WATCH: Mark Pope and Kentucky players (plus Rick Pitino!) recap win over St. John's

Basketball sure is fun when it looks like that.

It didn’t start as pretty as it ended, but Kentucky finally picked up a ranked win for the first time this season, the Wildcats beating Rick Pitino and St. John’s in Atlanta 78-66. Mark Pope got the better of his old coach in this one, but not without the help of two players who joined him in the postgame press conference. Jaland Lowe and Jayden Quaintance were spectacular in the second half for UK, combining to be a +37 in the box score after halftime. Kentucky outscored St. John’s by 19 points in the second half.

After the win, Pope, Lowe, and Quaintance took the podium to take questions from the media. Quaintance opened things up by thanking the UK training staff, while Lowe gave his raw thoughts on what was going through his mind when he re-injured his shoulder in the first half. You can hear everything that all three had to say below, along with postgame comments from Pitino.

Mark Pope, Jayden Quaintance, Jaland Lowe

Rick Pitino

Pope, Quaintance, Lowe transcript

MARK POPE: JQ is going to give our opening statement.

JAYDEN QUAINTANCE: For sure, this has been a long time in the making and I couldn’t have been here at all without the help of the people on my right. We’ve been here every day since June and working every single day, to the point where we got catch phrases and stuff to get you through every day.

(Brandon) Wells made them for us for game day to celebrate all the work we put in. Without you guys, Randy Towner, Coach Mikhail, I don’t think I could have been here today.

MARK POPE: I’ll just add to that while we have these guys here. I’ve been in this game for a long time and I’ve worked with a lot of guys, and I’ve never worked with a performance team that is this dedicated and has (indiscernible)… from an incredibly serious, serious injury. To what these guys did … Pretty incredible. So B Wells, Randy. Unbelievable job. Thank you Brandon.

Q. Mark, can you talk about the impact that Jayden had on this team tonight?

MARK POPE: Well, you guys know as much as I do, we just don’t have all a lot of data, right, so we went into this game, JQ and I and his dad and the performance team had a lot of conversations over the last seven months, and then especially over the last week just about how this rollout should go, could go, would go.

I’m grateful for that whole team that gave us — JQ and me — they got him in a spot where we could just go feel this experience out and go figure it out.

So those guys got him ready and he came in. Ton of courage. You come back from an injury like that and there is a lot of room for you to question things, but JQ is just bold and brave and fearless to the point where he makes me nervous. But it was pretty special.

So huge credit to him and the whole performance team.

Q. JQ, how difficult was it for you to sit out the past couple months and watch these games, and how much fun was today? It looked like you were having a ball out there. –

JAYDEN QUAINTANCE: Yeah, I mean, I’ve been a competitor my whole life. I was always raised to compete. That’s all I ever wanted to do. I would always find some type of (indiscernible). Watch my team go and be without me, not being able to help, just kind of be on the sidelines. But I continue to trust my guys and I feel like that trust in guys built just being here on the bench support that way showed on the court, and it kind of translated over. All my guys trusted me, and we just were able to show out at a high level tonight, so I feel like it’s been difficult but it’s been good.

Q. Jayden, were you surprised with how you were able to impact this game and the minutes you were able to play, and how did that feel?

JAYDEN QUAINTANCE: I felt great. I felt like my condition was good. I felt like my guys had, again, prepared me really well in all the practices months leading up to now.

I felt good on the court. I felt like if I was able to have time to shine I felt like I would make it my moment, and I felt like I did that today.

Q. Mark, is there a time limit, like a plan going forward to protect him? Will he be limited in games and in practices? And with Jaland as well, will you ration how much you use them?

MARK POPE: Yeah, JQ is on the way back, so for us it’s going to be like how do we feel in the morning. That’s just going to be the way it is. His health is so good right now, but it’s going to be a matter of how does he feel in the morning and where we do we go from here.

We have a huge game on Tuesday and then we have a break where we have a whole solid week plus of practice where we’ll be able to roll in that game. But I think the minute restriction will work its way out relatively quickly.

These guys have done such a great job, and also JQ. If you talk to B Wells and Randy, they’ll be like, they’ve never had a guy that has been willing to do every single thing they ask him to do.

With J Lowe, J Lowe has been petitioning to only be a game player, just free throws in practice, or maybe I’ve been petitioning for that. So we’ll continue to just proceed with caution with him. But he’s just so tough. He’s so tough. You saw the impact that he can have on our team. You saw one half without J Lowe and you saw one half with J Lowe.

