Feb. 14, 2016
Recap | Box Score | Howell’s Photos 
Vanderbilt head coach Melanie Balcomb
On the current losing streak and the strength of the schedule towards the end of the season:
First of all, I appreciate you noticing the strength of the schedule and what we’re dealing with right now, and we’re going to deal with it the rest of the time — that’s part of being in the SEC. I think that a lot of the common denominator is figuring out who we can count on consistently on defense and who we can on offense. We’re really struggling with, okay our best defensive line up is our worst offensive line up and vice versa. … I mean it’s like okay you’ve got to play both ends of the floor, we do everything to flow from one end to the other. We’ve become a very conservative team, and I’m not a conservative person.
On attacking within the offense:
In practice yesterday, I mean it was the best ball movement I’ve ever seen. We got the ball wherever we wanted to in the war zone because if you move it side to side then you can get it in and we can go inside out. Same with off the dribble. We didn’t do any of that today.
On matching tempo and trying to find the right tempo:
Early on (this season) we were a great defensive team and we lost ourselves. We need to get back to that, where we get into up tempo, we get in transition and we get attacking by just not being so fearful and afraid. And going side to side and east to west and north to south. But that starts on the defensive end. You look at us (you’d think) we’re struggling offensively. No not really, we’re really struggling defensively. … This isn’t an offensive team. How did we let them score 71 points? Because all of a sudden we thought we were something different, and you can’t lose sight of who you are, so back to work.
Vanderbilt point guard Minta Spears
On the game:
I think that we have gotten away from who we are. We’ve talked about doing your role and playing as a team, that was our identity throughout the whole season. In the past few weeks, we have gotten away from that.
On not being aggressive enough:
I think that is one aspect of it on offense and also on defense. We had a lot of deflections but we just didn’t come up with the loose balls. Those usually ended up as points for Kentucky. We need to be aggressive on defense and offense.
On the losing streak:
We do try to look at it game by game but at the same time you can’t ignore the fact that we are in a loosing streak. But I think that a lot of us are trying to turn that into motivation. Not that you should need any motivation to play in the SEC and to play against some of the best teams in the country, but we know it. It is in the back of our heads and we just go to persevere through that.
UK head coach Matthew Mitchell
On the win:
I’m really proud of our team today. To come on the road against a team that we lost to a couple weeks back and show some real progress is something I’m real proud of. The team’s been fighting hard for improvement, and we’ve been fighting for defensive improvement, and I think we played much better today on the defensive end than we did the last time we played Vanderbilt, so I’m really proud of our team. This is always a difficult place to play, Vanderbilt is a tough team, and I was just thrilled with out victory.
On taking 22 more shots than Vanderbilt in the game:
We were able to turn them over. We were plus-15 in the turnover margin and that’s really great for us and has not been something we’ve been able to do lately, then we more than doubled them up on offensive rebounds. That was a big emphasis in the game on the offensive end, to try and really assert ourselves on the offensive boards, and I’m so proud of our team for doing that. Just being able to keep our turnovers to a minimum and really have a high turnover game for our opponent, that’s always a good mix for you and gives you a chance to win.
On how the team improved during the week off between games:
We’ve tried to come back. They met themselves, and then we met right off the bat after [the game against] LSU. We were really disappointed in a couple of things that went on in the LSU game. It was the end of a tough stretch. I was really blunt with them on Wednesday, they’d had a couple days off, of what we were looking for. On Wednesday and Thursday we really had a chance to focus on ourselves. We went back and replayed some situations that we had come up short in, [including] the Vanderbilt situation, the Florida situation, the South Carolina situation, those things we went back and revisited and the players really did a good job on Wednesday and Thursday. I just told them, on Friday, we’re not gonna be perfect on defense, we’ve still got a long way to go, but I really believe they’re going to try their hardest. They responded so well in practice on Friday and Saturday trying to get ready for Vanderbilt, and this morning. I’m just so proud of them. They really worked hard to earn this victory and we’ve gotta see if we can keep it going.
