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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2012Terrance HenryAndy KennedyJarvis SummersNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA Ole Miss – 77 CLAUDE FELTON: All right. We're joined by Coach Andy Kennedy and student‑athletes Terrance Henry and Jarvis Summers. We'll start with an opening statement by coach and then take questions for the student‑athletes. COACH KENNEDY: I've been the head coach at Ole Miss for six years, and I was trying to do the math in my head. We won 125 and we have lost 76, so 201. That's my 201st game coaching this team. I don't think I've ever been more proud of a group to fight through the adversities of a season, to fight through the adversities of a game, a game of that magnitude against a very good Tennessee team that plays extremely physical, extremely hard. Went McBee banked in that shot, and I think they banked in two or three over the course of the night, and when he banked that one in, we're thinking, Are you kidding me? This is not supposed to happen . We were all a little shocked. And then to respond by going five for seven in the overtime, to jump right back and take complete command, to make foul shots down the stretch, to come up with timely defensive rebounds, tremendous effort from my kids. CLAUDE FELTON: All right. We'll take your questions for the student‑athletes. Q. About that overtime, the way y'all bounced back. You did it a lot with you, Reg and Murph, really the post guys taking better control in the glass. What was the difference there, because they beat you all up inside a little bit? TERRANCE HENRY: I think over the course of the game, fatigue played a factor. We kind of wore them down. They were beating us up early on in the glass, and coach just told us, Someone has to man up and box those big boys out. And we took control in the overtime and got it done. Q. Did you feel like you were shooting free throws to get in the NCAA tournament? TERRANCE HENRY: I don't even know how to answer that one. I just wanted to step up and make the free throws. I'm the senior leader on the team, and coach wants the ball in my hands in the last two minutes of the game in the close game, and I just did what I was supposed to do. Q. Was that the physically toughest game you ever been in, because there were bodies flying on almost every possession. And you talked about them beating you up early on. Y'all won it later. Did you rope‑a‑dope them? COACH KENNEDY: These guys are so young they don't even know what rope‑a‑dope is. (Laughter.) We rope‑a‑dope in our locker room if you follow us closely. TERRANCE HENRY: Over the course of the game, I think that they wore down. I think they had the most physical front line in the SEC with Stokes and Maymon. And we just came out in overtime and wanted it more, I think. JARVIS SUMMERS: They physical, and we just had to do what we had to do, and do whatever it takes, and get some rebounds. Q. I looked out at one point in the first half when Murph and Reg got in foul trouble, and it was you and Demarco and three freshmen. Can you talk about the play that the young guys did today and especially when the older guys were in foul trouble early to keep you guys in it. TERRANCE HENRY: That goes all the way back to the LSU game. Our bench players have been tremendous. Our young guys have been stepping up with Jarvis. He's been great the whole season. A. J. Stepped up today, Snoop stepped up when we needed. Mo gave us great minutes off the bench. And it takes a team to win a game, and we played as a team tonight. Q. Jarvis, you're a freshman, but you made some veteran‑type plays. And it was a tie game early in OT, and you hit the jump shot. Do you feel like that really got the guys going? JARVIS SUMMERS: I felt like that because like coach said, we just had to go out there and make a play and just fight. And that's what we did. Q. What went through your head when Skylar hit that three and banked in that three with two seconds left in regulation. JARVIS SUMMERS: I felt like we had to keep fighting and don't let down and finish the game and stay together. TERRANCE HENRY: I thought it was over with, man. I was like, Man, God darn, he banked this in? Got to go to overtime? But, we fought through it and made big plays in overtime and got the win. Q. In previous seasons A.K. seemed a little more demonstrative on the sidelines, maybe a little of the energy was coming from him. But on this team, it seems like you, Murph, and Reggie have kind of wrestled the team away and it's yours. How has that developed over time? TERRANCE HENRY: Since I've been here, since I signed as a freshman, coach always preached ownership. And I think this is the year that we really have taken it in and took ownership of the team, with me, Reggie, and Murph. We kind of, I guess, like an extra coach out there. He doesn't have to say much even though he talks a lot, but he doesn't have to say much