UK Basketball: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Kevin Knox preview SEC Tournament

The Kentucky Wildcats are getting set for what they hope is a long postseason run.

It begins Friday when they open SEC Tournament play as the No. 4 seed following a roller-coaster regular season.

On Tuesday, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Kevin Knox met with the media to preview the league tournament, as well as recap their SEC honors.

They were also confident that Saturday’s loss to Florida was merely a setback that they’ve already moved past.

“We’ve moved on from Florida. We obviously had a bad performance,” said Knox. “We’re just trying to fix what we did bad. We watched (film) a couple of days ago. We watched and now we’ve moved on.”

Here is a recap of everything Knox and Gilgeous-Alexander had to say, courtesy of UK Athletics:

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

On being named second-team All-SEC …

“It’s an honor. We play in a really tough conference with a lot of great players. It feels good to be recognized amongst those players. It’s not something I cherish too much though because I’m focused on team goals right now.”

On which team will show up at the SEC Tournament …

“I think the good team will show up in St. Louis. We’ve watched a lot (of film) the last couple of days. We realized we messed up and where we went wrong. I think we’re all in the right mindset, we just have to try and fix them (the mistakes).”

On if it’s easier to fix the mistakes now that they have played well down the stretch …

“I think the streak helped a lot because we know what we did well during that streak to play as well as we did. We just have to go back to it.”

On finally being able to play in a meaningful college tournament and what his mentality is going into it …

“(The mentality) is to just go at other teams. It’s us against the world. Yeah, we’re just going to try and compete as hard as possible. I think if we compete and do what coach wants us to do, we’ll be fine.”

On if there is a different feeling going into a tournament than a regular-season game …

“Do or die. Yeah, I think that adds a little bit. Like I said, just us knowing what we need to do to get back to that mindset and that game plan where we were at when we won four in a row.”

On Coach Cal and the team are hungrier this year being a No. 4 seed in the SEC Tournament …

“No, I don’t think we’re too worried about our seeding for the SEC Tournament. We’re just trying to be the best team that we can be in the postseason, and that’s one of the things he’s drilled into us during the regular season. Nothing really matters until March, to win games in March, to be able to be a really good basketball team and that’s what we’re going to try and do.”

On if he thinks the tournament will be wide open …

“Yeah, I think the league is pretty good. From first until however many teams are in the league, there’s going to be competition in every game. Everyone is going to have to bring it.”

On how he would describe his game …

“Yeah, I’m kind of crafty. I don’t have all of the athleticism in the world that a lot of point guards do or all of the speed and quickness. But, I’m kind of crafty. I use my angles well. I get to where I need to get to on the floor to be successful.”

On if the team has gone back to scrimmaging …

“Yeah, we’ll scrimmage today at practice.”

On playing on a neutral court …

“It’ll help I guess a little bit. No really road games or anything like that. But, Kentucky is such a big fan base we’ll have fans at every game and it’ll feel like a home game. So, I think it’ll be in our favor.”

On what the team needs to improve on after the Florida game …

“I think it starts with our defense and our intensity and our focus on the game plan. Then also us competing on both ends of the floor. The Florida game I feel like, myself included, we just didn’t value possessions like we should have both defensively and offensively. That has to change for March.”

Kevin Knox

On his SEC honors …

“It’s a great honor. It’s been a long season, a lot of ups and downs, but I’m just honored to get that award. I really thank my teammates and everything for that. I wouldn’t have gotten it without them. Like I said, it’s a great honor. It’s a great accomplishment for me and my family.”

On what he expected going into the season …

“I knew we would have some ups and downs. All freshmen have their bumps in the road. There’s a lot of obstacles and stuff like that. We went through that and we had our bad times, we had our good times, but, like I said, I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. I wouldn’t trade my teammates for anything else. I’m glad I came here. I really loved the season. I think we’re in a great spot right now, but definitely we can improve and we will over the next couple weeks.”

On Calipari saying they didn’t scrimmage before the Florida game and whether that took some of their edge off …

“No, not really. Just because we didn’t scrimmage doesn’t mean necessarily that we gotta go out and play the way we played. But the scrimmaging did help us out a lot, just getting to know each other better on the court, playing with different lineups, getting a feel for each other. I think that really helped. I think we should have (gone) a little more scrimmaging, but that’s not a reason or excuse to why we played that bad.”

