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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2012Tony BarbeeKenny GabrielFrankie SullivanNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA CLAUDE FELTON: We're joined by Coach Barbee and student‑athletes Kenny Gabriel and Frankie Sullivan from Auburn. We'll start with an opening statement from Coach Barbee. COACH BARBEE: We're excited to at least have one more game left in our season, although we're not as excited about the opponent. Ole Miss is a fantastic team. They're as big and as physical as any team in this league. Even though we matched up fairly well with them in both games this year, they were both games down to the wire, and so I wouldn't expect anything less tomorrow. So just look forward for the opportunity to compete tomorrow. CLAUDE FELTON: We'll take your questions for the student‑athletes. Q. For both of you, what do you remember about the first two Ole Miss games and how do you think y'all matchup in the tournament? KENNY GABRIEL: We know that they're a real physical team. They like to offensive rebound, so we got to keep them off the offensive rebound and not let them get a second and third chance off just one shot. So we just have to rebound the ball defensively. FRANKIE SULLIVAN: Basically the same thing, and also us playing good defense on the guard play helping the bigs out and not letting them post the ball real easy and helping them rebound. That's going to be a very big part with us. I think every guard should come up with, like, five rebounds in this game to help the bigs out. Q. Specifically for both of you, what kind of challenge does Murphy Holloway represent? I think it was against you guys in the second half when he just got going and scored 12 straight and really changed the game there in Oxford. KENNY GABRIEL: He's a big part of that team. Because he gets to the offensive rebound, gets offensive rebounds real easy if you let him. And he just motivates their team. If gets going, he's just like an energy guy. Once he's going, the whole team gets going. So we just need to keep him off the offensive rebound and to just play him physical and limit his offensive rebounds so they won't get going offensively. FRANKIE SULLIVAN: Keep a body on him at all times. That's basically the big deal with him. And he's also a great scorer. He's got a knack for getting to the ball. Even if it's not his play, he'll go offensive rebound from the weak side. We got to keep a body on him, not one guy, but two or three guys, because he's very strong and physical. CLAUDE FELTON: We'll excuse you. You can return to the locker room. Thank you very much. And we'll continue with questions for coach. Q. More of an issue question, I guess, but with the first year going through the entire no‑division in basketball and that's kind of affected the seeding, is there a sense of whether this is a better system without the divisions or whether coaches prefer it the old way with the two divisions? COACH BARBEE: Well, I wasn't‑‑ I was here for one year of the divisions, so can't really speak from an historical perspective. But time will tell by next Sunday whether what we thought was a perception about the league being really two separate leagues as opposed to just one league, the SEC, will tell on this coming Sunday whether it was ‑‑ Selection Sunday, we'll see if it is. It will have given us a better opportunity to get more teams in the tournament. That was the bottom line, why we did it. We thought there was a perception issue with the league being two different conferences and so we'll tell on Sunday whether there's been a change or not. Q. Could you address Murphy Holloway also, and what you saw in him in that second half that just kind of enabled him to get going like that and what you guys have to do to prevent that. COACH BARBEE: He seems to be‑‑ he's a fantastic player. He presents so many different challenges because he's a small forward in a power forward's body. And he's rough and rugged, but yet he's skilled in that he can shoot the ball 15, 16 feet. He can put it on the floor like a guard and drive you, and he can rough you up and score in the post. But that's not all. What he really does well is offensive rebounding. So we're going to have our hands full with not just him with their entire front line, and I think that mixing up the defenses, changing the defenses is in our two matchups has kept them off balance. But the biggest thing is when we are in our zone, that's really where he got going in Oxford and in that second game when he had like his own personal 12‑0 run himself. He was able to corral a lot of offensive rebounds against our zone. So even in our zone we're going to have to find him, put a body on him and keep him off the glass. Q. Aside from obviously a win, what are you looking for for this game from your players, knowing that maybe this could be the last game of the season? Is there anything you're stressing more so than not hitting those offensive lulls or anything like that? COACH BARBEE: No, just enjoy the moment. I want the guys to play loose, I want them to play relaxed, I want them to play fun. There's no pressure on us and the biggest thing this time of the year is, I don't think any coach in that three‑ or four‑day window we've had from the last regular season game to this game tomorrow is going to try to re‑invent their whole system. You are what you are this time of the year. Tomorrow's game for not just us, but all the games with all the matchups tomorrow, is going to be about who can do what they do better than their opponent can do. So we're going to try to really defend and play tough, we're going to try to be as efficient as we can possible on the offensive end of the floor, and take care of the ball and not turn it over. And if we can do that, those three things, then I like our chances tomorrow. Q. Kind of a peripheral question here, I'm covering Tennessee. Jarnell Stokes is a guy Coach