Kentucky Women’s Basketball Postgame Quotes
Kentucky vs. Mississippi State
Memorial Coliseum – Lexington, Ky.
Feb. 25, 2018
Kentucky Head Coach Matthew Mitchell
Opening Statement …
“Well, congratulations to Mississippi State on an undefeated conference season. I’ve been in the league awhile now and it’s really hard to do. You don’t see it much and there’s some good teams in our league, but they are the class of the league this year and they should be commended. Their kids played really hard, really defend hard, and they are hard-working players who are talented, and they are well coached. So, you congratulate them. I thought our team battled today and we just didn’t have much answer for McCowan (Teaira McCowan) in the first half and then Vivians (Victoria Vivians) had a good second half. Then, the shooters around them shot the ball well today so they were hard to guard today and tough day for us, but I was really proud of both of our seniors. I thought Alyssa (Alyssa Rice) really battled on the boards today and it didn’t show up in the stats, but she has some really nice plays and box outs on McCowan (Teaira McCowan) and it’s hard to do. Jess (Jessica Hardin) has struggled with her health this season and just hadn’t gotten a lot of minutes but she played with a lot of energy today. I was so happy to see her get a bucket there at the end. So, tough day for us but we just got to move forward and try to get ready for postseason.”
 
On the team’s postseason outlook …
“Well I think our team, if you’ve looked at how hard they worked to improve, I think we will definitely look for opportunities to play. You know, you look at some teams that are going to the NCAA tournament, we’re right there with them, very competitive in games. If you’re getting just completely blown out and the team looks like it kind of on its last leg, then you think about not playing. I would say our team has worked really hard. One, the record is definitely a product of a very difficult non-conference schedule. So, in my mind as long as the team keeps coming with great energy at practice, and working hard, I would love for them to have an opportunity to play. Were in control of that right now as long as we have life in the SEC Tournament that’s what our focus will be on, just trying to play winning basketball. You know every year somebody does something special in the conference tournament and that’s what our mindsets got to be. We got to go in and try to get a victory on Thursday and then just survive and advance.”
 
On Maci Morris’ 20 points or more in six straight games …
“Well, she has command of her game, she has command of her ball handling, and she can go right or left so you can’t force her one way or another. She can make plays off the bounce with both hands and that’s very, very important. She’s a great 3-point shooter. So, you can’t make a mistake at the 3-point line or she’ll make you pay. She’s got a mid-range game and she makes free throws. She can play out of the on-ball screen. She just has a total package offensively, skill wise, and what rounds that out is accurate shooting. She’s a very, very good offensive player.”
 
On change in approaching teams in the SEC tournament…
“Well, once you get into the SEC tournament, I always think it becomes so much about you playing to your strengths and playing well. You know offensively for us right now, I think we just need to sharpen up as much as we can. Were not a real powerful defensive team so you know in a game like today you got to find someway to knock 10 or 12 off them somehow defensively. You know, whether it be offense and a stop defensively. We were so close to getting a couple stops today we could just not pull that down. I think for us now we got to try to see how we can attack teams offensively and score and just see if you can get yourself in games down there. Thursday will be a tough game I’m sure no matter who that is. I think it may be Alabama and we had a tough game with them up here so just got to try to get us as prepared as you can. Can’t look to far ahead or you’ll be home, so, there’s no approach that you take that extends you out to Sunday. You just try to take care of one day at a time and see what you can do. There’s so many good teams in the conference so we don’t have anything to worry about if we don’t take care of Thursday and put all of our effort in.”
 
On Alyssa Rice’s impact on the program …
“Alyssa today really embodied what she’s done here. She always steps up for the tough assignments. She took a charge today, boxed McCowan out a few times that were difficult and tough assignments. She was so over-maxed size wise, but she was really giving everything she has. And that’s what she does. She’s a very conscious person, very kind person, thoughtful and always thinking of her teammates, thinking of how she can be a service to others. She did that today. Tough day. She got a lot of fouls called on her down there, battling just trying to battle. Just so proud of her, and the person she is. She’s a great representative of our program. The quality of people we’ve been fortunate to have here at Kentucky.”
 
On having a lot of young people on the team and Rice’s presence …
“How to carry themselves, and how to act and how to take advantage of their full opportunity. Basketball is so important and I’m proud of how the team has developed over the last few weeks. Alyssa is a great example of how you can take advantage of the opportunities off the court too. She’s been a great credit to our program.”
 
On next year’s schedule…
“If you go through an experience like this and you don’t learn something or evaluate that I think you’ve missed a learning opportunity. I think just because of the success we’ve had and the formula we’ve had, we’ve always scheduled tough in the non-conference and we were able to handle it last year with a very short bench. But we had two veterans, future pro’s on the team that helped us navigate through that, and the placement of those games helped us out. There’s no doubt that as we are trying to get our roster back to full strength and trying to recruit and add players that I must learn some lessons from this season and how it was scheduled. We had the most difficult conference schedule just in so many ways, so difficult I can’t remember one more difficult. It was so difficult from a scheduling standpoint. We would have been just fine if the non-conference had not been so tough and challenging. There’s no one to blame for that but myself. I can promise you we will look at that closely and improve and learn.”
 
