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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 13, 2009

THE MODERATOR: We're ready to begin with Kentucky. Coach, would you begin.
COACH GILLISPIE: It was a very highly competitive game. Two teams really wanting to advance. They did a really good job of executing over a 40-minute period. And probably executed quite a bit better than us. We dug ourselves a hole in the first half, even though we were five down by getting into a little foul trouble. Also, giving it 14 offensive rebounds in the half.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Patrick, what did LSU do defensively against you that was effective today and maybe against Jodie?
PATRICK PATTERSON: Against me, they just played regular defense, regular post defense. C.J. was playing behind me, same with number 32. You know, I just wasn't able to finish around the rim. They always had the help defender coming over, number 14 or 11 would dig down, use their hands to destruct my pass or make me move to the basket.
As far as Jodie, from what I saw, they were just pressuring him a lot. Always having someone over to help defense every time he drove to the lane. Just pretty much bringing over two big guys or a couple of help defenders to disrupt the show.

Q. To follow up on that, what did you think of the way that Chris Johnson played, given that he was not well and had limited minutes today? He was healthy.
PATRICK PATTERSON: I've always known he was a tremendous basketball player. He's tall, he's lanky, he can dribble to the basket. He can make offensive moves and he's a great defensive player. So I knew the game in Lexington wasn't really how he performed.
So coming out here I didn't underestimated him. He played a tremendous basketball game. He was rebounding the ball. He had a couple of crucial free throws, he was hitting jump shots and running to the basket and playing great defense. So he had a pretty good game.

Q. Michael, your comments on the games, general thoughts.
MICHAEL PORTER: : I thought we played hard like Coach said. There were some times that we didn't execute like we needed to. We didn't play as smart as we needed to. But like I said, I thought we did play pretty hard for the most part.
I think we played a lot harder than we have been in the previous games. But just didn't turn out our way. I thought they played really good. They made some tough shots and they played really hard on defense, too.
CLAUDE FELTON: Ramon, your general thoughts, please.
RAMON HARRIS: I thought LSU played really good. You know, they played the total game today. They went inside out. Guys were defending, they were help defending, they were rebounding, offensive rebounding.
There were times when we made a defensive stand and they'd get the on offensive rebound and free throws. They just played a great game all the way around.
CLAUDE FELTON: Questions for Coach Gillispie.

Q. Ask you the same thing I asked the players about the impact that Chris Johnson might have had on the game where might have been absent in Lexington a few weeks ago?
COACH GILLISPIE: He's a nice player. I thought we got the ball where we wanted to bypass him. We just didn't finish nearly enough around the basket.

Q. Can you talk about just the season as a whole, ending it here today? I mean, obviously there is the possibility for NIT. But the NCAA is probably not a possibility this year.
COACH GILLISPIE: Are you on the committee? No. I would say it's long shot myself. But we've had some good moments. We've had some tough moments, we just haven't finished up the season nearly as well as we'd like.
We had a three-game losing streak going to Florida, and I thought we played extremely hard over there and executed like we did today, probably a little bit worse. Then we played extremely hard yesterday and made a few shots, executed a little bit better.
Today we competed extremely hard. We just haven't ever been able to execute for 40 minutes against the better teams. And that's no disrespect to anyone, that's just haunted us all year long and kept on haunting us today.
But, you know, I think if you understand the game really well, I think if you watch their team and I know this is not an excuse by any stretch. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not an excuse maker. But one team looked like they had six of the top seven guys that were seniors or four year guys, and one team looked like they didn't have any seniors that played.
We've got some guys that logged a lot of minutes, but still they're sophomores and freshmen and those kinds of things. Our team is not far away from being really, really, really special. That's what I've always thought.
I thought we'd get over the hump. I thought some personnel guys, some guys that had really good years for us, and they probably still need a little experience and need a little time and those kind of things. But if we would have competed that hard, we always played extremely hard. But if we would have competed for every single possession like we have in the last three games we would have been all right.
But, unfortunately it didn't happen. But again, sometimes that happens to inexperienced teams and please don't take that as an excuse.

Q. In the first five minutes or so, you turned it over a little bit and they got some fast break baskets. Maybe what happened there and how did you adjust? Because it seemed to stop after that?
COACH GILLISPIE: Well, we substituted, that's one way that it probably stopped. But we were trying to be a little bit too aggressive in the wrong spots and just basically gave the ball to them a little bit. What we didn't want to do is we wanted to limit their easy opportunities.
We thought we could guard them. And I thought our first shot defense was about as good as it could possibly be against a very well executing team.
But we didn't want to give them any easy baskets where they got a chance to score without us having a chance to defend.

Q. Jodie struggled it looked like to get a shot off and just to get a shot. Can you talk about his struggles today?
COACH GILLISPIE: Well, I thought he was a little antsy today. Give credit to them. They guarded him very well. But he was probably forcing the action a little bit too much. Probably a little too keyed up to play.

Q. You were talking about the point of the game where they hit the three straight three pointers. You're really hanging with them thinking things are working for you. Then what happens at that point when the other team is executing like that?
COACH GILLISPIE: Well, one of them was execution, the other two were loose balls. They got them and we didn't. And they made the shots. Again, that goes to - I think that's really I've watched most of their games on tape this year. I've watched all their conference games. Some of them I've watched twice.
They've been to that point many times in many games because their experience, and their well designed plan. Their ability to make big plays. They've been right there. People have been five down, five up or whatever, but they seem to always make big lays and they made them when they needed them the most today.
At the same time I thought we were in great shape. I really liked where we were. You'd always like to be ahead. But we dug ourselves a hole to start by giving them easy baskets. I thought as the game went on, we were in pretty good shape. But they would go down. They got a couple of loose balls. Ended up being threes. Then we get a couple of open threes and miss them. Really, that really put us in a hole we couldn't dig out of.

Q. Now that you've completed your second season at Kentucky, can you just reflect on the pressure and expectations to coach down there? It seems maybe from some fans, maybe the honeymoon has worn off pretty quickly?
COACH GILLISPIE: Well, my honeymoon, I said this yesterday. I got married one time, and that honeymoon didn't last long either. For me as a basketball coach, I couldn't careless about a honeymoon. You know, we lost our second game when I was the head coach at Kentucky last year. That's not - that shouldn't happen. I've always taken responsibility, always will.
I'm not concerned about honeymoons, I'm concerned about trying to get our team better. As we move forward, that's all we'll do.

End of FastScripts

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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 13, 2009

Billy Gillispie

Ramon Harris

Patrick Patterson

Michael Porter