Feb. 18, 2006

Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery

Coach Odom Quotes

“I am certainly disappointed we did not play better today, credit Kentucky for that.”

“Defensively, I thought we were okay early, until the inbound play with 3 seconds to go on the shot clock. (UK’s Randolph Morris wide open lay-up resulted)

“The bucket at the end of the half gave me a good feeling, but somewhere we lost focus offensively and defensively.”

“(Patrick) Sparks shot the ball remarkably well in the second half. That is amazing shooting.”

(UK’s Patrick Sparks was six for six from the three point line in the 2^nd half.)

“Give Kentucky credit, they came in tough as leather, and (Coach) Tubby (Smith) put together a good gameplan.”

“Tarence (Kinsey) was really the only guy who could get his shot late in the game, he never gave up.”

“I know our team, I know they will come back and they will play well.”

” I am not discouraged (with the performance), but I am certainly disappointed.”

USC Senior Guard Tarence Kinsey

“We’re very disappointed. I thought we would’ve come out and played a lot better than we did. They came out and played harder than we did. We’re just very disappointed in this one.”

“Both teams started off really slow. It was just one of those games. It wasn’t necessarily a `must-win’ situation, but we needed to win.”

Junior Forward Brandon Wallace

“When you have guys that can shoot like (Patrick Sparks), they don’t need but an inch or two. Once they make one, they’re really streaky. You just have to stay with them at all times.

“We’ve still got a chance (for the NCAA Tournament). We take these lumps and bruises along the way. Maybe it’s a wake up call to come back fighting like we’ve been fighting. We just look forward to Georgia and come back hard next week. It’s not over until it’s over.”

Junior Guard Tre Kelley

“We had the penetration that we’ve been having. We just didn’t take advantage of it like we usually do. It was hard to find the open man. We had the penetration that we normally get, we just couldn’t get the results.”

Coach Smith Quotes

On the win:

“It was a real good win for us. Both teams needed a win on this SEC Throwback Weekend. It was a tough loss for South Carolina since they were coming off of three good wins.”

On the USC Player’s Reunion Weekend:

“It was good to see all of the former players. I went with Coach Odom to the Tip-Off Club breakfast this morning and had a good time. It was good to see some of the players that I coached and recruited when I was an assistant here.”

On the game:

“Patrick Sparks got it going for us in the second half. He has the ability to keep knocking down shots when he gets on. I can’t say enough about the lineup we’ve been starting lately. They go out and set the tempo with their ball-handling and defensive.”

On changes for the second half:

“We had to get off to a good start in the second half. We adjusted at the half to get the ball to Patrick more. South Carolina did a good job of sagging in the first half so we had to adjust.”

On South Carolina players:

“(Tarence) Kinsey has been playing well and had another good day. I think we did a good job of stopping Tre’ Kelley. We contained most of their starters pretty well but I think we needed to do a better job against Sheldon. He came off the bench and started knocking down three’s.”