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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2008Shan FosterA.J. OgilvyKevin StallingsATLANTA, GEORGIA THE MODERATOR: We'll ask Coach for some overall thoughts on the game, then we'll go to the student athletes for question and answers. Then they'll return to the locker room and we'll finish up with Coach. COACH STALLINGS: Well, it's always an interesting game when you play Auburn because there are challenges, and obviously there are challenges for them, too, and we were able to utilize our advantages I thought today, namely these two guys here, and especially A.J. I thought our team did a great job of moving the ball and being patient with it and getting it inside. We really kind of made an emphasis on not taking, at least with some guys, not taking quick threes early in the clock and being more patient and trying to get the ball to A.J. as much as we could. I thought our guys really bought into the game plan and executed it very well. So that was really kind of the difference in the game. We were able to get Prowell in foul trouble and he's a very good player, obviously having to play out of position, and when we were able to get him in foul trouble, even though it caused us problems defensively because now they had five -- really had five guards in the game, still, we had enough advantages on the offensive end that we were able to kind of hold our own. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Shan and A.J.? Q. Shan, you always seem ready to shoot the ball when you get it, but when you were getting ready to shoot you were just open more than somebody would have expected in a game like this. You had some pretty good looks there. Were you surprised by that? SHAN FOSTER: Definitely. I haven't gotten many open shots this year, but we knew that they were going to come out and play a lot of different zones, so if we got the ball moving and moved ourselves a little bit, then we would get open shots as a team. My teammates did a great job of finding me when I was open and I was able to knock down a few shots. Q. Talk about the rematch with Arkansas. Obviously a real tight game in Fayetteville. Talk about losing to Arkansas four in a row. I know you guys have won a lot of games the past couple years, and I would think you would want to make up for that? SHAN FOSTER: Well, they're a great team and they're definitely well-coached. I think they have one of the biggest big men in this league, and they do a good job of pressuring and doing a lot of different things. Unfortunately we haven't had great success against them, but we look forward to a great game tomorrow. We know they're going to be amped up and ready to play, and we will, too. A.J. OGILVY: Really looking forward to coming out and having a good game tomorrow. Obviously the game didn't end the way we wanted it to in Fayetteville, but they're a good team and it'll be a great contest. Q. How much of an advantage did you sense you had today inside against a team that's probably the smallest in the league? Did you sense you were going to be able to have your way in there today? A.J. OGILVY: I don't know if I had my way. As soon as we came out I had a couple good looks and I was in pretty good position. Prowell got into foul trouble, they had some issues trying to get good players in there, and my teammates did a good job of getting the ball to me in easy scoring position, so that was the biggest asset. Q. What part of your game has improved the most this year? What was the most difficult transition you had to make to American College basketball? A.J. OGILVY: I think definitely my defense I think has improved the most. Obviously coming over here and playing against more agile and more athletic players, I had to learn to move my feet better and to play in the college system I obviously have to be a pretty good defender, so I obviously had to improve that a lot. Q. For both of you guys, did you feel like Auburn would wear down or that they did wear down? Obviously you knew their numbers situation. It looked like you guys went on like a 10-0 run there midway through the second half. Did you kind of feel like maybe fatigue started to set in for them right then? A.J. OGILVY: Down the stretch they were still making a lot of plays, and it was a game that came down to the last few minutes. We knew if we were able to get them into a close game, we're pretty good at finishing out games, that hopefully we would come out so tried to wear them down, and I don't know if they got fatigued or not but, went on a couple of good runs and we were able to come away with a win. SHAN FOSTER: Just to piggy back on what A.J. said, I'm not sure if they wore down. They came out the second half, especially late, and made a lot of shots, made a lot of contested shots, made big plays. Just felt like we had a few advantages and we were able to execute. Q. This question is for A.J. I think Jeff Lebo compared -- he said watching them go against you reminded him of watching him take his six-year-old kid to the hole. Liken or compare that to what you'll be seeing, Arkansas has got five guys 6'8" or taller? A.J. OGILVY: It's obviously a very different game playing against guys a little bit shorter, but they were obviously really athletic and able to get around the post really well. There was a lot more swiveling and stuff like that involved. Obviously Arkansas is going to be a bit of a different game, a lot more physical, and hopefully we just come out and play well against them. Q. You've talked all season about how tough you feel like you guys are to beat when both you guys have kind of got it going from the inside and outside. How encouraging was it for you today to come out and do that and just kind of have that inside-outside combination? You've got to feel pretty encouraged about getting the postseason started that way? SHAN FOSTER: Definitely. Definitely feel like we have an advantage inside with A.J. and the things that he's able to do and bring to our team. Whenever he's playing the way he did today the way he's capable of playing, then it makes it easy for a lot of other guys on this team to jump up and make shots. That was just a case of what happened today, and hopefully it'll be the case every time we play. THE MODERATOR: We'll excuse you. You can return to the locker room. Thank you very much. We will continue on with Coach Stallings. Q. How much grief