On Alexis Jennings’ performance:
Alexis, I thought, in practice on Friday and Saturday and even this morning in practice, really asserted herself more defensively, and that’s what we’ve been asking her to do. Our whole team, we just have lost some games where we weren’t very intense on defense and we were losing by two points, three points, and it’s just so frustrating. So we really tried to get everybody to buy in on the defensive end of the floor and I noticed that she was really trying hard. Again, we were not perfect today, we did have some mix-ups but overall, they hustled, and I though [Jennings] really tried to play tough defensively. Like what Janee [Thompson] said, [Jennings] was really able to stay on the floor. If you’re busting assignments, you have to come sit down. If you’re fouling you have to come sit down. There just weren’t many times when she had to come sit down today and that was really big for her.
On a strong stretch at the end of the first half:
I thought that was big for us because I thought we should have been up more at that time. We were really dominating in shot attempts, but just couldn’t get anything to fall. We were having such a hard time and, for our team this year, that’s been deflating. Boy, that little stretch there where we stretched [the lead] out to nine before halftime, that felt more like what it should’ve been in the first half, if not a little bit more, so I thought that was huge. [Thompson] just did a great job, she really shot the ball. That’s another thing I’ve told the team, we just get tentative offensively, trying to be perfect and trying to take great shots. I just have to trust them, they know what a good shot is. If we don’t take just perfect shots, we’ve got to let it fly a little bit, and we really did that in practice this week, so it was good to see us shoot a little bit better today.
On if playing on the road has affected the team’s play:
Not the road. It hadn’t been on the road or at home, it was just us. It’s been the coaches and the players, it hasn’t been the situation. Vanderbilt beat us at home. It’s a product of us really being committed to play together. We aren’t a dominant defensive team one-on-one. We really have to be a cohesive unit and we really have to play hard together. We need to try and see if we can do that a bunch of times here down the stretch.
Kentucky forward Alexis Jennings
On her 18 point performance:
I think I’ve just been feeling more confident. My teammates are getting me the ball and I’m just fortunate enough to be able to finish the way I do, and I credit them for that, looking for me getting open.
On how the team benefited from a full week off between games:
Yes, I think we were. We met together and just talked about what we had to do, and it all started in practice, pushing defensive pace to get stops. I think that really helped us in this game. We’re just happy to come out with a win.
Kentucky guard Janee Thompson
On the difference between this win and a loss to Vandy two weeks ago:
I think the difference was our whole mindset. We were really disappointed about that loss on our home floor, and we didn’t think we played very hard. The last few weeks we’ve been practicing really hard, trying to execute the game plan, and I think that we did a pretty good job of that today.
On building a lead late in the first half:
It’s always important for us to get momentum, but I think what we were doing on the defensive end really fueled our offense. I think we were a lot sharper today, a lot more focused, and our communication was pretty unbelievable throughout the entire game. Everybody was talking to each other and it really helped us defensively. I give the credit for this win to our defense.
On how forcing turnovers affects the other team’s mindset:
I definitely think so. I think, a lot of times, the fact that we don’t play hard all the time gives teams a lot of confidence. They knock down one shot and they start to fuel off that. I think the way we played today, we were trying to be intense and play hard; I think it had a big effect on what Vanderbilt was doing. They still played really hard so you’ve got to give them a lot of credit, but we’re just happy that we came out with a win today.
On Alexis Jennings’ post presence:
It’s great. Alexis and Evelyn [Akhator] are two of the most dominant post players I’ve ever played with, they’ve just got to stay on the floor. I think the both of them know they’ve been struggling with foul trouble the past few games, but [today] was great. They really tried to stay focused and stay disciplined today and not foul, and they did that and you can see the result. We’re a much different team when we have the experience of Alexis and the heart of Evelyn.