On Alyssa sticking with him in the tough times …
“There were some dark days during the 2015, end of 2016 season. Real difficult times. You were looking for things to hold onto that were positive, and those six kids that hung in, then we added six more that just walked through the door, they’re special people. And Alyssa was one of those six and I will remember them forever. Alyssa’s parents deserve a lot of credit, just two of the finest people you’ll meet on this planet, two of the nicest people. Their support meant a lot during that time, so there would be no way I could adequately explain in words how I feel about Alyssa and the Rice family. It meant a lot; their loyalty meant a lot.”
 
Kentucky Student-Athletes
#4 Maci Morris, Jr., G
On the team’s mindset going into the SEC tournament …
“Just we kind of looked back at where we were at MTSU and just how far we’ve came from there and just how much improvement we’ve made. We know who we’re going to play, so we just got to get a game plan down for them and just try to give it all we have for the tournament and try to make something happen.”
 
On Alyssa Rice and what she has meant to the team …
“Alyssa – we always say she’s our mom because Alyssa takes care of us on and off the court. She makes sure we’re all out where we’re supposed to be at certain times. She’s the one where if we need something we’re like, ‘Lyss, go talk to the coaches for this and that.’ She pulls us together when things aren’t going the best and she brings us all together so we’re really going to miss that next year.”
 
On her junior year coming to a close …
“I swear, I feel like I just got out of high school. It flies by. I remember Janee Thompson telling me, she’s like, ‘Enjoy it cause it goes by so fast,’ and I didn’t believe her cause my freshman year seemed to go so long. It has flown by and it’s crazy.”
 
On what’s working for her and what she feels good about going into postseason …
“Just different things we’re doing offensively. I feel like my shot is working really well right now. I just try to continue to work on that and scoring a variety of ways to make it harder on the defense.”
 
On if she can talk about how her teammates are really trying to get her the ball…
“My team they tell me all the time, when I was struggling to score some I remember KeKe (McKinney) she came up to me and told me, ‘You’re the best shooter in the SEC.’ She goes, ‘You shoot it every time.’ All my teammates, they have complete confidence in me and just to know they believe in me, I get confidence from that and it just helps me go along with my game.”
 
Mississippi State Head Coach Vic Schaefer
Opening Statement …
“I got to just say that I’m extremely proud our program, our players and my staff for getting through this gauntlet of a league and where we are today. Today was a day we knew was going to be tough. Kentucky is always hard to play, no matter where we play them. They’ve been extremely difficult here at home. Senior night – seems like I’m the resident senior night invitee for the last five or six years. I’m always here for senior night. I don’t know what it is. Tonight our seniors, I thought they were ready to go. First time we’ve never had a shoot around on game day, so I’m sure they’ll be asking me to sleep in again. It’s very difficult when you have a 12 o’clock tip, 11 central, you can’t get kids up. We let them sleep in this morning. We got here early and we shot. I really liked our focus. What can you say about T? (Teaira McCowan) 20 and 20. I think she had a double-double at halftime. She’s down there with two and three people always battling her. She’s constantly, constantly, having to deal with the physical nature of that’s down there. I’m not sure that’s not even hard to do. And if you’re a guard, chasing those guards around the perimeter, to physically have to deal with what she has to deal with down there on a nightly basis. I’m just really proud of her and her competitive spirit. Thought Tori (Vivians) was really good tonight. She gets a double-double with 18 and 10, has five assists. That’s what All-Americans do. They affect the game in more ways than just one or two stat lines. Teaira had five blocks, was a great help defender tonight when our guards got beat off the bounce. Ro (Roshunda Johnson) and Blair (Schaefer) just do their jobs. They go out there and make shots when people create for them. They stand and get to their spots and make shots. Defensively, you know, I thought we battled. They’re really hard to guard. They do a great job. They’re constantly ball screening you. We worked hard on that for a couple days and I thought we battled them there. I just thought our whole help mentality and our sharing the basketball, it’s what we’ve done all year. We’ve been very, very consistent with that and today was no different.”
 
On the slow start …
“Well, Teaira, she’s the forgiver. I call her our forgiveness kid because she forgives you when you get beat off the bounce or you shoot a shot and it comes off. She’s usually there for an offensive board and a stick back. She had at halftime eight offensive boards at halftime. Kept us in some possessions there early. From a scoring standpoint, she had 13 and 17 at half. They did a good job of containing a little bit more. But the I thought Tori was great the second half. She got some great looks and did a nice job. It’s just a tough matchup for everybody with these two. Our mid-range game was really outstanding. The start, yeah, was a little slow. We’ve had a couple of those, but we don’t typically panic because we know we can have a stretch where we can go on a 10- or 12-0 run. I think that’s probably what happened.”
 
