What Kentucky’s Players Said After Tough Loss to Gonzaga

Despite a great crowd and energy at Rupp Arena on Saturday night, Kentucky fell to Gonzaga in a close one, 89-85, losing the third straight home game for the first time since 1967. The Cats fought back in the second half, but a poor first half and late-game execution led to another really tough loss.

Following the game, a few players spoke about what went wrong and discussed what the team needs to do to get back on track. The first two players KY Insider spoke to, Justin Edwards and Adou Thiero, had one common thing in their comments to the questions, and that is taking more pride in what they do.

“Take pride,” Edwards said. “Taking pride in guarding our man. Taking pride in the little stuff. What hurt us the most was guarding the ball and second-chance points.”

Thiero echoed the same sentiment, but went a little deeper. “We’ve got to rep the name on the jersey. Kentucky,” Thiero said. “The people who played here before us left it all on the floor. We’ve got to start doing all we can. Just because we’re young, we can’t think it’s gonna be easy for us.”

For Thiero, this isn’t the first team he has faced adversity during his time at Kentucky. Just last season, the Wildcats were in danger of missing the tournament entirely in January. When asked what he can pull from the struggles of last season, to this season, Thiero suggested a player’s only meeting.

“We had a couple player-only meetings (last season). I think it’s about time to bring that back. Figure everything out and talk through it. Stay as a team. That’s most important right now.”

Another one of the primary leaders of this Kentucky team, Antonio Reeves, also got a chance to speak to the media. He was quick to point out what everyone else had also seen. “It was rebounds that killed us,” Reeves said. On his message to the team, “Just being desperate. Play with all you got and give 100 percent effort. We gotta fight through adversity at the end of the day.

With the loss to Gonzaga, Kentucky falls to 16-7 overall and has a difficult stretch to end the season, including away games against Auburn and Tennessee. With less than a month until the SEC Tournament, Kentucky needs to get things figured out, and quickly.