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South Carolina Notes

LSU Notes

South Carolina Postgame Quotes

THE MODERATOR: We'll ask Coach Odom for some overall thoughts on the game and then take your questions just for the three student athletes, then we'll excuse them to the locker room.

COACH ODOM: Well, in typical fashion we made it interesting at the end. We rarely ever win with ease going away looking over our shoulder into the sunset. That rarely ever happens.

You know, today was business as usual for us with the exception that we were able to hang on and win the basketball game. I've got to give our team a lot of credit for that, I really do. They've experienced a lot of difficulties during the year, and today, fortunately, going into the last three minutes of play, we had enough cushion to survive and we had enough free throws to survive. We stopped them just enough times to survive. So I give our team a lot of credit.

And it really was a team effort. But at the same time, I want to give LSU a lot of credit, particularly Butch Pierre. My goodness, what a difficult job he had in assuming control of the head coaching position at LSU. I don't know when it was, 1st of February, something like that. And what a marvelous job he did. That's not an easy thing. I thought he had his team prepared each and every night that I saw him play, and today was no exception. He's done a really good job, and as I told him after the game, I told the coaching staff, I hope things work out for them at LSU. I'm not trying to hire a coach there or anything like that, but I think he deserves serious consideration, and I'm sure he'll get that, and if it works out for him, I certainly wish him well.

And when you look at LSU's team and kind of project into next year, I told our team, and they'll vouch for me, I told them that they are one of the up and coming teams in the SEC for next year. They'll have a senior on that team, Tasmin Mitchell scares you to death sitting over there on the bench. You're afraid they're going to put him in any minute. They've had a good recruiting year, so future is very bright for Tiger basketball.

I just appreciate everybody calling my guys student athletes (laughter).

Q. Zam, can you talk about that last play when LSU misses a three? You get the ball off the floor and all that action.

ZAM FREDRICK: Marcus threw into the deep three-pointer, and I saw it was long and I just tried to get back in on the action, just to get my hands on the ball. I happened to knock it loose from one of the big men, I can't remember which one it was, and I was going to throw it down the court but I was afraid to turn it over, so I just held onto it and got the foul called.

Q. This is for both of you guys. I think you were something like 4 of 28 when you went into that 13 two run, ten minutes to go or so. I saw you, Devan, get kind of fired up when the shots started falling. Can you talk about that run and how you two played into it?

DEVAN DOWNEY: Your question is how we felt during the run?

Q. Yeah, because you had struggled so much to that point shooting the ball.

DEVAN DOWNEY: It just felt good to finally hit a shot. I felt like I didn't shoot it good from the field. But like Coach told me before the game you can have a good game without making shots, so I found my teammates and contributed in other areas of the game.

ZAM FREDRICK: My shot wasn't falling early, either, as we all know. But I just tried to make sure I concentrated more on defense. I had to run around with Marcus, throw it the whole game, try to focus my energy there, and when I got shots I was going to take them. Unfortunately I wasn't making them. And then when I made a couple I usually score in bunches and I just tried to do what I could to help my team win.

Q. Can you guys talk about when you guys were down a couple there in the second half? Tell us about what was going through your mind and how you were feeling, man, this could be our last game? Could you talk about that?

ZAM FREDRICK: When we went down in the second half? We just rallied together. Next time-out we had, we felt we were still in it. We were down three. The time we went down by five or seven, all we knew we needed was to make one shot, make a shot to cut it down and make stops. We was focusing our efforts on defense. We knew if we could keep them from scoring eventually we was going to make shots, and once we started making them then we got on a run and we went up.

DEVAN DOWNEY: During the run it was kind of crazy because it was all five guys telling each other, we're still in it, let's get some stops. Once we were able to establish ourselves on defense, the offense game. Instead of trading baskets let's get some stops. Eventually when you get enough stops you're going to score.

