lot better to not wear it. The first mask that I wore at Tennessee I was not able to really see at all. I could see a little, but peripheral vision wasn’t great. The one they made for me was better. Still not great, but it was better, much better.”

On having consistency with the past few games… 

“I think it’s big for our confidence. Makayla and Evelyn brought us together in practice and said that we need to come together. We want to win. We don’t want to fall back any, and I think that we were just motivated in practice. Like Coach said, I think this is where we got a lot of our confidence and the games are where we got to show it.” 

On the difficult play in the SEC…

“I always say that the SEC top to bottom is the best conference in the nation. Night in, night out, if you don’t show up ready to go, you’re going to get beaten and embarrassed really and I said that. I think for our team playing a really tough game on the road Thursday where we showed very well and had a chance to win in the end, then coming back today – I’m not sure how mentally prepared they were as much as we have talked about. We have a young team. We have kids that have never been on the floor before. We have situations on the road back-to-back. It showed early. We have gotten off to slow starts and we have been able to recover from that, but tonight we didn’t. I think Evelyn (Akhator) scored the first six or eight points and Kentucky never looked back and we didn’t have answer for them in the first half.”

On the resiliency of the team…

“Kentucky is really good and they were clicking on all cylinders today, but our next step for this team was to handle the loss and come back today and compete, play well and be locked into the game plan and we didn’t do that.”

On double teaming Evelyn…

“We were going to play her 1-on-1 and if that didn’t work, we were going to double her and that is what we did. I think in the third and fourth quarters we did a much better job of that. Again, you have a different situation and you have doubled before but in this situation, Kentucky has Macy Morris on the perimeter, 22 (Makenzie Cann) comes in, it’s hard to double off of those players. It is not as easy to double those players as it is some of the other teams we have in the past.”

On Kentucky’s pick and roll defense and offense…

“They know what they’re looking for and they execute it very well. Any mistake we’re going to make, you know they’re going to capitalize on it. We just made too many mistakes. For us offensively we wanted to get the ball inside and we didn’t do that. With Caliya, we were fading away from the basket. We weren’t taking it out of them. We just got out of sync and that is something where we have to weather the storm and continue to fight and stick to the game plan.”

On whether the frustration of players led to bad play…

“I think you know they’re frustrated. It’s frustration at themselves, or it should be. I think they put themselves in bad positions defensively and they have no choice to foul. They pass up on the first shot and shoot a forced shot, and so we’ve got to be mature enough to do what we do in practice. Sometimes we get into games and we don’t do the things that are worked on in practice. You could see they were frustrated and their play is more frustrating than anything.”

On getting the team to play after being down by such a large deficit…

“The message at half time was about your effort and energy. The third and fourth quarter was about your effort and your energy. We wanted to win the third and fourth quarter and we did. We came out and played much harder. We were more locked in and we won the third and fourth quarter, which is what we wanted to do so the game wouldn’t continue on that streak, and I thought they played with great energy. We just couldn’t overcome the deficit that we put ourselves in.”