KENTUCKY HC MARK POPE Q&A:
* Congrats to Arkansas. Thought they played great, really hard. Our guys are really disappointed. But I thought our guys fought for the most part.
* On Arkansas' 13 3-pointers... They shot it really well. They did a nice job of posing problems for us, getting downhill and getting guys open, some pick-and-pop stuff. Davis was really good in two-man game and coming off floppys.
* On the sub rotation tonight... I thought Andrew Carr made some steps forward tonight. First time you could feel his presence in a bit. Trying to figure out the guard rotation right now is tough. I may need to sub one of the main three out earlier. Think we wound up with three tired guys at one time, and that makes it hard.
* Atmosphere... Nowhere else like it. So much juice in the gym.
* Did he consider going zone... It's a little complicated. They're a lot better against zone this year than man. Wish I had taken a lot more aggressive posture. Navigating some roster situations that have me feeling constricted. Maybe I need to be a bit more bold.
* On turnovers... Have to get better at it. It's almost like we're two games into a new season. I need to help us get better at it. They're an issue, especially the ones that led to fast-break points for Arkansas.
* On Arkansas' J. Davis... His best game, for sure. He's getting more of a chance now (with Fland down) being a ball-dominant guy. Just their third game with him in that role.
* On why Trent Noah didn't play tonight... With Carr coming back and Ansley playing so well, may have to reconfigure some things to find him time at the 3. There's definitely space for him. It's my job to find it.
* On the early 2nd half run for Arkansas... Disappointed in that. We've been really good team coming out of halftime. Not really sure why we weren't operating like we usually do. Sometimes it's an anomaly. But we want that to be a staple for us.
* Asked about Lamont Butler's status... We just don't know. I'm not sure. We're kinda just trying to navigate the space. There's some of it I'm not going to share. Trying to respect his space. We just don't know yet.
* Our guys know what this place means, what the jersey means. I've got a locker room of guys who are as hurt as they've been all season long. Our job has to be to move on to the next game and get over this one. It's gotta happen in 12-16 hours because we're going on the road to face another Top 25 team. This is a journey for us, and there's going to be some pain along the way.
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ARKANSAS HC JOHN CALIPARI Q&A:
* It's hard to win in here. Gotta be honest with you, I looked up and thought a couple of times we were losing because I looked up at the Kentucky side of the scoreboard. Adou said he did the same thing.
* We played well. We made a lot of shots. We've lost a lot of games where it was like we were 0-for. You gotta make shots.
* On the former Cats playing... The players said they were fine, we're worried about you. They were good. They all three played well.
* This Kentucky team is good. Just went to Tennessee and won. This league is crazy. We just needed to win a game today. Didn't matter who it was against.
* Asked if this was his Super Bowl like he always used to say here, the shots they made, Calipari said "Maybe." But we needed a win against anyone.
* It's a great win, but it's just 1, and we've only got 2.
* On the SEC reaching this point that he tried to promote years ago... League finally invested in basketball. I used to beg for us to get 5 or 6 teams in the tourney, and now it might be the best league ever. And what Mark Pope is doing, amazing job. What we did today, it's just one game. Same for him.
* Mark's done great. He was the right guy for the job.
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ARKANSAS PLAYERS Q&A:
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KENTUCKY PLAYERS Q&A:
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