Kentucky Women’s Basketball Postgame Quotes
Kentucky vs. Tennessee Tech
Memorial Coliseum– Lexington, Ky.
Dec. 3, 2017
UK Coach Mathew Mitchell
Opening Statement …
“Great victory for the team today. Did not have a lot of time to get ready for this game so we just tried to make it about hustle and getting better. I thought Tennessee Tech played so hard and aggressive, they really gave us a great effort today and our players had to respond and I thought they did. I’m proud of them. We are a work in progress, we have to keep working and try to improve but really proud about the effort today. “
On if the team’s mental focus meets what he has wanted to see …
“We said in the locker room at Baylor if we let that get us down or we were negative, if we did anything besides just learn the lessons and just make that game about the lessons learned and areas to improve. If we would do that we were going to have a positive experience. You can turn that into a negative if you want to. It’s just not that time of the year for our post players to be ready to operate at a high level in that game. We just took all the positives we could. We were very clear on what we want to improve on and we’re not backing down from that. The outlook of the team and their mental approach I was really proud of them. They are a great group of kids, a hardworking group and I was proud of the way that they bounced back but I’m not shocked.”
On the rebounding effort today …
“I was really happy with that. We need to work hard and be a tough rebounding team. Alyssa Rice is setting a great example for the rest of our team. She’s going as hard as she can as a player. She’s jumping as high as she can she’s grabbing the ball and trying to clear those boards. I saw all three of our young post players doing that throughout the day. I was really pleased with that.”
On the team’s shooting performance …
“Our starters are really shooting the ball great. Everybody is doing a good job and that’s good and important. We’re not operating at full capacity right now defensively we just need some more reps. It’s really great to see the ball go in the basket, though.”
On Tennessee Tech being able to stay competitive in the second half …
“I thought Tennessee Tech was battling all day and playing really hard. In the fourth quarter we were able to get a lot of our younger players in the game. We were able to get them extended minutes and that was really important for them to get that experience than for us to be concerned with what the score was. We don’t have a lot of practice time over the next week. Today was extremely valuable for us to get us a cushion to go in and work on some things.”
UK Student Athletes
#24 Taylor Murray, G
On her rebounding this season …
“Everyday Coach Mitchell talks about it. I’m not the get-back person, but my other job is to go down and get the ball. If they’re not boxing me out, then that’s my other opportunity. But just for us to get an extra possession, to get another shot clock, if we can get another good shot. Just go to the glass, if they don’t box me out I’m going to go get that rebound.”
On the team rebounding from the loss at Baylor …
“I agree with Maci. When we got back here we focused a lot on shooting, just trying to get back into that flow. We had practice Saturday where we kept shooting and shooting. Shooting shots that we knew would go in, and it went in today.”
On Maci’s shooting …
“One thing we do every day in practice is we have a shooting competition and she always wins. That helps too because in games she’s going to have to make those shots so it just builds up her confidence. Like Tennessee Tech’s coach said, she’s very smart. As her point guard, I know what she wants to do if she likes flaring or curling up. I can try to get that good pass to her, get in the pocket for the shot to go in.”
On what the team needs to improve on defensively …
“Dribble and drives. We’re up there playing defense, but they’re getting way too close (to the offensive player). But we’re getting driven on way too much. If we could contain them, it would help everyone out. We wouldn’t have to screen as much and we could get a rebound and a push.”
#4 Maci Morris, G
On bouncing back from Baylor …
“We knew Baylor was a great team. We don’t like to focus on the negatives so we focus on the positives. We knew we had to come back and beat Tennessee Tech. They gave us a good game, they played hard. We knew we had to focus, clean up a few things here and there like we always do after games. We really don’t want to dwell on the negative aspects of games unless we’re trying to clean up some things. We just try to keep looking forward.”
On the bench players coming in and doing well …
“I think they did a great job rebounding. Taytana (Wyatt) and Dorie (Harrison) just really went and caught the ball. They have to work a little more on finishing, but they went and really got the ball on defense and offense.”
On Tennessee Tech’s coach described her as “smart”…
“To me, just knowing the game; how to read screens and cuts. For me to make smart passes, my teammates have to make smart cuts. So, Taylor’s my backdoor option and I have to make sure I get it to her. Just knowing when I can shoot, just playing smart and knowing where different things fit in.”
On the team regaining confidence offensively today …
“It is important to build everybody’s confidence up. At Baylor we went 0-14 in the third quarter and that hurt us a lot in that game. Just to see everybody’s shot flying, it just builds our confidence and gets it back up to where it needs to be.”
