Kentucky players respond to Kasean Pryor's 'F*** them' quote ahead of Louisville game

Louisville forward Kasean Pryor made quite the headline when he ended the Cardinals’ recent postgame press conference with a message to the program’s top rival.

“We’ll see you guys on Tuesday. After a win. F*** them,” Pryor said, referring to Kentucky, as he left the press conference after Louisville beat Jackson State at home.

Pryor, a sixth-year college player, had just appeared in his first game since tearing his ACL nearly a year ago. He didn’t have the chance to play Kentucky in last season’s matchup (another loss for the Cards) before going down with his injury, but that didn’t stop him from running his mouth ahead of the 2025-26 edition of the Battle of the Bluegrass, which takes place next Tuesday night at the KFC Yum! Center (8:00 p.m. ET | ESPN).

So, as you might have guessed, Pryor’s quote was a major talking point in Kentucky’s postgame press conference following Friday night’s 107-59 win against Valparaiso. A trio of Wildcats — Brandon Garrison, Malachi Moreno, and Jaland Lowe — were asked about Pryor’s comments and their reactions to his thoughts on Kentucky.

Of those three, Garrison is the only one who has played in the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry before. As you might remember, he got into it a little bit (to say the least) with the Cardinals last year in Rupp Arena. He did see what Pryor had to say, but wasn’t too concerned about it.

“Yeah, I did,” Garrison replied when asked if he heard what Pryor said. “But we ain’t paying much mind. They just over there talking, doing what they do. We’re excited to play them next Tuesday.”

If anything, Garrison is using his experience in this game last year to help his teammates ahead of Tuesday’s showdown.

“Letting them know it’s gonna be a lot of talking,” he added. “We all got to keep our heads, because I was one of them who kinda lost mine last year. So learning from that and telling them it’ll be a big-time game, the juice is gonna be there, just going out there and doing what we do, don’t overdo stuff.”

With Moreno, a native of the Bluegrass and lifelong UK fan, he’s familiar with what the rivalry means to the Big Blue Nation, but this will be his first time living it as a player on the hardwood. He also saw Pyror’s quote, but didn’t take the bait when asked about it by reporters.

“Honestly, no reaction,” Moreno said. “We don’t pay attention to outside noise. We’re just keeping everything in-house and we’re just prepping to be ready for Tuesday.”

Lowe, on the other hand, has played against Louisville before at his previous stop with Pittsburgh. He went 2-2 against the Cardinals during his two seasons in the ACC, including a 24-point showing back in January. He claims he didn’t know about the quote until a reporter told him about it, though. But after making his season debut against Valpo (6 points, 5 assists, 0 turnovers in 18 minutes), he’s now eager to get his first taste of the UK-UL hate in a few days.

“I mean that’s cool. They gonna talk. It’s a rivalry, you want that,” Lowe said about Pryor’s comments. “That’s what makes it fun. By all means, they can chirp, and I think we’ll save our chirping during the game and after the game — when we win. We’ll just leave it at that.”

Tuesday night can’t come soon enough…

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