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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 14, 2014Mark FoxJ.J. FrazierCharles MannATLANTA, GEORGIA Georgia – 75 THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and get started with an opening statement from coach and then take questions for the student‑athletes. COACH FOX: Really a hard fought game. It's March Madness and we figured it would be battle. The last two times we had played Ole Miss, it came down to the last second after 40 minutes, and this one was no different. Both teams I thought competed really hard and we were fortunate to make the last basket. So we feel good about the win and are ready to go home get some sleep and move on for a quick turnaround. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Another crack at Kentucky, what do you think the key will be this time? CHARLES MANN: They are a real good team. Great team. We're finally healthy this time around. But it's going to be a battle. We're going to have to play well, very well and together and to get this win. Q. Charles and J.J., as you guys kept attacking the rim in the second half, could you sense that Ole Miss was tired, was leg weary? Did that come in to play? CHARLES MANN: Not really. I just kept on wanting to be aggressive and just so as my teammates did. I just wanted to keep attacking. J.J. FRAZIER: We got out on the break and we just wanted to keep getting to the rim and not settle for jump shots. When we got that opportunity, we took advantage of it as much as we could. Charles did a great job of attacking the rim. So did Kenny Gaines in the second half. We got them in foul trouble early and that benefited us in the end. Q. Charles, you really seemed to be playing your best basketball here late in the season, and in games you start to kind of kick it into gear at the end of games. What does it mean to you to finish right now? CHARLES MANN: It's a team effort. When I'm not going, my teammates are going and just keep on encouraging me to keep my head up and keep pushing. But you got to finish strong. We can't dwell on this win. We got to move on to the next win and focus on tomorrow. Q. Charles, what did you see on the last play when you got the loose ball and got to the rim. Just describe that, please. CHARLES MANN: Brandon missed the layup or the shot and it bounced my way. I wanted to pick it up and attack the rim, and I was able to connect, which I did. Q. J.J., with Kenny and Charles in foul trouble, some of the game, how big was it for guys like you and Juwan to step up? J.J. FRAZIER: All year coach has told us to be ready when our number is called, and they got into foul trouble early. We didn't want to go out there and it be a let down either end, offense or defense. We tried our best to keep us and make plays to keep us in the game until they got back in the second half. Then we had all the foul trouble, and that's what we tried to do. It was a team effort. It was what me and Juwan and our bigs did a great job of controlling their bigs, and it was a team effort. THE MODERATOR: All right. We'll excuse you to the locker room and take questions for coach. Q. Did you think the officials lost control of it midway through the second half there? COACH FOX: No, it's just so hard to call the game now with the new rules. The officials have an impossible job. It's just the new rules are so hard to interpret. So I don't think they lost control. It's a tougher game to call right now with the way the new rules are worded, I think. Q. Marshall Henderson, 2‑16 from 3‑point range. How did you get your guys to do that? COACH FOX: Well, he deserves special attention. Obviously we worked hard on how to cover him. Kenny Gaines and Juwan Parker did a nice job. I thought that our assistants had a nice plan in place. He's a terrific player. He's really matured as a person and as a competitor, but he's got a really quick trigger. You have to give him great attention. Fortunately for us, we were able to sustain that for just about the whole game. Q. With such an emotional finish tonight and such a long game, how are you going to be able to get the guys with the quick turnaround tomorrow? Is it going to be especially tough? COACH FOX: What time is it? I don't even know. THE MODERATOR: It's about 12:15. COACH FOX: Is it really? No, this is what they work hard for. This is March. This is a wonderful opportunity that they only get to participate in for four years. If you can't rally tomorrow... I don't need to sleep tonight. They will need to sleep, but at 21, 20 years old? I could probably stay up all night and still have some energy the next day. Fortunately they won't do that. But they will be hopefully ready to go. Q. Do you game plan and tweak anything specific for Kentucky with the quick turnaround or do you just focus on what you guys do? COACH FOX: Well, tonight Marcus Thornton started the game at the center spot for us, and when we went to Lexington, he started the game at the two spot because we just had a crooked lineup with a couple guys injured. So we just kind of patched together a game plan up there that we thought would give us a chance. We'll have to have a different game plan this time because we have all of our players. So we'll go to work on that throughout the night and present it to our team in the morning. Q. You went six minutes without a basket before Charles made the shot that won it. You had a lot of layups in that time, too. Were you getting the feeling that nothing was going to go in or did you still have faith? COACH FOX: I thought in the first half, too, I thought that it took us a long time to relax. I felt like the start of the game, we looked way out of character. I thought that we were sped up and just the event got to us. We did some things in the first half where we were out of sync and I felt like it took a long time for guys to relax. I'm not sure some guys ever did. The message going in was just be yourself. Don't get caught up in the moment. But I think we did a little bit. Q. With all the fouls and a lot of them were kind of frustrating, you could see it on with the players' reactions. How were you able to keep them calm so they didn't let that get in their heads? COACH FOX: I just want our team to fight and you've got to play through things. That comes with experience and we're starting to show a little bit more of that. Q. Everyone's been saying that Kentucky is finally playing like the team they were supposed to be all season. What do you think the key is to beating them now that they got their supposed mojo back? COACH FOX: Yeah, they're good. I don't know. I mean they're terrific. They got great players. John's a great coach. They got big guards, really good shooting wing. They got unbelievable length at the basket. They got depth off the bench. They were just young. He's playing so many young guys, they're going to be a little up and down because that's what young players are. But like our team's improved throughout the year, so has Kentucky. They have got a great team. We'll have to play super to have a chance to win. Q. Having Kenny Gaines and Juwan Parker, how much of a difference do you think that will make? COACH FOX: Well, I hope it makes some difference. We we're a little bit shorthanded up there, but it wouldn't have made a difference. They wore us out pretty good. We don't have to sit the in the zone, we'll be able to play the defense we played all year, and we'll be able to have the regular rotation. So it will be a little different. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you. COACH FOX: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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