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UK Men's Basketball vs. Auburn
Quotes
UK Head Coach John Calipari
On playing on the road …
“I’m
anxious to see how we respond. Another sell-out on the road, they’re
going to go crazy and play well. We’re going to have to play well to
have a chance. We need to get some road games under our belt to see
what we need to do with our team. Last year we were 2-6 (on the road in
SEC play). I also know, last year, at the end of the year we were the
best team in the country. We learned along the way and this team has a
lot of learning to do.”
On road games not being tougher than Indiana environment …
“It
will get crazy. We go to Florida, Tennessee and have this Auburn game.
That’s what it means to play here, this isn’t for everybody. If you’re
hoping to walk in to a half-empty arena and slide by and go get a meal
after the game then this is not your place to play basketball. Every
game is someone’s Super Bowl, you have a target on your back; every
road game is sold out. That’s just how it is.”
On Auburn’s game against Vanderbilt …
“They
were on the road; Vanderbilt right now is a top-five team. Aside from
playing off each other real well they are shooting the ball. It’s not
just (John) Jenkins, now all of a sudden they make 10 or 11 3s with the
way they play and you lose by 30, we’d lose by 30. If they play like
they did against Auburn then they’d get us by 25 or 30. I’m not taking
much from that game, I’m not zeroed in on Vanderbilt, but just watching
some of the plays I have to say, ‘whoa’.”
On coaching against Tony Barbee …
“I’m
playing against someone I care about. He helped me build two programs,
UMass as a player and as an assistant at Memphis. I’m standing here in
front of you all as the coach at Kentucky and a lot of it is because of
Tony Barbee. I don’t like playing these kinds of games, but we’ll play
the game and get out of there.”
On a hostile environment adding responsibility to Marquis Teague …
“He
just has to understand how to take the crowd out of the game. There are
times where you speed up and times where you pull back just based on
the momentum of the game. That’s something that he’ll have to learn and
that’s why we’ll probably do more coaching from the side than we need
to, because we’re trying to help him.”
On the importance of Marquis Teague following up with another strong game …
“He’s
got time. I told them let’s just worry about getting better every game
and the wins will take care of themselves. If we lose a couple, we lose
a couple. It’s not football. We just need to get better, I like my
team, I like what we do defensively, and we’re getting better
offensively. We haven’t played with six cylinders running; we’ve been
on two or three. As I say that, we still have played four top-15 teams
and that kind of hardens you.”
On Terrence Jones …
“I think
he’ll be fine. He was good yesterday. Guys don’t want to slide back to
where they were on that kind of stuff and I think he understood it. He
was good yesterday; he’s shooting the ball better and is more
confident. He’s going to get rebounds with two hands and is talking
more.”
On the Southeastern Conference …
“I think the league
is really good. The media says when one league loses on the road it’s a
good loss, when our league loses on the road it’s a bad loss. It’s hard
to win on the road in any league. I’ll make a prediction; other than
us, four of those five top teams in our league will be Sweet 16 teams.
One team took a spill because their big guy was out, another had a bad
game, but at the end of the day all those teams have the ability to do
something special.”
On Darius Miller’s role …
“We like him to
be aggressive, come up with balls. Don’t have a 6’2 guy on you and keep
ball faking, just go do the stuff we all know you are capable of doing.
We’ve all seen him do it. If he plays tough and is aggressive offensive
and defensively then we are really good, if he doesn’t then we’ll be
fine, he just won’t play much but we’ll be fine. He’s capable of being
the SEC Tournament MVP, he did it last year. His run at the end of the
year is what elevated our team. He’s playing fine (this year). I don’t
like fine or good, that’s our enemy. You don’t want to be good, try to
be great. Do the things you are capable of doing every day in practice
and every game. You have to come with the mentality that you are going
to work on everything and get better. That’s not just for him, that’s
for everybody.”
Players
#10 Twany Beckham, G, Jr.
On how he approaches road games …
“I
have been having the same mindset, but now that I see I can get the
opportunity to get on the floor more, I just have to make it happen.”
On what he sees his strengths as …
“Defense definitely is one of my strengths.”
On his learning curve being downhill now …
“I am getting the plays down better. Moving to the wing was a big adjustment, and I am starting to run the plays more.”
#25 Marquis Teague, G, Fr.
On the difference between a road game and a home game …
“Everything is really physical. On the road, the crowd is real tough to play in, and the crowd gets into it.”
On the goals for the team on the road and the approach he will take …
“You want to go out, play hard, and get wins just like you would a home game. We just have to execute and do what we do.”
On last year’s road struggles …
“No. We really haven’t talked about it that much this year.”
#30 Eloy Vargas, F, Sr.
On last year’s road struggles …
“Last year we didn’t come out in the road games. We need to improve on the road this year to get on the right track.”
On what he thinks caused last year’s road struggles …
“We were pretty young last year. This year, we are pretty young, but we have older guys like Terrence Jones and Doron (Lamb).”
On if the team is ready for the road in the Southeastern Conference …
“I
think so. I think we learned a little bit from the Indiana game, so I
think our young guys will be ready this game and every game we play.”
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