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March 21, 2015
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
NORTH CAROLINA - 87
ARKANSAS - 78
COACH MIKE ANDERSON: Well, first of all, congratulate North Carolina. I thought it was a hard-fought game by two teams that were trying to get to the Sweet 16, and we just ended up on the short end of it. Now, the two things that stand out in my mind that really didn't let us get over that hump was the unforced turnovers. We had a bunch of unforced turnovers which is very uncharacteristic of our team. We only average, I think, 11 turnovers a game. So that was part of it. And then they got points off of that, so you talk about points off turnovers and then you also talk about some offensive rebounds where they got points off offensive rebounds. Those were big stats, and then you look at the free-throw line, they made their free throws. Kudos to Coach Roy Williams and his team as they continue to advance. Paige, a tremendous player. They made plays when they had to, but it wasn't because these guys had a lack of effort. I was really proud of our effort. A lot of people didn't think we'd be here, but we got here, and the one thing I said, I didn't want to just get to the dance, I wanted to dance. And we danced a little bit, we did the one step. But I promise you in the future we're going to do a lot more stepping because the foundation has been laid, basketball is big time revelling at the University of Arkansas.
Q. Bobby or Michael, could you talk about the impact that Marcus Paige had in the second half? You held him to 1 of 8 shooting in the first half, but he kind of went off during that stretch midway through the second half which was kind of the difference in the game.
BOBBY PORTIS: He just did what big time players do, stepped up for their basketball team when they needed him to. In the first half he kind of struggled, but in the second half he came in for his basketball team and started being a leader and started being more dynamic on the court. Congrats to him for stepping up and being that leader for his basketball team.
Q. How disappointing is it to come so far and play so well and just fall a little bit short tonight?
RASHAD MADDEN: I mean, it hurts to lose the game, especially the type of thing that we're playing for. We're playing for a championship, so it hurts a lot to lose right now.
MICHAEL QUALLS: Yeah, you know, just to back up what he just said, you just want to play for the seniors because it's their last ride. We just came, fell short. That's life. You get knocked down, you're going to get back up again. It hurts now, it's going to hurt for a while, maybe hurt until the first game of the next season. But North Carolina, they came to play, and they just wanted it a little bit more than we did.
BOBBY PORTIS: It's a bad feeling because just to wake up every morning at 5:00 a.m., and run in the morning time, and practice in the morning time, and go as hard as we did, and for this to be our last game, I feel like it hurts me a lot just because now we have to wait until a whole 'nother season to play another game. It hurts a lot.
Q. For Mike and Ky, what do you think was the problem with the turnovers because that's very uncharacteristic?
RASHAD MADDEN: Probably trying to get ahead of ourselves, trying to make too many plays. We had to settle down and try to make the correct ones, but it happens in the game of basketball.
Q. The first half was played up and down real fast-paced, entertaining. Second half slowed to a crawl. How much did that affect you, the whistles, and just not being able to have some consistency?
MICHAEL QUALLS: You know, that was a big part of it, not really being able to get after it because we would probably have a spin, then a turnover, then the ref would blow his whistle, so we couldn't really get after it how we really wanted to. Fatigue just can play a factor because we didn't get the stretches that we needed to go up and down, up and down. The ball was stopping every couple, 40 seconds. Then that takes away a lot of what we want to do. We want to tire the other team down, and with that, it couldn't really never happen. We couldn't just get into our groove. It was just key for them tonight.
Q. Could you just echo what Coach said about laying a foundation this season? I know it's tough right now, but just looking back at the season and looking ahead to what you guys did this year moving forward?
RASHAD MADDEN: Well, for me, just laying it, it feels great. Where I come from, we didn't really win too many games my freshman year, and to be here now, it means a lot, and I hope these guys continue to take it up.
MICHAEL QUALLS: Coach did a great job. It's not the end. Like I say, Arkansas basketball is trending in the right direction. We didn't make it to where we wanted to make it this year, but as you can see, every year it's a lot of improvement. I have the utmost faith in this program. I know Coach will get the program headed in the right direction.
BOBBY PORTIS: Just making progress every year. Last year our team went to the NIT and then we came this year and made it to the 32, so hopefully next year our team can just make their stride and try to win that National Championship.
