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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 16, 2013Reginald BucknerMurphy HollowayAndy KennedyNASHVILLE, TENNESSEE OLE MISS – 64 THE MODERATOR: We're ready to continue on with Ole Miss. We'll ask Coach Kennedy for some opening remarks on the game and take your questions just for the two student athletes, excuse them, and then we fill finish up with coach. Coach, would you begin? COACH KENNEDY: Really, really proud of my team. I thought we closed the season strong and we came into Nashville understanding that there was work to be done. We take a very -- taken a very businesslike approach to these first two games, and as a result, we're participating in the final for the first time for our university in quite some time. These two guys to my right have been integral parts of that. We have been on this journey together now for a long time, and I'm really proud that they're going to get to experience the ultimate. THE MODERATOR: Questions for either of the student athletes. Q. For either of you guys, there was so much talk coming in into this tournament, whether were you a tournament team or not. Now it's pretty clear you guys are probably a tournament team. How excited are you for the championship tomorrow? MURPHY HOLLOWAY: Very excited, man. Like you say, we've been on the journey for awhile. Just to make it to the SEC championship, I think it's a great accomplishment for our team and I feel like we came here, we played hard. Q. For Reginald and Murphy, did you get a feeling with Vanderbilt playing their third game in three days making a turnaround that you might be able to just wear them down in the second half? REGINALD BUCKNER: Yes. I say, you know, first half we kind of started off slow, but, you know, we kind of had a sense of urgency in the second half that they would get tired. We took advantage of it. MURPHY HOLLOWAY: Yeah, man. We lucky to get that 3 seed so we can have a double buy, but they played hard. I figured they were getting tired down at the end of the game, but I'm just glad we got this win. Q. Reginald, talk about you guys dominated them inside the paint today. Talk about that aspect of it. REGINALD BUCKNER: Like I say, man, for the seniors it was a sense of urgency. Me and Murph got together. We had a goal we're trying to get to the SEC championship and it worked out for us tonight. Q. This is Vandy's third game in three days. You guys had quite a battle last night. How were you guys down the end? REGINALD BUCKNER: You know, it's like practice to us, you know. We got kind of got used to it and we had a goal, so we were trying to just get to a goal and play in the SEC championship, and we played our heart out, so that's what we did. THE MODERATOR: Other questions for either of the student athletes center, raise your hand. Okay. We'll excuse the student athletes. COACH KENNEDY: You guys don't mind, Murph is giving a free throw clinic for the people in Nashville. THE MODERATOR: We'll continue on, questions for Coach Kennedy, raise your hand. Q. Coach, can you talk about the defensive effort just in general the early pressure, and then as the game wore on, just the ability to get them out of rhythm and not make shots? COACH KENNEDY: I thought early they came out with a lot of excitement. They are in their home city. I thought they had some energy in the building behind them. They came out with pop in their step, but as the players just referred to, the advantage of finishing 2nd in the SEC and receiving a double buy comes into play the third day of a tournament. It's difficult, you know, in all the years I've been doing this, both as an assistant, head coach, I felt like this game really got on us quickly. By the time we got back to the hotel and gave them something to eat and went through treatment and just started talking about the schedule for today, I looked and it's 1:00, 1:30 in the morning. Then you get up and start trying to ingest as much as possible about a Vanderbilt team who runs as much offense -- I've got nothing but the utmost respect for Kevin and his program. He's the perfect coach for Vanderbilt. We're trying to ingest as much as possible in a very short period of time. So we came out, and I thought we were a little bit flat initially simply because of the effort that it took to get through Missouri. And so then the whole time I kept saying, as tired as you are, can you imagine if you had to play another game? Vanderbilt, they didn't play the Sisters of the Poor. They had beat Arkansas and Kentucky. That takes a lot of energy. So we knew that if we could hang around and get that thing to the second half, it's the reason really I want to so much zone. I wanted to keep them out of the paint, and I wanted them to have to make jump shots. And jump shots usually go when your legs go, and that was the case for us tonight. Q. Coach, what do you think attributed to that five-minute stretch in the second half where nothing was falling? COACH KENNEDY: You know what, I would have to see the tape. I thought our zone was very active. When Reg is active in the middle of the zone, sometimes he kinds of stands there and rests. When he's active in the middle of a zone, we're pretty good, because any dribble penetration they know that they've got the best shot blocker in the history of our program standing there, which allows our guards to be a lot more active. I thought our hands were active. We got some steals and loose balls. The biggest key, as I look at these stats, was the way we guarded our defensive glass. We didn't give them any second chance opportunities and that allowed us to get out in the open floor. We made a couple plays in the open floor. When you're up 15, 16, 17, I think one time we got it to as much as 18 points, and you're going against a zone, you have a tendency to want to rush things. We were trying to play to that. Q. Andy, after you guys lost in Gainesville, you said Florida was just better than you guys that day. What is the challenge tomorrow and how different are the teams now in the second meeting? COACH KENNEDY: They're very, very good. They went through a series where life on the road in the SEC, I don't care how much you guys talk about it being a down year, it's a down year, it's a down year, it's hard to win on the road in the SEC. You know, a Missouri team that is safely in the tournament, has never even -- bubbles have never