|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2008Mark GottfriedRichard HendrixMykal RileyATLANTA, GEORGIA THE MODERATOR: We are ready to begin with Alabama. We'll begin and ask Coach Gottfried for some opening comments on the Alabama team headed into the tournament, then we'll take questions just for the student athletes. COACH GOTTFRIED: Well, I think our players are excited about playing. I think that it's a new season. We've all talked about that. It was zero and zero, everybody is. I think the tournament is wide open. I think it always feels good to come over here after you've won your last game and you feel a little better than if you would have lost your last game, so we feel good about that. We played Florida earlier in the year and we had our hands full with them then. We've got a lot of respect for them. I think our guys are excited about being here. Q. How do you guys approach, I guess, the mental part of it, knowing you probably have to win four to obviously qualify for NCAA Tournament? How do you approach that mentally? MYKAL RILEY: I guess we just approach it like we do everything, just go in ready to win, ready to win the game. RICHARD HENDRIX: Approach it with confidence, with high hopes and plans to win, win every game and win the tournament. Hopefully we can still fulfill our goals that we set. Q. Does it bother you all that a lot of teams or a lot of so-called basketball experts saying you really don't have a chance in this tournament to even make it to the NCAA? How do you approach that? MYKAL RILEY: No, it doesn't bother us at all. We know we can win, we know we can beat everybody in the league, so it doesn't bother us at all. RICHARD HENDRIX: We just have to take the approach of everybody is writing us off. We have to come together, and as long as we believe that's all that matters to us. Q. Richard, how are you physically? How's the knee? RICHARD HENDRIX: I'm ready to go. I'm ready to play hard, ready to move, ready to give it all I've got, ready to win. Q. What do you remember from the last Florida game? Was that kind of like maybe a negative turning point in the season for you guys? What do you kind of remember from that? RICHARD HENDRIX: I remember it's been a while. We were playing a pretty good game up until a certain point and then they made a good run and we weren't able to respond. We just have to stay consistent throughout the whole game, and we know that we can play with them, just stay focused for the whole 40 minutes. MYKAL RILEY: I don't remember much about it, I just remember, like he said, it just came to a point in time in the game where we made a couple mistakes and they capitalized, and we're going to have to fix that this time. Q. Can you both you guys talk like X's and O's kind of challenges you face or kind you how you face up against Florida after watching film? RICHARD HENDRIX: We know they're a pretty good outside-shooting team and have good post play down low. We just have to be prepared to guard their offense correctly and just be alert on defense and execute what we have to do on our offensive end. If we do that and just play hard and play with a lot of confidence, then we shouldn't -- we should be ready. MYKAL RILEY: Well, they have, like he said, shooters and good post play, but also we have good shooters, guys with post play, too. I think we match up real evenly with them. THE MODERATOR: Fellows, we'll excuse you. You can return to the locker room. Thank you for coming down. We'll continue on with questions for Coach. Q. It's no secret Florida has had some trouble with inside games against State and teams like that. How do you approach that with Hendrix being one of the most physical players in the league? COACH GOTTFRIED: With our team, I think Richard is a focal point obviously. You look at his numbers, and we like to go to him. I think in the last four or five games he maybe hasn't had as much production offensively as some of the others, but I still think with our team, that's where we like to go. Now, we've got other players obviously that can score, so we're not going to change a whole lot of things. Obviously he's going to be a focal part of what we do, Richard is. Q. Florida, nobody has beaten Florida in the postseason, I guess, going on three years now, and obviously this team is configured differently than most teams, but does that carry over for a program, and is that a consideration for tomorrow? COACH GOTTFRIED: I think it does. I think that you've got a lot of players that have been a part of it, been a part of the success they've had the past couple years. I think there's an expectation level that kind of comes with the territory, even for the younger guys. They're stepping in here, and they know that Florida has had great success. They want to continue that tradition obviously and continue that success. So I think that's something for them that's got to be a good feeling, I think, for those guys. I think from our perspective, I don't know that our players care one way or another. I think they're just ready to play. If it was Florida or somebody else, I think they're just excited about having a chance to get over here and play. Q. You talked about the excitement of a new season. Has this year been one of the more challenging for you mentally, just, I guess, compared to all your other years at Alabama? COACH GOTTFRIED: There's no question it's been a challenging year. You know, obviously our record is not anywhere where we want it to be. We've had to overcome some obstacles, and sometimes we have and a lot of times we haven't. Our kids have played hard. They've never laid down. I think even later here in the year we've played pretty well, maybe better than we played in the middle of the year, and that's a good sign that your team is continuing to fight and continuing to battle. But it's been a tough one. It's hard. You never anticipate going through a year like we've had, so you've just got to find a way to improve and get better. Q. If there was ever discussion about abolishing divisional play, like maybe the ACC does, how would you stand on that? COACH GOTTFRIED: I wouldn't like it. I think with 12 teams it's the way to play. You've got to remember, I was a player in the ten-team round-robin true champion, back the way we used to play it where everybody played everybody twice. But I think with 12 teams, I think that the way that we do it is the right way. I think it's the best way. So I would say as long as we have 12 teams, I think the way we're doing it is correct. Q. You guys had I think it was maybe a ten-point lead in the first game near the end of the first half, the first game of the SEC season. Do you ever wonder if you won that game how the rest of the season would have played out? COACH GOTTFRIED: No, I hadn't thought about it like that. I think that was a game, though, we didn't finish the first half very well and didn't start the second half very well. But at that time I think Florida jumped out -- that was their first one, then they went out and went 5 and 1. They were playing at a high level, too. It's just one game. We talk about that throughout the year. Looking back on it, maybe if you do win it, things -- maybe a little bit different here and there, but I don't know if it affects you that much. Q. How do you approach it mentally knowing you've got to win four to go to the NCAA? COACH GOTTFRIED: Well, our guys understand it. We packed suitcases to be here until Sunday. I told them I brought four suits. They all packed a lot of underwear and a lot of socks, and we plan on being here. But you've got to win one game at a time to do it. We know that and they know that. But again, that's the beauty of postseason play and conference tournaments is that everybody has a chance. That's why they exist. They exist so that everybody gets a chance to have a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament, so that's the way we're approaching it. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|