I’m voting for the half with J Lowe actually because he changes everything we do. But we’re going to proceed with caution. He’s going to fight through this deal and he’s going to be great.

Q. Going into this game, obviously St. John’s is a very analytical team. Could you discuss what kind of preparation you had going into this, obviously Jaylen going in playing for seven seconds, taking on that injury and then coming back and playing the way he did, just talk about the mental kind of mindset that your team has and how you guys prepared to played your former head coach and how that’s been for you guys?

MARK POPE: You know, I was incredibly proud of our group on the defensive side in the first half. I was really proud of us in the first half because we were pretty dysfunctional on the offensive side of the ball, but they never let it take away from their energy defensively. We made some mistakes defensively but our toughness and energy was there the whole time. We probably fouled too much or the whistle blew too much for us in the first half, but I was proud of our guys for fighting to stay with it.

And then, I don’t know, you tell them about prep for the second half. What was your locker room experience like at halftime and the first half?

JALAND LOWE: My locker room experience after the seven seconds, sheesh, man, everything was going through my head. I knew after a couple minutes that I was going to be good. I think seeing these guys every day especially a guy like Jayden, they fight every day, and that’s just our identity. We fight. We’re a tough group. I knew if I was even a little bit good to be able to play I was going to give it a go.

I told these guys at halftime, I’m going to go out there and I’m going to live in it. Like I said to everybody, no matter what day it is, every day I step on the court, it’s a risk, but I know what comes with it, and my guys know what comes with it, but at the end of the day I’m a competitor, and I just want to go out there and play.

Q. Following the game (indiscernible) how important was that aspect of the game for you today, and overall (indiscernible) —

MARK POPE: Yeah, it’s really important for us. We’re going to become a really explosive offensive team. We’re going to. It’s been a little bit hard. It’s been a hard path for us for 100 different reasons. But in the meantime, it’s such a massively important part of helping us be functional offensively.

Our guys are willing to do it. We are blessed to have this cohort of bigs that are willing to just go seal for 30 seconds. They just put a body on a body and just seal and duck so we have some space to go there, and it’s going to be — it’s a stabilizer, something you can fight for every single game, whether you have rhythm or don’t. It’s really important.

Q. (Indiscernible) the last time you were here you defeated Duke. Then of course today. Is Atlanta starting to be a special place for Kentucky?

JALAND LOWE: I’m not going to lie, I was in the hotel yesterday and I didn’t even know what Catlanta was, and I asked them, what is that? Shoot, the way that these — I know now for sure. These fans out here are amazing and definitely Catlanta out there today felt like a home game.

That just goes to show how great of a fan base that we have and the support we have no matter what we’re going through. It’s amazing to see and I’ve never been around anything like this. I’m going to try to soak it up as much as I can because I know that no matter what level, I don’t think anything is ever going to touch this.

MARK POPE: Catlanta is super special to me from when I was playing at Kentucky and we were playing the SEC tournament here. Had those incredible moments in the Georgia Dome, and to last year to this year, this fan base, this is like a second home for us.

And I’m really grateful that we got to come down here and send everybody home happy, because they’re incredible when they showed out like this. We had so many people flying in from all over the country for this game, and I’m happy for all of our fans that they get to celebrate.

Q. Mark, you said a few weeks ago (indiscernible) basketball. How has this story written, against your former team, that JQ comes out (indiscernible) team chemistry and these guys are celebrating together. This is really starting to look like for this team, these guys are together.

MARK POPE: Well, we’re writing it, and I think we have the right guys to do it. I’m really confident in this group. Hey, listen, I felt the same way every single day. I have so much confidence in this staff and in this group of players.

It’s just been slow for us to grow up and embrace who exactly we are, and we’re in that process. We’re in the early stages of that process. This is an important day for us because we know back-to-back games, seeing some real physicality and some smash mouth basketball. Sometimes it’s ugly, but sometimes it’s beautiful like it was at moments in the second half of this game.

I love the journey of a season. Even when it’s bad, like I love the pain of it because it makes these nights awesome. I think these guys have a chance to have a lot more of these nights. I really do.

The St. John’s team I might know Coach better than — very few people know him better than me in the sense of how tough he is and how competitive he is and how he gets his team to play hard, and for our guys to stand up to that on a night when we were pretty dysfunctional and J Lowe takes a vacation for the first half. It was good.