when we're out there and we're playing good. Q. Were you capable of recovering from that shot the way you did maybe two months ago? JARVIS SUMMERS: I really don't know, but we just had to keep fighting. We had to defend more and do whatever it takes. TERRANCE HENRY: Two months ago, we probably would have laid down or something. But at this point in the season when our back's against the wall and we see our season slipping away, we're going to do whatever it takes to win. Q. Along those lines for both of you, both Nick and Murph, in the locker room you said that they think this team's kind of found its identity, that they said that they think you guys kind of fought that identity a little bit weeks ago. Was there a moment that you kind of accepted that you were going to be a kind of a grind‑it‑out team, you weren't going to be a finesse team, that beat people offensively, if you will? TERRANCE HENRY: After the Tennessee loss, we just had to get back to our basics‑ guarding, rebounding and making timely shots. I see that we held them to, what, 28 percent for the game from the field, and that's great. We kept them in the game with all those fouls and they knocked down their free throw. But that's the type of group we are, resilient group. And we're going to fight and grind it out until the end. JARVIS SUMMERS: About like he said. We play together and rebound and play defense. And that's it. CLAUDE FELTON: We'll excuse the student‑athletes and take questions for coach. Q. The strategy at the end of the game, nine seconds or so in regulation. It seemed the decision was not to foul and to play good defense and force them to take a tough shot. They made a tough shot, but we have seen that recently. Especially like in the Knicks/Celtics game there was a situation with about five seconds to go. Paul Pierce made a three to tie the game and they won that game in overtime. Does a game like that come into your head and you think about that and maybe it changes your strategy? COACH KENNEDY: Well, I think that depending upon who you play, for instance, if we were playing Florida, one of the most prolific three‑point shooting teams in the country, we may have fouled them. I'm open to all of the above. My biggest concern with fouling with this group was Tennessee was controlling us off the offensive glass. They had 21 offensive rebounds. So my biggest concern was if we were to foul, could we secure the rebound? And if they would have gotten a clean lock, a kid comes down and maybe they execute a play and a guy knocks it in at the top of the key jumper. I would have really second‑guessed myself thinking why did we do that, because we wouldn't have defended it well. But when a kid hits a runner and banks it in, you say, hey, the shot goes in, props to Skylar McBee, we got five more minutes to play. Q. How potentially deflating was that shot by McBee and what did you say to your guys, if anything, to revive them to keep going? COACH KENNEDY: To be honest with you, we were all a little stunned with the way it happened. I had a great view of it, and when I saw McBee got it, that's the one guy obviously you don't want to have it. But it's a hard shot. And when he shot it I saw it veering left, I said, Hey, we may live to fight another day, it banks in, the guys come over to me. Obviously they're physically exhausted, back‑to‑back games, hard games. And so their body language told me that now is not the time for a pep talk. I'm sure my body language wasn't the best in the world. I'm thinking, You kidding me? Again that wasn't the first shot they banked in. I know Stokes banked a free throw in and I think they banked another one in. I don't know if it was a three or not, but the banks stay open late I suppose. But all of a sudden now our backs are really against the wall. And I thought we came out, we lose the tap, we got get a stop, and then we scored on consecutive possessions, which for us is cause for celebration. And we go five for seven in the overtime, made our foul shots. It's never easy with us, but as I said in the opener, I could not be more proud of our guys. Battled a lot of adversities throughout the course of that game, and you're playing a team that was fighting for their collective lives. And I've been on the other side of this, the year that I was interim coach at Cincinnati, we started off 13‑2. We lost our third leading scorer on Big Monday. We were 2‑0 in the Big East, top 25 in the country. We lost our third leading scorer on Big Monday with a torn ACL, and we kind of limped home. We get beat by ‑‑ it was Jerry McNamara hits the shot. It was the start of that Syracuse four‑wins‑and‑in‑four‑days deal. He hit a three, a running three on us, more difficult than McBee's shot, to knock us out of the Big East tournament. Everybody had us in. We don't get in it. The explanation I get, Well, your team is judged from where you were now. Because Kirkland was not coming back. And they said, Hey, you're a 500 team without him, so that's how you're judged. I think that's how Tennessee should be judged. Jarnell Stokes, with Jarnell Stokes, that team beat Florida, Vanderbilt. Those are going to be two high seeds in the NCAA tournament. That team beat UCONN. That team should be judged with Jarnell Stokes. This should not be about an elimination game. Tennessee should be in the NCAA tournament. Q.  