MIKE HOLMES: I think we did pretty good. We got a lot of stops. The Coach told us that's the key to our offense, so we did that and it came out positive for us.

Q. Talk a little bit about Marcus Thornton and how you defended him, Zam and Devan?

ZAM FREDRICK: I knew I had to keep contact with Marcus all game. He can shoot it from deep, he can put it on the floor, so just play him straight, make it difficult for him. Make him do things he don't want to do. As on offensive player, I think -- like a defensive player, too, you have to be able to counter the things they do, attack him on the defensive end and make him do things that you can defend well. So I just tried to stay close to him and guard him as close as I could and make it difficult.

DEVAN DOWNEY: Marcus Thornton, he's a great offensive player. The game plan, some teams go in saying we want to keep guys under average. Our game plan, we want to make them shoot a low percentage. If you shoot the ball -- not saying he did, but if you shoot the ball enough times you're going to get your average. The game plan was just make it as hard as possible, make him shoot those 30-footers. If he can come off a ball screen and hit a contested 30-footer we'll leave with it. So I just think Zam did a great job making him throw the ball, and every time he scored, he earned it.

Q. Devan, you guys have to turn around and play a Tennessee team that has a lot of depth and plays at a fast pace. How much do you think this game took out of you today?

DEVAN DOWNEY: I mean, every game takes something out of you but for the rest of the day we've just got to eat and rest and get ready. Tennessee is a good team. They've beaten us twice. Like Coach said, we've played two good halves against them, the first half in both games. And the second half we've kind of let it slip. So the mindset tomorrow is put two halves together, go out and compete. It's not really that hard. We've got to go out and compete and match their intensity.

Q. The last game against Tennessee JaJuan Smith, he made the all SEC defensive team, he made one basket. What's the mindset when you go up against a stopper like that that was able to control you like he did the last meeting?

DEVAN DOWNEY: I had eight assists in the first half, so if it happens again and I can get eight assists, I'll take it. I don't have to score the basketball. I think I scored so much early in the year, now when I don't score people thinks something's wrong, but like Coach said, you don't have to score to have a good game.

COACH ODOM: I do think it's important, it's not something Devan would say, I think he tied his career high with assists today at 11. What he tells you is real, is true. You know, he, Zam, Michael, all of them have the ability to do things that help win basketball games other than score, and I think that statistic, 11 assists today, tying your career high, personifies that.

Q. You stuck with Baniulis when he was 1 for 6 from the three-point line and you were using man-to-man defense and Dwayne Day is a senior. What was your thought process of keeping him in there, and what did you think when he hit those three straight threes?

COACH ODOM: Evka has been shooting the ball very well in the last week to ten days. He went through a period where he was not. Dwayne has not shot the ball well in the last two weeks. He has not. It was difficult to pull Dwayne today in one way and it was not difficult in a another. When you look at decisions like that, you do what's best for the team, not for individuals.

Dwayne totally understood. I think also that today was a match-up decision. Evka has a chance to guard Alex Farrer. I don't know that he has a chance to guard JaJuan Smith on a regular basis, you see. And I looked at LSU, I'm saying, defensively we've got a chance. And that really is what I look at more than I do the offense, are we going to be outmatched anywhere and can we compensate. I think Evka more than held his own from that standpoint today. I knew if we just stuck with him long enough, he'll make shots. So will Zam. Those are the two guys that are kind of an X-factor from an offensive standpoint.

We needed shots today. Last time we played them I think we scored 56 points. That's not enough to win an SEC game. It's not. As a matter of fact, it's probably enough to win an ACC game, just not enough to win an SEC game (laughter). Barnhart won't miss that. That will be up there. I'll catch all kinds of mess when I do get to the beach (laughter).

56 is not enough to win in this league night in and night out, unless you play really good defense. We don't. This team does not. We did play better today.

It was more of a match-up decision, really.

