On his positive attitude following yesterday’s loss:
“It’s a group of guys that I wish I could coach for a long time. You have to realize that we walked through our defensive scheme in a ballroom. We also walked through some offensive things, but the biggest thing is that—what we did in the first half is we changed some things. With the arena the way it was we were able to talk a lot. We were able to do some things we haven’t done and we were able to talk them through it. In the second half on the other end—our team was unbelievable during the game. The guys on the bench were locked in. They knew exactly what we were talking about. We had a few breakdowns when we went to a smaller lineup, but the one thing I loved was our willingness to fight. We play hard, but there was just an attitude and an air about us that made you feel like, ‘This group is getting it.’ The Florida game was a really hard-fought game and defensively being able to stay locked in, in a game between two teams that do great things. For the most part, we guarded, but the biggest thing was the attention to detail to our game plan. That’s what makes you feel good when you know that they’re really trying to do that. They may know they’re not going to be perfect, but I’m really enjoying watching what they’re doing, because they’re on edge in a good way.”
On how they are going to approach this week with uncertain game times:
“It’ll be just like we have during the last part of the season here. We would normally after a game this time of year have a few years off. Today they wanted to get out of the hotel and do that stuff, so tomorrow, we’ll get on the bus and drive up there. We’ll get after it Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We’ll have a good workout on Tuesday and just make the focus keeping everyone healthy and fresh. Now, I don’t know when or where we play, or any of that. So, we’ll wait and see what that looks like. We normally like to work off two days of prep. Like I’ve told you all before, that when you get a group of guys that go really hard, that maybe two times a week you can expect your guys to exert the energy and effort you need. We practice hard, so it’s up to us as coaches—we’ll get one short and sweet workout in at some point and everything else will be short, sweet and to the point. We’ll just keep working on the things we think we need to, just like we have been down the stretch here.”
NEXT: Rick Barnes previews NCAA Tournament continued