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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2012Anthony GrantJaMychal GreenAndrew SteeleNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA CLAUDE FELTON: We're ready to take thoughts from coach. And then we'll take questions for the two student‑athletes. COACH GRANT: First of all, we're excited to be here in the city of New Orleans and looking forward to this year's SEC tournament. I think for our team, obviously having a chance to compete for a championship is something that we have talked about a great deal and are looking forward to the challenge that this year's tournament will bring. Obviously playing a South Carolina team that beat us in our only game that we played against each other earlier during the year, so very familiar with them as a team. And certainly when you look at them as a team, what's impressive is how hard they play and the things that they do both offensively and defensively that we have to be prepared for. So obviously we look forward to the challenge and just are excited to have an opportunity to compete for a championship. CLAUDE FELTON: We'll take questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Andrew, I want to ask you about the revenge factor, is there such a thing, as a player? They beat you, they finished last in the league, do you feel like you have something to prove and revenge is a motivator? ANDREW STEELE: I don't think we necessarily have something to prove. Obviously we want to get them back since they beat us when we played them, but I think we're more focused on us and what we can do to improve as a team. Q. Outside of Kentucky, which obviously went 16‑0, does it kind of feel like this year that the SEC, South Carolina beat y'all, it's just kind of jumbled, anything can happen. What are these games like? Because it seems like there's a lot of parity in the league outside of Kentucky. JaMYCHAL GREEN: You got to come prepared every night, and when we went to South Carolina, we weren't prepared, they made the us play and just had more energy than we did. In this league anybody can win. There's been a lot of upsets, so you just got to come prepared. ANDREW STEELE: Any given night in this league no matter where you play, you can lose to anybody, and I think that was a lesson that we learned. Especially us having so many young guys, I think it was a hard lesson we learned, but hopefully we can kind of turn it into a positive when we play them again this next time. Q. Playing in a basketball arena versus playing in a dome like last year, from a shooter's standpoint, from a playing stand point, is that better for you guys, do you enjoy that more than playing in a dome? JaMYCHAL GREEN: I really don't know the difference. The game always comes down to between the lines and it's a 40‑minute game. So it's just how you come to the dome or arena, with your mindset, and just got to be ready to play wherever the gym is. ANDREW STEELE: I think once the game starts, you kind of put it all in the back of your mind and you focus on the game plan that you prepared and what it takes on the court to win. Everything else kind of factors itself out. Q. Generally in these early round games, there isn't a lot of juice in the Arena. As a player, I know you guys oftentimes talk about how you feed off the crowd. Is it hard in a situation where there's not a lot of fans in the Arena, not a lot of noise, not a lot of electricity to find that juice? JaMYCHAL GREEN: At times it is, but like Coach Grant's been telling us this past week, we just got to come out with our own energy and just come out ready to play. It's different than playing at home because you can feed off your crowd, off your fans, and they will be a part of the game. But we're just going to rely on ourselves and just bring our own energy. ANDREW STEELE: A lot of things he said are true, but I think that like coach has told us, we got to bring our own passion and enthusiasm in. And I think at this point, once you get in the post season, the thought of playing for a championship should excite you and I think that should be motivation to come out and play hard. CLAUDE FELTON:  We'll excuse the student‑athletes and take questions for coach. Q. I know most basketball teams have had some sort of issues or turmoil throughout the year, but you guys obviously had more than your fair share for about a month there. Looking back on it, do you think it's something that makes this team more dangerous or anything? Just what do you think has been the kind of end result of all that and all these guys coming back? COACH GRANT: I think every year you have different types of adversity that you face. So we're in the middle of it. So for me to reflect back and say what the end result will be, I don't know. I think for us it's a day‑by‑day challenge, opportunity, to try to make sure that we're as prepared as we can be for what's in front of us. So right now the challenge is South Carolina, the South Carolina team that played very well against us, so we have got to try to counter that here in this next game and put ourselves in position to win. So to reflect on the big picture, I'm probably not in a position to do that, because we're still in the middle