Notes and Quotes from the Alex Poythress Interview

Alex Poythress answered a lot of the questions we've all had about his time at Kentucky. Here are some of the better answers and quotes from his interview with KSR this morning...   He knew Kentucky was the place for him after visiting Big Blue Madness in 2011. "After Madness I was like, alright, I like everything that's happening here. I like what he's talking about, you know. I really felt that way. I was still looking at other schools, but deep down I felt (I knew)." Aaron Harrison almost made him cry on Senior Day. Harrison was one of three former teammates who submitted video messages to UK for Poythress on his Senior Day. Poythress admitted it almost made him tear up as he stood on the court with his family. "I felt the energy and all of the love walking out to the middle of the court," he said. "The video was good. I talked to Aaron (Harrison) about it and told him he almost made me cry." "Everybody else was like 10 seconds, but Aaron went for a minute and I like, 'You have to stop.' But it was all good." The team was too young and inexperienced his freshman season. "We had a lot of young pieces," he said of that 2012-13 group that failed to make the NCAA tournament. "I think our oldest person to actually play was -- well Julius (Mays) was the oldest person -- but we didn't have a lot of experience that year. The top five or six were all newcomers, like me, so basically we were all freshmen, all rookies, playing and trying to figure out the system and trying to figure out college basketball." The turning point in 2013-14 was after the South Carolina loss. He and his teammates knew something had to change after losing to a very bad South Carolina team. It hit them once they got back to the lodge in Lexington. "We got back to the room and we were like, 'We gotta figure this out. We can't be losing --" I think that may have been our seventh or eighth loss. So we came together, we started practicing harder, we started playing better." Of course, they went on to play in the title game that season. The Louisville game matters to John Calipari. Calipari won't admit it, but the team can sense it in the way he amps it up in the week leading up to the Louisville game. "You get that sense. He picks up his intensity a little bit more that week. He's yelling a little bit more." "It's not the same (as any other) game, not even in our eyes it's not the same game. It's like bragging rights between the two teams." He picked No. 22 because his dad wore it as a football player at Kentucky Wesleyan. "It's been in the family for years." It's true that Tyler Ulis stood up to DeMarcus Cousins in a pickup game. "It was over a foul or something like that," Poythress confirmed. "Jahlil Okafor was here, too. I think Jahlil might've called a foul and DeMarcus was like, 'Nah you're not getting that" and then took the ball to halfcourt. Then Tyler was like, "We ain't playing. It's our ball. Respect his call." Then DeMarcus and Tyler were chirping -- and Tyler's family was in the stands so DeMarcus gave him the ball. I think that was the reason (it ended)." Trey Lyles was his funniest teammate. "He's secretly funny. He was like goofy funny. Around us he was real goofy and stupid." If elected President, he would want Willie Cauley-Stein as his Vice President. He also said Willie Cauley-Stein is the most interesting teammate to talk to -- not that anyone is surprised by that.   There is a whole lot more in the hour-long interview, which can be heard in its entirety here.