UK/Texas A&M post game quotes

Finally received the post game quotes:

Texas A&M Head Coach Billy Kennedy

Opening Statement:

“I’m proud of the fight our guys had against a Kentucky team that played well. Everything we did they countered. (Kentucky) Going 7-for-15 from the 3-point line was big because our game plan was to force them to shoot threes and hope they missed.”

On Elston Turner’s potential game-tying three in OT:

“He got a good look. It was in and out but we gave ourselves a chance. Unfortunately, we missed that shot. (Julius) Mays made a big shot for them at the end of the shot clock. They scored at the end of the shot clock several times. They have the making of a good team.”

On Ray Turner’s performance:

“That’s why we had a chance. Ray got his first double-double in SEC play and it gave us a chance. Inside he was a threat.”

On Alex Caruso:

“It hurt us, him getting in foul trouble in the first half. He brings energy and scores off of his defense and gets easy baskets from time to time. When he was in he gave us some good minutes.”

On Elston Turner coming back from first half struggles:

“He kept our composure, which I thought was big. He did that against Mississippi State in the second half where he struggled in the first half. I think he grew from that situation. I thought in the first half we had some really good looks. We had some good opportunities to score. Against a good defensive team you have to make those shots. He hung tough and played 44 minutes and we needed him for all 44 minutes.”

On turnovers:

“We had some key turnovers and we had some layups we missed. I thought Kourtney (Roberson) missing that dunk was big. You’ve got to be able to score those. When you get layups, you’ve got to make them. We took care of the ball better than we have. I’m thankful we only had 10 turnovers but against good teams, you can’t have turnovers at the wrong time.”

On the team performance:

“The key word on our board today was ‘fight’. We wanted to come out and compete. We did it against Mississippi State in the second half and overtime and it bled into this game. We have to play like that every night and we have to get that kind of production from eight or nine guys because that’s all we have. I thought for the most part we got good production from everybody who played. They all gave us something.”

Texas A&M Senior Guard Elston Turner

On the potential game-tying three in overtime:

“It felt good. It felt better than the shot I hit to send it to overtime. It’s heartbreaking when it goes in and out but that’s how the game goes sometimes.”

On the team’s defensive performance:

“For the most part I thought we played great defense. We held them to 62 points in two halves. We made them work for it, but give them credit. They hit shots when they needed them and they made us work on defense. For the most part we played pretty good defense. We did get key turnovers but they did make a lot of tough shots when we needed stops.”

On how he was guarded:

“They paid more attention to me. They made me catch it further back than being able to catch it coming off screens. Toward the end of the game, they started double-teaming me when I caught it. I kept trying to move around without the ball. I tried to get some back-cuts going. I was able to get good looks. I just wasn’t able to hit some shots. As the game moved on I got more and more comfortable. I was just trying to find different ways to score.”

On the turnovers:

“We played hard and that made up for a lot of mistakes that we had. We did turn the ball over in untimely situations but sometimes we got it right back. When you play and give it your all, it makes up for a lot of mistakes. Even with all the turnovers we still had a chance to win the game.”

Texas A&M Senior Forward Ray Turner

On his individual improvements:

“I think I came out with more energy throughout the game. Coach has been on me about bringing more energy. I have to keep bringing the same energy, keep working hard every day and trust more in the coaches’ system.”

On Nerlens Noel’s shot-blocking ability:

“You’ve got to give him credit. He’s a great shot-blocker. We knew he was going to try and block everything. We wanted to try to make him try and block shots and have him get off his feet so we could get to the foul line. We knew he was going to try and block everything so coach told us to try and be in position to get the rebound. I tried to make sure I did that tonight”

Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari

On team’s performance:

“Every game is a dogfight. We made many plays down towards the end that were incredible. Julius did a great job on Turner. Whenever Archie sees Turner leave, if it’s a pickup game go home. Don’t go near the guy. Julius played him pretty good and made it hard. He still scored some baskets but he made it hard for him. I thought that Alex played well and I thought that Nerlens was a beast. We don’t throw it to him enough. We are coming out of every timeout and throwing the ball.”

On team morale:

“Without Julius, we don’t win today. We are what we are and we’ve shown signs of getting better. The biggest thing is that when teams make a run at us, we just don’t have a swagger about us. As a matter of fact, we almost look defeated. It’s all we’ve been talking about. I’m not even watching game tape with them. It has nothing to do with that. We are telling them what should be in your mind when you miss a shot and when the negative thoughts are in your mind, how you get them out of your mind. Those are all life skills. When adversity hits you, how do you deal with it? I have a bunch of 18 and 19 year-olds and that’s what they need right now, more than basketball.”

On turnovers in the second half:

“That’s where we are right now. They weren’t pressing. We were just throwing it away. We have a ways to go. Every experience for this team is to learn and move on. You can’t leave timeouts and choose what you are going to do. We left a couple of timeouts with players confused. But that’s what young kids do and it’s a tough environment. It doesn’t matter what team we are right now or where we are as a team. We are a big game for everybody. A&M did not quit. They fought and battled and made plays and steals. Caruso came up with a couple of balls out of nowhere. There was a bunch of that, but we just played four or five on the road with this team. We survived and we survived without Willie playing much.”

On first basket in OT:

“It was big. But there were all kinds of plays that were big for them and big for us, even the last play. We were talking about switching. We said it and all of a sudden they do it: a dribble hand-off fade and one of the guys stops. The kid gets a great look for a three. It’s just what we are right now. We don’t talk enough. We are not rough enough. They roughed us up. That was a physical game. They were rough with our guards. They were rough with our big people. It was body-to-body. It’s what we need.  We need teams to make runs at us and we need teams to physically come at us so we can learn how we have to play.”