by Derek Willis (N. Arapaho/Pawnee/Creek)
On the importance of his rebounding against Ole Miss …
“I feel like it’s just something we’ve been trying to work on. It’s a necessity in the game of basketball. You have to rebound. We shot fairly well. I think, personally, I didn’t really shoot good so I felt like playing defense and rebounding was kind of the way I could contribute in that game.”
On his missed free throw at Ole Miss to help Isaiah Briscoe get his triple-double …
“I guess what happened, Zay had said something after I think we had lost the ball. The ball had went out of bounds and we ended up getting the ball back. He said something about how he needed another rebound and I don’t know what happened. But yeah, I guess I was shooting free throws and just pointed at him to go that way (left) and then I just tried to bank it and missed real bad and it kicked out to him so he could get a triple-double.”
On how much he practices that …
“Honestly, I didn’t even really know what happened, but I was like I’ll try and do what I can. Just had a good bounce and got to him.”
On if he’s now a late-game weapon if UK needs to miss a foul shot …
“See, I kind of thought about that. We’ve been practicing free throws a lot too, and I was almost thinking about practicing missing free throws, because we’re practicing making them. I don’t know, it could be a circumstance of where at the end of the game you want to hit it at the right point to get it back. It could be a thing.”
On what Coach Cal means when he talks about “trust” on this team …
“He’s been on Wenyen (Gabriel) a lot about it in practice. I think it’s just a thing of where you, as a player, personally you want to outplay the guy you’re going against. So, I feel like in certain situations you have to help out and then you have to rush to get back to your guy. I don’t want to say we don’t trust each other, but on the court I don’t think we communicate efficiently at times, and I think that’s just where we get a little discombobulated.”
On Calipari saying he’s focusing so much on defense and rebounding it’s effected his shooting …
“Yeah, I’m just kind of in a shooting slump right now. I’ve been in the gym a lot more just shooting. I don’t know, I think it’s one of those things too where maybe I need to condition a little bit better. Maybe it’s getting to my legs or something. I don’t know, just hopefully playing at Rupp, a comfortable environment, I can get it going offensively. Hit a little more shots and go from there. But I do want to continue doing what I’m doing defensively with rebounding and all that.”
On how difficult it is to play a complete game at this level …
“It’s very important, especially being my senior year, I feel like this is kind of like you need to start turning it on right now. As we get into postseason stuff I feel like I need to be more consistent, I guess.”
On why the Kentucky-Texas A&M matchups so frequently result in close games …
“I just feel like the past years they’ve been a real well-rounded team. They have veteran players, they play well, they don’t make a lot of mistakes, and if you make a mistake they make you pay for it. I think it was my sophomore year we had the 38-1 team that came down to, I think it was overtime, I think Trey Lyles came through for us and got us the win. They’re just a really well-coached team, really good team to play against. You learn a lot when you play against them. Pretty excited to see what’s in store tomorrow.”
On if the “trust” thing applies to him …
“Yeah, I think at times it does apply to me too. I think from my standpoint it’s the communication thing. People kind of think one thing and you’re thinking something else.”
On rebounding …
“We’ve been focused on it a lot in practice too. We have these rims, basically, where every time you shoot a ball there’s no way you’re going to make a shot. So, we’ve been doing that. A lot more bumping, being physical with each other. It just became a focus because we know if we’re going to continue far in the postseason you have to outrebound teams and you gotta be able to have an inside presence. It’s just very important to our team right now.”
On Texas A&M …
“They had a really good senior class last year. So, I know they lost some people and I think I heard they had some injuries as well. They’re still a really good team. They have a really good coach and they always have a good game plan for us. It’ll be interesting. It’s one of the games of the year we take a lot away from it and learn a lot. It’ll be a good experience, I think.”
On how he’s playing …
“I’m not really satisfied with how I’ve played. I always nit-pick myself. I feel like I’m doing an alright job. I just really want to be more consistent with each game, kind of put it all together. It’s like one game I’ll shoot good but then I’ll get beat on defense or don’t rebound well. Now it’s like, I’m playing defense and rebounding a little bit better and I can’t hit a shot. I kind of just want to like put it all together and be more complete.”