Murphy made two steals in overtime. And between that and it seemed like the shooting from the field, it seemed like you couldn't miss a shot all of a sudden in overtime. In your opinion, is that kind of what pushed you over? COACH KENNEDY: I like your perspective. I have unfortunately watched it now 32 times, and I just hope one goes in every once in awhile. I tell them, mix in a make every once in a while and keep people interested. For us I thought we took man shots, and by that I mean, we were strong at the basket. We were finishing through people. We tried to get it to the players that we wanted to have it where they could play to their skill set. And the guys came through. And when we did miss, we wanted to pull Stokes into a ball screen.  There's one thing at the end of a shot clock, we wanted to pull the freshman big into a ball screen. And when we did, we kind of sucked him into traffic. We had a couple offensive rebounds off of it as well. Q. Some of those crazy lineups you had to play at the end of the first half with four bench guys and just how important were those guys just to kind of hold it down and keep it tied in those last minutes for momentum going into the second half? COACH KENNEDY: The first half was certainly not a thing of beauty by neither team. We couldn't string together baskets. I thought our zone was very effective. We were doing a good job of not allowing dribble penetration. In the second half, to Tennessee's credit, I thought they made some adjustments. And once they knocked in a couple of shots, they had about three or four minutes where we had a hard time guarding them. We were just trying to do anything that we could to keep the game close. For us to go in tied at half, I thought, was a huge bonus. It turned it into a 20, which turned out to be a 25‑minute game. We had foul trouble everywhere. It was even hard for to us run offense with the lineup that we had because we had guys playing out of position, and that was difficult for them. But as they said, we got huge contributions from guys that have not been put in that position ever before. So for them to do that in a game of this magnitude against a very good Tennessee team, I think speaks volumes of the growth of them individually. Q. Is it fitting for a team that struggles to make free throws, you had to hit free throws to end it and talk about Terrance making big free throws. COACH KENNEDY: We wanted the ball in Terrance and Jarvis's hands. Those are the two guys. And obviously Nick, but we felt like Nick was the best trigger. Sometimes Terrance will trigger, but I mean throw it to him. But we wanted to get it to Terrance because we thought with size, worst case scenario maybe we could throw it up and his size would be advantageous. Once he made a couple, obviously we wanted to continue to go to him. And this team has struggled all year. We shot 67, 68 percent last night, 68 percent tonight, and we're talking about it. Can you imagine how bad we are. I think we, coming in, were 338 out of 344, something like that. So maybe we moved to 333, 37. Q. You talked about how Tennessee should be judged by the committee. How should y'all be judged at this point? COACH KENNEDY: Well, I really don't want to play politician. I really don't. For me, we're going to play tomorrow at 2:30 against Georgia or Vanderbilt, and that really is where my focus is. I think if you look at this team, this team's now won 10 games against Southeastern Conference competition, the fourth rated RPI team in the league. This team just beat a Tennessee team that with Jarnell Stokes swept the Gators who will be a top four or five seed; beat Vanderbilt, who will be a top four or five seed; beat UCONN, who is certainly in the tournament. And for us to do that, under those circumstances, beat a very good Alabama team to, I think, collectively, we have got some good things going for us. One of the things I said, I'm not going to play politician, and now here I go. But one of the things that I think needs to be brought up is the fact that now I believe tonight was our eighth win road neutral. One of the things that the committee tells you to do is control the part of the schedule that you can. Your non‑league. And we played more non‑league road games, I think, than any but maybe one BCS team. We played the least amount of home games. I think maybe Washington State or Oklahoma State maybe played one fewer home game. So we challenged ourselves on the road. Unfortunately, Murph got hurt. He was down for four games, of which we lost three. I'm counting middle in that