University of Connecticut Athletics
UConn vs. Tennessee Post Game Quotes (Jan. 22, 2011)
1/22/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 22, 2011
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UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun
"First thing, I want to congratulate my team. They took care of the out-of-league schedule. 12-0: given the competition we face, I couldn't be prouder of them."
"What we saw in Maui still wasn't a true test of who we were. It was an idea that we had some things in us, Kemba particularly, that could make us a pretty good basketball team."
"Out of the 18 games played, it was far and away the best team effort against a quality opponent. I don't think it's even close."
"I think Bruce [Pearl] did a great job of making sure there were always two people around whenever Kemba touched the ball."
"We were able to get some penetration. Kemba got seven assists out of doing this. We were able to get wide-open shots."
"I thought defensively we picked it up better in the second half. We started to rebound. Obviously, it's a terrific win for us. I'm very proud of my basketball team."
"The biggest thing is we didn't want Tobias [Harris], who's just a terrific player, to be able to put the ball on the deck and go past."
"We wanted to keep [Scotty] Hopson, who's a future pro, in check."
"We did a really good job in the last six or seven minutes on defense."
UConn Players
Kemba Walker
On Jeremy Lamb:
"He's been having great practices. That's where everything starts - the way you practice is the way you play. He definitely showed it tonight."
On getting others involved:
"The way they were playing me, I wasn't really making shots. But guys were open and they made shots. I was just spotting guys. They threw guys at me and I was able to adjust and find my teammates."
On the team's defense:
"KO (Assistant Coach Kevin Ollie) brought great defensive things to this team and we bought into it. I think we're doing a great job at it."
Jeremy Lamb
On Kemba Walker and the balanced scoring today:
"He can get 30 any night he wants. Tonight he got us involved. Roscoe was hot. I hit a couple of shots and Shabazz was in there handling it for him. It was good. We all contributed."
On scoring 16 points today:
"My team was looking for me. It was a good team effort. Nobody was playing selfish. We were just taking the shots we had. When Kemba penetrated, he drew two and my man had to help. Luckily, I made the shots."
Alex Oriakhi
On Charles Okwandu's game:
"I always tell him he can be a beast. It's about time he started believing. He did a lot of little things that don't show up on the stat sheet to help us win."
On the balanced scoring tonight:
"We feed off each others' energy. So, when one guy's playing well, we all feed off it and it helps the team as a whole...Roscoe was hitting threes, Jeremy stepped-up, and Chuck stepped-up. And that's what we need because Kemba can't do it alone."
Charles Okwandu
On his improved play:
"Coach tells me to go hard every practice. He knows what I can do. He just said keep working hard and everything in practice will come into the game."
Roscoe Smith
"It was a great atmosphere. I'm happy the fans came to support us. We just wanted to play hard... We knew they had big bodies and they crashed the boards well. So, we knew at the end of the day, to win the game, we had to crash the boards."
On his improved defensive play:
"I take real pride in my defense, knowing that I wasn't a real great defensive person in high school."
Tennessee head Coach Bruce Pearl
"We're disappointed. We have to play really well to beat UConn at UConn. We did some good things, but turning the ball over was key. Some of that was UConn; some of that was us."
"Second chance points were huge. A lot of that was UConn; some of it was us."
"I thought Walker was terrific. He got the other guys involved. I thought there were times we left shooters without purpose."
"UConn's playing better when those other guys play like this. It makes them a harder cover. It will open up the lane a little bit more on the inside."
"UConn averages six three pointers a game, they made nine. They beat us on the offensive boards. That's where we lost the basketball game."
"Melvin Goins played terrific for Tennessee. He played great defense. He shot the ball well. He competed."
"We probably didn't put it into Tobias' [Harris] hands enough."
"It's hard for Tennessee to be UConn on the road when Scotty Hopson, one of our best players, doesn't play well."