Q. Paige, I think they had a 17-4 and Paige scored 11. Seemed like he kind of took over the game at that point.
COACH MIKE ANDERSON: Yeah, he did, and as Bobby said, that's what great players do. They take that lead, they take that charge. We did a good job of really finding him in the first half. In the second half we had some assignments where guys should have been out there with him, because he has pretty unlimited range and he knocked down a couple of shots. And before you know it, it kind of put us back on our heels. But again, that's what good players do.
Q. Following up on what the players said, I know it's a tough loss tonight, but overall how do you feel about the season and moving forward?
COACH MIKE ANDERSON: Well, the hardest thing is I've got two seniors, Ky and Alandise and this is their last game. And there's a lot of emotion in that because they're Arkansas kids and they've had the best year that's taken place in Arkansas in many, many, many years. My mindset with those guys, the last game they went out fighting and lost to a very good North Carolina basketball team. How they went out, to me, that's the disappointing thing. The things that we value with our basketball team, we came up short doing that. So I feel like I let them down, but at the end of the day, they went out fighting. But I just think these guys have done a tremendous job this year of staying focused. The one thing about it is that, as the season progressed, we never got ahead of ourselves, even as we got to the NCAA Tournament. They took the one-game, one-mindset approach, one game at a time, and so the Wofford game, a team that's very experienced, and we saw their experience on display. Our guys were able to weather the storm and find a way to win. All that does is gives you confidence even as we came into this game. And just think, we had 21 turnovers and we're right where we needed to be. We gave up 20 some odd points off of offensive rebounds, I mean, second chance points, and you're losing by nine, ten, whatever it is. We're right there in the ballgame. That tells me our guys have really taken heed to the things that we've been trying to teach them. But it's been a very good year. It's been a very good year, and there's room for improvement. We've got a great base coming back, and that's the thing I'm really excited about. We'll add some more pieces, but again, I just think the nation got a chance to see the Arkansas Razorbacks on display.
Q. What did North Carolina do defensively to force the 21 turnovers, or was it a case to some extent of also some unforced errors?
COACH MIKE ANDERSON: I think a lot of them were unforced. You think about Alandise, he started off with like two and turned his back to a guy. We had three or four travels. We had nine turnovers in the first half and that's unheard of. They went to the zone, that slowed us down a little bit. We had balls slipping out of our hands. We'd steal it and we'd throw it right back to them. Those things happen in a game. But I thought it was an entertaining game, at least that first half was really entertaining. It slowed down a bit in the second half. But they're long, they're athletic, they get in the passing lane. They do a good job of that. But I thought a lot of those turnovers were really unforced by our basketball team.
Q. Do you like teams that play as fast as you guys do, or does that somewhat negate the advantage --
COACH MIKE ANDERSON: No, I thought it was a great match-up. They had a few more players -- when you talk about some of the guys that play real well for them, Justin Jackson, Paige, Tokoto. You talk about those guys and what they brought. I thought their bench played well for them. It was just a case where they had a little bit more in the tank or they made a few more plays -- they shot a lot more free throws than we did. I know that. That was the difference. I thought it was a game that we matched up well, they matched up with us. That's what you want in a college basketball game. I was looking forward to the opportunity to get up and down the floor and guys not holding the basketball. They attacked us. Guess what? We attacked them as well.
Q. Have you had any conversations with Bobby and Mike about whether they're coming back or moving on, or do you have a sense for which way they may be leaning?
COACH MIKE ANDERSON: No, we haven't had that conversation. Now that the season is over with, we'll sit down and we'll visit. Right now these guys, they just lost on the big stage. They're very, very disappointed. And so the worst thing to do is go to them right now. But we'll sit down, we'll have some dialogue, and it'll be some productive dialogue, I'm sure.
Q. You mentioned it briefly, but the match-up, the two high-speed teams, there were like 80 possessions in the first half and then they threw the zone at you. Do you feel like they had to do it to slow you guys down?
COACH MIKE ANDERSON: Well, they did a good job. It slowed us down to an extent and made us try to execute. Even with that we still had some bad turnovers that took place against their zone, and they ran out of it. It just changed the rhythm of the game. Here we are, we want to speed it up, and we went to some zone as well, maybe not as effective. But I thought the thing that really disrupted the game was a lot of free throws, a lot of whistles, a lot of free throws, and that -- it was almost opposite of the first half. The first half they let them play, and I guess in the second half they said, let's slow this down, we can't keep up with them, let's slow it down.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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