UK Student-Athletes
#3, Tyrese Maxey, Fr., G
On playing like you did against Michigan State…
“I mean I just felt comfortable. I felt like coach has been doing a really good job of just making this team gel together, and I think we are getting better every day.”
On coach seems like he yells at you a lot more during timeouts…
“He’s always hard on me, and I’m grateful for it. You know, at the time it doesn’t feel good, but he does love us all and he’s going to coach us really hard and he wants to win just like we do so I’m thankful for it.”
On making 3s…
“it’s nothing different, I just stayed with my training and stayed with getting shots up in the morning and night. I’m confident in myself. I feel like I’m going to make the next one. Doesn’t matter if I miss or make, I put in too much work to have that type of thought process if I miss. Every time I shoot it I think its going to go in.”
#12, Keion Brooks Jr., Fr., F
On how you thought the team played tonight..
“I feel like we were starting to find our groove defensively. Also, getting out in transition and putting up points. Coach preaches how we have to try to get 80 points. Playing up and down, playing fast, and a lot of that had to do with our defense. We started stringing stops together.”
On the difference of making a lot of 3s…
“Definitely. We’re a good shooting team. We just had to find our groove and I feel like we’re headed in the right direction with the way we’re shooting the ball.”
On how much the team fed off the performance of Tyrese Maxey…
“That gave us a lot of energy. Consecutively hitting a bunch of 3s in a row, then us being able to get stops in the end was great. So, that gave us some momentum heading into the half and we picked up on it in the second half.”
On if you’re looking for a slower-paced December…
“Personally, I love to play games, but you know, you get better in practice so I’m looking forward to going to practice and watching some film to see what we can be better at.”
#4, Nick Richards, Jr., C
On if you knew how close you were to a double-double…
“No, people on the bench told me I was close to a double-double. I was trying to press and get two points, and ended up getting it off an offensive rebound, or was it a dunk, I just want to thank my teammates for putting me in the position to be successful like that and to my coaches for calling plays like that, everyone on this team is just trying to get better every game.”
On how you felt on your performance tonight in the shot-blocking category…
“I feel like as a team we did a better job. I think I had seven, KB (Keion Brooks Jr.) had like two or three, EJ (Montgomery) had like two. Even our guards like Tyrese (Maxey) and Ashton (Hagans) had a couple, so I think we just did a better job as a team in that regard.”
On their play during the 22-2 point run and Tyrese Maxey’s spark…
“That just tells you the type of player he is. He just takes over games at any point in time. At one point I thought he had like four 3s in a row, you know, that just tells you the type of player he is and can just take over game at any point in time.”
On if (John) Calipari is satisfied with seven blocks in a game and if he wants more…
“Yeah, him and KP (Kenny Payne), they both got on me, they said I should have had a triple-double, but we are just grateful for the win, you know that just tells you the type of coaches they are, they want me to get better as much as possible, they’re never satisfied they just want me to get better.”
On the difference in his play in terms of less fouling this year…
“I mean the only times we’ve had foul issues againstwas Evansville, and you can see the results of that, but fouling is one thing that I’m trying to avoid, just trying to protect this team because we don’t have that many bodies on our bench.”