[B][B][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]2011-12 Kentucky Basketball[/B][/FONT][/COLOR][/B]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]#3 Kentucky vs. Lamar[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]Lexington, Ky. — Rupp Arena[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]Dec. 28, 2011[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]Postgame Quotes[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
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[CENTER][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B][U]Lamar Head Coach Pat Knight[/U][/B][/FONT][/COLOR][/CENTER]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On how Lamar competed …[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“We couldn’t have played any harder. This is just going to help us in conference. I thought we gave them everything we could. We made them keep their starters in until the end. I was really pleased with how hard we played and how much they competed. We don’t need to hang our head; this is a team that I think has a chance to win the national championship. If my guys play that hard and compete like that I think we have a good chance to win our conference.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On Kentucky’s strengths and weaknesses…[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“They do everything well, you are dealing with a young team. I was talking to coach (John) Cal(ipari) before the game and they are just going to get better with each game. Usually a team has a weakness, if they can’t post up you can focus on the three or if they don’t have guys that can shoot you can double down the post, they don’t have a weakness, they have guys that score in the post, shoot 3’s or drive. You have to pick your poison and give up at least one thing and then if they get going on that you have to take that away and leave something else open. They cause a lot of problems defensively, that’s why we mixed in zones and traps, we just threw everything at them because if you let them get in a rhythm they can get 10 or 12 points on you like that. Coach Cal would want me to say they can work on everything but they are very, very good. This is a special team that could get Coach Cal his first championship. I think they are that talented and I like their demeanor on the court, they don’t talk trash, they don’t act like they think they are better than anyone else, they just go out there and play and beat you. I like them. When you watch as much tape as we do it was kind of enjoyable watching them on tape. I hadn’t really seen them play on TV; I started watching the game tapes and realized they are the real deal.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On Mike James’ performance …[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“He can do that. He’s got to be careful but I think his shot selection is getting better; I really like his mid-range game. Instead of starting shooting threes and going cold from there like he did against Ohio State he started driving the ball first to get his confidence going and I think that’s what helped, he attacked them and got to the free-throw line. We had a lot of shots blocked but I kept telling my guys to keep doing that because we will be able to get those shots off in the conference, we have to just keep working on things that will help us later. We let him take a couple crap shots, when a guy gets hot you have to let him to take a few of those because he may hit them.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On Kentucky’s effort …[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“I don’t know, it’s a real problem. Here’s what they are facing, they play Louisville on Saturday, I don’t care what you tell the kids, they are looking forward to that game. Especially with the internet it is so easy, you can’t shut the kids off. We were hoping that would play to our favor. It’s natural for kids to kind of overlook but that’s just part of dealing with kids and coaching but believe me, these kids will be ready to play Saturday. From a hustle perspective, they still battled, they still beat us pretty good but I can’t wait to see that game myself Saturday. That’s just where you’re dealing with the kids, I don’t care how much you protect them or tell them about it they get on the blogs and the internet and everybody is writing about that game. I don’t know what happened with the Louisville game tonight but you might have had that problem there too. It’s hard dealing with kids, if you could just shut them off, lock them in a room and take away their cell phones and computer it would be great but you get fired for that stuff now a days.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B][B][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]2011-12 Kentucky Basketball[/B][/FONT][/COLOR][/B]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]#3 Kentucky vs. Lamar[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]Lexington, Ky. — Rupp Arena[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]Dec. 28, 2011[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]Postgame Quotes[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
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[CENTER][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B][U]Lamar Players[/U][/B][/FONT][/COLOR][/CENTER]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]#5, Mike James, G[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On his individual performance … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“I played alright. At the end of the day, we came away with a good experience, but it wasn’t a win. The main focus of the game is to win, and we didn’t do that.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On what he learned about his team … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“I learned we are a good team. For stretches, we let Kentucky do what Kentucky wanted to do, but there were also many stretches where we hung right with them and played pretty well.”[/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 really cool. There were a lot of people, which made for a great atmosphere. It was fun. You don’t get to play against people like this everyday. I know some players from Kentucky, so it was just a fun game to play.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][B]#1, Anthony Miles, 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]“Anytime you get to play Kentucky, (at Kentucky) is a great experience. You never get the chance, especially not conference, to go somewhere and see twenty-plus thousand fans all supporting the team. So it was a good experience and even though we got killed, we battled hard, we competed, and that’s all you can ask for.” [/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On his overall impressions of Kentucky …[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“How athletic they are. They are really athletic and they put a lot of pressure on you. (Anthony) Davis is a shot-blocking machine. Like I said, we’re not going to have people like this in our conference. The coaches said go out there and compete and I think we did that the best we could.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow][I]On how playing against Kentucky compares to Louisville and Ohio State …[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial Narrow]“To be honest, I think Kentucky is better. Athletically, I didn’t think Louisville was as athletic, or Ohio State was. At the same time, they’re all good teams. Like I said, Kentucky’s a good team. We probably will never see a team like this again. (We’re playing a) top-five program, just battling to see what happens. You all see the results.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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