Feb. 6, 2013

Recap |  Notes

Coach Andy Kennedy Quotes

On jumping ahead early:
“Our approach was pretty good out of the gate. We really defended early. We made a couple of shots and got an early lead. In the entire second half we had it in coast mode. Give Mississippi State credit, they kept fighting and attacking us off of the dribble.”

On the importance of getting back on track after two losses:
“We had to stop the bleeding. This is week five of the grind. The first three weeks were really good to us. Week four was tough on a number of fronts. We go on the road for our next two. I’ve always talked about the importance of defending home court, and we’ve done that reasonably well except for the second half against Kentucky.”

On Nick Williams’ availability for Saturday:
“He’s made huge progress in the last 48 hours. He’ll go again tomorrow. He’s told me he wants to practice tomorrow. He still has pain in his foot. It’s just in a different area. My hope is that he’ll be available Saturday. I’ll do what he tells me. If he’s ready, I’ll put him in.”

Coach Rick Ray Quotes

On Game:
“I guess we have to teach our post guys how to defend a little better and not foul.  I think Gavin (Ware) only played four minutes in the first half, so when you have big physical experienced guys like Ole Miss has. We’re trying to guard them with guards and that’s a problem.  We did a poor job at taking away things Ole Miss is good at, such as contesting Marshall Henderson. Marshall got way too many easy cuts and good looks, and Murphy (Holloway) had 24 points.  For us to get 75 points is good for us, but we can’t give up 93 points. Our defensive effort wasn’t good today.  For this to be a rivalry game, I don’t think our guys were up and ready to play basketball the way you should play in a rivalry game. To our guys’ credit, they came back and competed in the second half. Our big guys got in foul trouble so you’re playing five guards. You’re just not going to have any success that way.” 

On Marshall Henderson:
“He got some good looks off of our mistakes. If we don’t get a free throw box out, they throw it out to him and get a three.  Obviously he’s a talented kid and is going to score points, but he can’t take away from our mistakes that we made.”