KENTUCKY HC MARK POPE Q&A:
* Thought it was a great night of basketball, even the saltiness. A physical game. This is Georgia State's third game in four nights. A real commendable effort from them. Nice to see our guys rally around each other. Guys were still talking about it in the lockerroom, happy with how they had each other's back, kept the focus, and finished the game strong.
* On Kerr Kriisa's wild night... He's a 1-of-1. I love coaching him. Our guys love him as teammates. He was spectacular tonight. At one point he was +16 with us up only 6 points. Super animated, brings so much to the game. A lot of moxie. Says Lamont Butler know Kerr was just 3 points away from 1,000 in his career. That was why he was firing away in the last minute. Brings some "salty juice" to our team.
* On a night when we didn't shoot the ball great, we outscored them 62-24 in the paint. Really proud of that. That part is super-exciting to me.
* On the shenanigans/shoving incident.... You want to get in there as quick as possible and remove people from the fray. Joked that his second thought was his wife wasn't running out there to take on somebody. She loves it when it gets salty. (Laughs)
* On Lamont Butler's night... My goodness he was good today. Made it look like he could replicate those plays over and over again. Not blindly racing downhill. He's a prober, manipulating all the pieces on the court. He was awesome. Terrific. Brilliant.
* On big games coming up... The last two games were great learning situations for us. Our first road games coming up, against elite-level talent. Both physical teams, Clemson in particular. Going into a combat week. Excited about it. Going to learn more about our team. It's what you love about college basketball.
* Pace wasn't an elite level for us tonight, but still good.
* On the team bonding even more when you go out on the road... It's good times and hard times and all the times that bring teams together.
* Pope says he'll leave with a comment about the referees... Talking about his cufflinks, says I know you wonder where this thing is going. Says the refs saw his cufflinks break and one of them was on the floor. "See, these guys see everything!"
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GEORGIA STATE HC JONAS HAYES Q&A:
* Helluva Kentucky team. Proud of the fight we brought today, though. Big Blue Nation brought their fight, too. It was a good battle for a while. We want to play a physical brand of ball. There was nothing sinister to it. Clash (Peters) is like it every day in our practices. You can't win 'em all, but you can bring your fight to the court every time you step between the lines.
* Our chief goal was to not get burned on the 3 ball tonight, and we held them to 7.
* Asked if he thinks people will try to be physical with UK, Hayes says they were just as physical as we were, from our vantage point at least.
* On UK having seven guys in double figures... that's why they're the No. 8 team in the country. Really good.
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UK PLAYERS Q&A:
