John Clay's Sidelines

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Stat comparisons

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Kentucky senior Darius Miller talks about the win over Louisville.

Anthony Davis talked to the media about his double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds, despite the fact he was only on the floor for 27 minutes.

Kentucky sophomore Terrrence Jones talks to media after grabbing 11 rebounds in win over Louisville.

Louisville post-game player quotes:

#3, Peyton Siva, G

On climbing back in the game in the second half …

“Russ Smith was doing alright for us. He played well. Everybody just really stepped up in the press. We got a couple key steals and Russ (Smith) made shots. He is a great player and at the end, (Kentucky) just hit the lob and it got the crowd back involved. We had a couple fouls called after that, and it just didn’t go our way.”

On why he thought Louisville could never get over the hump to take the lead …

“I just think we didn’t step up and block out at the end. They (Kentucky) just hit the glass and got rebounds. It really hurt us that they got rebounds. Typically after they got a rebound, they got a foul call or an and-one.”

On if Anthony Davis was more of a factor than he expected …

“Definitely. He was a big factor in the second half. He was long, and athletic. He altered a lot of shots.”

Continue reading ‘Post-game quotes from Louisville players’

Five good minutes with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist after his 24 points and 19 rebounds in UK’s 69-62 win over Louisville.

John Calipari’s entire press conference after win over Louisville.

Full transcript of Rick Pitino press conference after his Louisville team’s loss to UK:

Opening statement … 

“I think the turning point for us was Gorgui (Dieng) leaving the game. We just broke down and he is the guy we have to have on the court at all times. I’ve coached a lot of teams that have given great effort but I have never coached a team that is willing to give the effort that this team gives. Unfortunately there are no moral victories. We struggled shooting the basketball tonight; we forced a lot of turnovers tonight but didn’t make them pay. We didn’t do a good job on the backboard with Gorgui out of the game. Gorgui is one thing and then you are playing two six-foot guards and that doesn’t help rebounding. Kyle didn’t rebound so we were really overmatched rebounding tonight. If we can somehow get our execution to match our effort then we’ll have an outstanding ball club. I’m real proud of our guys, I’ve never coached a group that has this much will to win but we’ve got to start shooting the ball better because if you work that hard and get nothing out of it then it’s really frustrating.”

On coming back from an early deficit…

“I don’t know every team in the country but I don’t think any team comes back like we do because, again, that’s just incredible will power and effort. The good thing is we are getting more bodies back so we won’t have to worry about foul trouble as much. We’re always going to make comebacks, we did the other night. You can’t always come back and win. This was a very good basketball team, we fought them hard but they were better than us.”

On Russ Smith…

“He’s impressive doing things with the ball. He’s got to go in there and hit somebody, he’s staying out on the perimeter and we’re in a fight five versus four. We’re getting the hell beat out of us and we just need another guy to come in and hit somebody.”

Continue reading ‘Full transcript of Pitino’s presser after loss to Kentucky’

Full transcript of John Calipari’s post-game press conference:

Q. We talked about Michael (Kidd-Gilchrist) and grit. How much was this game well suited for that kind of player?

COACH CALIPARI: Yeah, he wasn’t bothered as much as some of the other players by the physical play. He almost relished it and just went after it, and that’s why he played the way he did.

I just wish Anthony Davis hadn’t gotten that second foul in that first half because I would have liked to see him play more. He was too valuable to the team to go back to him.

Michael, those two just stepped on the gas.

Q. Did you expect this to be a game with so many fouls called?

COACH CALIPARI: Oh, yeah. I would hope they would be called. We were both fouling and trying to protect each other, I guess. But yeah.

 Q. On Terrence Jones …

COACH CALIPARI: I didn’t really hear that. I heard ‘Terrence’.

Terrence (Jones) took strides to come back. He was one for nine and missed seven one foot shots. What he needed to do was try to dunk each one of those. And he’s just not all the way back yet. Try to dunk every one of them. Why are you doing that? Just go up and dunk that. He’s not there yet.

I think within the next week and a half, he’ll be fine. He went in there, got 11 rebounds. He made strides there. He battled and Murray did what we needed him to do. He’s not all the way back, but that’s okay.

Doron (Lamb) and he didn’t play particularly well. Doron didn’t play particularly well at all. Terrence offensively didn’t play particularly well. We still won. Figure that.

Continue reading ‘Full transcript of Calipari presser after Cats beat Cards’