“Well, proud of our players tonight. It sure was a great win. They came out with tremendous enthusiasm and energy on the defensive end, created a lot of turnovers early in the game that led to some fast-break points that got us off to a good start on a night where we were not sure what was going to happen. We were shorthanded. Everybody had to pick up the slack and they did. Proud of our players.” 

“I thought that we worked real hard Tuesday and Wednesday like we do every week to prepare. I thought our team was really prepared. I thought they just made some plays based off our preparation that let us get off to a great start. I think we were excited to be back at home. It was a tough road trip and they just played with tremendous energy. We were shooting a lot of lay-ups off of defensive pressure, and so I thought we were able to switch our defenses and keep them off balance and I thought that helped us some. It was a tremendous effort by our team and our players. Maybe they had a heightened sense of security because Makenzie (Cann) was out. That was a big blow to our rotation. Foul trouble could bother you and there are just so many things – but we just got off to that great start that really, really helped us.”

“We just thought she was sick. She was at practice Tuesday and everything seemed alright, and then she was feeling bad and went to the doctor and we thought maybe it was a cold or something. It was the flu. So, she had to go home and quarantined – away from the team, and we found that out late yesterday afternoon. Not a lot of time to prepare without her and we tried to get (Makayla) Epps and Maci (Morris) ready to go when we had to go without (Alyssa) Rice and Evelyn (Akhator). Then we told Jaida (Roper) and Paige (Poffenberger) to be ready. Paige was sick and out Tuesday and wasn’t real well yesterday, so when she made that 15-foot jumper it was a good contribution and she had some great passes tonight. So, everybody just turned it up, played hard and we were aggressive. We had been working on trying to work against pressure and our preparation really helped us tonight.”

“We’ve said for a long time that we are not large in numbers, but this is a high-character, quality group of young women who subscribe to the principles of honesty, hard work and discipline. They are not perfect. There is plenty for us to improve on, but they come in every day with their lunch pale and hard hat on and whatever other blue-collar adjective you want to use and go to work. I just told them how much we have improved since that Sunday afternoon in Knoxville. We just got killed on the boards, got outrebounded, got driven to on the basket, and this group since then has really, really taken it to heart, worked hard and improved. So, high character, hard work, and discipline – those things will give you a chance.”

“I don’t know that she is doing a lot different. She has been working on her shot and really working hard. I just think in a long season against good teams where people are trying to guard you and take things away from you, I just think you go through streaks and some times of struggle and one thing to her credit is she continues to bounce back. She continues to be resilliant. She had a lot of seven-, eight-point games there and kept grinding and kept grinding and has been guarding the other teams’ best perimeter player, getting on the glass. So, she’s a really good shooter and continued to work. I’d say she has been consistent and resilient and wants to be good.”

On what he saw from Evelyn Akhator in the game … 

“Evelyn is just playing with great poise and shooting the ball great. She is really aggressive, and you know, teams early on have tried to double-team and sag. These last three teams have sagged  to try and put pressure on you, and so that gives you opportunities to get north and south and she is just making great decisions, rebounding the ball, hustling, and-one plays. Just really giving a great effort.” 

“Well, the six that hung around – I loved them before it all happened, and loved them even more after it all happened. And then, the six that have joined up have really worked hard and so, listen we have a long way to go, so it’s not time to start writing any of our history yet. We’ve got a lot to do, but I love this group. I love this team. We are a collection of imperfect people that are very flawed, but you know, as a team we have come together. We can do some things and have some success. We’ve got a long way to go, really proud of them at the halfway point. We’ve got an extremely difficult second half ahead of us. We need to keep our mind on constant improvement, stay honest, hard working and disciplined, stay coachable and see how good we can be. I love this team.”

“Coach talks a lot about how it is not how you start the game, but it is how you finish. But just getting out to a good start, we talk about that all the time. Whenever the starting five huddles, I always say we know what we have to do to get off to a good start and I feel that once we get off to a good start we have more confidence and that leads to a good second quarter, a good third quarter, and so on and so forth. For us to just jump out on a very hard Ole Miss team like that, I am very proud of what the team did tonight.”

“It definitely feels good to be five in a row. We don’t try to look at rankings and standings and stuff like that. But, I told the team before SEC started that we wanted to be a top four seed so that we can get that double bye when it comes tournament time. You know, that really means something when it comes tournament time. So, we are just fighting to stay in the top. You know, a lot of people count us out. We took that early loss to Tennessee, lost one at home to Texas A&M and I think we were like 10th in like three games. I was like wow, you know, we are better than that. So, we have to start proving to people we are better than that. Now, we are sitting in the top three where I think we belong. We definitely belong in the top three. Like I said, it is not all about rankings and standings and stuff like that but that top four seed really means something.”

“Not necessarily difficult. He put me and Maci (Morris) a lot running the floor, like her running the floor on offense and me running the floor on defense. But, that stuff we do in practice too. So, you know, it was weird without Makenzie (Cann) being there and subbing in smaller players like Paige (Poffenberger) and Jaida (Roper). But, it is something we had to do. We had a little adversity, but it didn’t really tweak the game much.” 

“Yeah. He recruited me here at Kentucky. He recruited me really hard. There is a lot of love there, even when he left. Still kept in contact a little bit. He just told me to keep playing. We talked a little bit before the game. He wants to see me in the WNBA.” 