obviously. That hurt us desperately because he's obviously an integral part of our team. I think if you're taking the best teams at large in the country, our team deserves to be in. Obviously there's a formula. I think we came in low 50s tonight in the RPI. I would have to think now we're going to be mid 40s. Mid 40s puts you in the game, doesn't it? Can I get an amen? Q. How important is after that shot and like you said you're stunned just to have the couple of defensive stops that you did with Murphy to kind of set up the offense, I guess? COACH KENNEDY: We had to get stops. We weren't going to‑‑ scoring's great, and that's a luxury with our team. But you have to be able to get stops. You have to defend. When we were struggling offensively early, our defense kept us afloat. And that's the way that we play. It's our MO. When we were able to string together some made field goals towards the end of regulation and then in the overtime again, that does you no good if you can't get collective stops. I thought we had a couple of big stops, big rebounds. The biggest thing was they are very, very physical. And I told our guys, if the game's played below the rim, they win. Because Maymon and Stokes are as good a combo. They're like the Bruise Brothers, remember the old Washington Bullets Rick Mahorn and Jeff Rulland, that's who they're like. They're punishing physically and anything that comes below the rim, they just scoff up. We had to hit them and go try to use our athleticism and get it up high. I thought we got a couple rebounds above the rim level down the stretch that allowed us to get them. Q. Given that you've got a game in 18 hours, all the stuff that goes into the tournament format, is it a good idea to consider the place that your team is in right now? You're in the semi‑finals for the first time in Terrance's career. NCAA tournament is still in play. Can you take the time to be happy about that right now? COACH KENNEDY: I don't think so. Being happy is not in my job description anyway. I got a job to do. I got to get this team prepared. And I'm telling you I came into a locker room after that win, and it was not a celebratory locker room, which is a good thing. It's a locker room that, hey, we did what we were supposed to do. We took care of business. Hey, now let's regroup as quickly as possible, and try to get as much energy out of a team that has had to play so hard. We have a saying in our locker room, 'Embrace the grind.' And that's easy to say, but it's hard to do. It's each and every day getting up and playing physically‑exerting‑mentally‑draining basketball. And that's what we do. And so what I'm hoping for is I want them to live in the moment. I want them to take advantage of the opportunity. Let's don't worry about the big picture. Let's worry about tomorrow at 2:30, take care of the things that we can control. Q. We have been talking about like opportunities or chances, to get into the tournament next week, where would you rate the SEC, most of the consensus seems to be maybe the Big‑10 might be the best conference. Do you feel like the SEC is up there comparable to the Big‑10? Do you think that Kentucky maybe pushes the SEC to maybe a higher level? COACH KENNEDY: I think the league, I've said this before, but in the six years I've been here, I think top to bottom, it's probably as competitive as it's ever been. One of the things that I think was an indicator of that is going into the last weekend, we knew Kentucky was going to be the one seed at this tournament and we knew South Carolina was going to be the 12, 2 through 11 were still in play. When you compare the numbers and, again, I don't understand RPI‑‑ I don't get all of that, I understand the basic formula, but I don't know why the numbers move the way they do sometimes. But if you're going to use them as numbers, if those are parameters and you set the rules, I think as coaches, we just want to know what the mandate is. Is the mandate scheduling aggressively non‑league? Then I think our league has done a good job of doing that. We have got quality non‑league wins. And in the league, we're like every league, we beat up on one another and there's not a lot of separation. I thought a huge statement weekend for the SEC was a couple of weeks ago when Arkansas beat Michigan at home. And Michigan is one of the best teams in the Big‑10. Arkansas obviously finished, I think, ninth in the regular season and were one and out here. And this Tennessee team that was left for dead a few weeks ago, beat a UCONN team who was really playing well at the time. I thought that spoke volumes for the league. I think we have the best team in the country in our league in Kentucky. I think they have proven that time and time and time again. I think there's quality basketball top to bottom, and my hope is that gets recognized. Thanks. CLAUDE FELTON: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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