Michigan State 83, Kentucky 66
Q. Otega, there's been a lot of talk about identity lately. What do you think the identity of this team is, and if it hasn't been found yet, what do you want it to be?
OTEGA OWEH: That's something we're working on every day. I feel like this group has the capabilities to be that physically imposing team, playing for each other, just playing our hearts out, but we haven't shown that yet, but that's something we know we're very capable of that we see it every day in practice so it's just a matter of bringing it on to the game floor.
We all know our identity; it's just a matter of it translating.
Q. Otega, you said after that Georgetown exhibition that you thought Georgetown put the blueprint out there for other teams to say, hey, we're going to go out there and try to rough up Kentucky. How surprised are you that you didn't show a better response with that today?
OTEGA OWEH: Super disappointed, but it's part of basketball. Mistakes happen. Bad games happen. Unfortunately, we wish we could win all these games and put on a great showing, but we didn't do that, so it's a matter of us responding. Coach Pope always talks about responding when adversity hits. We're adversity hit right now, and that's something we're going to figure out for sure.
Q. Otega, what's not working for you personally as an individual right now?
OTEGA OWEH: I mean, we're all going to figure it out. With me it's just a matter of me playing hard, having effort, 100 percent. That's something that I've got to go out there and do and everything else will fall into place after that.
Q. There's been a focus on keeping kind of your emotions not in check but focused. Did you feel like you guys had your emotions focused going into tonight's game?
OTEGA OWEH: Yeah, we did. That's a big thing we focus on every single game day, not being too high, too low, just staying even keel. I think when we're in the game we have to up our emotions even more if I'm being honest, just reading the game.
Leading up to the game, our emotions, we were excited for this game. We prepped very well. I think we just didn't go out and execute for whatever reason. We're going to go back and watch the film. But we just didn't execute. We have to have higher emotion, higher intensity when we're in a game setting.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports