Jan. 27, 2010

Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery

Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari
Opening Statement
What a great environment. Hats off to South Carolina. They outworked us. Obviously Devan Downey was hard for us. We’ve had this happen other games, but we were good enough in the end (of those games) to win it anyway. For our team this is what happens when you have young guys who think they can win it in the end.

On offensive rebounding
We’re supposed to be one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country. They came in minus-four on the year and got 20 offensive rebounds. What it meant was S.C. was working harder than we were working.

On South Carolina’s gameplan
They had a great gameplan. Run the clock down and play pick and roll with Devan (Downey). They executed. He made tough shots. We had a hard time. You have to give credit to them. They played to the bitter end. They beat us and they deserved to win.

On Devan Downey
We wanted him to take tough shots. He’ll make some of those. What he started doing in the end is our big guys stood straight up and down and he went by them. So what happened was our guy was a screener too.

On being a young team
If we don’t get them to the free throw line and don’t give offensive rebounds, they’d have 14 (points) at halftime. As I sat there and watched it unfold, I said this is what happens to a young team. We weren’t really listening how we had to execute down the stretch. We had layups and tried to make them fancy.

On DeMarcus Cousins
I told the team after, if DeMarcus Cousins doesn’t play we get beat by 20 today. And the only way we could score was to get it in to him. They had a good plan. They put their big guy on John Wall, which bothered John a little bit. We needed to be better than we were today, I know that.

On coming into the game undefeated
We may have been undefeated but we were lucky to be undefeated. I meant that. I’ll be honest with you, we made plays today that showed we had the will to win, but all of a sudden they make great plays, they make a free throw (or) a hard shot at the end.

It’s a great lesson. A lot of times until you take an “L” they don’t want to believe you. Especially with how young we are.

On why South Carolina was successful
They held the ball. They shortened the game. It was more like a 30-minute game. We did miss some plays. We missed some shots. We didn’t offensive rebound the way they did against us. We didn’t shoot it particularly well either. Thy made us play the way we played (tonight). They deserved to win. They outworked us with their gameplan and what they were doing. They were well coached. They knew how to guard. They were going to let DeMarcus score and nobody else.

South Carolina Head Coach Darrin Horn
Opening Statement
Everybody just saw a great college basketball game with two teams absolutely playing their guts out. It’s obviously a huge win for our program for a lot of reasons. I’m really happy for our players, especially our seniors who have been through a lot of adversity – and for our fans. We have tremendous fans here. The entire Gamecock Nation deserves this. It’s really a huge win for us. Kentucky is great. The key to the game was we had the close plays. My key all along was if it’s close, we have #2 (Devan Downey) and we have a shot.

On everyone playing well
This was the first time that everybody else did what they can do. Raley-Ross was amazing offensively tonight with big shots down the stretch. Sam Muldrow (contributed) with five blocks and Austin Steed chipped in a few. It’s the first time we’ve had everybody do that (with) Devan (also getting his numbers).

On the rebounding margin
It was huge. I think the key for us was all year, we’re not going to win a lot of rebounding battles. I’m shocked we won it tonight. Our goal is to not get murdered on the boards with our personnel. I think staying packed in tonight kept us in better rebounding position.

On Devan Downey
Devan is Devan. We have him right now. We don’t have a chance to win this game if we don’t have somebody like him. (Kentucky’s) so athletically gifted, and Devan is big for us.

On beating the No. 1 team in the nation
Anytime you beat the No. 1 team on national T.V., it’s covered coast to coast and gets exposure for your program. We said from day one we want games like this and to be competitive in them, otherwise there’s no reason to be here. It’s a good step and gives us something to talk about.

On where he was after the game
I was on the sideline with my wife and kids. I’m really happy for our players. Zam Fredrick and Brandon Conrad were here. They started this last year with a couple of wins over Kentucky. I’m really happy for our fans. I took it all in for a second and saw our fans enjoying it, and they’re really deserving of it.

On what makes Devan Downey take over games
The clock going down. The closer it gets to the end of the game, Jeannine Edwards from ESPN asked me why does he do that. His greatest quality is his heart. The kid has a tremendous heart. You couple that with tremendous shot making ability and you get what you saw the last six minutes.

South Carolina Player Quotes
Devan Downey
On the crowd
The crowd helped us, and we knew that they were behind us the entire time. It was a hostile environment out there.

Thoughts on the game
The defense was pretty good, but we just missed a lot of shots tonight. Even though we missed some shots, we were determined to win the game. I knew that my team needed me to score, so I couldn’t be gun shy. We kept in it, and we felt like we’ve been right there as a team to get to where we need to be.

Going forward after the win over #1 Kentucky
The season’s not over. It might sound crazy, but we’re going to enjoy this tonight. Take the day off tomorrow, and then it’s time to get back to business. We still feel like all of our goals are in front of us. To me, this is motivation. I wish we had practice tomorrow so we could get back in the gym and work. A win like this can really do something for a team. To beat the No. 1 team in the country, it’s not beating the No. 1 team, it’s that some people never even have the opportunity to play against a No. 1. To beat them, it just makes it that much more special.

Brandis Raley-Ross
On the free throws with 10 seconds left in the game
I was just thinking that I just needed to take my time. After I made the first one, I kind of calmed down and had the confidence that I needed to make the second.

On his feelings about the win
It’s really good. It’s going to give everybody confidence going into the next game. It’s big. It’s not only big for us as a team, it’s big for the university. We expect a packed house on Saturday.

On his play tonight
I knew they were going to key on Devan, so I knew I needed to pick my spots. I had opportunities to drive and pass, and I wanted to do that. I wanted to mix it up. The whole game they were screaming, “Shooter, shooter.” I wanted to attack and do something out there.