[B][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]2011-12 Kentucky Basketball[/B][/FONT][/COLOR][/B]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]No. 2 Kentucky vs. Portland[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]Lexington, Ky. — Rupp Arena[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]Nov. 26, 2011[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]Post-Game Quotes[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
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[CENTER][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B][U]Kentucky Players[/U][/B][/FONT][/COLOR][/CENTER]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]#14, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, F[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On volunteering to come off the bench for Darius Miller… [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“That’s just who I am. I look up to Darius (Miller). I look up to his leadership. He is the key to this team and that’s why I said that (volunteering to come off bench).”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On why he thinks the teams is getting off to slow starts … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“I don’t know. We are just a young team. We got the win and all that that matters. We are going to be good in the long run”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On where his second half dunks ranks in his career … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“It (the dunk) was crazy. I was having fun and that’s how basketball goes. It’s No. 1 and it might be No. 1 for my career.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]#3, Terrence Jones, F[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On Kentucky’s pressing defense … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“We are just really long and it makes it difficult for teams to get it (the ball) over when you got guys like Mike (Kidd-Gilchrist) guarding you and me coming to trap.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On the team’s unselfishness… [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“We all respect one another on all levels. No one is playing for themselves. We are all playing for the team. It makes the game more fun and easier.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On the team settling for too many jump shots … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“Yes (we are). It’s difficult when guys are sagging so deep. Coach told us that he doesn’t want us to settle so much so we are going to keep going to the hole.” [/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]#1, Darius Miller, G[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On playing the four (power forward)…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“Coach (John) Calipari did that some last year too when he felt like I was a matchup problem for their four man, so maybe he might start doing that every now and then. I’m sure we will work on that a little more in practice.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On Portland sticking around late in the first and early in the second…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“We didn’t do a very good job on defense early and they got a lot of open looks, especially on the 3-point shot, which is their strong point. They did a great job of knocking down tough shots and open shots so they came out and executed their plan.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On the younger guys playing more physical…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“They will be fine. I think it just comes with experience. We are all struggling with it, including myself, and like I said it takes a little bit of experience. It’s the younger guys’ first time playing division I basketball where everyone is bigger, stronger and quicker so they’ll get it down.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On not starting every game…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“I don’t think any of us have time to worry about who is starting. We are just focusing on what we need to do as a team to win this championship.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]#23, Anthony Davis, F[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On playing tougher in the upcoming games…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“We are doing a lot of one-on-one drills, the bigs are doing a lot of drills in the post, and the guards are doing a lot of zone penetration and contact drills. That’s what we have been doing about every practice.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On if slow starts will hurt them later against good teams…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]“[/I][/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]I don’t think it will because of our defense, we really lock down defensively. If we keep playing the way we have been, I think we will be OK.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On the possibility of breaking the single season block record at UK…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]“[/I][/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]I haven’t even noticed. I’d be happy with it though, that’s good to know. I would take it.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[CENTER][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B][U]Portland Head Coach Eric Reveno[/U][/B][/FONT][/COLOR][/CENTER]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]Opening statement … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“I just told the guys that I was pleased with their effort. Basketball is competed in three different areas, athleticism, toughness and skill, and I had to break it to them earlier in the week that Kentucky is a little more athletic than them. We had to beat them with toughness and skill and we weren’t able to do that consistently. Like Kentucky has shown, they can get you in spurts, those four turnovers consecutively in the first half and in the second half we cut it and our press breakers weren’t clean. Give them credit, our point guard drives out of the post and ball fakes on one side and looks back and the same guy is on both sides of him and that’s a little different than what he has been used to. We have to take responsibility for that number of turnovers and the ones we can manage so give Kentucky credit for having the ability to get you out of what you want to run. They let you feel like you are running an offense and then block a shot and get out and run so give them a lot of credit. I hope for my young team that it is a really good learning experience. I like my team.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On shooting … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“It was nice. The guys that shot the ball well, despite the numbers this year, are our good shooters. Kentucky knew those guys were shooters so that really helped us. The bank-shot three and some of those other ones were really fortunate for us. We shot it well and we thought if we executed our offense that we would get shots.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On his team handling the atmosphere … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“I think they handled it well. I wonder if there is an NCAA rule that allows us to put more timeouts in the next contract. We tried to use our timeouts; I took our full right away trying to take the crowd out of it. Great support, great crowd and we kept them out of it for the most part. I think when we were disrupted it was purely give Kentucky credit for disrupting us with the ability, length, athleticism, and execution that we haven’t seen. They feed on it, we worked on those lob dunk plays they run it’s just they do a real good job and execute well and are tough to defend.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On comparing opponents, Kentucky and Washington…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“We played better this game than we did against Washington. We got shots against Washington and missed them so that’s the difference between the two games. Comparing teams is unfair, we played better in this game and are even more mature than we were just a couple of weeks ago. Kentucky has such length and Washington is a little quicker but both were very tough at home. It’s hard to make comparisons at this time of the year but they are both very good teams.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[CENTER][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B][U]Portland Players[/U][/B][/FONT][/COLOR][/CENTER]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]#33, Nemanja Mitrovic, G[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On making shots in the opening half … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“We knew we had to come out aggressive. We didn’t want to come out and back down at all. We just came out firing and stayed in there with them for a little while and then we made some mistakes and had some turnovers.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On how this game helps them in the conference season … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“It helps a lot. They did some things that will really help us like pressing us. We need to get better there. But, anytime you play a good team, you are going to mistakes, but we just have to get better.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On playing in Rupp Arena … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“It was definitely a great environment. I wish we would have came out with a better result, but I think it was a fun experience.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]#11, Tim Douglas, G[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On playing in Rupp Arena…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“It’s a good experience. It’s always fun to play somewhere where the fans are into the game. It’s such a historic arena. So many great teams and great players have played in here so it’s definitely an experience.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On how playing the No. 2 team in the country will help them … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“It’s always good to play against great competition. We will know how to handle pressure better and handle playing in an atmosphere similar to this. It’s always good to play great teams like that.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On the team’s 3-point shooting… [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“We can definitely shoot the ball. We have some shooters that can knock down some shots. This was one of our better nights. We haven’t been shooting up to par lately, but we shot the ball pretty well tonight.” [/FONT][/COLOR]
