UK Player Quotes
#1 Nate Sestina, Forward
On Nick Richard’s performance …
“That’s what Nick does for us. He had a really big night. He rebounded the ball well and shot the ball well. He has been working on that the past few days with KP (Kenny Payne). He had a really good shoot around today and he really carried on from that.”
On missing open three–point shots …
“I have to make shots. Everybody has to make shots, especially when we are open. We practice it all the time. They are rhythm shots. I think guys legs were just tired, and my legs were tired. There isn’t any excuse for missing any open shots, but we will be good.”
On stopping runs and improving defense …
“My man was pulling from half court, back in Utah. We just have to pick them up. We can’t let them bring up the ball from the sideline and let them get open shots. A lot of it was just miscommunication and something we are going to have to work on to move forward.”
On bouncing back from the last game …
“We have a couple guys that are hurt. That has a lot to do with it. A win is a win. I am very happy with a win. I don’t care if it is by 1 point or 500 points. A win is a win. For us coming off a bad loss, to win at home and get our momentum going again is awesome.”
On taking breaks …
“I spent my entire college career earning minutes. This is something that I do not want to give up. I only have one more year of college basketball. As many minutes as I can play, I am going to do that, whether it is 40 minutes or 4 minutes or a minute. However long coach needs me in the game is how long I will be in the game.”
On recovering from an injury last week …
#0 Ashton Hagans, Guard
“Still feeling it a little bit, but it’s all good. Going to go back and get some treatment, just keep getting with (trainer) Geoff (Staton) and get better.”
On his improvements from not scoring last week to scoring more tonight …
“Just staying focused, just staying in the gym, shooting when I get the chance, attacking the basket and if my teammates are focused. Work on getting them open shots and everyone can get more involved and play in a role.”
On if he felt the pressure to take over in the second half …
“A little bit, but if it wasn’t for my teammates, I wouldn’t have gotten that. They opened up a lane for me and I just kept on driving.”
On how tired he is after playing a lot of minutes tonight …
“Not too tired, I’m a little bit hot in all these jackets, but not too tired. We got to move on to the next game.”
On how much it helped him that Nick Richards opened up the lane for him …
“You know, that’s the Nick that we need. He just has to keep on bringing it. You know Cal just kept on telling us to feed him and let him shoot the jumper, he had it and he was knocking it down, he just opened it up for us and he helped us out.”
#4 Nick Richards, Forward
On how he thinks he played ….
“I thought I played pretty good overall. I am still kind of mad about how I didn’t get a block today, so that is something that I am mad about. I am disappointed in myself because I had a couple of opportunities to get a couple of blocks tonight. We just have to appreciate the win tonight and be grateful for that. The other team did play pretty good tonight. It was a really good game overall.”
On looking comfortable with the faceup game …
“It is something we have been working on in practice, and that is something that I have been working on in my workouts with my coaches, so it was a matter of time before it just started going down.”
On the team’s limited availability forcing fresh faces into the game …
“I mean this team doesn’t really need to count up all veterans, but at the same time everyone is treated the same way. Freshman are veterans, we all get treated the same way.”