“When the (Georgia-Tennessee) game ended, guys told me – I didn’t watch the game – but when it ended I put on the tape of our game with them, and the guy that won the game for us was Dom (Hawkins). The way he played, how he changed the complexion of the game and the things that he did. And the other guy was Mike Mulder making some shots because we had a bunch of guys that couldn’t make a shot. But, look, Georgia has – both games – when I watched the tape, I didn’t realize that it was like that. Because you have a vision that we won by eight. What? We were down with 50 seconds to go. I mean, so, I know how good they are. I know how well coached they are. (Yante) Maten is back playing. You know what, he’s one of the better four/threes in our league and a 20-point scorer, so it’ll be a war. They all are at this time. I called it. I said, when you look at all these games, they’re all going to be decided late in the game because our league, we have 11 teams in the top 100. I think we have six in the top 50. Well, teams lost. How about Missouri? How about them fighting for their coach, which I thought was outstanding. It’s going to be a heck of a tournament for people to watch.”

“Good. Well, we just—I’m emphasizing some different things that we want, in this postseason, what we want to look like. And I always come back to: This tournament is our way of getting ready (for the NCAA Tournament). It’s our way of getting ready and every one of these teams is capable of beating us. We know that. This is about, how are we getting in a frame of mind of how you’re going to have to play in another week.”

“We went 45 minutes today. We spent about 30 minutes here and then it’s just, other than maybe coming in the evenings, we may not get back to a basketball court. And that’s if we’re lucky enough to win.”

“We didn’t have much film because we didn’t know who we were playing, so the only film that I put up was some film of us offensively of what I liked and this is what we’re trying to get to. I wanted them to see us at our best, so there were some clips in some games that we really got some great movement and yet attacked the basket and got to the rim. I just wanted them to see that. Now today Georgia played every possession zone. They played every possession zone. They played two possessions against us last time zone. So now do they come out and play zone? I don’t know. I don’t know. And that’s why walking in there you don’t know what a coach is going to try to do. I think Georgia’s in (the NCAA Tournament). I can’t imagine when they’re talking about some of these other teams being in. Then Georgia’s in. But, you know, they’ve done it with Maten out. They’ve done some good stuff.”

“Just that you see a cohesive team that’s patient yet attacking, that’s aggressive, that’s not on their heels waiting. They’re trying to make things happen. That’s who we should be. And the only way you get that is your team plays with high energy. And that means individuals. The greatest thing about Dom: We all know he will play with high energy. So if you look out there and someone’s not, you’re out. The same thing, you got Wenyen (Gabriel) and you got Derek (Willis). If that doesn’t work, maybe you go Mychal. Mychal’s been playing well. So we got enough guys, but at this time of the year there should be nothing else you’re thinking about other than, man, I’m going to play hard. I’m going to play with unbelievable energy. You’re not holding anything back right now. The same thing, you got Wenyen (Gabriel), you got Derek  (Willis). If that doesn’t work maybe you go Mychal. Mychal’s been playing well. We got enough guys, but at this time of the year there should be nothing else you’re thinking about other than, ‘Man, I’m gonna play hard. I’m gonna play with unbelievable energy.’ You’re not holding anything back right now.”

“He gets to his left hand and because of his size he really accelerates on layups. In other words, he’s not slowing down. He accelerates and lofts that ball up and it’s a hard things for a big guy to guard when you’re trying to move your feet to stay in front. The other thing is he can shoot that 3 behind it, so you go under or let’s do this, it’s a hard thing. And he’s a good player. I mean, you look at our league, he’s one of the best in the league.”

“You know, it’s funny, I watched this tape. Guess what? We got down early. I watched Tennessee back home, I was on the elliptical, and I wanted to see it at home where we won by 20-something. We were down early that game, too. So obviously whatever I’m trying is not working.”

“They gotta be responsible. They gotta come early. We have an hour to get loose. Get loose. You got an hour. Get up early, have a nice breakfast, don’t go back to sleep, get ready. This is about your responsibility about yourself to our team. So, yeah, I don’t feel that we’ll shootaround. Again, we’re just worried about winning one game – this first one. And it’s going to be a very hard game for us. We know that.”

“Well, I would say every one of my teams, none of them reached their full potential. But what you’re doing as a coach is you’re striving for it. And if they’re striving to be better, then at the end of the day when the season ended, you got them as far as they could go at that point. Now, if you had them longer – how about if I had them two years? How about if I had them three years? You don’t, so this is what it is. You’re trying to just keep them on that path of growing and this team is. I look at each individual player, they’re playing better than they have ever here. Basically that means they’re playing better than they have in their career. See, some of them, ‘Well, I was a high school player, I was able to –’ ‘You’re not in high school, Dorothy.’ And if you think you’re going to that man’s league, No Boys Allowed [NBA]. No Boys Allowed. You better understand what you did in AAU out in Vegas ain’t working in that league. When I look at them, every one of them has gotten better. Every one of them has improved. Now, alright, are we ready to just swarm and scramble and play with great energy, and pass the ball and fly up and down the court? I’d rather have a team that doesn’t run a whole lot of plays, just go, move the ball, create good shots for each other. If it’s a dead ball and you have to, OK, we’ll run something. But every year you’re looking, you want to be your best all season at that time and this team is starting to get there. Are they where they need to be? I probably would say I never would be satisfied.”

“I mean, I really can’t feel (any other) feeling but be happy and blessed God put me in this situation. Just me listening to Coach put me in that situation, too. I’m just blessed to be here.”

“I’m not going to say nobody is better than me. I’m going to say I’m the one. But he’s a great player. We played against each other. We both competed against each other. So, we’re both great players.”

“Today, I came into practice a while ago and they told me I had like five awards from yesterday. I didn’t even know. Deb (Moore) and Eric (Lindsey) do a nice job of keeping me well-grounded with all that information.”

“I feel like the overall year was pretty good. Had some ups and downs. I think I could have done better, but the new season is here. Tournament time. I just gotta focus in even more.”

“It’s bad news for every team coming up because I think our team is focused. We’re all focused and we’re coming in focused from the jump. I think it’s going to be a new team the whole tournament.”

“Oh yeah, no energy. I didn’t have any kind of energy or none of that. Basically, yeah, I was not engaged. But young players, every player has up-and-down games, so I just gotta move from that, learn from the mistakes and try to get better.”

“No, our personal preparation will be the same. We’ll just get up even earlier than we’re used to, have shootaround and stuff like that earlier. I think we’ll just do the same things.”

“We didn’t have one at Texas (A&M) and we didn’t have one (vs.) UCLA. Those are the only two games we didn’t have shootarounds, but UCLA I think I played pretty good. Then the Texas game was horrible. I think we need shootarounds, for sure. I think we need shootarounds.”

“More focus. More focus on the game plans and stuff like that. People aren’t sleepy or anything like that. I think shootarounds are best.”

“We’ll have to get up at 6 (a.m.). It’ll be 7 here. Gotta get used to it. But we’re going to have to play at 12, so it’s just something we have to adjust to.”

“I think being patient is the biggest key. If you’re patient, you’ll see the open play. So me being patient, I just try to make the best play all the time. That’s all I try to do.”

“It’s hard beating teams two or three times if you play them. But they’re going to be way more game planned than we were and we’re going to be way more game planned than we were before. We’re just going to have to come down and compete and listen to Cal and I think we should be alright.”

“Probably my preparation. Probably my preparation in practice. I just gotta take way more game shots. I think that’s the biggest key, and focusing in warmups, too.”

“Cal sets me up well. He gets me the ball as much as I want. I’m just trying to execute out there because I’m getting the ball. It’s a great honor. A lot of greats have come through Kentucky, and me being named one of the best, like I said, I’m just blessed to be here.”

“We don’t even talk about the postseason. We’re just worried about this practice today and figuring out tomorrow and whoever we’re playing Friday. We don’t talk about anything like that.”

“Yeah, for sure. The SEC Tournament and tournament time you always have to tighten stuff up. Cal told me if you’re down 15-2 in the SEC Tournament or the NCAA Tournament we’re not coming back because that’s a team that grinds the ball out, knows how to stall. We just gotta come in there focused.”

“No. I didn’t come here to win awards. I am just trying to win.”

