Head Coach Bruce Pearl
Opening Statement …
“We’re obviously disappointed. I’ll congratulate Kentucky on being regular season champions of our league. I think they’re the best team in our league. They’re the hottest team in our league. They’re physical offensively, they got all the piecesbecause I thought we played pretty well and in defeat, didn’t shoot as well in the second half as we did in the first half. Kentucky played really good defensively and we weren’t able to defend without fouling. They make 27 free throws, we make 22 field goals. We got 22 field goals and nine three’s, and they only have 2 three’s, but we fouled them too much and that was a big deal. Big fact of the game is that we missed free throws.”
On how Immanuel Quickley is playing in the last month and how he changed the game plan this time …
“Well, what did Quickley have at half time? (media answered: six) six, okay. So, we tried different guys on him. Isaac Okoro had him a lot in the second half and we had taken Isaac, but you know, Maxey and Quickley are 18 for 19 from the free-throw line. So we had a hard time covering them, we fouled them too much.”
On covering Quickley …
“We had a hard time covering him. We fouled him too much.”
On relying on three pointers instead of driving …
“Because I didn’t think if we drove – there was contact – I wasn’t confident we would shoot free throws. We are on the road, playing at Rupp. I figured we needed to shoot a little bit, and I thought we did. Kentucky leads the league in blocked shots, and they blocked some shots. The closer that you get to the basket at Kentucky, you don’t always look. If we made some of those shots in the second half and made a couple of free throws, we are right there. But we didn’t.”
On competing against Ashton Hagans …
“He is a great athlete. I don’t know three better guards in the league, or in the country. What team has got three better guards that play defense, that can score the basketball? They are hard to guard. Ashton goes down to the line a lot and they all go to the line a lot because they are hard to stay in front of. Austin (Wiley) played twenty-one minutes because he was in foul trouble all night. They bring it right to the basket and they are hard to stay in front of. I love them. I really like Kentucky’s team. I really like their coach. They did an amazing job. I think they are very undervalued. I’ll tell you right now, if we don’t play them again I am rooting for them. I am rooting for them to go a long way.”
On not performing as well in the second half …
“I know we didn’t shoot as well and they defended us really well. You have to make shots and you have to defend without fouling. Kentucky did a good job. We had 17 offensive rebounds in the last game, but we only had 12 this time. We didn’t have quite as many second chance points as we did before. They made the adjustments; they played the way they needed to playand it obviously helped serve.”
On his thoughts with his reunion with his Southern Indiana team tonight …
“If I could just take a second and talk about where I’m going right now. I have been so blessed to coach a lot of basketball in the state of Kentucky. I was the head coach at Southern Indiana for nine years, right down the road in Evansville, Indiana. All Kentucky’s games were on every night in Evansville on the Evansville stations. It’s a big home of Kentucky basketball, Walter McCarty and all that. I spent nine years in Division II. Northern Kentucky, Kentucky Wesleyan, Southern Indiana, Bellarmine. Great Division II basketball. Louisville, Cincinnati. In 1995 I went to Louisville, Kentucky and we won a national championship. I’m headed back there tonight, 25 years later to celebrate with my team. Some of those guys are going to be in their mid 40s with kids and there will be unbelievable stories. I know they’re going to tell about how they made every shot and what a great coach I was, no that’s not true. But I just want to say basketball matters here in the state of Kentucky, whether it’s Division I or Division II, so while we’re disappointed that we didn’t win tonight, I want you to write that. 1995 University of Southern Indiana, Division II national champions.”
Auburn Student-Athletes
#5 J’Von McCormick, Sr., New Orleans
On their determination going into the game …
“We go into every game knowing we have the tools to win it. We have a good scout, that’s what we do, try to come out and execute.”
On their change of play style from the last matchup at Auburn to today’s game …
“They gave us a good game plan, they sunk it knowing we drove a lot last game, so we just have to be ready to make shots.”
On getting two fouls in a few seconds, and sitting on the bench for twelve minutes after …
“It was a big problem knowing that Samir (Doughty) was playing the backup one. It takes away his ability to shoot the ball and being able to drive and attack defense as hard as he can.”
Continued question …
“It was tough knowing that I’m not able to help my teammates, but I just have to encourage them to play hard and I would come back in the second half ready to play.”
On how well Immanuel Quickley looked in his opinion …
“He played pretty good. He just didn’t make shots. We knew that he was going to be a factor in the matchups today so we just tried to make him a no factor in the game.”