Kentucky Players
#3, Tyrese Maxey, Fr., G
On Cal’s coaching…
“Coach Cal is the most confident to me. He just tells me that I can do a lot better. He always tells me to go out there and play like he knows I can. I just go out there and try to do that.”
On how finishing first in practice translates to the game…
“(Coach Cal) just knows what I can do. I believe in him, and he just tells me to finish first in every single sprint. He said that I feel a lot more confident when I go out on the court, and that’s what I try to do.”
On Calipari being hard on him…
“He told me at the beginning of the year that he was going to coach me as hard as he can. He called me into his office a couple of days ago. He told me it doesn’t matter how I’m playing; he knows what I can do. And he is never going to back off of me.”
On turning the game around during the second half…
“Just our competitive spirit and then Nick (Richards), honestly. He had two fouls early, and then to have him on the court always helps. And to just go out there be competitive defensively and get multiple stops in a row.”
#4, Nick Richards, Jr., F
On Coach Calipari saying he needs him …
“Really? I think he’s over exaggerating. I think we have a lot of good pieces on our team. Ashton (Hagans) is a really good point guard. Immanuel (Quickley), he was the one that called that last play in the end which was basically back screening for the lob. I think we’ve got a lot of good guys on our team. EJ (Montgomery) is playing really good now. He’s turning the heat up. Tyrese (Maxey) played really good tonight. Keion (Brooks Jr.), Johnny (Juzang), they all played really good tonight, even Nate (Sestina). He did a lot of stuff on the court that’s not really showing on the stat sheet.”
On Coach Calipari not saying anything bad about hisperformance …
“He said that? I’m just happy he’s my coach.”
On being surprised by Coach Calipari’s positive words …
“He’s always hard on me because I know he always wants the best for me and always wants to push me in the right direction. That’s why I said I’m just happy he’s my coach.”
On his early fouls …
“There were two early fouls basically two minutes into the game. I can’t do that. Even if I was the seventh man on the bench coming up, I can’t do that getting two fouls in two minutes. That’s really bad.”
#23, EJ Montgomery, So., F
On the difference between the first and second half tonight…
“It was just energy. We came out flat, and the second half we just go out ourselves together and came out stronger.”
On Coach Calipari’s decision to let the team figure it out on their own…
“We’ve just been talking about being player-driven. We have to just go out and figure it out ourselves.”
On his improvement in practices in terms of conditioning…
“I’m just trying to run my hardest in practices and things like that so I can get in better conditioning. We have conditioning tomorrow, so we are just trying to get better every day.”