Kentucky Men’s Basketball
UK vs. Louisville
Postgame Quotes
Rupp Arena – Lexington, Ky.
Dec. 31, 2011

Kentucky Players

#14 Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, F

On his performance despite the intensity of the game…
“This is me, this is what I live for right here. Why? I’ve always been that way, I’ve got a lot of heart that’s why, and I’m built for it. I didn’t surprise myself, I was confident about my game.”

On his mindset today versus his mindset against other teams…
“This game is all mental to me. I play my heart out, that’s what I give, my heart.”

On how much better UK can get…
“A lot better. Me and everybody else on the team, we’re hungry.”

#3, Terrence Jones, F

On his injured finger’s effect on his performance today...
“With it being swollen and getting so much contact, any games with me trying to box out and use my hands so much, plus it being my left, sometimes it hurts a lot. I still just want to play and rebound and do the other things. When the game is on the line I’m not going to care about the pain.”

On what he’s doing to get back to pre-injury form…
“Not worrying about my hand so much and not going with one hand, I tried to go with two. I’ve been working on not going for balls with one hand and trying to get back to using two.

On playing physical during such a tightly called game by the officials…
“Every little thing is being called but you know both teams are playing physical so you have to know when and when not to be physical.”

#23, Anthony Davis, F

On Terrence Jones’s performance …
“Coach (John Calipari) told me your offensive game isn’t going. Go rebound. Go play defense. That’s what (Terrence Jones) did today. He blocked shots, got rebounds, and the shots that he did get were good looks. He just missed them. He scored and he’s trying to find his way back. That’s what we need from him.”

On how this game compared to Indiana or North Carolina …
“It was about the same. They really competed and we were up by 10, eleven and we fell back. (The atmosphere) was more crazy. The crowd was crazy because of the rivalry. So it was fun. We just go out there and play.”

On his performance in the second half …
“Coach (John Calipari) told me just go out there and be aggressive. Go out there and have fun and play. When you go out there and have fun, you’ll be fine. That’s what I tried to do and came to the rim to block or just rebound. I just tried to do what I could and in my power to get it.”

On his free-throw shooting …
“I’ve just been practicing. I’m a way better free-throw shooter than what I’ve been shooting. So go up there and concentrate and knock down the free throws.”

#1, Darius Miller, G

On the team’s free-throw shooting …
“We’ve been doing pretty good in practice working on it. (Coach John Calipari) makes us run depending on how many (free throws) we miss. I think we’ve done a better job of making free throws and getting to the free throw line. I know we shot a lot of free throws last game too. Hopefully, we continue to do this and continue to knock them down.”

On the aggressiveness of the game …
“It was a really physical game, intense game. I think both teams did a great job of playing defense. … (The officials’ calls) were going both ways. We were doing the same thing. It was called very close, I would say, throughout the whole game. I think that kind of played into effect. That was probably the reason we shot a lot of free throws with the bonus and all that. Both teams kind of had to adapt to the way the game was being called.”

On forcing turnovers …
“I think we did a pretty good job defensively. A lot of their points came from our turnovers, but it seems like when we got down in the half court and buckled down on defense, we did a pretty good job of getting stops. And we got to get the team to do that throughout the rest of the season.”



Kentucky Men’s Basketball
UK vs. Louisville
Postgame Quotes
Rupp Arena – Lexington, Ky.
Dec. 31, 2011

Louisville Players

#3, Peyton Siva, G

On climbing back in the game in the second half …
“Russ Smith was doing alright for us. He played well. Everybody just really stepped up in the press. We got a couple key steals and Russ (Smith) made shots. He is a great player and at the end, (Kentucky) just hit the lob and it got the crowd back involved. We had a couple fouls called after that, and it just didn’t go our way.”

On why he thought Louisville could never get over the hump to take the lead …
“I just think we didn’t step up and block out at the end. They (Kentucky) just hit the glass and got rebounds. It really hurt us that they got rebounds. Typically after they got a rebound, they got a foul call or an and-one.”

On if Anthony Davis was more of a factor than he expected …
“Definitely. He was a big factor in the second half. He was long, and athletic. He altered a lot of shots.”

#2, Russ Smith, G

On playing against Anthony Davis in the second half…
“What you have to do to get to the basket against that guy is almost impossible. The amount of room he covers around the basket is incredible. Davis is a very solid player.”

On Russ’ individual success…
“I play hard. I leave it all on the floor. I stayed confident all 40 minutes offensively. If coach tells me to keep shooting, I will listen.”

On the length of Kentucky’s team…
“They are a tremendously long team. They were probably longer last year, but the length and wingspan of Kentucky is incredible.”

On playing hard in the last few minutes…
“We always want to win. We never feel like we are out of it. Any basketball player would know the game is not over until the forty minutes is up, so we played hard. If we were down a few points less, it could have gotten interesting.”

#24, Chane Behanan, F

On what he learned from the game…
“Stay patient and be calm. Once we are down on the road and within the last four minutes, we have to get stops.”

On why Louisville couldn’t get a lead in the second half …
“When they threw the alley-oop to Anthony Davis, it hurt. We were within four or five points. Our press was basically killing them.”

On how the game was officiated…
“I think it was called tight. We both had a couple of players with three fouls at half. Then, they got us on the boards.”