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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2014Tony BarbeeChris DensonAllen PayneATLANTA, GEORGIA South Carolina – 74 THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and start with an opening statement from coach and then we'll take questions for the student‑athletes. COACH BARBEE: Tough end to the conference tournament. Having beaten that team twice this year on our court and on their court. It's hard to overcome the shooting effort that we had. Then give them credit, a team that hasn't shot the ball particularly well from three all year long makes 11 of them this game, and one of their poorer 3‑point shooters goes 4‑4. But overall proud of the fight that the guys showed tonight. But just a disappointing end. THE MODERATOR: Take questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Chris, seemed like in the first half every time you went to the lane they were really collapsing on you, kind of making that effort to deny you the rim. Is that what you saw from the game? CHRIS DENSON: Yes, definitely. Especially on teams that scout me, they know I'm a driver, so they collapse the lane. Every time I came out to my team mates but we had an off night tonight. So, yeah. Didn't really explode or go to the hole until the second half, but just a little too late. Q. Chris, you seemed to have your way with them the first two games. Did they do anything different tonight or was it just an off night? CHRIS DENSON: They definitely clogged the paint more this game. The first two games, I feel like I was tiptoeing to the hole. But they definitely scouted well and they definitely took my driving lanes away. But it wasn't on me, it was on me, KT, Tahj. They just closed the gap and just clogged up the paint and just made us shoot from the outside. Q. For both players, what did you guys notice from Notice? He scored 20 point in the previous two games combined. He had 23. What was different about him tonight? ALLEN PAYNE: He was making shots. He was making threes. Our scouting report on him was that he's a driver. And he got hot and made some tough shots from the perimeter and he really led the charge for them tonight offensively. CHRIS DENSON: Yeah, first two games we played him as a driver. He didn't have good shooting days and today he was in a zone and he led them today, so... Q. For Allen, obviously you've been with Coach Barbee, had a tough four years. What would you say about coach and how he's handled these four years? ALLEN PAYNE: I would describe the job that he's done is courageous. It's a tough job here at Auburn, I think, and I realized that over the four years that I've been here. I think he's a competitor, very passionate about his job, about helping us grow outside of basketball. I think the biggest thing that he teaches us is life is tough, and that's a lesson that we can learn through basketball. But I think he's done a great job of highlighting that for us, especially for me and Chris, who have been with him for four years. He's highlighted that and we'll go out of here, we'll go out of Auburn with a life‑long lesson from coach. Q. Chris, you as well, just last four years. Speak about your career and ending it like this. But obviously a great year this year and then what you've learned from coach. CHRIS DENSON: I definitely came here as an immature, little kid. I came up ineligible and coach had the choice to either get rid of me or let me stay. I had to take 19 hours and he let me stay if I passed all 19. That right there just showed me that he has the most, the utmost fate in me. For that, I respect him. I know he's going to turn this program around. We got a great point guard in Tahj and KT, so this program is going to get on the right track. Me, just in my four years, I definitely grew as a player and as a person. Me, growing as a player, as not shooting free throws well, working on that, not just worrying, about my man and not knowing the concept of team defense. Me, having to go through all that and the trial and tribulations of just this year and just something that Coach Barbee taught me. I am leaving Auburn as a man and as a better basketball player. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you. We'll excuse you. You can return to the locker room. Take questions for coach. Q. How frustrating was this year for you? I know you had higher expectations from a year ago. You did some things, sports psychiatrist, and a bunch of stuff, but obviously didn't turn out the way you wanted. So how would you feel about this year? COACH BARBEE: It wasn't frustrating at all. Obviously as a competitor I don't want to lose any games. We had our opportunities obviously to have a better record than we ended up having. But this season was a bounce back year from the previous year. Obviously we won more games in the previous year, we doubled our SEC wins, our overall season ticket sales were way above last year's. So there's a lot of positives. Our RPI was double what it was the year before. So there's a ton of positives to take out of this year. We had some unfortunate setbacks with the injury to Benas, who was going to be a big part of the rotation this year, and the injury forced him out of the year for the medical red shirt. Matthew, who grew a lot this year, had a key injury in the preseason, which kept him out for a big part of the preseason. He missed a lot of that teaching. He's a big part of the future of this program, but he probably only played at about 70 percent of his capacity because he's still not all the way healthy, dealing with the injury. So not frustrating at all. Very positive thoughts as I think about how we bounced back from a frustrating year last year and the steps that we took forward this year. Q. Do you think that's enough, though, as far as your future there? COACH BARBEE: Well, what do you want me to say? Absolutely I do. But that obviously is not in my hands. Q. Same question I asked Chris, what did South Carolina do today that they hadn't done in the first two games you played them? COACH BARBEE: Well, obviously the 3‑point line was the big difference. They only shot 40 percent from the game, but the 3‑point line was a big difference. They're not a particularly good 3‑point shooting team outside of Williams. Notice stepped and obviously the four threes were big for their team to get the momentum. We didn't go as good a job as we wanted to do on Williams obviously in the first half, but we held him scoreless in the second half. But give those guys credit off the bench. Notice and the big fellow had 34 points off the bench between those two, and that was the difference in the game. But the biggest difference was the 3‑point line from the previous two games. Q. Talk about the rebounding. That lacked to be a factor tonight? COACH BARBEE: Well, it was a factor in the previous two games. One of the better rebounding teams in the country or in the league, and on the offensive backboard, that was a huge difference. But the first two games, I said it was a big factor going into the game, and the rebounding margin was pretty close to the same in those two games and we won them both. Obviously, you don't want to ever give up 17 offensive rebounds. When you look at it, I don't think their first shot offense beat us this game. It was the 17 offensive rebounds they collected that was big in this game. Q. Have you been given any indication from Jay Jacobs on whether he wants you to return, and if not, when do you plan to visit with him? COACH BARBEE: There's been no indication and we'll meet some time when we get back to campus. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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