On the bubble aspect of this season and how the next few days will look and feel:
“That’s a great question and the answer is that I don’t know. In the past we’ve had to get there a few days early. Had press conferences and I would assume that will be the same like we are right now. But, the difference is that in the past we’ve been able to set up our own off-site practices, but I don’t think that will be that way. As of right now, I don’t think anyone in this tournament knows what this tournament is going to be like. We just found out what hotel we’re going to be in, which isn’t unusual. In the past with this, right now, all of the administrative people are getting the flight arrangements. You know what hotel you’re staying at—the tickets and stuff are tried to get knocked out before getting on the plane to go. I think you had to be at the site two days before, but this year we’re getting their four days before we’re actually going to play. I have no idea where we’re going to get assigned to go practice. I don’t think anyone knows. I’m going to be curious, I guess they’ll be giving us some more of that info as they get through that. When they were doing the show I remember one of the announcers saying the pairings, but they didn’t say where they were going to be playing. I would assume that if they’re going to send us somewhere to play games, that’s where we’re going to practice. I think we may be doing a lot of work in a ball room. I did hear that they’ve got all the teams in four hotels and they’re going to try to keep all of the teams on a floor by themselves. How it will all work out, I don’t know.”
On benefits of staying together and building momentum heading into the NCAA Tournament:
“I do think so. I think that when we walked out of the arena last night, my first initial thought for me personally, I hadn’t really thought a lot about it because you’re thinking about the tournament and all this. But I remember walking out yesterday thinking and asking somebody, ‘What time is it?’ and I really had forgotten we played in that earlier game. They asked me my thoughts (about the NCAA Tournament) and I could tell by the way they asked me about my thoughts, they had already in their mind had their opinion of it, and I said, ‘Well, you know, I don’t want to sit around a hotel for a week, whatever’ and then they explained to me that going back probably wouldn’t be the right thing to do right now with what’s going on with the NCAA and all that. And actually you know what, we had a really good day today. We had some time over at the Memorial Coliseum and normally, if you think about it, we would have gone back to Knoxville. We would have taken today off.
“We would have been off going back for certain, driving back. But they wanted to go. The guys wanted to go, and it was really fun kind of being there because they started playing three-on-threes, and you know, every guy kind of takes care of their bodies a little bit differently, but coach English got in the game with them. They were going at it, and you could tell there and then here in the hotel. We have a great hotel over here at the Grand Hyatt. They’ve given us I mean as much space as you could put 2,000 people in here. And the guys are spread out, and Mary-Carter (Eggert) went out and bought a bunch of games, and the guys were in there playing poker and Connect 4 and Monopoly and all that. They were playing chess, actually and Santi asked me if I knew how to play chess, and I said, ‘I don’t, but I’d beat you regardless.’
“So, it’s been a good day and I think today has been, honestly, it makes you realize how much you miss the time together as much as anything. But I was concerned yesterday, so everybody had already really made a decision that the best thing to do is stay, and I said, ‘Whatever you guys think because I trust everybody involved here,’ and I do think it was the right thing to do. But we’ll bus up there and I would assume we’re going to leave tomorrow mid-morning. Again, I don’t know. It depends on what we get back from the NCAA about the practices this, that or whatever. But I’m guessing in a couple of hours, we’ll know more.”
NEXT: Rick Barnes previews NCAA Tournament continued