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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 10, 2011Reginald BucknerAndy KennedyChris WarrenATLANTA, GEORGIA SOUTH CAROLINA: 55 THE MODERATOR: We have Ole Miss. We'll start with an opening statement from Coach Kennedy. COACH KENNEDY: For us, I was proud of our guys. Great effort. Execution still lacks a little to be desired, but I thought the effort was tremendous, most especially defensively. And once we did a better job off of our defensive glass, I thought in the First half, their offensive rebounds, their length kept them in the game. We did a much better job in the second half. And when we didn't throw it directly to them, I thought that it really helped us be solid defensively, mixed in enough shots to have an opportunity to advance. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student-athletes. Q. Talk about the fast start in both halves and how that helped you today. COACH KENNEDY: We didn't really get to off to a fast start. We just got off, we shot well, which kept us in it until the whole team got together. And then in the second half, we didn't really get off to a good start because I believe we had, like, two or three straight turnovers. But we played defense and that's what helped us in it. Q. Can you talk about your senior year, winning a SEC tournament game for the first time. Don't get emotional on us, but how does it feel? CHRIS WARREN: Actual feels kind of regular. But we looking forward to Winning our next games. And it's just a regular game. We just got to win three more. Q. It seemed that every time they had an answer, you guys had a re-answer. Talk about some of the big shots you were able to hit to kind of stop some of their runs. CHRIS WARREN: I just got good looks. In the creases, if I can get by my man, it will be a two-on-one, and I either dish it off to Reggie or lay it up. Q. Chris, the three you hit to beat Kentucky, is that the biggest moment you've had at Ole Miss? CHRIS WARREN: Yeah, that I can remember. That was the last one, for sure. Q. Would you talk about the matchup tomorrow. CHRIS WARREN: Like I said earlier, I feel like we matchup really well, as far as our bigs against their bigs and our guards against their guards. Q. For Reginald, how did it feel to play almost a whole game and not be in foul trouble from start to finish? REGINALD BUCKNER: It felt good to play 34 minutes, the whole game, and then, man, I just felt good to not be in foul trouble. Q. Reggie along those lines, do you feel like there's something that you do differently in the games where you don't get the foul trouble as opposed to the games where you pick up a couple early and it forces you to be tentative? REGINALD BUCKNER: I mean not trying to block everything. Back in the other games, I was trying to block everything and playing with my hands forward. I just planned to jump straight up with my hands straight up. Q. Chris, a question about tomorrow. A minute ago your coach was talking about just what an almost home court advantage Kentucky provides even in this tournament. Can you talk about what you think it will be like out there tomorrow? CHRIS WARREN: Going to be a hostile crowd, but we played in front of many hostile crowds. Hopefully we'll use it to our advantage and we have a good game. Q. Now that you have this first win under your belt, can you talk about why you have the confidence that you can succeed and then take them one at a time, but that you can win this tournament? CHRIS WARREN: This game does give us momentum. I feel like if our team play to our potential, like we played good defense today, I think we remain consistent with that, we'll have a good shot at beating Kentucky. REGINALD BUCKNER: The first game always the hard game. And we got it out the way, and we feel confident. We're just going to go out there and play our game. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Coach Kennedy. Q. Twice they got within 14 points. The first time they got it to within four there. But in the second half, it seemed like ya'll kind of sustained it better and were able to kind of extend the lead out. Just talk about that. COACH KENNEDY: Well, we got up early just based on matchup. They, with Malik Cooke and Lakeem Jackson starting it on the wings for them, they were so big, we were going to have an impossible time of matching up. So we made the decision to zone them. And I thought it was very effective for us. They stayed in the game early off the offensive glass. I think they had 12 offensive rebounds. And once we shored that area up and limited our turnovers, I thought the zone was very effective for us. They scored The open floor, they scored on the offensive glass. They're a scrappy group, a group that plays hard. We knew they weren't going to go away. And for us, I thought we were more efficient versus their pressure down the stretch early. I thought we were tentative early. Not making the right reads in the second half, and as Chris said, started the half with a couple of turnovers, I thought that the latter part of the half when the lead got stretched again, we were much more efficient. Q. What's the hardest thing for Reginald to learn this year and last year? COACH KENNEDY: Ron, how much time do you have? We need to carry this, I mean, I don't want to, we got a game at 6:30. You kidding me (Laughter)? For him, it's just a matter of consistency. It's his approach. He needs to be consistent in his approach. I do think when gets early fouls, it happens to everybody. Even today, Dundrecous comes out and knocks down three or four shots, and we're thinking, Hey, let's ride this. And then he picks up two fouls. You have to get him out of the game. You have to calculate that. Obviously you would have the three fouls to give in the second half, anticipating a close contest, and if he picks up two early, with Reggie, it's hard for him to get in rhythm. For him, it really is all about the seven or eight minutes. If we can get him to that point with less than two fouls, he typically can remain on the floor at least in the high 20s. And when he's on the floor in the high 20s and we get the production out of him and Terrance, I'm