do you anticipate giving A.J. for missing -- getting his only shot that he missed today blocked on a dunk? COACH STALLINGS: Well, there's no anticipation necessary. I already jumped him in the locker room and said I can't believe that you couldn't make all your shots. All you had to do was make one more dunk and you would have been 13 for 13 (laughter). He got a good laugh out of it, actually. It was kind of nice, nice to see him laugh. Q. Someone mentioned already, seemed like they were making shots, you were making shots until a point with about maybe ten minutes to go in the second half. You maybe turned up the defensive pressure a little bit and forced them into some sloppy play. What do you remember about that stretch? COACH STALLINGS: I think that we were able to get some stops and some rebounds, and our offense flowed pretty much the whole game. So when we were able to get stops, we were able to extend our lead, and then -- so we'd get them for a them and then they'd make shots for a them and we'd get them for a while and they'd make shots for a while. I thought offensively except for right at the start of the second half, I thought we had a pretty good flow the entire game. We're capable of being a good offensive team, and when our defense and our rebounding is good enough, then we usually have a chance to win. Q. What has A.J. improved the most? COACH STALLINGS: Actually when I leaned over to him, I think the question was what was the biggest transition. When we were walking from the locker room here, he said I can't believe how much media coverage there is for this. So I leaned over to him, and I said, don't say media," because he was talking as we were walking from the locker room to here about how this was really like the biggest difference to him he thought was just how much media exposure and things that there were. But anyway, what has he improved the most on? I think he's improved -- I was really surprised to hear him say defensively (laughter). I hope it's defense. I hope that's it. That's all I'll say. Q. Just wondering if you could talk about the rematch with Arkansas, getting them here on neutral floor as opposed to Fayetteville. COACH STALLINGS: The venue hasn't made that much difference. They've pretty much had their way with us. It doesn't matter, neutral floor or -- they beat us on our court last year, came here and beat us, they beat us on their court this year. They seem to play well against us and we seem to struggled with them. We'll see what happens tomorrow. We had a chance to win the game over in Fayetteville, and they just made a couple more plays at the end than we did. But took a pretty good shot from them over there because they shot the ball extremely well, so maybe we can induce them to miss a few shots tomorrow and give us a little better chance. But they were awfully good that day at their place. Q. When you say they've had their way with you, is there any particular reason that you would care to share in a public forum? COACH STALLINGS: They have good players. They have long, athletic, good players, and -- last year they were really a horrible match-up for us, and this year I don't feel like that the match-up is as bad. Last year I thought it was. They were one of the most difficult teams in the league for us to match up with last year. Anyway, we'll see what happens tomorrow. I wasn't -- we had a chance to win over there, and we know that. Knew that -- know we had a chance to win. We were in that game -- it was a one-point game with ten seconds to play or something, and we were there the whole day. We'll just see how it goes tomorrow. Q. When you get 27 out of A.J. and 26 out of Shan and just look at the way the offense operated today, is that as close to what you would have envisioned with the inside-outside tandem? COACH STALLINGS: Well, I thought that certainly when you look and A.J. is 12 for 13 and Shan is 9 for 14, the proficiency is awfully good. But I thought the key to that today was we really made an emphasis with our team not to take quick threes and make a few extra passes and see if could put the ball in A.J.'s hands. And I think as a result not only did A.J. touch it more but Shan touched it more. Our team bought into that, they did it, they executed it, and the best news was they did it with a smile on their face. I don't think we had guys out there resisting and thinking things that selfish players thing. I think that they embraced it and they got the ball where it needed to be, and as a result we had a very good offensive performance. Q. Just following up on that, has that been a problem here of late? COACH STALLINGS: Not a problem with the players, it's been a problem with the coaching. I have tolerated too many quick bad threes early in the clock from guys that don't make a high enough percentage to warrant that. You know, it will probably come as a great shock, I didn't put any restrictions on Shan (laughter). I told Shan if it feels round, you can shoot it (laughter). But other guys, need to make a couple extra passes. Now, did that, and we still had some guys step up and make shots later in the clock, which is exactly what I want. But as a result, A.J. gets a bunch of touches. And those touches are good for our team. The more touches he gets, the better off we play usually, or the better we play. Q. I've heard some coaches say in the quarterfinal game the team that won the day before and kind of got used to playing here has an advantage. Other coaches say, well, the team didn't have to play and is well-rested or better-rested has an advantage. Do you have any thoughts on that? COACH STALLINGS: Not particularly. I generally think that the team that plays the best has the advantage. That's kind of the way I look at it. That's -- I'm not trying to be evasive on the question, but I have no opinion on whether it's an advantage to play the day before or have the rest or whatever because you can go back through the history of the tournament and figure out the percentages, and probably the team that didn't play has won more games because they were the better seed and the better team, probably. Now, I don't have any statistical data to back that up, but I think what will happen tomorrow is if Arkansas plays better they'll win and if we play better we'll win. I think that's what will happen. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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