Q. You just touched on it right there, this isn't a team that's played consistent defense all year, and LSU's players and coach really credited what you guys did today. I think you even slipped in a zone that you really hadn't much this year. What does it kind of mean that you kind of won this game by defence?

COACH ODOM: We did run a couple things that were different today. It won't be a secret tomorrow because Tennessee saw the game today. Unless we go back to the hotel and put something else in, they've seen everything we've done, so it won't be a secret.

I think today was won on both ends of the court, really. Defensively we did have some good runs until LSU figured it out, and again, you've got to give Butch a lot of credit for that, he and his staff put together a good offensive plan at halftime. What worked in the first half defensively didn't in the second half. We added a second defense in the second half which did help us. So defensively, you know, I'll go back and I'll sell that to our team, and perhaps it'll give us a few more possessions tomorrow perhaps out of Tennessee.

Q. I think two years ago, I think Tennessee beat you twice during the regular season when you knocked them out of the SEC Tournament. Do you see any similarities to two years ago, and just how tough is it to win three times against an opponent?

COACH ODOM: Well, only in that the scenario is set up for that. I mean, they did beat us twice. We did beat them in the second round. But everything is different. Their team is much better, much better. Ours is not. We're not as good a team at this time as we were that particular night. Remember, that's a team that beat Florida twice during the regular season. It was a team of veterans, it was a team that had actually been together for a couple of years, and it was a team that actually had two NBA players, although we didn't know it at the time, playing on that team, and a third I think will make it, Tre Kelly. So it was a team that was a little bit more together. Not that this team's not, it's just a younger team.

So from that standpoint, the scenario of second time with Tennessee is true, but as I said to the media yesterday, Tennessee is the overwhelming favorite to win this tournament. I mean, they have proven over the course of the conference season to be the best team. They played the second best, maybe the best schedule in the country. They are expertly coached, and they have good depth. They hurt you at every position, and they play confident. Their style is different than any other team -- every other team in our league, every other team. Nobody plays the style they play. It's a quick turnaround for us.

The only advantage probably we have is that we just played them Saturday, and I am going to talk to our team between now and 1:00 o'clock tomorrow relentlessly about the first half. I'm going to show them that over and over and over again because that's what it will take for us to be in the game the last two minutes. We've got to play like that for 40 minutes.

They're capable of doing that. I'm talking about Tennessee. Tennessee is capable of playing 40 minutes.

Is our team capable of playing that? That's what we have to do in order to be in the game. We have to play like that for 40 minutes.

Q. Was there anything that you saw today that would make you feel more confident about how you can play and compete with Tennessee tomorrow?

COACH ODOM: Well, I think any time you win a conference tournament game, an opening round game, and I've told our team, the only advantage about not getting a bye is you get an opportunity to get the opening game jitters out of the way.

I think that's more important for teams like us than it is for, say -- well, Tennessee, for instance. I am certain Tennessee does not fear South Carolina. Respect us, I think they do. But they don't fear us.

I don't think they fear anybody in this tournament.

The teams that have problems in the opening round are those that have had good seasons, barely. In other words, they've won a bunch of games to finish third, maybe second in one of the two divisions. And those teams are nervous in the first round. Those teams that are bubble teams, if you will, they're nervous as heck. Tennessee is not nervous. They're not nervous. They're confident, they're relaxed, and they'll run. They would like a circus atmosphere tomorrow, alley-oops, dunks behind the head, their tails fall off, pick them up, throw them on their arms and let's go. That's what they want. They're not nervous.

You know, their future for next week is secure.

Q. Knowing this is a one and done situation in this tournament, what's your feeling that you get to coach this team one more day?

COACH ODOM: I'm thankful. Listen, I've been blessed. The Lord gave me one more day. I'm going to enjoy it. I go into tomorrow with no fear, no trepidation, nothing. I'm not anxious about it at all. I don't wish it were an hour from now. I'm going to enjoy the next, whatever that is, 20 hours, between now and then. I'm going to enjoy the heck out of that. Hope I don't sleep tonight so I can stay awake and think about it, go back in there and wake my wife up and say, "Hey, let me tell you something." I want 20 hours of no sleep. I'll probably get it (laughter).

