SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 11, 2021

Davion Mintz

Kentucky Wildcats

Postgame Press Conference

Mississippi State 74, Kentucky 73

THE MODERATOR: We have Davion Mintz. Questions, please.

Q. Obviously a difficult way to end this. Did you have a moment to reflect, what did you learn about yourself this season, maybe what did this team learn over the course of the year?

DAVION MINTZ: With anything that you want, I mean, there's going to be struggles. But if you have determination, I mean, you can accomplish whatever you want. That could be small victories. It may not be the ultimate goal. If you stay resilient through the process, challenge yourself and fight, then sometimes it may work in your favor, sometimes it won't. Either way you just have to keep fighting.

Q. How much did Dontaie's shooting remind you of the first game at Mississippi State? What did that last shot look like from your perspective?

DAVION MINTZ: I mean, Dontaie just has their number. He's proven his-self versus them the first time. I mean, it was no surprise that he got super locked in like that because he had really good practices leading up into this first game. I knew when he got his opportunity, he'd be ready for it.

But, I mean, yeah, like I said, Dontaie is a great shooter. I'm super happy for him, proud of his performance today. He kept us in the game.

Q. It was kind of like the same story again. You guys in the last 4:28 only got one field goal. What went on the last 4 minutes to stop the offense after it looked so good for the first 16 minutes of the second half?

DAVION MINTZ: Yeah, Coach's plan towards that last 4 minutes was kind of feed it to the post. We were running circles. Either taking open shots, if it wasn't wide open we feed into the post.

We just kind of got a little stagnant, very slow. Just didn't get good looks at what we wanted. They were coming off of staggers over the top, making shots. I mean, they hit a lot of daggers towards the end. We couldn't capitalize and answer back, especially when we had the lead towards the last 4 minutes, like you said.

Q. Do you have any sort of idea what the process, the timeframe might be, for you making a decision on whether to use that extra year of eligibility?

DAVION MINTZ: No idea. Just lost. I'm just processing that now. Make sure my body is healthy, decide whenever that time comes.

Q. Cal kind of said just not enough winning basketball plays throughout the year, kind of reflective in the final couple minutes. Would you kind of agree with that?

DAVION MINTZ: Yeah, I mean, that's right. Us guards, we could have done a better job coming in and helping the bigs rebound. That was a huge part of that game today. I mean, the first half, they had 33 paint touches, they were getting to their spots, getting a lot of second-chance opportunities.

That's on us to come and crack down. Like coach said, we got to fight. We got to have winning plays. We just didn't have enough. It came to bite us towards the end. I just felt like they wanted it more than us the last couple minutes. They were executing exactly what their coach had for them.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about the overall play of Dontaie in the second half. When could you tell he had it going?

DAVION MINTZ: Yeah, after he hit a couple. I'm not for sure, I came to get him around one of the media timeout marks, I can't remember if it was 12 or 8, he just had a look in his eye like he was ready for it, he just wanted the ball. I was feeling the same way.

I knew that it was important, it's my job to get it to him. Then when I'm open, shoot it as well. Like I said, with Dontaie, he's the type of player, he knows when he's feeling it, you got to get it to him. It's just a feel that you have.

Q. Can you envision some way that sort of all the pain and the struggle of this season, the hardships that this team went through, might somehow reveal itself as a positive next season for Kentucky, whether you're here or not?

DAVION MINTZ: Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things like now how it feels to be this low. I've never lost this many games in my life in basketball, I mean, just consecutively like this. I know other guys on this roster haven't either.

Now you know. You know how it feels. You don't want to climb back into that hole. Like now, once you dig in, you know exactly how to escape. You just don't want that pain to come back. It's terrible. Whether it's my last college game or not, you just don't want to go out like that.

I know a lot of guys are feeling terrible. I mean, even if that's the next level or not, you know how it feels to lose like this.

Q. How maddening is it to yet again, a game comes down to the last few minutes, and you guys come up short? That must drive you crazy.

DAVION MINTZ: Yeah, it pisses me off, for sure. I mean, it's just been like the punch of our season. It's always the last four minutes. I wish we could have executed it. I mean, I was really looking forward to moving on. Everyone had a winning attitude coming into this tournament. No one had any type of disbelief.

Even Terrence coming back to try to fight and play with us. It's not like guys were not looking forward to making a run. Just last four minutes got us. There's nothing we can do with that at this point.

Q. I think you guys deserve a lot of credit for continuing to fight back the many times this year it felt like there wasn't anything to play for. At the same time you said it felt like Mississippi State wanted it more down the stretch. How can both those things be true at the same time?

DAVION MINTZ: Yeah, honestly I have no idea. Sometimes, even though you showing you want it, you just got to show more. If they were at a level 8, they took it to 10. That's why it ended like this.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks so much.

DAVION MINTZ: Thank you.