Friday, November 8, 2013

UK Players Comments After UNC Asheville Game



Kentucky Student-Athletes

#30, Julius Randle, F

On the team’s performance… 
“We’re getting better every game, but we still have a long way to go. We’re nowhere near where we should be, but I think as the intensity and the competition keeps going up, I think we’ll have guys rise to the challenge. We’ll be fine, but we have to keep getting better. ”

On Willie Cauley-Stein’s performance … 
“Willie does a lot of terrific things, he’s very versatile. There was a stretch where he got consecutive offensive rebounds and it helped us bust the game open. He just does a lot of little things like that to help us.”

On adjusting to the new rules in the game… 
“I kind of got some early fouls on offensive rebounds. It is kind of hard to get in the rhythm when you’re used to defending 18, 19, 20 years of your life and you’re able to kind of put a hand on somebody. Coach has done a good job getting on us and helping us adjust to the rulebook. It’s tough because it’s easier to go back to your old ways, but we have to keep getting better.”

#22, Alex Poythress, F 

On what the biggest emphasis has been this year … 
“I think defense. We have got to learn how to play defense better. Things like hands up, straight-line drives, and attacking the defensive rebound. Little things like that. We worked on [these things] last year but we need to work on it a little bit more this year.”

On players coming off the bench a lot more this season …
“You’ve just got to be ready when you get your opportunity. You never know when it is going be. It may be quick or it may be late, but you’ve got to come off ready, give off great energy and really compete out there.”

On what this team will look like when their free throw percentage goes up … 
“We will be real good. We have a long way to go. We just have to get through this game and start hitting free throws. It comes with time. All great free throw shooters know that you’ll have an off day. We’ll fix it tomorrow. I’d say we just had an off day. Guys will get in the gym, like we always do, and shoot 50 a day, shoot 100 a day, shoot after practice, and shoot before practice. We don’t need to worry about guys not shooting free throws. We have hard workers on this team.”

#00, Marcus Lee, F 

On how he felt about his first game… 
“It was fun. Getting a chance to actually be in a real game with our whole team playing, it just shows that we have a lot to do.”


On scoring 17 points… 
“I had 17 points? I don’t even keep track of that stuff. I try to make sure I give my team as much energy as possible so we can go from one level to the next.”

On the need to improve… 
“Coach tells us a lot that we have a long way to go. We all agree with him that we are not where we need to be, but we are still trying to work as hard as possible and tomorrow is our next day to get there.”

On if tonight’s game reassures him he will get playing time…
“It kind of reminded me that I should never really stop giving up and even in practice we should push each other as hard as possible.”

On if he is willing to be a scorer…
“If it happens it happens, but I don’t care. If you ask me 100 times after each game how many points I scored or how many rebounds I had I could never tell you unless you told me to my face. Honestly I could care less as long as my team did really well and gave all we got and got the win.”


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