“Well, this is our first practice coming back together. We’ll see. Just things to talk about. That’s about it right now.”

“Nah. Every game is still–I just wanted to go in with every game being important. Now the stakes are higher so I just want to approach every game the same right now.” 

“Just it’s different. Everyone plays harder just because, I mean, not this tournament, but the next tournament, you know, it’s win or go home.”

“Well, we had a few days off. So, just being able to get treatment and just try to get as healthy as I can.” 

“I don’t know. I don’t have words for it.” 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I am just trying to get back on court. I mean, the next game, this practice, just get on the court and play as hard as I can. Not worry about anything else.” 

On playing Georgia or Tennessee … 

“Both Georgia’s games, the one I didn’t play in and the one I played, were both close. Tennessee, they beat us up there and came here and we blew them out. But, it doesn’t matter who we play. We just are going to be ready for whoever wins that game.” 

“Just the level of intensity some. Even the games we started off slow, we picked up the intensity somehow, someway and I think just in this winning streak, it is just how hard we have been playing.”  

“Well, in practice we have started off as slow as we have the three games. But, it is really just something that happens in a game. You can work on as much as you want in practice. Just, getting in the game is different than practice.” 

“Well, the coaches talk about, you know, getting down like that in the tournament. It is a lot tougher to come back. But, it is just something that, we are trying not to play from behind. ” 

“Just come ready to play. Got to be ready to play every game. I mean, like I said, not this tournament, but the NCAA Tournament is win or go home. So, teams are just going to come play harder and we are not trying to match their intensity. We are trying to come out with more intensity than they are.” 

“Just being able to control the pace of the game. KP (Kenny Payne) has always got me watching like guys like John (Wall), Kyrie (Irving), Kyle Lowry and how they just control the game, control the pace of the game. It is just something I have to work on trying to do, especially at this time of the year. ” 

“I don’t know. I’m not sure how good we can be. I mean, we know we can be great, so we’re just trying to practice and keep getting better.” 

“I mean, (Calipari has) been through this a lot and he keeps saying sometimes we still don’t know who we are yet, even this far in the season. We’re still young. We’re still figuring out who we are and we’re just trying to keep getting better. And once we figure out who we are, I think that’s when we’re going to be able to peak as a team.” 

“Yeah yeah. When he’s talking to us he seems excited. He seems upbeat, so we all know he’s excited. We can’t let him be too excited or more excited than we are just because we’re the ones out there playing. We’re the ones out there having to execute. “

“They talked about it, but I’ve seen it on TV watching it. It’s always a lot of blue there.”

“It’s just the way we’ve been playing. It’s just so he doesn’t have to fight the bigs all the time, and that’s what kind of got him a lot of offensive fouls earlier in the season. It’s just the way we have him play. He’s able to catch the ball without having to fight so much. It’s just him working on his game. He’s been able to put the ball in the basket. He’s hitting his free throws. After putting him in the position, it’s what he does and he’s been able to. He’s been playing well.”

“We always talked about it. When we get in the lane, it makes everything easy for us rather than just kick out 3s. Getting layups, dunks, or lobs to Bam, it just makes the whole game easy when our guards are able to touch the paint.” 

“I mean, I’ve always been confident with it. Just I haven’t been going in most of the season, but I know I can shoot. I shot the ball well in high school, so it’s something to just keep working on and eventually it will fall.”

“No, we just worry about the next game. Just worrying about this practice today.”

“I expect it to be loud, fun and full of passion.”

“They said it’s just like Rupp when we play. We’re just going to go out there and have fun and compete.”

“Just get a good experience from it since it’s a neutral site. We’re going to have fun, we’re going to compete and we’re going to figure out what we need to do.”

“Not that I know of. We switch our practices up a lot from different teams we play, so I couldn’t tell you.”

“We’re just going go out there. It’s going to be a hard-fought game, and we’re just going to go out there and play.”

“No, I just felt myself getting better, making more shots and I was getting more comfortable in our offense. I was just having fun with my teammates.”

“I changed my diet a little bit, lighter on my feet. I got more stamina, and it’s helping me.”

“I’m just going to keep my same routine, work on everything that I can while I’m in the gym and hope it keeps processing.”