Q: On the Vanderbilt loss:
A: I thought we had our opportunities there but shot ourselves in the foot with the 18 turnovers. I thought we defended really well to hold a team like Vanderbilt to 55 points on their home court. We just didn’t give ourselves an opportunity to win the ball game when you give away 24 points off turnovers. And the thing that was disappointing is that they were unforced turnovers. Vanderbilt didn’t pressure us and packed it in man-to-man and mostly with the zone. We just have to find a way to not have those unforced turnovers, and then the other thing is the past two ball games we’ve gotten to the free throw line six times a piece. We’ve got to get back in that attacking mode and get to the free-throw line.  
Q: On how veteran players answer the losing streak:
A: I think it’s just different for those guys because they were all incoming guys who were freshmen and newcomers as far as junior college guys, so you really didn’t have the expectations of what was going on because they didn’t know the system — they didn’t know what SEC basketball was all about. They really didn’t have any answers. Now, the expectations are higher. We expect to win some of these games. Once you know what your expectations are and you lose some of those games, now how do you address what the actual issue is? I think last year we didn’t know the issue.
Q: On the margin of error for a poor defensive outing:
A: First of all, I think we were fourth in the SEC in scoring offense before this week. I think, first of all, (Vanderbilt head coach) Coach Stallings is an excellent coach, and his game plan and the way he prepares his team is probably the best in the SEC along with (Florida head coach) Billy Donovan. I think when you’re on the road and you have those defensive breakdowns, but the biggest thing on that is, it’s hard to guard turnovers. If you look at (Vanderbilt’s) points in the second half and their 55 percent field-goal percentage, it mostly came off the fact that we were defending our own mistakes. When you’re defending your own mistakes, you tend to have more defensive breakdowns. But I thought when our defense was set and we weren’t running down turnovers, I thought we were pretty good defensively.
Q: On earning trips to the free-throw line:
A: I think it’s a couple things. One, teams are just playing zone. I’ve never seen so much zone in my career, and what we have to do is we have to find a way to get people out of the zone by knocking down some shots. But I think what we can’t do, though, we can’t settle. I think when people play a zone, we settle for shots. I think we need to continue to probe and attack the zone. When we’re (facing) a man-to-man, we have a lot more driving lanes and there is more opportunity to attack those lanes. But I still think we have some driving lanes in the zone, and we have to do a better job as a coaching staff of exposing those driving lanes and giving our guys an opportunity to see them.
Q: On fighting back when trailing late in games:
A: I think part of that was Jacoby Davis did a good job during that (late-game) span. He knocked down a couple of threes and did a really good job of finding some driving lanes in the zone and giving some other guys some other opportunities for shots. I think he played a part in that. We’re still talking about, and I don’t want to harp on this as being excusable, but we’re still talking about a very young and inexperienced team, because with everybody you want to turn to to make a play, it’s a sophomore or freshman. 
Q: On restoring the team’s confidence:
A: Well that’s the thing you have to make sure of. Coaching is not just the X’s and O’s; it’s also being a psychologist, too. What you have to do is you have to make sure you’re getting your guys recognizing what their mistakes were and what their opportunities were but not harping on those things and not letting it go into your next game. What we have to do is address our errors and what we did wrong, but we don’t want to beat our guys down with those mistakes. We have to get them ready for the next game.
Q: On Fred Thomas’s performance:
A: We need Fred to be a good basketball player for us because he plays a lot of minutes. I think he’s become our best perimeter defender of our wings. I think it’s important for him to have some sort of flow to his game. The thing I want when it’s all said and done is I want Fred out there playing with some excitement and some exuberance, even if he’s not scoring. I just don’t want that to be the reason Fred Thomas is out there flying around because he’s scoring a few buckets. I want him flying around regardless of the situation. I want him to have a great demeanor every time he steps foot on the court and not worry about the scoring. The scoring will come. 
Q: On difficulties of playing on the road:
A: I think it is familiarity for the home team. I think every home team feels much more comfortable playing in their own venue, so they have more confidence. Now you’re traveling on the road, and you have to make sure that you have that situation where you can knock down that level of confidence. It’s been ingrained in everybody that you win at home and have problems on the road. Kids think that going into the situation regardless of what you’re telling them.
Q: On experienced teams winning on the road:
A: No question about it. I think the teams that I’ve had success with in the past have been experienced, veteran-laden teams. I think what’s also happened too is as your guys get more accustomed to being in those venues — like for our guys that are freshmen and sophomores, it’s the first time they ever played at Kentucky or the first time they ever played at Arkansas — but by the time they’re juniors and seniors, it’s almost like it’s an old habit because they’ve played there before; it’s not a new experience and they’re never in awe of that.
Q: On balancing outside shooting and driving the lane against zone defense:
A: I think the one thing you have to make sure you do — you want to be in attack mode in transition. The first key in being in that attack mode in transition when you’re playing a team that plays zone is getting stops on the defensive end. Most people, what they try to do, is they try to be in some sort of zone on makes, for sure, then on misses they feel like they can’t get back to their zone responsibilities, so they don’t go back to a zone. If you can get stops and get in that attack mode in transition, I think that’s the first key in having some success against the zone. I think the second thing is, once you attack in that zone, it now becomes a shot clock situation. Do you want to flow into some sort of zone offense or do you want to do a set play? Now we have to figure out which one we want to do as a coaching staff against that particular team. I think the last thing is making your guys feel good about making plays against zone. I think guys feel really comfortable about making plays against man-to-man because that’s what they have done their whole life and whole career, but making those plays against zone sometimes makes things a little bit complicated for them.