Andrew Carr says Kentucky must 'get more nasty, more angry when we're playing'

Mark Pope questioned his team’s toughness at Georgia, saying Kentucky was unable to ‘do your job in the moment from second to second to second.’ That’s what he described as ‘real toughness,’ something the Wildcats just didn’t have, unfortunately.

“That’s actually toughness. We didn’t have that on great display today,” he said.

That can be measured in a number of ways, namely on the glass — Kentucky lost the rebounding battle 41-34 — and total free-throw attempts — Georgia was a plus-14 at the line in makes and plus-19 in attempts. Maybe you consider taking 13-point halftime deficits weak? I certainly wouldn’t call it tough, if that’s the theme we’re sticking with.

No matter the definition or cause, his players don’t disagree. Andrew Carr, who finished with six points and five rebounds in the 82-69 loss, said the team had to get tougher and more physical to compete in this juggernaut of a league schedule.

“I think we need to — you know, that’s one of the areas specifically where we’ve just got to get more tough, we’ve got to get more physical,” Carr told Goose Givens during postgame radio. “We got to get more nasty, more angry when we’re playing, bring that edge, get better on the defensive glass. They got a decent amount of second-chance points.”

What does that look like, exactly? Pope gave his take on ‘real toughness.’ For Carr, at least in this game, it included discipline.

“Being tough can look like a whole bunch of different things,” he continued. “For us, one of those — especially tonight — was being tougher about being more disciplined without fouling, trying to play without fouling, moving our feet better, things like that. We’ve just got to get way more tough, way more physical.”

To get ‘nasty,’ as Carr put it, the team has to play with more energy, no matter how the game is unfolding (or how bad the officiating feels).

“I think a little bit — even a lot of it probably has to do with the amount of effort and energy you’re able to put into every single play,” he said. “I felt like sometimes tonight we got — Coach talks about energy all the time. Our energy was drained from foul calls and things like that, some things that we can’t control necessarily, and that was pulling away from our effort. When you’re able to start fresh in a new play every single time, I think it gives you the best chance. Just playing harder, playing with more of a chip on your shoulders, you have to bring the nasty on both sides.”

The Wildcats have no choice but to bring some nasty to the table in Starkville this weekend.