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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: GREENVILLE

March 17, 2017

Greenville, South Carolina

Arkansas - 77, Seton Hall - 71

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Arkansas coach Mike Anderson and student-athletes Moses Kingsley, Dusty Hannahs and Jaylen Barford.

COACH ANDERSON: Wow, what a game to open up the tournament on Friday. Two teams I thought that were evenly matched. And it's kind of like the team that probably had the possession the last was going to win it.

And we went down one and then we made a play on the ball defensively and Jaylen, I think, came up with a layup. And our guys, again, our guys just found a way.

It was kind of a grinding game, and then you have some spurts there where each team went up and put us back and forth.

And my hat's off to Kevin and his team. They're tough because they can attack and create. And then you've got the leading rebounder in the country in Delgado. But I thought we did a pretty good job on him.

That's what it took it took a tremendous defensive effort by our basketball team tonight. I kind of shortened the bench, if you noticed, but I had some guys that had a nice rhythm going. And I don't know what happened to Moses, but he awakened today and he was big. But it's a good win for us, and we're looking forward to advancing.

Q. Moses, what did happen? What was the reason for your awakening?
MOSES KINGSLEY: I mean, it's win or go home. And I have to bring it. And my team's looking up to me to bring it in games like this, and I think that's what I did.

Q. Dusty and Jaylen, you were down eight with about seven minutes left. What was the mindset? What did you hear from Coach Anderson, and what did you do differently at that point because seemed like you guys helped slowed down the Seton Hall guards at that point?
DUSTY HANNAHS: Coach told us to keep chipping away. He knows we don't lose our head. We've been down a lot this year. And we just stayed focused on the task at hand and we knew we had to get stops.

We were trading buckets when we stopped hitting buckets they kept getting them. Once we started getting stops and pushing the tempo up, the game was going in our favor.

Q. Jaylen, could you describe the play -- you guys were down 70-69 -- you knocked it away from Carrington. I think you knocked it to Manny. Then you got down, got the layup. Could you describe that play?
JAYLEN BARFORD: The free throw?

Q. You hit a layup that put you up by one?
JAYLEN BARFORD: Oh, that play. Just try to defend like I can, pressure the ball and just get steals, deflections whatever to get a loose ball. And Manny always in the right spot when I'm doing this. So that's what happened.

Q. Jaylen and Coach Anderson, what did you think of the Flagrant-1 there at the end?
JAYLEN BARFORD: I didn't know he was going to push me like that. I never felt like that. I was surprised he pushed me like that. But I don't know if he was trying to make a play on the ball or what, but it came in our favor. I knocked down two free throws, and it helped out a lot.

Q. How does it feel to win a game like that and advance? Because you have done a really good job in close games. Do you think that experience helped you guys a lot, Dusty or Jaylen or maybe both of you guys take that?
DUSTY HANNAHS: Yeah, I definitely think so. We've been in a lot of those this year. And I know the guys on the team last year, we lost a lot of close ones like that. So you live and you learn in situations like that. And I think we're built for close games like that.

You obviously don't want to be -- your dream is to win them comfortably. But when it's a grinding, a two-point game, I think that's where we're at our best.

JAYLEN BARFORD: I think so as well. I think we don't have no pressure as a team. We seen them go up by I think eight. We wasn't worried because we knew we were going to come back and make a run. I think having close games like that it's good for us.

Q. Moses, as great as your game was today, how big was it the play of Dustin Thomas?
MOSES KINGSLEY: It was big. It was huge. He knocked down a few wide-open shots which we needed because the bigs weren't coming out to guard him. We needed him to stretch the floor and make good baskets. He was good on the defense. So he played very, very great, and also in the game to help us get this win.

Q. Moses a lot of people will talk about the win. You got the block with about 18 minutes left in the game. The guy goes in for a dunk, you put him on his backside. What did you see and what did you make after that?
MOSES KINGSLEY: Coach said you've got to protect the paint. That's what I tried to do today. They told me -- because sometimes my guards are going to get beat I've got to be the last line of defense, and I can't give up anything easy. That's what I tried to do, go after the ball and I'm very glad I got the block.

Q. Jaylen and Dusty, what did you guys think of Moses' game today on both ends because he had a lot of blocks, lot of points?
JAYLEN BARFORD: I think he had an outstanding game, honestly, blocking shots. I think when he got the block, he was about to dunk, that was the turning point for us because they were up five and he helped us a whole lot to get back the momentum that we needed. But just protecting the rim and just getting buckets after buckets, doing what we do best, honestly.

DUSTY HANNAHS: I've played with Moses since tenth grade, and he's just grown as a player every year that I've ever been around him. And now it's almost Peak Moses, and I'm glad that the world got to see him. It's fun to play with him and on that defensive end you better come in there strong or it's going to get whipped right back out there.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach.

