Kentucky Head Coach Matthew Mitchell
Opening Statement …
“Well proud of our team today for earning a tough, tough victory. I want to just compliment Austin Peay today. I thought they played extremely hard, they have our respect. They played really, really hard and tough today. But I thought our players played hard as well so I’m proud of that. We continued to improve some areas, and offensively we had some improvement today. We shot over 50 percent for the first time all year and that was good. I feel like that’s the kind of team we can be. We just need to try to keep going defensively and just try to keep getting better. So good win and looking forward to the next practice to try to get a little bit better.”
On shooting improvements …
“Well we’ve worked extremely hard on our offense and our offensive skills and so the coaches break up into three areas and each coach has a small group working on their individual skills and I think the players have worked very hard on trying to get better from that perspective. Then, as a team we’ve just tried to be intentional about taking our shots and our spacing, our timing, our shot selection, and I do feel like we’re getting better at that. It’s been a lot of hard work.”
On scoring in the paint …
“Yes the best all year, just proud of the team because that was a tough aggressive team. Austin Peay they really were switching screens hard and playing extremely hard, and I thought our players had some poise against what was a very aggressive defense and made the extra pass and were able to be tough enough to get the ball into the paint and finish at the rim and around the basket. So that’s a great development for our team and that’s something we need to keep working on.”
On spacing and getting the ball in the paint…
“Definitely, I mean it’s very important that we are playing the play with the proper spacing and proper timing and that’s something the team is working hard, practicing hard to do.”
On Ogechi’s first start of the year …
“Great day for Ogechi, Tatyana Wyatt had a migraine-level headache, we’re not sure exactly if it was a migraine, but it was a really debilitating headache for her today, so she was, as we all were, sad she couldn’t go, but an awesome opportunity to Ogechi and I thought she played with some great poise and some great toughness and that’s what we need from her. We need her to be a physical, tough interior presence for us and she was that today, so really happy with her stepping up and filling in and a tough situation losing Tatyana. She’s one of our top producers and so you lose someone like that you get concerned and it will get you to step and fill in a really significant way today.”
On Sabrina Haines playing well today …
“She was real tough today. Sabrina keeps coming out with great games and doing a good job of being very productive. She hustled a lot today to get some of those rebounds, really some tough physical rebounds today, and showed a lot of poise out there so I’m proud of her.”
On having nine players with high scoring and what it means to him so far this season …
“Well its good today because I thought Austin Peay, and we wondered when we might see that, were really trying to check Rhyne Howard today. I thought they were face guarding her and thought they were being very aggressive. I thought they were seeing if they could have our players read the situation correctly and I think it just shows tremendous growth on our part being able to make the extra pass. Being able to have poise. We shot a bunch of shots below 10 seconds on the shot clock and just kept our poise being able to finish, so that’s tremendous growth for us, positive development. Really proud of the team.”
On what he saw after only allowing Austin Peay to make seven 3s …
“I thought early in the game we were able to chase them off the line a little bit. I thought our defense In the second half wasn’t quite as sharp and I thought we gave up a lot of open 3s. Thankfully for us, and unfortunately for them, they didn’t go down. I think we have to tighten that up. They were a really tough team to defend and if they would’ve had a better day from the line it would’ve been trouble for us. We’ll take it as an opportunity to get better and to grow defensively and that’s why I appreciate how hard Austin Peay played today. Just an opportunity to work hard to get better.”
On the effort against Austin Peay …
“I just can’t tell you how impressed I was with the effort. We talked about that at halftime. Although we had a big lead at halftime, I think it was 22 points, our players knew they’d be in a battle because they really gave tremendous effort. I have to believe that they’re going to go on and have an outstanding season. I’ve coached in that league before and they’ve got a lot of ingredients to be a very good Ohio Valley Conference team so they certainly came in and earned our respect today.”
On KeKe McKinney being a vocal leader…
“She has great enthusiasm. She’s making sure her lip gloss is keeping and staying hydrated, her lips are hydrated there and she’s just full of energy. (Laughter) Somebody told me today they did a little video montage of her and she was on the bench and speaking to her energy and she was kinda getting everything done over there so it is really terrific to see her growth as just a person since she’s arrived on campus. She’s just grown in every way imaginable. She’s taken advantage of the support she’s gotten here and she’s grown as a woman, she’s grown as a student, as a player. She’s definitely one of the major, major favors for us emotionally, leadership wise. I thought she did a great job leading into Austin Peay game, you know we had a couple days off there leading into thanksgiving and the first practice back sometimes be a little rocky and she was very vocal that day and doing a really good job. She’s having a lot of fun over there when she’s on the bench when she’s out of the game just because she loves her teammates so much. We’re benefitting in so many ways and really proud. I think one of her last field goals in the first half, she just technically did a good job and that just shows you how hard she’s working in practice so it was a good day for KeKe.”
UK Student-Athletes
#32 Jaida Roper, Guard
On her big game and her spark …
“I just do what I need to do, whatever my teammates need me to do, whatever the coaches need me to do, if they need me to come off the bench and be that spark, that’s what I try to achieve. So I’m just gonna keep giving what I got.”
On how she felt about Ogechi getting her first start …
“I really enjoyed it because Ogechi she’s a really tough player, a tough person, because she’s battled so many injuries. She’s bounced back. No matter what’s thrown at her, she tries to put her best foot forward so finally seeing her kind of getting her rhythm and playing and out of her head so much, I enjoyed it for sure.”
On how it felt to be able to rely a variety of shooters
“I think it helped Rhyne not have to do so much. She’s a talented player. Everybody in the country should know that, if they don’t already, they should. But just to give her a hand, help her out, take some pressure off of her, I think everybody is capable. This team is really talented, we have a lot of weapons, so everybody is capable of having a big game or just doing what we do.”
#3 KeKe McKinney, Forward
On being supportive of her team …
“Yeah, I love to see my teammates do well so when they make a good play you know I’m going to turn them up.”
#21, Ogechi Anyagaligbo, Forward
On how it felt to get her first start of the year and by contributing 10 points …
“It felt good, just being able to step up and help because a teammate is out right now, and just to help my team in any way possible. I enjoyed it”