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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: JACKSONVILLEMarch 18, 2015Mike AndersonAnton BeardRashad MaddenBobby PortisJACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA Q. Bobby, being a 5 seed, what kind of pops into your mind when you think of the notorious 5 versus 12 seeds and the success that those underdogs have had in these kind of games? BOBBY PORTIS: I mean, the past has nothing to do with us. With the 5 and the 12 seeds, that really doesn't matter to us. It's like our team is happy to be here, and our team is just happy to be competing in this. Q. Can you remember a game -- you've got a significant height advantage, Wofford doesn't have anybody in their starting lineup over 6'6". How beneficial can that be for you guys? BOBBY PORTIS: I think it'll be very beneficial towards us just because we have me, Moses, Jacorey, guys that are 6'8" and up. I feel like that'll play an advantage to us, but still, we have to come out and play Arkansas basketball. Q. Bobby, talk about that 5-12, the 12s won 44 times, about 38 percent of the time, and in the last two years, the 12 seed is 6 and 2. When you hear numbers like that, what pops into your head for all you guys? ANTON BEARD: What pops into my head is just to come out and work hard. We know what happens with 5 and 12 seeds. We see the statistics and stuff, so we want to come out and play Arkansas basketball and come out with a win. RASHAD MADDEN: We know if we come out and play hard and do what we have to do on the defensive end, then we don't have to worry about a 12 beating a 5 seed. BOBBY PORTIS: We just know if we come out and play our style of basketball, everything else will take care of itself. Q. When you guys are watching the selection show and Wofford pops up as the 12 seed, what was the first thought that ran through your mind? RASHAD MADDEN: My first thought was who was Wofford? That was my first thought. BOBBY PORTIS: That was the same thing in mine, too. I had never heard of Wofford, and I immediately started thinking about who did they have and what are some of their strengths. ANTON BEARD: Same thing Bobby said. They popped up and we didn't know who they were, so we decided to see who they got and just come out and play defense. Q. Could all three of you answer what you're going to do all day to pass the time, and are you concerned about the game being so late at night? ANTON BEARD: Well, we're just going to get ready for practice, get focused on what Wofford does, and just get our minds right, just stay focused, don't try to do something that we don't do. So we're just trying to stay focused all day until the game. RASHAD MADDEN: Yeah, we're just going to stay focused and get our minds prepared for the game, get our bodies ready and mind ready and get ready for war. BOBBY PORTIS: Just like the other two guys said, just trying to stay focused and just come into the game ready to play. Q. I know you didn't know anything about Wofford on Sunday, but what have you learned since then about what they do? BOBBY PORTIS: Our team really hasn't went over them yet. Coach A just always tries to preach we aren't worried about the other team, like, our team is just worried about what we do. I feel like tomorrow he will go over the scouting report for us, like four or five hours before the game, and then we'll know some of their tendencies. Q. I think tomorrow will be like y'all's fourth game in seven days or eight days. How are you guys physically after that SEC tournament run? Do you feel like you've got your legs back? BOBBY PORTIS: No doubt, just because Coach A has done a great job of just making us go to the workout room and take ice baths and try and get some recovery. RASHAD MADDEN: Yeah, I feel like our training staff does a great job of getting our bodies and stuff are recovered. I feel like this stuff we're used to. We've played games like that before, so we'll be ready. Q. Obviously, you guys want to get the tempo going. What do you think is the key to making Wofford play your style and you guys not getting caught up and playing more of a slow-down game? BOBBY PORTIS: Just trying to speed them up on defense, just trying to make them turn the ball over more than one time, just making their bigs try to bring the basketball up, just try to make them uncomfortable as much as we can. RASHAD MADDEN: Yeah, the same as Bobby said. It starts on the defensive end for us. If we put pressure on them and get the ball into the other people's hands who doesn't normally handle the ball, then we should speed them up and have them doing things that they don't normally do. Q. Bobby, are you concerned with a team that has the experience that Wofford has? This is the fourth time they've been in the tournament in the last six years. First-round match-up, they're obviously going to be focusing on you. Have you thought about how you're going to counteract that at all? BOBBY PORTIS: No, not at all. I don't try to worry about, like, what the other team does to try to stop me. I just try to go out there and just try to play basketball. I don't really care about trying to score the basketball in certain positions. I'm just trying to go out there and just win like I always say. It doesn't matter to me if they try to focus in on me and try to key in on me. That's just going to leave my guys open for open jump shots and for us to get up even more. Q. You guys said you didn't know anything about Wofford, which is totally understandable, but is it hard to have respect for them like you would for an SEC team or ACC team or somebody like that? How do you get up for a game like this when you don't really know the team? ANTON BEARD: Well, it's a new season for us, and it's the NCAA Tournament, so it's not hard to get up for something that you want. We've all got our minds on one thing and that's to win a championship, so it's not hard to get up in our minds, so we're not worried about