Q. (Indiscernible) where is he at offensively (indiscernible)?

JAYDEN QUAINTANCE: I feel like Jaland brings a toughness and leadership to the game that we need. Whenever he’s on the court he’s telling everybody where to be, he’s making sure everybody is in the right spots, making sure everybody is making the right cuts. Offensively and defensively he’s a vocal leader and he’s like an effort leader. You can tell he is giving everything that he has.

He’s been super huge for us offensively and defensively. Again, it showed tonight.

JALAND LOWE: I mean, I just listen to these guys. They know the amount of work I put in. They know how much I care about them. I just do what they tell me to do. They want me to go out there and play some defense, I’m going to go play the hardest defense I’ve ever played in my life.

I’ve just got a bunch of guys that I love and I trust and I’d do anything for. After that, my game just speaks to the rest. I’ll just feed off the energy that those guys are feeding back into me.

Q. Mark, I asked you Thursday what would it mean to you to be coaching you’re like I want to be (indiscernible) now not hypothetical it’s reality. Does it feel any different to you?

MARK POPE: You guys, this is not about me. I appreciate the question, but the only thing I care about is our team growing. I love Coach. I love Coach. But I’m happy for our guys. I’m happy for them. That’s more than enough. Thanks for the question.

I just want to give a shout out to our volleyball team who’s about to go win a National Championship. Come on, Cats. It’s incredible what these guys are doing. We’re trying to follow in their footsteps, man, of how competitive and resilient and refuse to lose they are. It’s pretty awesome, so shout out to them.

Pitino transcript

RICK PITINO: I congratulate UK for the great second half. I think a big difference is the play when Lowe comes in the game, they’re a different basketball team. He makes people better. He is very tough to ver in pick-and-rolls.

But I think Mark did a brilliant thing. He came into the season thinking he had this great shooting team, and it’s obvious that it’s probably just an average shooting team, and he said I’ll change the whole mindset. We’re going to be a physical team. We’re going to be a tough team, and they totally changed the personality of who they are.

I think that’s a brilliant move by Mark. That’s all he talks about, the physicality and toughness. I think he made a change, and the injury guys have come back. Makes them a much better basketball team.

We played a great defensive game in the first half. Disappointed that we keep getting dominated in the front court; on the backcourt especially last year we were one of the leading offensive rebounding teams in the country, and this year we’re just not getting it done on the offensive glass.

I congratulate Kentucky on a terrific game, and we’ll move on to Harvard in two days.

Q. 2-4 for you guys against power conference teams. Are you disappointed in the non-conference?

RICK PITINO: I’m disappointed in any loss, but all I wanted was to get it done. We have a decent basketball team. Nothing more than decent. We’ve got to take decent to good, and that means you’ve got to play two great halves defensively.

I think you can see that Jaland Lowe, him coming in — we don’t have somebody coming in like him. That’s our fault as a staff for not having a big time point guard that makes people better.

I will say that outside of the fact that he never blocks out, Ian jacks is improving, getting better and better. That’s not his natural position, but he’s doing a good job of getting better.

But that’s a big factor with us right now, and that’s our fault as a staff, not having a big-time physical point guard. It’s something that we look at, but we’ve got to make sure that we do it with other players. But more so than that, I think our front court is — we have a things called goes where in practice how many times 3, 4, and 5 go to the glass. We want our 4s and 5s to go 80 percent of the time, and last year we were about 70.

This year we’re about 40 percent. We’re not going to the offensive glass and getting missed shots back so we have to keep working on that.

So I’m not disappointed. It’s not my job to be disappointed or elated. My job is tomorrow to make the team better.

Q. What did you see from Jayden Quaintance for them and how he impacted the game?

RICK PITINO: Well, obviously he’s got a great reputation. He’s long. I think their length really bothered us in the first half. But we did a really good job, sometimes with statistically what doesn’t show up because you look at it and we didn’t shoot real well.

But then you’ve got to also look at the fact that we took 32 free throws and got to the line. So that’s part of offense as well that doesn’t go into the shooting percentage. So that’s one of the strengths of our team, is getting to the foul line and making our free throws.

Q. Can you just talk about the emotion going into this game given your history with Mark and also the University of Kentucky?

RICK PITINO: You know, if this was at Rupp, I think I’d have a lot of emotion, but I didn’t have any emotion at all.

