Sports

Actions

UK Players Post Game Comments After Win Over Mississippi State

Posted at 12:39 AM, Jan 23, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-23 00:39:28-05
Kentucky’s Tyler Herro (14) drives near Mississippi State’s Nick Weatherspoon during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against in Lexington, Ky., Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/James Crisp)

Kentucky Basketball is now 5-1 in the SEC after knocking off Mississippi State on Tuesday night. After the game Wildcats players Tyler Herro, Ashton Hagans and P.J. Washington met with the media. Here is what they had to say about the 77-56 win over the Bulldogs.

UK Student-Athletes

#14, Tyler Herro, Fr., Guard

On EJ’s “game-changing” block …

“EJ has been making great shots throughout the season. He works hard every day in practice. That was an EJ play, a great play like you said, changed the game and kind of sparked us a bit. EJ would be another great contribution to us. He’s already playing real well so I mean for him to come in and make plays like that is big.”

On the energy the team played with …

“Just starting games faster. I think Auburn we started pretty fast, too, and then today was another good example of starting fast. So, I think, the last two games before that we started slow so just starting fast is something that we’ve been working on.”

On what he has been working on …

“The coaches worked with me at the beginning of the season a lot on just keeping my man in front so just taking what they told me and, you know, just applying it and working hard at it.”

#2, Ashton Hagans, Fr., G

On the UK defense speeding Mississippi State up and getting them out of rhythm …

“I feel like we’re coming together on defense and we’re playing a lot better. We’re talking more on the defensive end.”

On what the win has done for the team and how they’re going to move forward from it …

“It was a great team, but we just were coming along on our defensive end, talking more, gaining more confidence from all the players on the defensive end. Keldon (Johnson) had the low steal for the fast break, but other than that, we’re just getting better as a team.”

On if the team makes defensive goals ahead of a game…

“Not really. You’ve seen me doing the slides before every game, but that’s just something we do everyday preparing us for game day. We’re just trying to stay comfortable.”

#25, PJ Washington, So., F

On if he has any frustrations…

“Yeah, I missed a dunk. I don’t usually miss a lot of those, so that kind of got me frustrated. But, then I took my sleeve off and said I’m not missing those anymore. I feel like after that, things got to clicking and we kind of made up for it.”

On if he felt good from the outside tonight…

“Yeah, I felt like I was hitting shots and I just tried to take other ones. Fortunately for me they all dropped, so that’s definitely a confidence booster. I’m going to shoot some more I guess.”

On Calipari wanting to see more effort out him all the time…

“I mean it comes to, I have some relapses sometimes. Sometimes I won’t rebound and stuff like that, so I’m just trying to look at film and just work on that in practice.”

On the team’s defense…

“We definitely did a great job towards the end of the second half, but we had some slow starts in the beginning of the game. So, we have to work on that in practice, just being able to stay locked in on both ends of the floor.”