OFFICIAL KENTUCK POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE:
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MARK POPE UK RADIO NETWORK Q&A:
* Incredible emotional resilience tonight. Fought through some bad play, fought through some fatigue, endured all that and spit it out.
* We were bad in transition defense and in isolation plays in the first half. We had to move the bigs up. Weren't able to challenge enough. Did better job of that in the second half, a little different look, blitzes on ball screens... And guys made some plays.
* On Oweh's play against Flagg down the stretch... You're kind of picking your poison if you leave one of their other guys, but they were being more deliberate about going to Flagg there, and we talked about getting to his turn and stripping him. Carr did a nice job of standing him up and letting Otega's instinctive read lead to the steal.
* On the long pass from Brea to Butler with the game hanging in the balance... It's a read on where they're setting up defensively. Koby looked like Joe Montana (laughs). They executed it really well. It doesn't show up in the box score, but a really important play to execute. Koby really smart to see it and make that read so quickly.
* Brandon Garrison had a terrific game tonight. His energy was a huge key. Some big defensive plays, and a couple of runs to the rim that were huge. Hoping he'll get that 3-pointer soon. He can shoot that.
* There is a guts to this game, and our guys were right in that regard for 40 minutes. We didn't always play right, but our guts were right.
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MARK POPE UK RADIO NETWORK Q&A:
* Incredible emotional resilience tonight. Fought through some bad play, fought through some fatigue, endured all that and spit it out.
* We were bad in transition defense and in isolation plays in the first half. We had to move the bigs up. Weren't able to challenge enough. Did better job of that in the second half, a little different look, blitzes on ball screens... And guys made some plays.
* On Oweh's play against Flagg down the stretch... You're kind of picking your poison if you leave one of their other guys, but they were being more deliberate about going to Flagg there, and we talked about getting to his turn and stripping him. Carr did a nice job of standing him up and letting Otega's instinctive read lead to the steal.
* On the long pass from Brea to Butler with the game hanging in the balance... It's a read on where they're setting up defensively. Koby looked like Joe Montana (laughs). They executed it really well. It doesn't show up in the box score, but a really important play to execute. Koby really smart to see it and make that read so quickly.
* Brandon Garrison had a terrific game tonight. His energy was a huge key. Some big defensive plays, and a couple of runs to the rim that were huge. Hoping he'll get that 3-pointer soon. He can shoot that.
* There is a guts to this game, and our guys were right in that regard for 40 minutes. We didn't always play right, but our guts were right.
