Saturday, December 27, 2014

Kentucky Player Post UofL Press Conference QUOTES





#1, Devin Booker, Fr., G

On looking at the low score of the game …
“At halftime I kind of realized that we were only around 20 points and I was like, ‘it’s a dogfight out there. We just have to buy into it.’ ”

On Tyler Ulis’ play …
“Well, everybody’s seen it. He’s incredible. He’s showing people - you guys - things you haven’t seen out of him before, but I’ve seen it because we’ve played on camps and teams all the time, so it’s nothing new to me. He’s a real special player.”

On hearing talk of UK going undefeated …
“We can’t focus on that. Every time we go out on the court we try to win. I feel like that’s every team’s objective, so we’re just going to take it game by game.”

On knowing people are talking about the rest of UK’s schedule …
“Obviously. We haven’t lost yet. Like I said, we’re taking it one game at time.”

#44, Dakari Johnson, Soph., C

On limiting Harrell …
“We really backed off the five man and kind of helped the four man, whoever was guarding him.”

On Ulis’ play …
“It was great. He really stepped up. He hit a lot of shots. He controlled the offense and he just had a great game today.”

On shutting down U of L …
“We just went with the game plan. Defensively we just sat down and locked down.”

On the takeaways from this game and needing a game like this …
“We did need a game like this, where it’s going to be competitive away from home. The crowd was into it. It just shows we’re a really tough team.”


On the team dealing with 40-0 talks …
“We’re not going to think about it. We’re just going to take one game at a time. We’re not even thinking about the undefeated talk or anything. (Reporter says, ‘You know it’s there though.’) Yeah, but we’re just going to take one game at a time.”

On the physicality of the game …
“It was very physical. We knew it was going to be a bump and grind type of game coming in, so we prepared for it. That’s it.”

#12, Karl-Anthony Towns, Fr., F

On if the referees let the game go more than they expected …
“I think the refs, just like us, were trying to feel each other out. It’s one of those games you don’t want to go so quick to making calls, everybody’s physical. It was a game that was always going to be physical from the get. They just had to feel it out. I think the refs – some people won’t believe I’m saying this – but I think they did a great job of trying to control the game. And also, just making sure they were being as fair as possible.”

On how his play is dictated by the way the officials call the game …
“It depends. Like I said, you have to feel it out. You don’t want to be too physical and they call it, but some refs let you play a little more. Today, the refs were great. They let us play a little more. They wanted to set the tone early, called a lot of fouls in the beginning, but I’ve seen at the end they let the physicality play out and knew how everyone was going to play.”

On defending Louisville forward Montrezl Harrell …
“Our game plan was mostly to play the defense we always know how to play. If we can do that, we can beat anybody. We just came out here and we played solid. We made sure we did what we had to do to make sure we could keep the score as low as possible for Louisville. I think we did a great job today playing defensively.”

On how tough and physical this game really was …
“It was very physical. It reminded me a lot of playing overseas. It was very physical, but they let a lot go. It was one of those games you had to keep playing through the fouls. Don’t worry about it. Don’t complain. Just keep playing. You’re not always going to get everything. You have to keep playing. If they call a whistle, then be glad they called it and at the other time be upset. It’s fine. Just keep playing through it. This is one of those games you could have let little things like that affect us and it would have hurt us long term.”

On whether he cares about whether games look ugly …
“It’s always about the W. It’s never about how we look. It’s more about the W. There’s a lot of times we’re going to be as basketball players—it’s a process. It’s something that we have to know. Sometimes we’re not always going to look good. We’re not always going to look the brightest and the sharpest as we always are. As long as we come out with the W, I know that we have that W on our schedule and also we can move on to the next game and fix what we need to fix.”

On Tyler Ulis’ game …
“Tyler was great. He played amazing. He was able to—he was allowing us to—he moved the ball. He just led the team. He led the team. That’s one of the things: Against a team like this, you need to make sure everything’s under control. He kept the game under control. He was hitting shots like he always does. Hit a floater. He was pretty, pretty, pretty good today. Pretty good.”

On Willie Cauley-Stein in the second half …
“Does that surprise any of us that Willie played great defense? I mean, that’s his specialty. Willie’s one of those guys, it’s going to be one time in my life I’ll be able to play with a person like Willie Cauley-Stein. It’s a blessing playing with him and I just want to enjoy all the time I have with him because you never know when he’s going to leave. You never know. I’m just blessed to play with a person like him to learn from him. Possibly one of the best defenders I’ll ever play with.”

#1, Tyler Ulis, Fr., G

On playing well in his first game against Louisville … “It was a great feeling to get that win there, especially because it was a rivalry game. That’s was my first big away game and it was a great feeling.”

On experiencing his first true road game as a freshman … “I was more excited than nervous because it was my first away game. Being a freshman I just wanted to see what the atmosphere felt like.”

On relishing the hostile environment … “We kind of like that. Like I said, it was exciting. As freshmen we’ve never been in that situation. We just really wanted to see what the atmosphere would be like, see what the away feeling would be like and how their fans would react to us.”


On how physical today’s game was … “It was extremely physical. They played rough. They like to get up in you defensively. I got hit with an elbow and had to get (three) stitches. I just felt like we prepared very well for that game in practice and getting ready to play how they played. We were ready.”

On how he got the laceration above his right eye … “I got elbowed.”

On whether he knew he was bleeding when he came up the court after it happened … “No, I didn’t know I was bleeding until one of the players yelled to the refs, ‘He’s bleeding!’ And then they stopped the game.”

On how a player his size counters the physicality of a game like that … “Just trying to use my quickness and my basketball IQ to my advantage and not try to get into all the rough stuff and just play my game.”

On those 3-pointers late and how big they were … “They were really big. Three people hit big shots late: me, Aaron (Harrison) and Andrew (Harrison) hit three 3’s late in the game, which really opened it up for us in that point of the game.”

On how much they are looking forward to having a long stretch off before their next game after this type of game … “We’re just looking forward to getting better as a team and just trying to rest our body a bit and get better.” 


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