On self-improvement …
“I’ve always taken pride in my offense. I think I’m most proud of how far my defense has come. It’s still not where it needs to be, but just from where it was when I first arrived to campus to where it is now, I’m proud of that. And how hard I’ve worked on that and how much my coach and teammates have pushed me.”
On what needs more work …
“Probably my defense. That and being more patient. Coach (Lin) Dunn preaches to me to slow down and wait on the screen. So I just have to be more patient and not rush some things.”
Tennessee Tech Head Coach Kim Rosamond
On most of her team being underclassman…
“Well, we have got nine new kids, seven that are freshman and two junior college players. So, our future is extremely bright. We came here about 20 months ago to try to rebuild this thing into an OVC power and we are working really hard to do that and I think we have the kids in our locker room to do that. So, when I look at the future and then I also look at the growth, not the results necessarily, but when I look at the growth that these kids have had these last five games and I know what is ahead of them, I am very encouraged. I know that we are going to take these lessons that we have learned this last month and we are going to apply them when we get to December 28th because that is when it gets real. We have got to be ready when season play starts, but we have got to play strong in December. Our young kids have been forced to grow up and play a lot of minutes and I think they have done that. So, I think that if Mackenzie Coleman can play like she did today against a Kentucky, and Kesha Brady, who her fight – I can’t say enough about her fight in the second half – it was contagious for us. Those kids are growing up and then you add a senior like Yaktavia Hickson, who woke up in the second half and lead our young team like we need her to. I think her future is very bright, and while our record doesn’t look like we want it to right now, I am very encouraged being what it is.”
On her next stretch of home games…
“No question. The schedule was what it was. Some of it we inherited. Some of it we added to it. Wasn’t ideal being on the road this much early, but I can tell you our kids have been forced to grow up from it and we will take it and we will learn from it. But we are absolutely looking forward to getting home to Cookeville and the Elben Center.”
On what benefits their schedule has for them…
“I think, first of all, we have played five teams that I think will be in the NCAA tournament. I mean, I think Kentucky, they’re young, I know you lost two pros last year, two very, very good players, but I think as they go through the season… I watched what Coach Mitchell did with a short roster last year and I thought it was one of his best coaching jobs and he has had a lot of really good teams here. I was in the SEC for nine years and I thought last year was maybe his best coaching job that he has done here and I know that he will do the same with this young basketball team this year. You got to Middle Tennessee. You go to Georgia. We battled Georgia to eight points on their home floor. A Wright State team that I think has a great chance to win their league that is just offensively really tough to defend and I don’t think the score was indicative of how well we played them. So, we have played very, very high-level competition. So, a lot of things that we needed to work on have been exposed and had we not played that schedule we might not have found out before December 28th what we needed to work on. And I think we have really, our young kids have really stepped up and got some valuable minutes during this stretch.”
On Jordan Brock adds to the team…
“Well, first of all, I am really excited about Jordan. I think Jordan is going to be a very special player for us, and I have coached some really outstanding shooters, especially during my time at Vanderbilt and I don’t know that I have seen any kid that is any better shooter than what Jordan Brock is. And I think what Jordan has done over this last month is, at this level, you start taking that way from you. So, I think what Jordan has learned over this last month is starting to understand when to attack off the dribble, what to do when those teams take her 3 away. And you saw her tonight. She played a good bit of point for us tonight against some really tough competition and I thought she did a great job with that. I thought she handled the ball extremely well. But I think she has a very, very bright future at Tennessee Tech.”
On playing two SEC teams in the same week…
“I am all about our kids having an experience and our kids want to play top-level competition. So, I can’t say that it was planned on our part. It just kind of fell. Scheduling is a really crafty deal and sometimes it just falls like it does. So, you know, I think being able to be in this environment and being able to compete against teams like Kentucky and Georgia, if we can compete in environments like this, there is not an environment on the road that we are going to go to that we are not ready to play. We have got some good teams in our league. I don’t have to tell you guys about Belmont. Belmont is an outstanding team and we have to be ready to go on the road and play against Belmont and an environment like today prepares us for that.”
On Maci Morris and how valuable she is for Kentucky…
“No question. I actually watched Maci in high school, recruited her a little bit before she committed to Kentucky. So, you know, Maci has always been able to shoot the basketball, but I think what she is doing now is just reading so well. Maci has become such a smart basketball player and understanding how to score at this level. If you take one thing away from her, now she can counter and so I think she is a complete player. You can’t take the 3 away from her because she is able to score off the dribble. I think she is doing a really good job on a young basketball team and obviously they look for her and rely on her a lot.”