confidence or anything. We're just going out there and playing hard. RASHAD MADDEN: Getting up for this game, we know our next game could be our last, so we've got to be ready and be prepared. We can't take anybody lightly, and we've got to respect everybody and respect our opponents. COACH MIKE ANDERSON: Well, we're glad to be in Jacksonville, to have an opportunity to participate in the NCAA Tournament. It's been a while for Arkansas, so let's see if we can make something special happen with this group of guys. Our team is playing pretty good basketball at this time of the year, and this is when you want to play some of your better basketball. Our last game we ran up against an outstanding Kentucky team. It's a new season, everyone is 0-0. Wofford coached by Mike Young, they're a very good defensive team. They're very efficient on offense. So we're going to have to bring our A game to play against a Wofford team that has won 28 games, won their league, won their tournament and won quite a few games in a row. They have a team that has been here, participated in the tournament last year, all starters back. We have our work cut out for us, but we're looking forward to the opportunity to participate in the tournament. Q. Because you have such a short turnaround, how much information on Wofford do you give to your players, and when do you start giving them that information, the scouting report, stuff like that? COACH MIKE ANDERSON: Well, one of the things I always -- I preface it is I'm more worried about what we do than what other people do, and hopefully if we're doing what we're capable of doing, then hopefully we won't let them do what they want to do. But Wofford, had an opportunity to watch this team play. Like I said, they've got a tremendous scorer in Cochran. The Collins kid is a very, very good basketball player, Garcia, who runs the show. Their perimeter guys are just as good as anybody else's perimeter guys in the country, and when you look at their forwards, 6'6" guy, Skinner and Gordon, they're very athletic, and they're good at what they do. We want to play an up-tempo style of basketball, fast-paced, a lot of energy on the floor, and they want to kind of grind it out. They want to exploit you and open up the floor and of course get Cochran to come off a lot of screens. But defensively that's the thing I've been really impressed with them. They do a good job. So when you talk about the scouting preparation, as we go through the season, I'm hoping -- we'll get prepared for anybody we're going to play in this particular tournament. Q. Just on a different note, with this being a 12 versus 5 match-up, just in a general sense, your theory on why in this tournament 12 seeds tend to have success against 5 seeds? COACH MIKE ANDERSON: Well, you know, I don't know if I've even been a 5 seed. I don't even know. I just look at all 68 teams pretty good in this tournament. Everyone is good in this tournament. Everyone has players. I don't get caught up in the numbers like everybody else does because if you look at the format, you win, you advance; you lose, you go home. I don't look at the numbers. Why people say that, I guess -- you said 12 seeds, they end up beating 5 seeds? Is that what you said? Q. Recently they've had a lot of success against 5 seeds. COACH MIKE ANDERSON: Well, those 12 seeds must have been pretty darned good. That's how I see it. But on any given night, a one-shot game, it could be that shining moment where teams play with confidence. Wofford is a very good basketball team, and if your team comes in with the mindset thinking you're just going to show up and win, you've got another thing coming. I think the preparation is very, very important. Q. You guys were a No. 5 seed when you beat Loyola Marymount back in '89. Wofford is not obviously a big name team. Your guys' first reaction was who's Wofford, where's Wofford? Do you have any worries after coming off a game against Kentucky that the guys will have a hard time getting up for Wofford? COACH MIKE ANDERSON: Well, getting an opportunity to play in the tournament, hopefully, our guys will be ready to play whomever we're going to play. This is the last season. It's not like you play, you lose, you're done. So it's a big ballgame. But we've had that approach throughout the year, so I don't see anything different. The only difference is the nerves will be going a little bit, the butterflies will be going. But, hopefully, once they get out there on the floor and get that sweat going, this is what we do each and every time we go out and play. But I don't think -- our guys haven't looked at the names all year long, and I don't think they'll start that right now. Q. What was your first thought when you saw Wofford pop up on the bracket? Your players said that immediately they were like, who's Wofford? COACH MIKE ANDERSON: Well, it's funny because my wife and I were -- I guess we were somewhere watching some of the games late night, and lo and behold, I'm watching Wofford versus Furman, and it looked like Furman had the game in hand, and all of a sudden they made plays. So I was impressed, number one, defensively with what they were doing, and then of course when we found out who we were playing, and you look at their record and who they played against, they went into North Carolina State and won. They won 28 games. You don't just happen to win 28 games. They won -- I think they played 15 games on the road; they won 10 of them. That tells you, you've got some leadership, you've got some veteran players, you've got some guys that they're not afraid. So as I saw that, in my mind, I'm going like, you know what, we're in the NCAA Tournament. Q. Can you talk about the resurgence of the SEC and how, I guess, two of the teams were in the NIT last night, you've got five teams in the NCAA Tournament this year, just talk about how it's improved? COACH MIKE ANDERSON: Well, it's good to see it. There were some mandates done by our commissioner, which