Kentucky-Arkansas Postgame Quotes
UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL POSTGAME QUOTES
Kentucky Head Coach Kyra Elzy
On playing without Robyn Benton …
“It was a game-time decision and we will still take it day-by-day. We definitely missed her on the floor as she is our leading scorer and a veteran guard. When that happens—which injuries do happen—we talk about ‘next man up’ and being ready when your number is called. I didn’t need any of them to be Robyn Benton but, collectively, we had enough to get the job done and play this game for her. It was a very disappointing day.”
On making adjustments looking forward …
“Myself and the coaching staff will go back and evaluate how we’re playing and the changes that we need to make. It’s still early but obviously what we’re doing isn’t working. The goal is to win and we’ve got to find a way to do that.”
On Blair Green’s early foul trouble …
“Blair got a foul and [we] went back to her with two fouls. I trust her as a vet to come back in and play. We couldn’t go too long without her.”
On the team’s offensive struggles …
“Offensively, we were a bit stagnant and a little unsure of ourselves. We have to have more movement and play in our four-out pass and cut. They were sagging on us but, at the end of the day, we have to be able to step out and make that 15-17 foot shot consistently. I thought we had some open threes that didn’t go in for us. I told the players in the locker room that when our offense isn’t going, you have to hammer in on defense and get some stops. I thought we let our offense affect our defense, especially in the third (quarter). We got frustrated offensively and we let that pour into the defensive side.”
On late defensive adjustments …
“It was desperate measures at that point when your down. We tried to change up our defense and fly around. I’ll have to go back and look at what we’re doing and how we’re playing and make changes to get us ready for the next game.”
Kentucky Student-Athletes
#5, Blair Green, F
On playing without Robyn Benton …
“Yeah, I don’t really think it changed our approach. I mean, Robyn really she sets up and she brings out offensive just like energy and the scoring. I mean, like she’s been scoring 20 points. And she brings that defensive energy too, but we kept the same thing going. We just needed more people to step up. And we didn’t say like one person has to take all of Robyn’s points but just like bench players and stuff like that. Like if you can just give us six and each person can just contribute in like, that will make up for Robyn but don’t play outside your role. Just be who you are. Be who you are recruited to be like everyone’s here to make plays and just to work inside the room.”
On how to comeback from losing 4 of last 5 games …
“Yeah, I think a lot of it that’s we’ve been through this before. We know how it goes. We just can’t be discouraged and keep our head down. We just have to keep working and just look at earlier. I mean, like we kind of know what we went through last year and we don’t want to continue that trend. So it just starts in practice, just getting more defensive reps. Just bringing that energy in practice just not going through the motions and yeah, just staying aggressive.”
On Kentucky’s tough shooting day …
“I mean, we got the shots that we wanted. They just weren’t falling, there’s days like that, but I think just coming right out the gates just being a little bit smarter and just running our offense. I mean, Arkansas really wants you to speed up and go down and they want to shoot it quick and they score a lot of points that way. So going into the game, our focus was to just kind of run the clock down and get the best shot unless it’s a wide open layup or if someone has the green light to let it go. And I don’t really think we came in that focused on that and locked in and it is what it is, but we’re just going to have to learn from that. And we’re just going to keep working on offense and practice and stuff like that. But yeah, we’ll get there and I mean, it’s still early in the SEC. And we have a lot to learn. But we just got to keep our head up and just stay focused on what Kentucky basketball does.”