I’m really proud of Mark. I think he’s done a brilliant thing with changing the whole mindset of the team, let’s be tough, let’s be physical. It doesn’t surprise me that he made some changes; that’s why he’s a Rhodes Scholar candidate.

Q. You mentioned Lowe a couple times coming back in the second half. What’s the biggest difference that he makes, especially on the offensive end?

RICK PITINO: Well, he’s very difficult to guard in a pick-and-roll, and he makes plays going to the rim like a Tiny Archibald. He can take the content and still make shots, still make plays. He’s a really good pick-and-roll guy. They’re a totally different basketball team when he’s on the court.

Q. Coach (indiscernible) only had two fast break points. Was it a point of emphasis to get fast break points, and what was it that caused you not to be able to —

RICK PITINO: Well, we tried, but they did a good job of getting back.

Q. You were kind of talking about the physicality of Kentucky. There was a little bit of foul trouble on you guys going into the second half there. Can you talk about Jayden Quaintance coming back, I know it was mentioned earlier, but not only that, but how it almost seemed that his presence kind of made an impact instantly. Can you talk about how that led to some foul trouble, the double tech there I believe at the end of the first half, and explain it or talk about that a little bit?

RICK PITINO: I think he’s a big-time basketball player. They’re only going to get stronger with him and Lowe. But I think you all need to learn a little bit of a lesson as writers because you’re expecting Kentucky to be this great basketball team with all those injuries. So you all need to learn a lesson because you can’t be a great basketball team without two of your best players, with no point guard, no big men. So I think everybody really exaggerates one game or two games or three games. Kentucky got blown out and usually Kentucky doesn’t get blown out of any game, okay.

But you have to look at it when they come back, two gigantic pieces. So I think they’ll be a very good basketball team. They’re going to have to keep playing smash mouth basketball and play like that physical team, and I give Mark all the credit in the world because he’s a big believer in finesse, big believer at shooting the three, and he says, look, hey, it’s not working, let’s change, man. So I give him an awful lot of credit.

I’ll take one more, okay, guys, and get out of here.

Q. Rick, the point guard situation for the team has kind of been a thing since before the regular season started. You started out by telling us you need a point guard for the type of offense that the guys ran.

RICK PITINO: What would you like me to say? I’m waiting for Tiny Archibald to come back? That’s what you have to do when you don’t have one. You make a positive from a negative and say we’ve got to do it collectively as a team. You want me to just complain and get their confidence down? Is that what you’re looking for?

Q. No, I’m not looking —

RICK PITINO: That’s what it is. We don’t have it, so we’ve got to make sure the other guys can bring it up, do the job. That’s our fault in recruiting. We lost out on four different big-time point guards that we went after, and we’ve got to make the best of a situation by collectively other people handling the ball and bringing it up.

I wasn’t saying that it was a rosy painting because of having no point guard. It’s just that’s what we have to do. So I’m not going to get negative and just say what we don’t have. We expected Dylan Darling to be a backup and we lost all of our recruits at that position and gained at other positions.

Just got to make the best of it when that happens. It’s like an injury. You have a key injury, Kentucky has a key injury to Lowe, and what do they have to do, they have to comes back they become much stronger. We got to become much stronger. I can’t do anything about the point guard spot, but we’ve got to do a better job at the backcourt, we can do a better job of executing and blocking out, because we gave up 16 so many times. Ian is getting better much, but he refuses to block out, refuses on switches, and that’s costing us a little bit but he’s getting much better in all the other areas.

I think as he keeps improving, if we can get some wins, we’ll have ourselves a respectable point guard.

Q. Do you think that the way this team responds to giving up a lead is something less than what you expect them to do?

RICK PITINO: I think our front court, we beat them physically a little bit tonight. We got in foul trouble and we just didn’t have the numbers to keep up with them when we got in foul trouble.

But they’re a great group of guys. I love them, completely love them. Are they a great team? No, they’re not a great team. But we can be a good team, and we can get better and better and better. I don’t pay attention to how everybody rates it. This is the problem with today’s world is you’ve got eight new players. What can you do to make them better by the end of the year? Next year we’ll have eight new players. You’ve just got to put the team together and see what happens.

But I think by the end of the year, we’ll be a formidable good basketball team. Right now we’re not, but I think by the end of the year we can become that.

I wish you all Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. Great seeing all the faces. You know I pull for Mark and I wish them nothing but the best.

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