#30, Julius Randle, F
On John Calipari’s message to the team after the game …
“One of his pet peeves is not playing hard. We were just not out there playing hard enough on defense or offense running the floor. We just had to compete. If we do that, we will be fine. You know, we’re young, and we don’t really get it right now. We stopped (playing) a lot, but we will be fine. ”
On what he saw as the main problem with the overall play …
“Yes, it’s all just effort. All of that is just playing with effort. So, we will be fine.”
On if he feels he can be the leader of this team, and if he is already ‘that guy’ …
“I feel like I am that guy. A lot of that stuff, I feel is done by action. I lead by example and I am going to have to be a little bit more vocal with the guys. I need to get on guys when we are slacking, because we can’t afford that next week. We can’t afford that.”
On what John Calipari told the team after the game …
“We just needed to play hard. That was pretty much it. (He told us) we weren’t playing hard enough, so we just needed to step up and play a little bit harder.”
#44, Dakari Johnson, F
On the team’s performance…
“Obviously, I think we could’ve played better, but it’s a process. It was our first game playing together as a team, not going against each other, but going up against someone different. It’s our first game and I think we’ll get better as the season goes on.”
On playing against a smaller team…
“It is hard when you’re playing a smaller team, but we have to have the mindset that going into every game we have to play harder. That’s going to start tomorrow in practice.”
On the challenges of playing a smaller lineup…
“We’re not really used to playing against smaller guys. Every day, we’re going up against people our size so it was an adjustment, but I still think we needed to play harder.”
#3, Jarrod Polson, G
On the crowd helping energize the younger players…
“I think always when the crowd gets involved, especially at Rupp Arena, that it helps us out a lot. Especially since we are a young team. I think once the crowd started to get involved, that helped us relax a bit.”
On Alex Poythress and Julius Randle being able to move the ball and pass to players on the wing for 3-pointers…
“They are a huge asset obviously, because the defense has to key on them or they are going to be unstoppable. They make a lot of defenders collapse on them and that is a good thing for us guards. We can just sit on the wing and get the kick outs every once in a while.”
On the emphasis at halftime to attack the basket more than settle for 3-pointers…
“Coach Cal (Calipari) just told us to make the easy play. We were settling for a lot of 3-pointers and just trying to do things that we have not normally done in practice. Once we got loosened up a little bit, making the easy plays, and getting it down low that helped us out a lot.”
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