On what they learned from the loss …

“The rest of this season, everybody’s going to give their all. Florida definitely came out on top. They were hitting a lot of shots and we didn’t really play that well, but that’s how we’re going to get the rest of the season. We just gotta be able to come in mentally prepared and just make sure that we come in and play hard every game because now it’s win or go home. A lot of teams’ seasons are on the line so we gotta be able to come out and play hard like our season is on the line.”

On why he believes they are in a good spot …

“I think we’re in good spot just because I think we can improve as a team. On Saturday when we lost at Florida, we didn’t really give our all. Players weren’t really playing their best, but if we get everyone to play their best this team is really hard to beat. We played a lot of games this year, a few games where we just went out and just played all of our best games and everything and we haven’t lost yet. From now on, we have to play like that because it’s win or go home.”

On his defense this season …

“I don’t think this has been my best defensive season. The coaches and I have been watching a lot of film just making sure that I can get better on the defensive end. I think that’s something that I gotta work on pretty much the rest of this year and for my years to come. I just gotta make sure that I give everything I got on the defensive end and be able to do it on the offensive end. Definitely I put that all on me. I don’t think I played really good defense this year, but, like I said, the season’s not over. I could really improve it, show people that I’ve really been working on it and show it in the SEC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.”

On making All-SEC in spite of not playing his best defense …

“Yeah, but that was probably mostly because of offense, but I think defense—if I can show that I can play defense, I can take my game to another level. Because people know I can really play on the offensive end, so I gotta show them I can play on the defensive end as well.”

On why they didn’t pass against Florida …

“I don’t know, to be honest. We just came off a four-game winning streak. We were playing really well. I don’t know why we didn’t come out and pass, but it’s do or die now. You gotta be able to come out and play. We can’t play like we did on Saturday. We gotta be able to come out and play like we were on the four-game winning streak.”

On being excited to play in March Madness …

“It’s a dream come true. I watched it all the time in class. Teachers put it up on the projector and we watched the teams. Now I’m playing in the games. It’s really crazy. I’m really happy. I’m looking really forward to it. I know my parents are really looking forward to it as well. Like I said, it’s a dream come true so hopefully we can come out with a win and get far in the tournament like I wish we would.”

On whether this is as excited as he’s ever been to play …

“Oh yeah. For real. This is one of the biggest moments of my life, just playing in March Madness, especially at Kentucky. A lot of people like to watch Kentucky play on TV, so it’s like a dream come true. Just being able to play in this March Madness is amazing. It’s something I dreamed of my whole life.”

On which Kentucky team will show up in St. Louis …

“I’m pretty sure that the team that won four games in a row will show up for the rest of the year. We just gotta be able to come out, play together, play hard and play like we did when we won four in a row. If we play like that, we’ll go pretty far in the tournament.”

On the SEC Tournament being wide open …

“It’s one of the best conferences this year. It’s a lot of great teams. A lot of teams will be in the tournament. Any team can pretty much win this tournament. There’s a lot of great teams. You’ve got a lot of teams that are right there on the bubble that really need some wins in this tournament to get in the NCAA Tournament so they’re going to come out playing pretty hard. Like I said, it’s up in the air. I think anyone could really win it.”

On when they realized this season would be difficult …

“When we first started losing some of our games. I think we went like two or three in a row. Right then and there, you know that it’s not going to be an easy season. You watch it on TV, you think, ‘Oh yeah, we could beat them, we can beat them. This doesn’t look that hard.’ But in reality it’s pretty hard. Especially for us freshmen, it’s been a rough journey. The way we bounced back, the way we’ve been playing together and just getting better, improving a team has been really good.”

On how he has changed this year …

“My game, it’s been crazy to watch. I came on campus out of shape, everything. I’ve been running with KP (Kenny Payne), just getting in the gym with him. He’s helped me out a lot. I think my game just (went to) another level once I got here. In high school, it’s really different from here. All the workouts and all the shooting drills and the conditioning drills, it just kind of helped me as a player and it helped me as a person. I’m just glad that I came here. It helped my skills a lot. I’m really glad I came here.”