Q. Carrington, great player, you guys forced turnovers on back-to-back possessions after you were down by one. How big were those defensive plays? And what did you think of Jaylen's play? He knocks it away and then he gets the go-ahead bucket on the other end.
COACH ANDERSON: Actually, he was playing terrible defense, that matador defense I tell him he plays. But he was in the right place at the right time in terms of Jaylen.

He drove the ball behind him and Jaylen was able to deflect it from behind and I thought it was a big play, especially when we had just went down one point, missed a free throw and I think they got a layup on the other end.

But what was your other question at the beginning?

Q. Just you forced Carrington, a really good player into back-to-back turnovers?
COACH ANDERSON: I thought our defense got dialed in right there at the end. We put Manuale out there and we had I think Dusty off the floor. And we had a nice group out there, had a nice rhythm.

They were locked in. I mean coming off the screen, I thought Moses came up there one time and we doubled up on them.

I thought our guys -- I thought fatigue was a factor in this game. Sometimes fatigue happens, your decision-making is not as quick. Early in the game they were attacking us, getting to the basket, whipping that ball around.

But as the game went on, they kind of slowed down all those decisions. So I would like to think that was part of it as well as our guys were they were in that moment. And they made plays defensively.

Q. When your team when they were on the 9-0 run you called timeout. I was curious what you shared with your kids because I know it was two 3-pointers and an and-one that got them to nine-point run. What did you say to your kids to get them to bounce back the way they did?
COACH ANDERSON: I thought, 1 we had to settle down and get back to doing what. In the first half it was even, a close game. We were guarding, we were defending, and I thought we lost our composure, I really did.

I always say you're going to win championships or you win games with defense. I thought we went offensive-minded. We started trying to do it individually. So I told our guys that's not who we are.

And I think once we did that and we got some baskets we went right inside to Moses, we went into the bell cow and he made buckets, got to the free-throw line. And now we get Delgado in foul trouble. So it was an effort of really let's establish inside.

And it's amazing how that opens up the outside and then now you get to the free-throw line. We thought we could go off the dribble on those guys, and it really came in hand during those times when they went up that we were on the run. It's a game of runs. So we had to run to come back at them.

Q. There seems to be consensus people who've seen the replay of the flagrant foul, that was a borderline call. I'm curious what did you see when you saw it, and what were your thoughts on a call like that, a turning point in the game that was so close?
COACH ANDERSON: I thought it was no play on the ball. That's as simple as that. There was no play on the ball. He pushed the guy down. You saw it. I saw it. I mean, what's borderline when you say, you know what, he didn't play on the ball. So we've had some like that take place, too.

So it just came at a bad time, probably the right time for us. But I just didn't think there was a play on the ball.

Q. You got some great play out of Dustin Thomas today. Just talk about his minutes and what he added to the game?
COACH ANDERSON: That was probably start to finish Dustin Thomas's best game as a Razorback. It was needed, because their defensive scheme was to stack, was packing in there and guard Moses and leave that forward open.

And so he knocked down some shots. I thought he was active defensively. On switches he was guarding guards. He looked like he was real confident. And that's the most minutes he's played, the most minutes he's played this year.

So it was productive and it was much needed. We're the ultimate team. You've got to have somebody, somebody to step up for you, and we had four guys in double figures. And you look at the bench, seven points off our bench. That's very rare. But the beauty of that is now the starters, we have four starters that all scored. They scored in double figures.

Q. You guys had an advantage in turnovers, points off of turnovers. What was one of the keys of you guys being able to get out get on an early run off of turnovers?
COACH ANDERSON: It's funny, because in the first half we only got two points off turnovers. I think we missed about five layup opportunities, whether we charged or not make the right decision or they make a great play and block it.

And I thought in the second half we made, once we sped them up or turned them over, I thought we made better decisions with the basketball. We're a team, a second half team. You don't know when it's going to come, those runs are going to come those turnovers are going to come.

And today we needed that. We had 12 steals. We needed it because they were just attacking us on the glass, 21 offensive rebounds. You don't win those kind of games unless -- you've got to change the possession game some kind of way, and I think that was the difference in the game today. We utilized those turnovers and scored off of them.

Q. You mentioned the rebounds there, Coach. We talked about it all week, you needed to control yourself on the glass. Did you ever imagine a game you could win being minus-14 in that category?
COACH ANDERSON: We've done it before. It's not something I marvel at, but we've done it before. We've got to get better at it, as we continue to move in this tournament, we've got to get much, much better at it.

But you've got to remember Seton Hall, that's what they do. They put it up there and go get it. When you've got Delgado, we paid a whole lot of attention to him. So now when you've got other guys that are getting rebounds for them. So we've got to get better at that.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.

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