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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2011Zach GrahamAndy KennedyChris WarrenATLANTA, GEORGIA OLE MISS: 66 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Ole Miss. We'll start with an opening statement from Coach Kennedy. COACH KENNEDY: I thought the effort was certainly good enough for us to have the opportunity to advance. Execution failed us a bit. To beat Kentucky you have to make plays. We had opportunities, guys continued to battle, really proud of the effort. Execution failed us. THE MODERATOR: Take questions for the student-athletes. Q. Can you talk about their job on defense against you? It looked like you had some open looks at times, but more often than not you were fighting through a lot of stuff? CHRIS WARREN: I thought they played well defensively. That's all I can really say. Q. Chris, it seemed like it was battle for awhile early. Seemed like you could never really get into a rhythm. Was it a struggle out there for you, especially when the shots weren't falling early? CHRIS WARREN: No, I just passed up a couple shots. I should have shot them. They played good, like I said earlier. Q. Zach, it looked like early on they really wanted to go in toward the post and get the bigs in foul trouble. What was it like defensively early in the early stages there for you guys? ZACH GRAHAM: I don't know. I know Reggie and Terrance, you get them into foul trouble and we have to go into our bench and we're not as strong. But I think that they were successful at what their game plan was. THE MODERATOR: Okay. We'll take questions for coach. Q. The same question I asked Chris, what were your thoughts as a coach on what they did with him, at least to limit him early? COACH KENNEDY: They guarded him with size. DeAndre Liggins, who is on the all defensive teams which means he's obviously one of the best defenders in our league, he's strong, he's 6'6", 6'7", got great length, and the length bothered him. We tried to put Chris in space, and in space, he was much more effective in the second half. And as I talked yesterday, I thought that there's a little bit of an advantage for playing the first day, obviously, if you advance, because you've got some familiarity with your surroundings. The downside is, I had to play him 40 minutes last night and he played 39 tonight. If you noticed all of the shots that Liggins didn't get to because of his length, they all finished short, and I was cognizant of that. But our best chance to win is with 12 on the floor. So every time I asked him, I wanted to take him out, he didn't want to come out. He's earned that right. And 79 minutes over a 24-hour period, that's a lot to ask. I thought our kids really battled and put ourselves in a position, a bounce here, a bounce there, a big shot. I wanted to make them play from behind a little bit down the stretch and we were just never able to do that and put real game pressure on them. Q. There was a 3-point game with about three minutes left and Chris had two pretty good looks? COACH KENNEDY: We do some stuff with video at half, and I got a good staff that works hard and we were able to review a lot of things. And I told our guys, I would take the same shots that we had in the first half in the second half. And I think we got them for the most part. We don't have a real low post presence. I thought Terrance did tremendous for us of getting us some baskets around the rim. Reggie was nonexistent with the early fouls and wasn't able to do much at the basket. So we're trying to slash and create off the bounce. We put pressure on the paint, but we do it off the dribble - much like what Kentucky does. And penetration was there. Kentucky does a very good job of swarming the ball. We had some penetrate and pitches and rhythm shots that if you want to beat Kentucky, you got to make. I also thought that we went one for six from the free throw line over about a four-minute stretch, including a couple of front ends, which kill you. You can't do that. You just leave opportunities on the floor. Q. What do you think the difference was for Kentucky and what got them ahead and kept them ahead? COACH KENNEDY: Really just play-making. I thought both teams were really battling. It looked as if there was a stretch, I think we were down 12 points - as a matter of fact, we were down 12 with about 14, 15 to play, and it could have easily gotten away from us. Our guys continued to battle and dig, and it was really a one- or two-possession game to the end. And give them credit, the same shots that were just alluded to, we weren't able knock down. And Brandon Knight, I thought, came off a ball screen, knocked down a 17-footer. The next trip down, puts pressure on rim, gets to the foul line, makes two. He's the one guy on their team you don't want to foul at the end, but unfortunately, he always had the ball. And I'm sure that was their game plan and he iced it from the free throw line. Q. Talk about where you think the program is. Certainly looks like a NIT berth. How do you feel about the future? COACH KENNEDY: I don't know. Obviously when you don't have any more games, the control is out of your hand. I do think this team is worthy of having the opportunity to participate in post season. It most assuredly won't be the one that we would have hoped for when we started this thing back in August. But this team deserves to have the opportunity to continue to play. A 100 out of 347 get that opportunity, and if we do, I'm sure our guys will be excited about it. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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