On focusing on the next game while chasing history …
“It’s really not been very difficult. The hardest part of our year was breaking the record at Mississippi State for consecutive wins, which we had set two of the previous three years. I felt like we were a little tight the night we did it. I don’t remember which game it was. Florida. At home. After we got past that, I just think they’re really good at just going to the next game. Okay, Coach, who is it? Where are we playing them? What time is the bus leaving? What time’s pregame if we’re at home? I mean, I just think they’ve been really, really solid about that. It’s a veteran group. T’s a junior, Jazz (Jazzmun Holmes) is a junior, and you’ve got four seniors that are really just, they’re playing their years. Then you get a Chloe (Bibby) who plays a little bit beyond her years, but she’s had that taste of success internationally, so she’s played among some pretty select league teams over in Australia. I just think our depth, we can go small if we have to, we can go big if we have to. We struggled tonight with our backup post player a little bit, she’s been better. Tonight she wasn’t very good. T’s learning and gotten smarter and smarter as the year’s gone on about what she can do and staying out of foul trouble. Five blocks tonight is impressive to me because she is understanding when we can go do it and affect a shot and when she doesn’t need to go over there and maybe put herself in harm’s way.”
 
On the defense they put on Maci Morris …
“I just think you’ve got to keep somebody fresh there. She’s such a great player, she ends up 8-for-15 and had a great game, but I think we made her work, which we had to. I think T’s hedging was much better today. We worked hard on that for two days. Tori’s hedging, much better today. When you get all that ball screen action that Kentucky gives you, it really puts a premium on your post players and how they’re helping you with that. I thought our guards did a good job also, understanding what we needed to do in the scout, offensively.”
 
On being the team to beat in the NCAA tournament …
“It’s been there for a while. We’ve had that target for all year. Started the first game for what we did a year ago. As we started winning games and the streak has continued, now you got two targets. It’s stopping the streak and it’s the team that was in the national championship game a year ago. These kids have taken everybody’s best shot. There’s no reason for me to believe they’re not going to be ready for Friday night, whoever we play and it very well could be Kentucky again. I’ve got a lot of confidence in them. I think they’ve got a hunger and real desire now to continue on this special trail. I don’t think we need to talk a lot about it. I think they’re smart enough to figure it out.”
 
On Maci Morris …
“She’s added now not just the 3-point range and big range, but she’s added the off the bounce piece. She’s really developed herself into a complete player. She’s very difficult to defend. She’s smart. She knows that if you’re here, she can do this. If you’re here, she’ll do this. She’s a very smart, heady player. She’s highly skilled. Matthew (Mitchell) does a lot of runs, a lot of good stuff for her. Her teammates understand their role in trying to help her get open and allow her to be successful.
 
On games like this help prepare for tournaments …
“Just winning on the road in this league is so difficult, I don’t care who it is. Kentucky is extremely difficult. It’s always been a battle for us, this team, these two, this group has always been so consistent all year. Night in and night out, they’ve really been good about what we do and how we do it. We have that saying in our locker room. It’s not what we do, but how we do it is what separates us from the rest of the country. I think that’s where this group is. They’ve really gone about their business. They understand chemistry, and we certainly have great chemistry. I think that’s what makes them special. Certainly don’t want to lose. We’re at that point in the year where you don’t want to lose, and it’s important that we keep playing well. I thought we came out tonight and played well. I thought T really carried us early and allowed us to play well. Whether we were making shots or missing shots, she was involved in a lot. Then she came down on defense and was involved a lot. I think that kind of help, when other people are struggling, it picks them up too and makes them feel not so bad about how they’re playing because she’s covering them up. It’s important that we continue to play well. We’re not afraid of it. We’re not going to shy away from talking about winning championships. We’ve talked about that since day one. We’ve talked about it with this team and we’re not going to shy away from it now. We’ve got another championship ahead of us next weekend. We’re going to go try and win it.”
 
Mississippi State Player Quotes
#15, Teaira McCowan, Jr., F
On winning in Memorial for the first time since 2009 …
“Well, going in we knew that it was another game. And we’ve played them before and we’ve never won here, so our focus was to come in and keep them from running the plays they wanted to play and push them out. So we did that and everything else went well.”
 
On how good it feels to be perfect …
“I mean, nothing’s perfect. But we’re doing good, I guess.”
 
#35, Victoria Vivians, Sr., G
On being undefeated in the conference …
“It’s impressive because we’ve never done it before and people before us have never done it. I feel like it’s just us taking our time and just getting it done. We took a game one day at a time. We didn’t look ahead to other games. We just took every day one step at a time. I feel like our focus wasn’t on the 30-0, it was on winning the next game.”