was to beef up our non-conference schedule, and that non-conference schedule to me, it always prepares you for conference play. So some of our teams played against better competition, won games, lost some games, but I thought for the most part, it got us ready for conference play. And then we got into conference play, we beat up on each other, but I think the numbers, the RPI, as people claim, are just as strict as the schedule. To me it played out. I always say as you get to this part of the year, you've got to continue to win. That's how you get people's minds -- make them understand that the SEC is a very, very good league. It's not just Kentucky, it's not just Arkansas, not just Florida. We have some tremendous coaches. Some of them are just getting their program where they want to. It's Year Four for me, and it took a lot of patience with my staff, and I'm sure with our administration. But it takes time when you're going to do it the right way. I don't want it to be a one-year flash in the pan, and that's it. You want a program that's going to be there for a long, long time. But as I look at the members in the SEC, they're going out in postseason play and beating people. Ole Miss had a big win last night. Alabama won in the NIT. So it's good to see that what we did through the conference part of the schedule and the non-conference -- we're taking on the postseason, as well. Q. I guess tomorrow will be your fourth game in seven days. You obviously had a long run in Nashville. How do you feel like you guys are physically? Do you feel like everybody has got their legs back now? COACH MIKE ANDERSON: Well, you play in the NCAA, man. It's a different season, it's a new mindset, and we'll find out once we get out on the floor. That's the beauty of having a deep team, having guys that have been sitting there, and having an opportunity to play throughout the year. Everyone on my team, the 10 guys that have played, I think nine of them have started at some point in time. I think those minutes that those guys have gotten, I think will pay off as we get to this part of the year. Even -- we saw Nick Babb over in the Georgia game come in and inject some energy. Because I thought our guys were mentally tired and probably physically tired. But somehow he shot an injection into our team, and we were able to pull that game out. But we're going to need a lot more energy as we get ready to play against a Wofford team that's pretty good. Q. Coach, Wofford is a team that has been to the tournament four of the last six years. They've never won an NCAA Tournament game. You guys are just coming off the SEC Championship Game against Kentucky. This is arguably the biggest game Wofford and these players have ever played in their lives. Are you worried about your guys matching that type of heart and effort level? COACH MIKE ANDERSON: Well, hopefully our guys -- this is one of the bigger games in their lives. This is the first time having the opportunity to play in the tournament. As a coach you do worry about that. But to me these guys, throughout the year, they have been conditioned with the understanding that every game is a big game, so as I said, the nerves will be going, but let's play basketball. It's something they've been doing since we started practicing in the fall, and hopefully we'll continue. We're playing some pretty good basketball, and I know Wofford is playing some real good basketball, so you should see an outstanding game. Q. From an experience standpoint that you don't have coming into the tournament, what have you told your guys about being ready to play in this kind of environment where it's a little bit different? COACH MIKE ANDERSON: Well, you know, I think the prelude to this tournament will hopefully prepare us, playing in the SEC tournament. Our guys came in the first game, it's the most critical game, the most important game. You cannot go anywhere else if you don't get by that first game, and so that's always been the mindset of our guys. That's been the thought pattern. That's what I've been pouring into them. Let's leave it out on the floor for this game and hopefully we'll have a chance to maybe survive it and then move on to the next game. But this is the most important game, and so if you asked me the mindset of our guys, I think they're ready to play. I think it's amazing how you can go from one mindset to the other. We had just lost to Kentucky, and they were down and out. And then we're at a restaurant there, I guess sort of a watch party there in Nashville, and it's amazing, once the pairings were announced, they went from like gloom to like, oh, man, off the charts. So I think that kind of enthusiasm, that kind of mindset is hopefully something we'll bring here in Jacksonville and go out and play good basketball. Q. Mike, Arkansas fans have waited seven years to go back to the tournament. Now you've got to wait about eight hours tomorrow for the game to start. What do you do with the guys all day? Do you let them sleep in? What time is your shoot-around? What's your day like leading up to tip-off? COACH MIKE ANDERSON: Right now we'll get up and eat breakfast, get them moving around. We've got a shoot-around time anywhere from 11:30, 11:50, something like that there and we'll have our pregame meal four or five hours prior to it. I'm sure it'll be a day where they'll watch some games for the most part and then we'll have our little scouting period we'll do right before pregame. And then we'll come over here and play. So we won't change any routine that we've done. The thing about it is, with the SEC Network with some of the games that we have televised there at Arkansas, we play some 8:00 games. We've seen where we've played early in the morning, we've played in the afternoon, we've played in the evening. This is a late night game, so we'll somehow keep them busy. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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