Kentucky Basketball Previews Texas A&M
UK MEDIA RELATIONS
MEN’S BASKETBALL
TEXAS A&M-UK PREGAME MEDIA
JAN. 8, 2018
JOE CRAFT CENTER – LEXINGTON, KY.
Joel Justus
On what’s gone on after Coach John Calipari’s comments on toughness and the loss at Tennessee …
“I think what it always starts with is some self-reflection, collectively as a team but also individually. I think Cal might have mentioned that last night or today. The guys that we were talking about – that we were concerned about toughness and that Cal was concerned about toughness – we watched the game with them individually, we watched it collectively and made them kind of answer the questions. ‘OK, what happened here?’ The other piece to that is you say, ‘OK, how do we move forward? How do we stop this from happening again?’ OK, we feel that or Coach feels that this is an issue on this play – what could you have done before the action and, now, what can you do moving forward to ensure that doesn’t happen again because Tuesday night, obviously, is going to be another game where toughness is going to come into play. For us as coaches or for them as players, to think that is not being shown in their locker room or their film session is somewhat reckless because that’s what I would imagine was said in the locker room Thompson-Boling Arena the other night when we’re ahead by eight points and a totally different team came out of the locker room and made it a street fight and not a basketball game.”
On PJ Washington’s play recently …
“I think it’s the guy that you hope to see. Until these guys are in a position to actually feel what it’s like playing against an opponent that’s desperate – and that’s what Tennessee was the other night – it’s hard to say, it’s hard to replicate in practice, it’s hard to say in film sessions or mentoring sessions or chalk talks or whatever you can do. Until a guy sees another guy across from him that want’s it more than they do, you can’t really expect anyone to be in that situation and then do well.”
On what the biggest challenge is to getting the team to play consistent defense …
“I think it’s a number of different things because they’re young. They’re going to make a mistake every single day and what we try to get them to understand is, ‘OK, did we get to this point?’ Are you fatigued? Have you been playing too many minutes? Are you not in position two passes before, which if you had jumped to the ball and been in better position, this would have never even happened. You would have never gotten screened. You would have never been in position to miss a blockout. And I think for us, we just have to continue to teach and teach and teach each game. Our guys want to learn. It’s not something that we’re doing the same thing over and over again. It’s something of a new issue each game.”
On playing zone on defense and if it’s a long-term solution …
“I think it’s something that has been good for us, and I think that’s why we continue to go to it. Our guys are still learning that. So, when you play man-to-man, you’re learning actions, sets, plays from another team. And those teams are studying, ‘OK, how can we exploit Kentucky’s defense?’ The zone is the same way. There’s different responsibilities. There’s different tags. There’s different slides and there’s different types of communication. Different things have to be said and there’s different kind of reads and reactions. I think what we’re trying to do is that the next time somebody tries to run something similar to what whatever, Tennessee or LSU or Georgia, UCLA (ran), you’re ready for it. That’s what we have to do. We have to train them in practice. We have to train them through film sessions to be ready for those situations so that they’re ready for it.”
On both of the last two opponents opening the game by attacking the post …
“I think it says more about those teams than it does about us. I think that that is something, you know, that we go into games with and have a strategy, maybe offensively that we’re going to try and do this to see how maybe that team responds or reacts. I don’t think that it’s necessarily what I think maybe you’re asking, ‘Was there somebody who is being called out or something like that?’ Or they’re trying to see certain things, are we going to trap in the post? Are we going to play one-on-one? Are we going to dig? Are we going to hedge on ball screens? Are we going to trap on ball screens? There’s a couple of different things that just by doing that in those couple of games – you know, different teams have ran ball screens in the first three to four offensive plays in games in the past just to see, ‘OK, how are you going to respond so that now we can react and respond ourselves?’ The same thing we do.”
On Hamidou Diallo and whether he was sick last game …
“I think Hami is just in a place where he’s growing. It’s a process for him. That process is not much different for him as it is for anybody else in that you have to get better and this is new for him. It was the first time being in a true road game, you know, for him. He was sick and he was really sick in Baton Rouge and then was sick when we got back. He had not practiced, you know, until the game. That’s not an excuse. I think for him, he’s learning how people are defending him whether it be his man and now a secondary defender or a weak side defender. He’s learning. He is a guy, you know, we’ve said before, he’s one of those guys in this program who is hungry. They want to get better and they want to know how they can improve individually and then collectively as a unit.”
On which Texas A&M team to prepare for …
“I think you have to prepare for all of them, which makes for, you know, an intense preparation on our staff’s part, on Cal’s part. But, we know what they’re going to be. They’re going to be a team that’s desperate and they can’t be more desperate than us, you know, when the game happens tomorrow. I think guys going through that the other night in Knoxville is exciting for our guys to get back out and play and exercise some of those demons that were brought out the other night. I think you’ll see a group of guys that’s excited to play. We love playing at home and our crowd, as we’ve said, we’ve got the best fans in the sport of basketball. I fully expect our guys to rise to the challenge hopefully that’s going to be presented to them tomorrow.”
On what Shai Gilgeous-Alexander struggled with on Saturday …
“I think it was a game that he made some bad reads on a couple of different plays. I don’t necessarily think that they keyed in on him any different. I mean, Shai’s a tremendous player and is doing things that I think that we are all expecting him and have expected him to do. I think he just had a little bit of a, you can say a bad night, but he just had a couple of misreads. I don’t think it was anything that Tennessee did. I think it was all on Shai. He had to see a couple of different things and now he fixes it and we move forward.”
On his sense of how the guys felt following the loss …
“I mean, you never can really tell until, you know, the next game or a month from now until something like that happens again. We got thrown out of a basketball game into a street fight and we took a step back. That’s the bottom line. I mean, anyone who was there or watched it and didn’t see that obviously was sleeping and not watching the game because that’s exactly what happened when the second half happened. They came out and basketball wasn’t played. It wasn’t dirty and I’m not saying (not). It was just a straight-up, ‘We’re going to out-tough you for the next 20 minutes.’ And they did.”
Kentucky Players
#25, PJ Washington, Fr., F
On how his legs are after cramping up vs. Tennessee …
“They’re doing a lot better now. I’m in a lot better shape right now and I’m just ready to get to practice.”
On how frustrating the cramps were …
“I felt like it was disappointing to me, but because I feel like you just want to get back into the game. You just want to help your team out a little bit. But it’s over now and I just have to focus on the next opponent.”
On whether he’s had past issues with cramps …
“I’ve been cramping my whole life so it’s nothing new to me. I’m not worried about it. I’ll be fine. I’m going to be alright.”
On what he can do to avoid cramping …
“Stay hydrated.”
On whether he’s drinking a lot of water …
“Tons of water, tons of Gatorade. Everything, really.”
On taking his matchup with Tennessee’s Grant Williams personal …
“I just tried to go in and just help my team win. I just feel like me stopping him was a big part of that and I just tried to do that the first half.”
On what has changed for him the last couple of games …
“I’m just trying to win. I’d do anything for the team to win and that’s my main focus. I’m just willing to do that.”
On John Calipari talking about toughness …
“We just took it as motivation and fuel to the fire for our next game and just come out and be tough on both ends of the floor for 40 minutes. That’s what our main focus needs to be.”
On when he stepped up as a leader …
“The LSU game towards the second half, I felt like we were shooting too many jump shots and we just needed to pound the ball inside and get easy baskets. So I was just saying that in huddles, and it’s just been what I’ve been doing from then on.”
On personally embracing the inside game …
“I’ve just been trying to do whatever the coaches ask me to do in order to get a victory. If that’s me dominating inside then I’m going to do that, and if that’s me playing on the perimeter I’m going to do that as well. It’s just whatever the coach needs me to do.”
On whether talking more means he’s more comfortable …
“Yeah, I feel like I got my groove back a little bit. I’m just trying to stay on this track and just keep being a leader for our guys and just try to keep getting victories.”
On how the second half of the Tennessee game looked to him …
“I really didn’t get to watch too much because I was trying to just focus on getting the cramps out and stay hydrated. I felt like basically what Coach said. We need to just be more tough and just continue to do what we’ve been doing in the past and just try to focus on our next game.”
On whether opponents are trying to push them around …
“Once they see that second half of the Tennessee game, I feel like every opponent’s going to try to do that now. We just have to be focused on just boxing out and getting rebounds and just being aggressive on both ends of the floor for 40 minutes.”
On Texas A&M’s Tyler Davis and Robert Williams …
“I’ve been knowing Tyler since I was in seventh grade because he’s from the same area. And I’ve been knowing Rob since I was a sophomore in high school. They’re really great players. Rob is really athletic and he dunks everything. Tyler has great moves in the post. So it’s going to be a big matchup for us.”
On needing to play desperate …
“Just play hard every possession, play every possession like it’s your last and just try to get easy stops and just get out in transition and get easy baskets for us.”
On the possibility of losing multiple SEC games with the strength of the league …
“We just try to learn from our losses and just try to apply them to the next games and just focus on what we did wrong and make that better for the next games and just play hard and just continue to do what we do.”
#4, Nick Richards, Fr., F
On when his team’s toughness is questioned …
“Together, as a team, I can say we’re pretty tough. In the last game, we got out-toughed by Tennessee in the second half. It’s just a learning process. We gotta move past it, hopefully learn from it and get better for the next game.”
On if he can take any positives from how he, personally, played at Tennessee …
“I think I’m starting to get back on track. I think I’m getting more confident in my game, but as a team we gotta learn from these mistakes. We gotta go back on film, see what mistakes there were. You could see when PJ went down we had nobody who really stepped up. … We just gotta get better from it and move on.”
On what area of his game he’s been working on …
“Basically just rebounding more on the offensive end, and working on my timing to get more blocks during games. And working on getting key post-ups on the block.”
On what the film sessions have been like and coaches saying they need to do some self-reflecting …
“He’s basically saying guys in the room need to fight more. Like, we had some guys when PJ went down that didn’t really step up to the plate, didn’t really take over. That’s all he basically said.”
On what a “fight” on the court looks like …
“Just having a competitive spirit, not giving in even if we’re down 20 and there’s eight minutes to go, or we’re down 10 with two minutes to go. Not giving up on plays, not giving up on our team. Just not quitting at all.”
On Texas A&M …
“We can go over the scouting report, we can go over film, but just a mindset of competing against other bigs and competing against other players. I’m really excited for that game.”
On how important it is for them to play with a sense of desperation …
“We have to play with a sense of desperation in order to win a national championship. That’s how I look at it.”
On hearing their toughness questioned …
“I think we just got out-toughed by Tennessee in that one game. I don’t think our toughness is something to be questioned about.”
