[B]
UK Hoops Head Coach Matthew Mitchell – 2.28.2012[/B]
[I]Opening statement…[/I]
“This is one of the best events of the year, one of my favorite events of the year. I think our conference does such a great job of putting on the tournament. Everybody at the SEC puts a lot of hard work in and just runs a first-class tournament. I think one of the toughest things in sports to do is to win the SEC Tournament. You have to play good basketball, you have to be tough mentally, you have to be tough emotionally, you have to be tough physically, certainly, to win at this level three days in a row, or for the teams that play on Thursday, four days in a row. It’s just a really special thing – I would think, since we haven’t experienced it – I think it would just be a real special thing to be the champion of the tournament. We have a lot of respect for it. For this team, we just need to go down and be excited to play and I think our team will be and see who we draw for that Friday game. We’re looking forward to heading to Nashville.”
[I]On if there is there a residual hunger after having reached the SEC Tournament championship game each of the last two years…[/I]
“I would have to think so. We had that great time together Sunday night and then we gave them off yesterday (Monday) and today (Tuesday). I really haven’t checked their temperature yet right now, but I can tell you their coach is hungry for it. I would love to win it and I think that would be another sign of progress in our program. This is a pretty competitive group, they’ve been able to rise to the occasion all year in big moments. I would be shocked if they weren’t looking to go down and win.”
[I]On if he wants his team to take exception to people saying this year’s SEC Tournament field is wide open…[/I]
“That will be a stretch for me to get worked up on that. I understand the question and that thought. What I want them to do is to get focused on that first four minutes that we’re going to play (against) whoever that’s going to be on Friday. I think that’s the thing that we need to do is just try to get focused on getting off to a good start. It’s not a situation where you can fall behind and if you lose Friday you can play again on Saturday and kind of correct your mistakes. I think for our coaching staff, the most important thing is to make certain that they do everything they can to be ready to get off to a fast start if at all possible and not dig yourself a hole in that first game. I don’t really know how much our players pay attention to the stuff that’s going on around them as far as it goes with basketball. Whether they’re being respected or disrespected, I don’t think they pay a lot of attention to that. I don’t know what it’s going to be like, they’re going to give us that trophy before our first game and I just don’t want us to be sort of satisfied starting the game. As I’m sitting here talking to you right now, I think that’s the main thing I’m going to be working on this week is try to make sure we are locked in ready to go at noon, and try to get off to that best four-minute segment that we can.”
[I]On how Kentucky’s style of play translates over to the SEC Tournament…[/I]
“I still think more time is better than less to prepare for it. I still think you can talk to kids about it, and if we just go on the last couple years I don’t know if our style of play had as much to do with it as just we had some players that played awfully hard. Two years ago, in the semis against Mississippi State, our press definitely changed the game. We were in a big hole and the press changed it. Last year, the press in the semifinals really changed the game. The tough game for us has been the Friday game. Auburn was a pretty tough game, and then my gosh, last year, Friday (against LSU) was, I mean, I don’t even know how we won that game. That was so tough. I still think that it’s different enough that you don’t see it in the other 14 or 15 games that you play.”
[I]On how important it is to jump out to a quick start…[/I]
“(At) Auburn, we played an excellent game. I think the team understands Auburn has good enough players to beat us on a given day if we’re not focused. Then Florida, those have been two of the most physical, tough games. Florida is really, really tough and physical. I think either opponent will have our attention. I think it’s important this time of year to really keep your focus on what you need to do to beat anybody because this tournament won’t be nearly, if you can survive the first day, again, Saturday it’s more about you because you don’t have a (large) amount of time to study. You really try to, in this tournament, do what you do well and see if that’s good enough. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. No matter who we play on Friday, I think it needs to be more about us doing the things – defensive intensity, really bringing that. We need to execute better in the half court offensively than we have in the last half of the season.”
[I]On playing the noon (1 p.m. ET) game on Friday…[/I]
“I’m thrilled to play it because it means we won the conference championship. It’s really just so special. I can’t probably adequately put into words how much respect I have for the Southeastern Conference. The regular season and the tournament, and just being a part of it is very, very special for me, personally. I love this tournament. I go to as many games as I can. When I was at Florida or Kentucky as an assistant and we lost, I would love to stay for the entire tournament and watch the games. I’ve always watched that trophy presentation and just said, ‘Boy, how cool would that be to be that team?’ And now we’re that team. I think that’s going to be a cool moment. I wish we didn’t have to play right after that. I wish we could kind of enjoy it a little bit more. But I am thrilled to play that early game because it means we are the champions. That’s really, really awesome.”
[I]On Kentucky fans traveling to Nashville for the tournament…[/I]
“That’s been a real neat thing to see over the last few years, and I shared that with the team last year as we were getting ready to play the semifinal game, or the final game, I can’t remember which. But we had gone for our practice and we were driving back down Broadway and you saw a lot of blue and for years and years all you ever saw at the tournament was orange. Nashville’s location, and then our team’s great play, and our fans’ passion for the team; it’s really been neat to see people show up for us and we’ve had really strong contingents the last few years at the tournament. It’s one of the neat things about being at Kentucky. Hopefully this year will be even better. At our celebration Sunday night, virtually everybody that came through said they’d be there. If they were all telling the truth we’ll have a heck of a crowd. It’s going to be good. Nashville, to me, is the best place we can have it for the fans. My dad is a big, big fan of the tournament and he says Nashville is the best. I think Nashville is a great spot for everybody. I wish we could have it there every year.”
