UK-MSU Post-Game Comments

Kentucky at Mississippi State

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Mississippi State Head Coach Rick Stansbury

Opening Comments…

“That was an unbelievable effort by our players. They (Kentucky) find ways to be 25-1. Coach Calipari has done an unbelievable
job meshing those personalities together. I couldn’t be more proud of our guys even though we lost the basketball game. We are all hurt and very disappointed. As a coach and a player, all you can ask is to leave everything you have between the lines. We overcame so many obstacles. You look back on this game. We did it without Jarvis Varnado
most of the second half. We did that without Jarvis and Ravern Johnson, our two leading scorers. We had plenty of opportunities
though. We were up 67-60 with three minutes to go and had four empty possessions. It was just about effort, guts and toughness. Coming down the stretch in the last five minutes of regulation and the five minutes of overtime we just didn’t have the subs. We played Kodi [Augustus] and Romero [Osby] extended in situations they hadn’t been in.”

On the game plan against Kentucky…

“My approach changed twice. My first approach was to protect Jarvis. I thought they were going to come at him with his
big body. The second thing is that John Wall is so good in transition. I thought about it though. Do I need to limit their strengths or protect ours? By game time I had decided to play to our strengths.”

On the absence of Ravern Johnson…

“It was an attitude detrimental to the team. It was a coach’s decision for him not to play. If he does everything we are asking
of him he will be ready for the next game.”

On the play of John Wall…

“For the most part we kept him in check. Down the stretch he made a couple of huge plays for them. Also [DeAndre]
Liggins jumped up and hit a three in their seven point run, and [Patrick] Patterson hit a two pointer. They just had a lot of
poison that we had to choose from.”

On the play of Dee Bost…

“He played awfully hard. He played forty-three minutes tonight and Barry played forty. Dee played a great game. We
only had nine turnovers as a team along with fifteen assists. Playing absolutely worn out and without your leading scorer
and Varnado, they left it all out there.”

Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari

On Jarvis Varnado’s foul trouble…

“Obviously that hurt them. Let me say this, this is a top-25 team and I know that they lost a couple of games, but when you
have guys that can shoot the way they do, you have that big kid inside, and you have those other two kids that are 6’8’and
6’9’ that can shoot threes and drive the basketball, this team will be fine. I think at the end of the day they’ll be right there
with the opportunity to be in the NCAA tournament. Rick (Stansbury) does a great job with this team. They should have won the game, we kind of reached out and grabbed one and I don’t know how we did it, but we did. He gave his team every chance to win this game. This is an NCAA tournament team.”

On Patrick Patterson’s shot to tie the game…

“It was big time shot. He had confidence tonight. He is capable of rebounding and scoring points. We are begging him to
do it and he is capable of doing it, and I am proud of him.”

On taking as many 3’s with Jarvis Varnado out of the game…

“Obviously the reason that we were doing it was because Mississippi State was trapping and we were throwing it to guys that were wide open. We are the leading 3-point shooting team in our league and we are in the top-30 in the country in 3-point shooting, and we were 1-for-12 at the half and they were all wide open and no one near anybody.”

03-Dee Bost; So. G

On what the team can take from tonight…

“Just to keep playing and work hard. We keep pushing forward and don’t let this game get us down.”

On the last possession…

“I was thinking about getting to the line and coach wanted a two at that point, so that was most important.”

32-Jarvis Varnado; Sr. F/C

On frustrating game…

“I couldn’t stay on the floor; they did a good job on me too.”

On quick fouls in second half…

“They came quick. My fourth foul was kind of suspect, but our team did well and we played team ball and played for each
other.”

22-Barry Stewart; Sr. G

On Jarvis going out early…

“When he went out that allowed their big man to rebound and that hurt us a lot. Rebounding is what hurt the most.”

On what he takes from the game…

“We played the number two team in the country and we played them to the wire. We just got to stick together and not let it
get us down.”

On last shot of regulation…

“He contested the shot pretty good and I didn’t get the call.”

15- DeMarcus Cousins; Fr. F

On change in game with Jarvis Varnado’s absence…

“He is an incredible player. He makes things happen for them and when he was out of the game, it made things a lot easier.”

On rebounding…

“If we out-rebound teams then we usually win the game. We focus a lot on that so we try and grab every board.”

11- John Wall; Fr. G

On being behind late in game…

“We knew this was a tough match-up and when we got in that huddle, Coach [Calipari] told us that we were not losing this game. We also knew this was not going to be easy because they were making shots but we were able to come up with big stops and tough shots. The whole team stepped up and played defense and we were able to take it into overtime.”

On Patrick Patterson’s outside game…

“That is a big plus for us. We all thought he may not be able to do well outside of the paint but he worked hard and added that to his game this summer. He was making threes in the offseason so we knew if we got it to him then there was a good chance he would capitalize.”