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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2012Dee BostRick StansburyJalen SteeleNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA Georgia – 71 CLAUDE FELTON: All right. We're joined by Mississippi State head coach Rick Stansbury and student‑athletes Dee Bost and Jalen Steele. We'll start with an opening statement from coach and then take questions for the student‑athletes. COACH STANSBURY: Well I give Georgia credit. I thought they played awful well. I thought they jumped up and needed to make shots when they did. We made a run at them in that second half and they come up with a huge play and they made some shots to separate game. I thought the turning point of the game, we were up eight in the first half and we had about a two‑minute stretch with a couple bad two or three turnovers. Man, it just changed that momentum of that game. And there's always spots in games that you look back to. But give Georgia credit. They did a good job keeping our bigs from scoring inside that zone‑ Arnett, I think, was 3‑10 and Sid was 1‑4 ‑ and kept us off that foul line particularly the second half. Second half, we didn't shoot but six free throws. We didn't jump up and make enough consistent shots, and I thought it sped us up a little bit. And we had some turnovers. And again give Georgia credit. They jumped up and made some 3‑point shots to separate that score. CLAUDE FELTON: All right. Questions for either of the student‑athletes? Q. Dee, what was it? It seemed like you and Arnett had trouble offensively. What was Georgia doing on defense that made things difficult? DEE BOST: They played, they rotated well in the matchup zone. Give them credit. And we didn't make enough shots. Q. This team has struggled to finish out games, close out games. You lost to Georgia at home. You had to feel like, no, this is not happening again. Do you have that feeling in the huddle or locker room like this is happening to us again? DEE BOST: I don't know. I mean, we had the thought we lost to them at home in our mind, but we knew it was a new game and we lost the momentum, and they made big plays when they were supposed to. Q. How disappointing is it for the season to end this way or for the regular season tournament to end this way and be one and done in the SEC tournament? DEE BOST: It's real disappointing. Especially on my behalf, I played bad. I could have done more to help us win. But as a team, it's kind of disappointing to lose the first round. JALEN STEELE: It's very disappointing. We came out kind of sluggish though. I think we could have came out with more energy, we could have won the game. But it didn't fall our way. CLAUDE FELTON: All right. We'll excuse the student‑athletes and take questions for coach. Q. You mentioned that two‑minute stretch where Georgia made that run. I couldn't help but notice Dee was not on the floor. How much do you think that had to do with it? COACH STANSBURY: I think you know the answer to that already. I'm not going to ‑‑ you know, I'm not going to blame anything on anybody, but you know that was a bad stretch right there. When we have an eight‑point lead, that's the first time I subbed him. I was trying to buy just a minute with Dee. And it says two minutes on that stat sheet. I'm not so sure he was out two minutes even. But I know it was a momentum changer. I thought we had the momentum, and again we just‑‑ we had a couple bad plays right there in that stretch without Dee. Q. Arnett obviously has been so productive all year and then just seven points, eight rebounds. Was there anything Georgia was doing in particular against him? COACH STANSBURY: Give Georgia credit, they're big and athletic. They kept a big body on him. He got no creases. That's where Arnett's strengths are. He needs creases to get to the rim to score. He needs creases to get to that rim to offensive rebound and they kept bodies on him in that zone down there. And we got it to him. He had 10 shot attempts and only finished it three times, and most of it is in that paint there. And when you get that, you got to come away with free throws or something there, and he didn't come‑‑ he didn't shoot but three free throws, too. So Georgia's big and athletic back there. They got four or five guys they rotate on that back line. Thornton and the foreign kid are really good players and the foreign kid really played well tonight, too. He had 11 points, 11 rebounds. Q. Now that obviously you got a few days to think about it now, losing six of eight. What do you think, the team kind of lost it's mojo or whatever? COACH STANSBURY: I said this many a time, I don't think we lost our mojo. As I said, those five losses, four of them is on the road, one is home against Kentucky. I think we played really well against Kentucky and came back and won those last two. Sometimes scheduling has something to do with that. We didn't lose anything. And again, we hope it's over your body of work. The 31, 32 games where we played now, people can evaluate us and what we have done, and not on just a one‑game stretch here. Remember in those five games, we were without a starter in two and a half of those games. In that stretch, in two of those games were overtime losses, so I don't think we lost any mojo or anything like that. You're on the road. It's not easy to win, and some other good people you get beat. Kentucky at home, like I said many times, not a team that you come home and heal up against. Q. The NCAA tournament is known for heart and passion. In the locker room, Renardo told me tonight you didn't play with heart. Does your team deserve to get into that NCAA tournament? COACH STANSBURY: Well, I think, again, it's over 31, 31 games, what you judge us on. We have won 21 games. We had a great non‑conference schedule, and we were 13‑2 in the non‑conference play against really good people. Again, I've been in this chair a lot where you were in, were you out, there's not but one guy I pay any attention to. I don't pay any attention to what you guys write or what y'all say. Joe Lunardi is the guy that has a better feel than anybody in this whole thing. He studies this and it's his job. And that's all I will base it on with him. Coming into this game, you only had us wasn't in those last four in. Those last four out. I mean, in or out. We were squarely above that. So naturally when you don't just keep winning, you put yourself in position, you hope maybe some other people don't do something or chance that someone else could slip. But I think when you look at our team, there's no question we're one of the 68 better teams. You watch Kentucky game? Did you see it? Well, I got on a given day, our guys have an opportunity to compete against anybody. And are we the best team in the country? No. But we're darn sure one of the 68 best. So we'll see where it all shakes out in these next few days. Q. If you had to break it down, why this team has not been able to close out games, you've had so many close games and then just haven't been able to close it out, what, is there different things or can you nail it down? COACH STANSBURY: Man, I don't know if there was a close game tonight. We didn't close out. I don't know if it was close enough to close out. If it was overtime, those overtime losses are the ones you got to close out. Q. You made a run. COACH STANSBURY: Made a run. Didn't finish it. I know one thing that's been difficult all year long is lack of depth. We haven't had a lot of depth. In the perimeter, I tried to use a little depth tonight in the first half, and you saw some things that happened. So if I'm going to point to one thing, lack of depth has hurt us over 31 games, or 32 games or whatever it is. A particular game, if you're playing one or two games here or there, may be you can get through it. But over 31 games, you got your games you're not your best every night, and you can't change a lot because of lack of bench. Then we haven't defended the way I want to defend consistently. And that's the way you win on the road. You got to do it consistently every possession. Defend, rebound, and you know that hasn't been constant for us. CLAUDE FELTON: All right. Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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