UK MEDIA RELATIONS MEN’S BASKETBALL
PRE-VALPARAISO GAME PLAYER COMMENTS
JOE CRAFT CENTER – LEXINGTON, KY.
Kentucky Players
#32, Wenyen Gabriel, Freshman,
On how he and the team feels after the UCLA loss … “It was a little bit of a surprise at first, but I think it’s been good for us. Coach Cal said we needed to be in a close game. I think we would be better off if we had won the close game, but we’re learning from that and moving on. Valpo is a good team and we’re working toward that.”
On the defensive intensity since that loss … “It’s definitely picked up in practice. I know last game I had a few lapses that cost me some minutes and I couldn’t contribute as much in that game, which I’m working on for the next game, starting with Valpo.”
On if anything else has changed in practice … “A few things that we went past that we used to do in the summer and earlier practices that Cal had kind of taken out of practices and has put back. Kind of our fundamentals he’s trying to bring back to practice.”
On what Coach Cal is wanting defensively from the four-spot … “We’ve been allowing too many straight-line drives – just too many lapses in general at that position that we’ve been having a problem with right now and we’re working toward. I’m certain I’m going to fix that before the season is over.”
On if it’s unusual for him to have his defense put under a microscope … “I mean, it’s part of the adjustment as well. I’m not too worried about it. It’s an adjustment I’m going to handle.”
On Valparaiso forward Alec Peters … “Yeah, he’s at the four-man position. We spoke about him during practice. He sounds like a skilled player and we’re getting ready for him.”
On if the coaching staff shows them more tape when facing a talented player like Peters … “It’s not that they show more tape on him. We kind of focus more on our defensive strategy and what we need to do as a team, overall.”
On the team’s attitude following their first loss … “It’s been positive. For a lot of the players we’re ready to move on. We have a game coming up on Wednesday. We got UNC coming up soon. We got some big games. It’s a long season ahead of us. We’re still freshmen. We have a lot to look forward to.”
On balancing getting over the loss with remembering lessons of the game … “It’s early in the season so that’s kind of good to get over that loss, especially being able to have big teams coming up that we’re about to play. I think that actually helps us get over that as well and learn from it.”
On Derek Willis saying UK, as a team, may have gotten complacent … “We came into the game beating every team by 21 points or more, and a lot of us, as freshmen it’s our first time in the league. It’s hard to judge that and get a good feel on that. So, playing a game like this really helped us.”
On if it’s more odd for them to lose since they do not lose often … “It would be different. Wining is expected here and its part of the culture. When you lose, especially at Rupp, it’s just something – it’s devastating when you realize the winning streak you just lost. It affects you a little bit when you think back on it.”
On Coach Cal talking about March … “It kind of brings our focus back and gets us back on line. Even in games when we’re up 30, 40 points, he’s still on us, yelling at us about our defense and different things because he knows as a team what we’re working toward is March.”
#15, Isaac Humphries, Sophomore, F
On how the team has responded to a loss …
“We’ve been fine. We’ve been getting back at it, like more aggressive and stuff like that. Going back to drill work. Just trying to get back to our basics and really focusing in on what we need to do.”
On whether it’s strange to lose …
“I mean, yeah, I guess. But we just take it as another game and move on. We spend 24 hours on that loss and then we move on.”
On whether it’s been hard to stay healthy …
“Yeah. I think a bug went through last week, but we try not to make any excuses or anything like that. We just all push through that and that stuff happens.”
On what happened vs. UCLA …
“I think they’re a good team. They shot the ball really well. I think they shot 60 percent or something like that. We were a little selfish. We didn’t play the way that we had been with our one more passes and our effort. So I think that a lot of things contributed, but mostly being selfish and our effort.”
On what worked for him in his good individual moments against UCLA …
“I tried to focus a lot on defense. I tried to be energetic on defense and try to get deflections and rebounds and stuff like that. And I think towards the end I got to do that and make some runs and stuff—help make some runs.”
On whether there were any positives from the loss …
“I think just to try and not be that, if that makes sense. To try and—now we know what we are when we lose. So now we can just go from there and try not to be that again.”
On how they will handle losing …
“We’re going to bounce back. We’ll be fine. We’re fine. We went through it. We know exactly what we did wrong. We know exactly how to fix it. We’ve been working really hard yesterday and today we’ll work hard again. So I think tomorrow we’ll be fine.”
On how they can fix it …
“You’re asking hard ones today (laughs). We have been—like I said, we went back to drill work. We went back to basics. We have been—we really went hard yesterday because, again, effort was a big issue (in) the UCLA game. So we just got back into playing really hard and going at each other.”
On whether Cal has been louder since the loss …
“No. No more (than) usual. Just the usual loudness.”
On whether defensive intensity has picked up since the loss …
“Yeah, we’ve been working on that a lot. The intensity, exactly. So we went back to our defensive drill work and it definitely has picked up.”
On whether he believes there are some lessons that can only be learned in a loss …
“Yeah. I believe that you learn from losing. I think that’s what you’re saying. If you win and win and win – I think that’s the best advice I ever got, actually, from Yao Ming – he said if you win and win and win, you don’t really—no one cares about the little things that are going wrong. It’s only (when) you lose that you’ll understand that’s not working and you’ll learn from those mistakes. So I’m a big believer.”
On when he had that conversation with Yao …
“I was in China a couple years ago, three years ago, four years ago. So obviously it’s stuck with me.”