looking 24 points, 19 rebounds, a couple of block. We have shown to be competitive with anybody when those guys produce. Q. You basically just answered my question. It was about when Reggie and Terrance play together well, just how much of a different team are you than you are when one or both of them are struggling? COACH KENNEDY: Well, I think we're like every team. South Carolina has got three or four guys that they need to play well. For us, it's no secret. Chris has to play, we've got to get some production off our wing, whether it Zach or Dundrecous or Nick or Trevor. And when you look at our front court, we have hitched our wagon to Terrance and Reggie. And when they produce like they did today, this team has shown very capable. I thought Terrance was really good late. Reggie gave us a presence at the baskets, which he typically does. And again, it was far from our best game, because offensively, I still think we leave a lot of points on the floor with some poor decisions. But I do think that having the opportunity to play in day one, if you can advance despite the minutes that they played, I think it's an advantage. Now we have a game under our belt in this building. I would think with that would come a sense of confidence. Q. I think I asked you this before, but how does Chris seem to have the knack of hitting a big shot at the right moment to sort of shift momentum. Are you ever surprised at that? COACH KENNEDY: No, we're constantly on the sidelines yelling for him to come back to the ball. He has to work so hard. People, there's a lot of scouting going on at this level, so when he gives the ball up, it's difficult for him to get it back. And at times, we think he gives in to that. We want the ball in his hands because all of our action typically runs through him. I thought tonight, once they got into their run and jump, which allowed them to get back in the game in the first half, when they went to the run and jump, we did much better jobs of moving the ball. And he happened to be on the back end as the recipient as opposed to the initiator, which he typically is. He has the ball, they run and jump, he gets it up. And once the ball is swung back, that's when he had rhythm shots. And I thought he stepped up and knocked down two huge ones in the second half as momentum was still in play. Who was going to gain momentum, and I think those shots shifted it towards us. Q. Could you talk about the matchup with Kentucky and also just about what you expect the atmosphere in here to be like. COACH KENNEDY: I said this a couple times, but it really is sadistic nature of coaches. I'm really looking forward to it. I think it's going to be a great opportunity for our kids, a great experience, and at the end of the day, that's what this is about. It's about creating an experience for these kids. And for us, we know there's nothing like Big Blue Nation. I was saying this before. I've lived in Birmingham, I played at UAB, coached at UAB, so I've experienced Alabama football fans. I lived in Cincinnati for five years, so I've seen Buckeye Nation. And for my money, nothing can touch Kentucky basketball fans. And I think you really get the opportunity to feel that when you're in the SEC tournament. And we're going to see it tomorrow, certainly a home court advantage for them, which I'm excited about. I think our kids are excited about it. It's going to be a trick atmosphere. We know the fact that we beat them, it seems like a lifetime ago, it really has not bearing whatsoever on tomorrow's game. They're a good basketball team. We're very, very familiar with their personnel. We're very, very familiar and respectful of their tradition. And we're just happy to have the opportunity to continue to play. Q. Where have you seen them grow as a team since that first game the most? COACH KENNEDY: I think it's amazing that Coach Calipari has not gotten more credit. When you lose, how many, five first round picks off last year's team, to be able to turn right back around and win, whatever they won, 22, 23, to finish second in the SEC East, which was a difficult side of a division as I can remember in my lifetime, and to do it really basically playing six guys, and three of those guys are brand new to this, it truly is a credit to him and to their team. He's got outstanding players. I got a lot of respect for Brandon Knight and Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb, who really was the X factor. He gets second-page scouting report by a lot of people, and he's the guy that really has a knack of scoring. So we realize what they're going to do, now it's just a matter of us going out and trying to stop it. Q. Several teams have beaten Kentucky this year, nobody's beaten them twice. Talk about the approach you'll take with your players. Can you treat this like any other game? Will you draw upon the experience, the positive experience you had with them earlier? COACH KENNEDY: We'll certainly try to show our team tonight some of the things that we did well in Game One. We'll also show some of the things that we're going to have to do better if we hope to duplicate the outcome. The one advantage I do think that we have is having the opportunity to play in the building. We have been in this building, we have had a little success now. Couple guys made a shot or two, dribbled the ball up-and-down. And with them being so young, it's their first experience in here. Now, granted, it's going to be like Rupp East, because obviously -- or west, would it be west? East? West? Where are we? South. South. Rupp South. They're going to have a lot of energy in the building. And I would dare to say that they would have the advantage in the crowd. But, you know, again, I think it's going to be a great opportunity for our kids and a great experience. So as crazy as it sounds, I'm looking forward to it. Q. Care to guess how many times Ole Miss has beaten Kentucky in the SEC tournament? COACH KENNEDY: Oh, I can. I would venture to put my money on zero. Yeah. Of course that could be with a lot of teams, Rick. Reach out on a limb on that one. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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