Q. Defensively twice in a row you’ve been able to put the handcuffs on Florida. What was it about the game plan?
RICK BARNES: A really good team effort. I thought we worked hard the last — well, we’ve always worked hard, but a big emphasis on our ball screen defense, getting up to touch. We didn’t want to get drug out, strung out where we weren’t up there, giving their guards a chance to either split it, drag us down to the baseline. We really wanted to have a confrontation right there at the impact of the ball. For the most part we did. I thought we stayed in our coverage, were disciplined that way when we couldn’t get our primary defense, what we wanted. We were switching out. I thought our guards did a really good job when they got a guy on post down low, sit on the post man’s hip, get in front. Everybody else knew what was happening. Trying to come in and help as much as we could. It’s just really a good team effort. We can still be better. We’re going to have to be better. We just need to adjust. When you have a player, they start putting their head down, that’s when we got to keep backing up in space, force some contested jump shots instead of letting them get fouled or getting to the rim.
Q. What do you have to do against Alabama that you didn’t get done a couple months ago?
RICK BARNES: I go back to that game. Yves Pons picked up two quick fouls early in that game. Jaden didn’t play. He was playing well. I think he drove it, if I can remember right, turned his ankle. It got away from us. We didn’t handle it very well. That was really one of the first games I thought where we were down and didn’t know quite how to respond. I think they’ve gotten better. I’d like to think that we’ve gotten better. We’re going to need everybody. If Fulkerson is not available, we’re going to need more guys to step up and help us. We’re going to have to defend a team, I think one of you guys mentioned to Santi, about threes, getting to the rim. Again, we’re going to have to play good offense ourselves, take care of the basketball, not have those on-ball turnovers that lead to easy baskets.
NEXT: Rick Barnes’ postgame continued