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No. 1/1 Kentucky 89, Ole Miss 86 (OT)
Ole Miss Head Coach Andy Kennedy
On coming back from being down early ...
“Just
trying to settle in a little bit. We’ve obviously talked about this
environment. We’ve talked about how good this Kentucky team is. Boy,
did they prove it early. Came out and hit us right in the mouth. If it
was a three minute game obviously we would have been in big trouble,
but it’s not a three minute game. I just told my guys to continue to
battle. Our goal coming in here, we never talked about one time, ‘Hey
lets go in and beat the No. 1 team in the country.’ I just wanted them
to compete for 40 minutes, and I certainly
thought they did that.
(We) Gave ourselves a chance, really proud of the effort, proud of the
fight. But this game is just one of 18. Hopefully it will get people to
realize, and look at the numbers, the fact that, the Southeastern
Conference, I know the dialogue is already started about how bad it is.
But the reality is the numbers don’t say that. We’re one of four
leagues in the country that have five teams in the top 50 and we’re not
one of them. We’re not one of those top 50 teams. We’ve got 10 teams in
the RPI top 100, one of only three leagues. The numbers don’t back up
the rhetoric. What we talk about was coming in here and really
competing, and that’s what I told my guys at the end of the game,
obviously we’re disappointed with the loss, and we got our all-league
guy with a shot at the buzzer with a chance to steal this thing, and
the ball just didn’t go in for us. But we have to take this same fight
for the next night, and the next night, and the next night. If we can
do that, then I assure you this team will like where it’s standing at
the end.”
On if they found anything in Kentucky’s defense ...
“No, Stefan Moody’s been our X factor. His quickness, I knew he was going to be able to manufacture
shots because he’s so quick. Cal [UK head coach John Calipari] was extending the pressure, which really,
really bothered us until we got it to Moody, and he got into the open floor and was able to get some things
at the basket, and I think that settled us down a little bit. And then through some of the screening action,
even though Kentucky was connected for the most part, Moody’s a little bit like Marshall Henderson, and
thank God only a little bit. He doesn’t need much room to score, and he was able to knock in some shots.
So I think it really relaxed our team. In the second half, we just told them to drive pressure. Cal, their team
really gets up in you physically and forces you to (go) off the bounce. I thought we did a better job in the
second half of getting in that mid-range, especially Jarvis [Summers] and finishing, because you have
a hard time at the basket because they’re so long. I thought we were aggressive on both ends, bodies
on bodies. We told them if we can win the rebound battle, we have a chance to win the war. We come
up two short, but a one possession game really hurt us in overtime of getting second and third chance
opportunities and that ended up being the deciding factor.”
On Moody getting cramps at the end of the game ...
“Yeah, it was cramps at the end of the game. He had to sit about three minutes. I think I guilted him back
into playing, and he goes in and he plays. He gets fouled on a 3-pointer, he’s a top-10 guy in the country
at over 92 percent, the rule is Cal gets to choose the shooter. I won’t give him credit, because I know he
doesn’t know the percentages, but somebody over there picked the right guy. M.J. Rhett goes 1-for-3,
that’s a huge swing, and Moody can’t re-enter the game because of the cramps.”
On how not having Moody affected the offense ...
“Wow. Everything. When I’ve got him, Snoop [LaDarius White] and Jarvis [Summers], those are my guys,
and we can do a number of different things, because they’re all capable of making the basket. You take
one guy out of that equation, it changes things tremendously.”
“He wouldn’t sit down, his back is cramping. His back, he’s the oldest 22-year-old in the country.”
“We were trying to attack him, because that was the one player that we had a size advantage (over), and
also because he’s young. They dig up in you. At the end, and I’m sure Jarvis [Summers] will tell you this
when you talk to him, but at the end, the shot Jarvis got at the end of regulation to win it, it’s a hard shot,
pretty good look. You certainly don’t want to turn it over, but he had a freshman on him, I wish he’d made
that freshman move his feet a little bit as opposed to settling down, but I know he was concerned about
getting a look at the basket. We were trying to attack Ulis because of size, but probably more the main
thing is because the fact that he is a freshman.”
On the rest of the conference being a speed bump for Kentucky ...
“I think a speed bump would be an improvement over how people have talked about us. They hadn’t talked
at all, maybe now they’ll say ‘Hey, if this team can play like this and battle, maybe they got a chance.’
Everybody realizes that’s the reason it hasn’t been done since the 70s. Going undefeated is difficult, very,
very difficult. This game will help us, because I think it will show our guys ‘Hey, we went toe-to-toe with the
best and had an opportunity and came up a couple plays short.’ I think it’ll also help Kentucky, because it’ll
wake them up to the fact now we’re in league play and things change in league play.”
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