Feb. 25, 2004

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Tennessee Head Coach Buzz Peterson
"A lot of things didn't go well for us. We kind of went back to the way we were early in the year. They moved the ball pretty quick in their half-court offense, so we went from zone to man-to-man, but we just weren't able to stop them. They shot well from the three point line. The adjustments we tried to make were in the post. I felt like (Erik) Daniels got some easy catches down in the post and he was kind of a point guard in the post for them. Overall, we went back to the way we were playing on the road early in the year - there just wasn't much toughness."

On Kentucky's 3-point shooting
"We were in a zone and they (Kentucky) were able to get some looks. And then out of a man-to-man they set some good screens to get looks. When (Ravi) Moss hit that one late on (Dane) Bradshaw, I kind of thought maybe it was just one of those nights for Kentucky where they were on."

On trying to slow UK's offense
"We tried some zone. We challenged our players to play better half-court defense and talked about some of our shell principles from practice. These last two days of practice have not been some of our better days of practice. I really believe the way you practice is the way you're going to play."

Kentucky Head Coach Tubby Smith
"It was a good all-around effort. I thought we had great balance and our guys had good focus tonight. Our concentration was there, especially on the defensive end. Obviously, from the rebounding standpoint, we did a good job. I thought Antwain (Barbour) got us going early and I was happy to see him get off to a great start. Erik (Daniels) and Chuck (Hayes) gave us their regular play along with Kelenna (Azubuike) and Cliff (Hawkins) once again orchestrated and ran the team the right way. The big key was trying to keep the ball off Scooter (McFadgon) as much as we could and I thought we did a fairly good job there. I don't like our free throw shooting. That is something we have to work on and do a better job."

On the complete game
"If you look at the numbers, it was probably one of our better games. We only had five turnovers in the second half and our young players are getting better. You can see that they are improving. I like what we are doing with them."

On Gerald Fitch
"He was on IV. He has had food poisoning so he was weakened and he got a little woozy in the second half. I knew he wasn't himself when he went in the game early on. He was nauseated and throwing up after pre-game meal."