of it. Q. Do you have to caution your players against looking at this as ‑‑ when you're playing on Thursday, as a four‑night event rather than just focusing on the one game? COACH GRANT: Our whole thing all year has been to focus on today, so I would hope that our guys understand that. That's not something that we have tried to talk about. The thing that we have talked about is we're promised one game. And what happens from there, it's based on the results of that one game. So that's all we have right now is one game. Q. We're all thinking about bubbles and NCAA this time of year, did the message you got from last year for being left out of the tournament, was it to go beef up the schedule, and just what do you think about where you guys are right now going into this week? COACH GRANT: I think we have one game right now that we're guaranteed, so our focus is on South Carolina and trying to prepare as best we can. And in answer to last year, yeah, I do think that when you look at what we did in the league last year, compared to what we did in the non‑conference, certainly affected the opportunities we had in the post season. So, yeah, we made a conscious effort to try to see if we were in a position similar to what we were last year that maybe we would have a different outcome. What happens there, I have no idea. All I know is right now we have got one game that we know we're going to play. Outside of that, everything else is an unknown, so we got to focus on today. Q. Your assessment of the four freshmen that have played a lot this year, Jacobs, Cooper, Lacey, and Levi Randolph, how do you feel like they developed and what do they need to continue to improve on going forward? COACH GRANT: I think all those guys obviously have contributed in a variety of ways to our team. I think all four of them at some point in the year have started probably multiple games for us, so I think they have got great experience, I think probably ‑‑ we, as a team, I think have had ‑‑ probably everybody on our team that's gotten minutes has in some way contributed to success over the course of the year. Whether it's scoring, rebounding, blocking shots, or making a play, that doesn't show up in a stat sheet for us to win. I think our freshmen have been a big part of that. I think probably the biggest thing for them is to develop that consistency and maturity that you want to see in really all your guys, but particularly the younger guys, beginning to understand in terms of what's needed on a daily basis, in terms of the energy, the passion, the execution, the things that they really at the end of the day will help or hurt you in terms of your chances of winning. Q. You talk about the singular focus, one game, one day at a time, not looking ahead or anything, how much do you think that helped your players get through some of these tough times with guys being out? COACH GRANT: That's a good question. I don't know how to answer that question, to be honest with you. Because that's just‑‑ that's the reality. That's really what it is. That you got to be able to control what you can control. You can't control the past or the future, the only thing you can control is what you do today.  How you respond to the situation that you're put in. So I think our guys, I said this earlier, when some of this talk was brought up when we were going in the middle of it, obviously we have been out of that situation for a couple of weeks now, so it's in the past for us, but in response to your question, I think our guys have shown an ability to move on and to worry about the things that they can control in terms of today. So that was two or three weeks ago and has no bearing on where we are right now as a team. We have moved on. So we're living in today, and the focus today is we have got a very tough challenge in front of us with South Carolina. So that's where our focus is. Q. Last year there was a real sense of urgency as you came into this tournament because of the bubble factor. This year, most of the people who predict such things, and they're actually pretty good at it, say that you're pretty much a sure thing for the NCAA tournament. Is there that same sense of urgency or do you have to work harder with your team to make sure that they have that? COACH GRANT: I don't know if I understand your question completely. You're asking me if? Q. Last year you had to ‑‑ coming into the SEC tournament, there was a feeling that you really had to do well, win, two, three games in this tournament to make the NCAA tournament. This year there doesn't seem to be that feeling, that regardless of what you do in this tournament, you're going to be in the NCAA tournament. So I'm asking you if there is that same sense of urgency that maybe was there last year? COACH GRANT: You live in the present. Right now, we got an opportunity to win a SEC championship if we can win the game in front of us and take it one game at a time. So, yeah, I would hope any time you put a championship on the line, any time you compete, that you're competing to win. So yeah, that's ‑‑ yeah. My thought is, yeah, we're trying to win. CLAUDE FELTON: All right thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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