floated past their name and they lost 8 games in this league. It's difficult to win on the road. Florida went through a stretch where they lost four out of their last ten and they had some tough games on the road. Now they're back to full strength. They had some situations with concussions. They lost Frazier for a little while, which hurt their guard rotation. Will Yeguete was out for a stretch, and as a result they weren't playing as full strength. Now they're back at full strength. When they make shots, as they did in game 1, when Erik Murphy is really dialed in and making shots, they're scary. We got to hope that day 3 affects their legs like it did Vandy's legs. It certainly affects ours as well. That's why it's good to have these two guys to my right playing the way they did in the second half. We wanted to put pressure on the rim. We made a concerted effort to go through Reg and Murph and try to attack the basket, and again if we can -- I don't know what's happened. We were around 70 percent from the free throw line in league play and we've kind of diverted back to missing too many free throws, which made it interesting. Otherwise, I felt those two guys really carried us in the second half. Q. You talk about concussion. Jarvis Summers was out. What's his status for tomorrow? COACH KENNEDY: Day-to-day with this new concussion situation. That will be a lot of testing between now and noon tomorrow to see whether he's available. We do what the doctors tell us. Q. Coach, what were your thoughts on Marshall Henderson's performance tonight? COACH KENNEDY: I thought Marshall Henderson was outstanding, especially in the second half. First half he comes out so excited that I think he hunched shots. In the second half, the half that he's in front of me, I can kind of guide him through some things verbally, which is a bit stressful for me but I think it helps him with some of his decision-making. We always want to see how people play him and then we have to try to make some adjustments at the half. I thought Marshall was really receptive to coaching and making the extra pass. The way people were guarding him got extended and allowed our bigs to get to the basket. Q. Andy, how did not having Jarvis affect you guys tonight? COACH KENNEDY: I thought Derrick Millinghaus last night obviously with the game winner was outstanding. We threw him in a very tough predicament. Today we went back to him. I understood that can we get a back-to-back effort out of a true freshman who has never been in the situation. That's when you lean on the old veteran sophomore, Snoop White. He did a good job of making sure we distributed the ball. The one thing we don't do, we don't turn it over much. I said when I got the be job, bad shots are better than a turnover. That's my philosophy. We don't turn it over much. We get it up on the glass. We only had 7 turnovers and Snoop was playing the point the majority of the time. Q. Andy, with Florida's perimeter shooters, including Murphy, can you afford to go to a zone for guard stretch tomorrow or is it better to switch things up? COACH KENNEDY: We'll just do what we do. We'll mix and match every game. I don't go in saying we've got to play X number of possessions of this or that. We have different things that we think may be effective, and as you get into the course of a game, you adjust accordingly. We'll have to zone them some. Not only their ability to make shots but their passing is unbelievable. They're the best passing team in the country. Q. Andy, Marshall was saying in the locker room you have challenged him not necessarily to change who he is but to kind of think before he does things and be conscious of himself. Is there a fine line between allowing him to be who he is, be true to himself, and keep him in check? COACH KENNEDY: It's about focus with him. His passion comes from a good place, it really does. It's a matter of staying focused. He can easily get distracted and turn his energy into things that are not productive for anyone. I'm constantly challenging him to be focused. I'm really proud of the way he's grown throughout the course of the year. Q. Andy, Reggie said in the locker room after the loss to Mississippi State, the seniors came together and that y'all can't lose any more games. Has this team really rallied round Nick and Murph and Reggie, have they taken ownership of this team? COACH KENNEDY: I never know what these guys are thinking. If I don't know, who does know? I try to put them in a position to be successful. We always talk about perspective. It's one of my number one priorities to them is to be a voice of reason and to lend perspective. We knew after the Mississippi State debacle that we had hurt ourselves, but as we got on that bus, and it was a tough bus ride home, there was nothing that we could do about it. Only thing we could do was focus on the next opportunity. I've been proud of these guys for doing just that. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for Coach Kennedy? Raise your hand. Q. Andy, the focus now is tomorrow's game, but does -- do you feel like you have that berth now in the tournament? Or is it just easier to go ahead and try to win tomorrow and take it out of their hands? COACH KENNEDY: For us there's two things that go into your mindset. At 25-8, now having won 14 SEC games, and not many people are still playing, so I feel pretty confident about our opportunity to get the albatross from around the neck of this program as it relates to NCAA Tournament. I'm really proud of these seniors because they've stayed the course and put themselves in position to earn that. We've had a saying on our wall, in the practice facility, "Earn the right." That's what they've done, they've earned it, and I'm proud of them for that. We've got a chance to compete for a championship. There's very few times in your life that you have a chance to compete for a championship. That's where I want our focus to be. I want them to play loose and free, understanding that on Sunday we have the makings of a party. But on Saturday you got a chance to do something that's special that no one can take away from you for the rest of your life. You got a chance to play for an SEC championship and that's exciting. THE MODERATOR: Maybe one more question, anyone? All right. Thank you. COACH KENNEDY: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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