- [Coach Kennedy] I'm not sure what's happened.
It's funny man, the more games you coach
they all kinda jumble up.
But, it's my job to have an explanation for that,
and unfortunately I don't.
I think you guys that have covered me
realize I'm pretty candid.
Call it like I see it, always have, always will.
It's unacceptable, it starts with me
and I'm gonna do my job and try to get it corrected.
The only thing that I knew to do at half
was just to change the personnel.
I've heard Coach Freeze say this and I'm gonna steal it,
"Is it process or is it people?"
I think it's absolutely right.
Is it something that we're doing wrong
and I've gotta evaluate that?
Or is it the people?
Maybe I have 'em in the wrong place,
I've gotta do a better job.
But it's just completely unacceptable.
I told our guys
and you guys are supposed to be unbiased
so I'm not asking you to comment but,
if you watch us play you would think
we got a group of guys that aren't good guys.
They whine, they moan, I don't see really good teammates.
You know, your spirit precedes you
and I don't like the energy
and that's not who we are.
I don't know what happens when you guys come around
or when there's people in the stands,
I don't know what happens.
I gotta figure that out, it's my job.
- [Neil] You had talked, really,
the last week or so,
you kind of felt like turnovers were getting better.
- Fourteen in the first half, seven in the first
four minutes of the game. Game, set, match.
I guess, not to interrupt you Neil, but,
Kermit and I are buddies, I told you that,
and we played them in a three-year series years ago,
and, as we were preparing for that, one three one
and the ball goes into the corner,
it shifts into a two-three, because we're prepared for it,
I said, "you know, this is difficult to prepare for,
maybe we'll do it" so I started using it.
Guys, we go against that every day.
The exact same rotations.
The ball goes to short corner we trap it.
Ball goes to the corner, we rotate.
The exact same thing.
We've been doing this since August.
Problem is, I've got guys that, for whatever reason,
they just freeze up.
The second half it wasn't a problem
'cause we were attacking.
They were running the same stuff.
They had the same personnel.
We had a different result because we had guys on the attack.
I don't know why we came out like that passively.
Turned it over seven times at the first media,
what we'd have 14 to one or whatever it was,
and then, then you start trying to make home-run plays,
and it just gets away from you.
And to Meadow's credit, you take game pressure off
they got a good basketball team.
They move the ball, and, you know,
we talked about Giddy Potts being a guy,
that he was a 50% three point shooter last year,
we left him a couple times and he made us pay.
It's hard to come back from that.
What was it, 29 at the half?
It's hard to come back from 29, but we had it at nine
with about six to play and had some opportunities and,
you know, didn't get it done.
- [Reporter] You completely turned over
the ball enough to second half
like you mentioned you get a 10 to two run,
Breein's making plays,
do you kind of evaluate that and say,
- Oh no question.
Yeah, no question.
No question.
We've got to give ourselves the best chance to win.
I think that's what everybody wants.
What's our best chance to win?
So I've got to evaluate who's playing.
I thought Breein was the lone bright spot.
I thought Terrance Davis gave us some energy.
Made some plays to start the second half
to get us back in it.
Those guys are athletic, you know, they look like,
sometimes we look like we're a step slow,
and when you're a step slow in certain spots
and you're not scout or report savvy,
and your getting back cut at the end of shot clocks,
man, it tells me I've got to do some re-evaluating.
- [Reporter] Was there anything you saw in practice
that made you think that maybe guys weren't going to be
as locked in, or?
- You know, I told you I guess a few days ago,
this group is difficult for me to read.
Maybe it's because there's just so many new guys.
And, usually, young guys like Breein, for instance,
a freshman, you can read them easier,
because they're going to show you, emotionally,
where they are.
When you've got a Cullen Neal, who's 22-years-old,
and he's been through what he's been through,
when you've got an Deandre Burnett, who's 22-years-old,
he's been through what he's been through,
you got a Justas who's, you know, new to this culture,
and new to this speed of the game,
it's hard for me to read them.
I don't know if, are they locked in or are they nervous?
You know, so I'm figuring some of those things out.
- [Reporter] You actually have another really big game
on Saturday, what do you do in the two days between?
- Well, that's a good question,
and we're gonna figure that out.
The positive that I told our team was,
we play 31 regular season games.
I don't think they're going to kick us out of the
SEC Tournament.
They could, it's possible.
They'd be worthy if we continue to play
the way we played that half.
But, that gives us 32.
That gives us 25 more.
You know, if we win those 25,
we're going to have a pretty good year.
I'd take 24 and the one, you? Twenty-three and two.
Anybody go 20 and five?
I'd take 20 and five.
There's still opportunities.
We gotta get better, man.
We gotta better, and I wanna tell you this,
and I've used this analogy before,
we flirted around with Tennessee Martin,
ooh, lucky to win.
We were down nine, same set of circumstances,
we were talking about that at the time out.
I want to say it was almost identical as it related
to game clock, 4:38 down nine;
against U. Mass., finish on an 11-0 run.
Okay.
Get pulled over,
not that I want to get pulled over tonight,
but if you get pulled over sometimes,
and the cop don't give you a ticket,
we've talked about this.
You drive slow for about a mile and you don't see him
anymore, you speed up.
Well, we just got a big time ticket,
we're going to do a little time for this.
Maybe this will get our attention.
We got to play harder, we got to be more locked in.
I'm tired of saying, "guys, let's go, let's go, let's go."
It's unacceptable, we gotta change that.
- [Reporter] I know you said you can't read this
team real well, what did you see in the locker room
after the game?
- Bitter disappointment.
It looked as if we'd seen a ghost.
I told 'em, what you seen, is yourself.
Just seeing our reflection.
Don't like what we see,
maybe I should've pulled a mirror out quicker.
But it just got pulled out.
We've got to adjust.
It's my job.
I'm going to do my job.
- [Reporter] What was that locker room like during halftime?
For the guys?
- I mean, what do you think, we're down 29,
what do you think?
I mean what, I didn't go crazy.
I'm not even sweating, this is a nice shirt,
I'd be sweating right through it.
I mean, what are you gonna do?
I can't go the waver wire.
I told them they could all transfer if they'd like.
You know, that's a possibility I suppose.
I'm not sure they'd have a lot of takers,
based on that performance.
But, we gotta, hey, we gotta bow up,
and we gotta fight.
Two kinds of people in this world,
fighters and flighters.
I'm a fighter.
Always have been, always will be.
Figuratively, literally, I'm a fighter.
Well this team's gonna fight.
Thank you.