Kennedy talked about and Coach Stansbury talked about what he's meant to Tennessee. Obviously you saw him, can you comment on what he's been able to do as a high school player coming into the SEC this year? COACH BARBEE: Well, it speaks to two things. It speaks to his level of talent, obviously a highly rated kid. And then it also speaks to Cuonzo's ability to prepare him in a short period of time. Because that's a hard transition. I mean for any high school kid, I don't care how talented you are, it's a different level. And especially in the SEC, for him to be able to come in midseason, have the kind of impact that he had and really helping change the direction of Tennessee's season, it was amazing to watch. And a kid that I've known for a long time, just happy for his success. And hopefully we don't have to play him again this year because he was a nightmare to handle the first time around. Q. I know Jelan Kendrick came on for them kind of second half of the season. Can you talk about how it changes things with how they're different without him and with your own situation with Varez Ward, how does that change your playing rotation? COACH BARBEE: Well, it hurts their depth in the back, in their back court rotation, but they have got capable guys of stepping in. It puts more of a burden on Summers to do more, but he's shown the ability to handle that. And where White hadn't had to play really the one all year long, he's kind of forced into that role. But it's just like Tony Neysmith for us, when we lost Ward. He's a guy who played a lot of back‑up one for us last year, so he was ready for his opportunity when the opportunity became available and he stepped up to the challenge. Q. You obviously stepped into a rebuilding situation. I'm just curious about how you feel it's progressing as you're winding down your second season, if the season has kind of met your expectations? COACH BARBEE: Well, not my personal expectations. I don't see a game on our schedule that we're going to lose when it first comes out. And so my personal expectations obviously not. But at the same time, given what ‑‑ if I was a first‑time head coach going through this, then might be a little frustrated. But having gone through it at UTEP, very similar situation's taking over and having to rebuild from scratch, there's a different kind of patience and a perspective that I have, having gone through it one time. So as frustrated as I could be, I also look back knowing, yeah, there's some hard times and when you're trying to grow a program, and in your own image and personality and your own style, there is some growing pains that come with the growing. And that's just what we're experiencing now. We had some unfortunate injuries this year. Not to make excuses, but we have got three starters who are out right now for us. So with that, proud of the way the guys fought all year long. We're a team that struggles a little bit offensively, but I think we're as gritty and as rough and rugged as any team in the conference. And that, for me, and in these first couple years, has been the biggest part is about laying that foundation. And so year two, we have taken another step in the positive direction. We won four more games than we won all of last year, we won one more league game than we did last year, and we gave ourselves a chance. We had three or four other overtime games that could have went either direction. So we're five‑win team in the league, but easily could have been an eight or nine win team in the league. So proud of the progress we have made. And the best thing is here in the conference tournament, it's not over. Throw the league records out the window, nothing else matters. It's the team that's excited about playing, excited about being here and wanting to extend their season. And if a team can get hot, anything can happen. Q. Chris Denson did it last year, where he came on toward the end of the year and had a pretty good first game of the tournament even though you guys lost. Is this a scenario where players can step up and make a name for themselves and put a team on their back? Do you guys have any of those players? COACH BARBEE: I think the comparisons is Willy Kouassi. It's a very similar deal. Chris was under‑prepared to compete at this level last year initially, and it took him a while. And I wasn't going to put him on the floor until he could help us and that he could really show what he could do at his highest level. And over the last three to four weeks of last year's season, he really came on and had his best game in that final game against Georgia in the conference tournament. Very similar to Willie. Willie's only been playing basketball for two or three years, so he's a kid that even though he was probably frustrated, as frustrated as I was as well, there was also a patience that I kept on him about that he had to have knowing, yeah, you want to play and get all these minutes, but that I was not going to put him out there until he was ready to play at his best. And he got some minutes here and there, but over the last two or three weeks, there's been awakening with Willie in practice. And that's why you've seen over these last two or three games, he's played the most minutes that he's played all year long. And to me it's not a surprising, but maybe to some other people, that he has been as productive in those limited minutes, because what he really does well is rebound the ball, block shots, be a defensive presence, he's had the ability to do. Because he's got extended minutes. And that's something that he really wasn't ready for early in the season. And I wasn't going to be unfair to him where he couldn't look his best. And now that he's prepared, he's been able to retain some things that he wasn't earlier in the year. Now I put him out there, he's ready to help the team. CLAUDE FELTON: All right. Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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