“We focus on that. Came in one game, it might have been Texas A&M, we took the loss at home. Nobody likes losing at home and we took the loss at home. Coach just always emphasizes that 50-50 plays are huge. So, now we do drills where we take a charge. You get right back up and you go on for a loose ball. Then, you turn around and box out. It is all continuous. So, just getting in your mind that the hustle, 50-50 plays are really are really important. I will have to see that play. I will have to make sure Coach shows that in our film session.” 

“I think it’s about the support of the team. And when he told me that he really needed me to speak out and Epps actually helped me out and Maci and Taylor, it gave me the confidence to talk more. I just feel it’s the team and having the chemistry to talk to each other and hold each other accountable, it gave me more confidence to talk when I wanted, when it’s right.”

“I think practice really helped us.”

“I just know my teammates need me. They don’t need me to be hanging my head and dwelling on myself. I mean I want to do everything for my teammates because I’m playing for my teammates. I just try to help them out as much as I can. If I’m not hitting shots, I’m trying to make up for it on the defensive end or some other aspect.”

“Yeah, especially with how my shooting has been going. Just having confidence in my teammates having confidence in me to be able to knock down shots it means a lot to me that they trust me like that.”

“Coach (John) Spurlock has done a really good job with us, especially me because I’m so little. They joke around and call me string bean. I have to be more aggressive when I go down low because I’m not as strong as Evelyn and Epps so I have to be more physical and aggressive and play maybe a little bit dirtier.”

“We didn’t have it. Kentucky did. We didn’t play very hard and when you don’t play hard you get your butt kicked. That is what happened tonight.”

“No, it was just not playing hard. We didn’t play hard offensively, we didn’t play hard defensively. We didn’t communicate with each other offensively and defensively. We come up here, thinking we have beaten Kentucky two years in a row. Trust me, they know that and they came out and played harder. It showed from the start. Every time Taylor Murray wanted to get a rebound, she got it. It was on the scout, she is one of the best rebounding point guards in the league and it showed tonight. Every time Makayla Epps wanted to get the basketball, she went and got it. Evelyn Akhator got every rebound. Offensively, we had 10 turnovers and I think it was 20 points off of those turnovers. It wasn’t like Kentucky was doing anything special to stop us. I coached here for five years. We used to turn people over 50 times. I think we turned Louisville over 42 times one time. Kentucky wasn’t pressing, they were just sitting back. We have to start figuring out that we have the blue jerseys on and we have to throw it to our teammates. We have to play hard.”

“We go back home and play Georgia. I mean, Georgia just got beat like this up here a couple of weeks ago. We have 13 wins. We have eight games left. We know what we have to do. We have put ourselves in this hole. We have a good team. I would love to play this game again. I would love to suit right back up and play again because I guarantee we will play better after the next two days of practice. I have never had a team not play hard and I didn’t think we played very hard. Kentucky played a lot more motivated than us and a lot harder than us. I will say one thing: Makayla Epps is a special player. She has been a special player in this league for four years. I have so much respect for that kid and I hope she has big things coming for her in the future. I hugged her at the end and I told her that I am very proud of her and how she has shaped her game. She has been a special player here at Kentucky and I hope people in this state continue to realize that because she is a special player.”

“Jen, you have seen my teams. Have you seen any of my teams not play hard? What did you think? We didn’t play hard. When you turn the ball over, you still have to sprint back. We didn’t do it and it’s the little things. We practiced really well Tuesday and Wednesday in practice and played extremely hard in the shoot around. Why don’t you bring it to the game? You do it against yourself. You did against those poor practice guys that you all beat to death. Do it here. Do it right here. Come out and attack them right here. Obviously our program is still building and we have a lot of things we have to learn, but playing hard has always been a staple of mine. I have never had a team that hasn’t played hard. I told our team after the game, ‘Where do we go from here? We have Georgia on Sunday, and if we don’t play hard we get our butts beat.’ We have got to get back and do some soul searching and figure out why we aren’t playing hard and correct it. Maybe I am playing someone that doesn’t play hard. I have to get them out and put someone in that will play hard. We had some kids in the second half that played harder. I challenged them at halftime to come out and played harder and they did. When you score six points in the quarter – I think Georgia came in here and did that last week – where they only scored four points in the quarter. You get down 20 – I don’t care who you are playing. We could have been playing Southern University – but you get down 20 and you’re going to get beat when you are on the road. That is just the stuff like that right there. Their kids played hard. Epps, the last play of the first half, she is an all-league player. She’s a player that is very talented and I keep bragging on Epps and I think she is the best player in our league. She’ll have my vote for every day of the week as best player in the league. The last play of the half, this is an all-league player and projected to be a top pick in the WNBA draft. There is a shot clock violation, why try to run in there and make a play? You know why? Because you are really good. Even though she didn’t make the play, she went after that ball, put her body on the line. I’m going to show our kids that play about 100 times over the next two days. It’s Epps just diving after a ball. Even though it was a shot clock violation, and she still put her body out there to get it. It’s playing hard. We had some kids that played hard. Shelby Gibson, a freshman, she did pretty good against their post players. Alissa Alston, sophomore, Madinah Muhammad, sophomore, those kids played hard. We had some kids play hard. Bree Glover, a freshman out of Kentucky, is learning getting better. She did good. We had some kids that did some good things. However, when you get down 20 or 30 points you are going to get beat.”