UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL POSTGAME QUOTES
NO. 13 KENTUCKY VS. MOREHEAD STATE
THURSDAY, NOV. 21, 2019
MEMORIAL COLISEUM – LEXINGTON, KY.
Kentucky Head Coach Matthew Mitchell
Opening Statement …
“So happy with the win tonight, so many positives within the game for the Wildcats and give credit to Morehead State. They fought hard and kept fighting until the end of the game. I hope they have a great season going forward. But first I’m proud of my team for improving and practicing and letting some of that shine through.”
On getting the offense back going …
“Well, I know we had a tough day getting the ball to the basket Saturday at Virginia and I thought the players really tried to take advantage of the practice opportunities even up until – we were still working on it during the warmup session. Before the game I really thought they were trying to get better. We had a really production hour gameday practice today. We got some improvement going and so many times tonight we had much improved execution and that’s a real credit to our players and practice – giving great effort and taking it to the floor, so still plenty of room for growth but that’s a good step forward tonight.”
On Rhyne Howard and Sabrina Haines being a lethal scoring duo …
“Yeah, they had a good 1-2 punch tonight, and did the same thing for us at Virginia, so that’s a good development for us and was proud of those two tonight. I thought they came out really aggressive and were efficient. And then we got a good effort tonight from the rest of the team in so many areas offensively, so I thought the first three quarters were far better for us. The last quarter was a little rough, but the first three you could see us trying to execute and pull it together. Proud from that standpoint and Rhyne and Sabrina were a good 1-2 punch tonight.”
On creating 25 turnovers in the game …
“Well, we have been trying to start our defense with hustle. We’ve been working hard to be the aggressors on the possession and to be disruptive. I thought there were some good moments particularly in the game tonight. Things got away from us in the third (quarter) and throughout the fourth and we made some mistakes, but I thought a lot of our ability to disrupt them came from good hustle from our players.”
On Amanda Paschal and Jaida Roper’s ability to step in for the frontcourt …
“I thought they did a good job. You look at Amanda’s shooting numbers and they have not been very good, but she had eight assists. That is a ton of assists and baskets that she helped turn in tonight. That is a very good development. Jaida is seeing the floor really, really well and she is very smart, so it’s good to see them doing that. We really wanted to see them take care of the ball tonight and we just had too many turnovers. It was so great to win at Virginia turning the ball over as many times as we did. We don’t want to turn it over a bunch, but it was a lot better tonight by the team.”
On the team’s growth since Sunday …
“I thought that it worked over the last couple of days. I wanted our players to know that if the defense does this, this is what shot we need to take and you have to take some responsibility for the players out there. They did a good job of shifting from man-to-man to zone all night so we really needed to be mentally engaged tonight. One really big positive was our execution out of timeouts, and that’s an area where we struggled last year, so that is a great development tonight that we could get in the timeout and retain information and so big credit to the players. A lot of positive developments from the game tonight.”
UK Student-Athletes
#3 KeKe McKinney, F
On coming back from injury…
“I felt really good. When I came back we did a lot of treatment, we did a lot things to get me ready. I was well prepared.”
On how winning at Virginia helps the team …
“It gives us a lot of confidence because Virginia, they are a good team. So knowing that we beat them, it gives us a lot of confidence. We know what we can do this year, SEC and out of SEC. That game made us better overall.”
#10 Rhyne Howard, G
On feeling good on the court …
“I was just trying to work on my pace and just take the lid off the goal. I knew we had to come out faster than what we did last week so we were just trying to focus on running the plays.”
On how she looks on tape …
“I think I look really slow. It does look smooth though. I think with the help of my teammates they get me open so it kind of looks effortless.”
On relieving each other more …
“It takes a lot of weight off our shoulders out there because it shows we have a very versatile group and that there is not going to be a drop off any sub.
#1 Sabrina Haines, G
On what was working well for the team when she was on the floor …
“I think we just hit shots. We felt good. We started out the game well and we tried to keep it up. The fact that we were able to build a big lead early, I was just doing whatever I could do to help them out. Luckily, these two (McKinney and Howard) were killing it. It made my job easy.”
On if the team communicating and executing the game plan …
“I don’t think it was necessarily different. We’ve always been very into it in the huddle. Today, it was probably heightened a little. But we look to have a steady improvement as far as communication with the team. So, the fact that we got a little bit better this game, we’re going to get better the next game. It’s just constant improvement.”
Morehead State Head Coach Greg Todd
Opening Statement
“Well, we were disappointed in the way we took care of the ball, I thought, early on in the game. But considering the situation that our team had this year—losing our five starters from last year—and the fact that our sixth girl we don’t have. So to lose your top six players and arguably one of the best teams that’s ever been at Morehead State, we had a great run. We knew it was going to be a rebuilding process, but we’re really pleased with a lot of things that we’re doing and I feel like we’ve got some phenomenal players waiting to come in next year. But for our seniors and our program, we don’t want to just think about next year; we want to compete this year. I thought it was great that probably around the media timeout in the second quarter, from that point on we lost the second half by one point. I thought from the first half it got much better. And so I was pleased how we competed. We played an SEC 13th-ranked team and outrebounded them. And playing as hard as we did, Kentucky shot well. I didn’t think we did as well. We’ve been playing pretty good defense overall. Rhyne Howard really got in a groove, and Sabrina [Haines] we know can shoot. So, a lot of factors, but all in all some positive things we can take away from that game. We’re getting better every game and we’re hoping by conference time that we can be a competitive team.”
On why shots weren’t falling tonight…
“We knew against us, physically, that they were going to have some good matchups. We were hoping they didn’t have as good a game shooting. They had good shooting, good ball movement. Some of it was defensive breakdowns. We tried about three different half-court defenses and we gave up too many open 3s, but they did not knock all of them down.”
On how they adjusted to Kentucky’s ‘in your face’ defense…
“We knew their physicality and how well they played defense and it was going to be tough. We had been on a stretch, that was our fourth game in seven days. But we went out yesterday and practiced hard against some man-to-man pressure. You can’t really simulate it in practice, but we were a little rattled, no question, early on.”
On what teams have a similar style of defensive play to Kentucky…
“We don’t see a lot of it in our conference. Tennessee State sometimes will play full court. Eastern Kentucky’s got a new coach. I haven’t really seen what they’re doing. They’ve got personnel that could play full court. Jacksonville occasionally, but it wouldn’t simulate what Kentucky has. So not anything quite that level fortunately.”