Q. Is there anything match-up-wise that you think you could do differently against Tennessee after you played them that you came away thinking, hey, maybe we can try this or that?

COACH ODOM: Not really. You know, as I said yesterday, it's no secret, my belief is that Tennessee, they create the tempo of the game with their defense. Their offense feeds on their defense. They tease you from three, and they beat you from five. I mean, that's what they do. They make you guard them at three so they can score at five feet. And somehow we know that we've got to find a way to guard them at both. Chris Lofton, JaJuan Smith both can beat us. They scored, what, 28 and 22 last weekend? 50 points. They got 50 points. We only got 56 ourselves or something like that. I mean, come on. So you have to guard them at three. But in truth, I mean, it's the second shots, it's the offensive rebounds, it's the tipped dunks, it's the running lay-ups across the breaks that really beat you. We've got a better chance of guarding them inside of five than we do at the three. We've got the dome; maybe they don't shoot well. Maybe. The best chance we've got is to make them miss. We can't sit back and hope they miss. We've got to be aggressive with that.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.

LSU Postgame Quotes

THE MODERATOR: We'll ask Coach Pierre for some overall thoughts on the game and then we'll take your questions just for the two student athletes and then we'll excuse them back to the locker room and then we'll finish up with Coach.

COACH PIERRE: I think South Carolina and Coach Odom, they did a good job. They prepared for us. The team hit some timely baskets and made some plays when they needed to at certain points of the ballgame.

You know, I'm just proud of our guys, the way we fought through a time of adversity and put ourselves in a position where we had an opportunity to not only play in this game but have an opportunity to win it. You know, they made some shots down the stretch and built a lead, and we were able to come back. The game went back and forward.

I thought one of the biggest key statistics of the game was -- and we hadn't been doing this, is we had 19 turnovers, and those 19 turnovers obviously were some easy transition baskets for South Carolina.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for either of the student athletes.

Q. How was South Carolina able to dictate the tempo? It looked like they had the game at their speed, especially in the second half.

ANTHONY RANDOLPH: The Coach and the team just had a great game plan and they followed it to a tee. They just did a good job this game of getting us out of our stuff.

MARCUS THORNTON: We had played them probably no longer than two weeks ago, so they kind of had a good general idea of what we was going to do, and they just executed on defense, and we just missed a couple baskets, easy shots, that gave them easy buckets on their side.

Q. Obviously you came in a very hot team. You've had a tough year, but how disappointing is this because you were planning to make some noise because of the way you played heading into this tournament.

ANTHONY RANDOLPH: I mean, it's disappointing any time you lose. I mean, all the stuff that we did before the SEC Tournament, it doesn't matter. It's irrelevant. It's zero-zero when you come in, and that showed today. South Carolina just played a great game.

MARCUS THORNTON: You know, any game, you play outside with the kids and you lose and it hurts. We have to rebuild, come back next year and rebuild on the things that we had this year and just get better and get better as a unit.

Q. Anthony, will your decision to stay here or go pro have anything to do with who the next coach may be at LSU? Will that affect your decision?

ANTHONY RANDOLPH: Like I said, Coach Pierre has been a great mentor to me on and off the court. Yeah, it's going to affect my decision. But like I said earlier, I love LSU, I love playing with my team and my teammates, and as you can see I'm having fun out there. I love LSU. It's not just about one person.

Q. Coach mentioned the turnovers. What did South Carolina do, if anything, differently, or why were they able to force so many turnovers?

ANTHONY RANDOLPH: They just played great defense. They doubled down a lot when they threw the ball in the post. They played passing lanes very well, and they just got into our wing players. They just played great defense.

MARCUS THORNTON: I don't think they did anything too different. At certain points of the game I just figured we ain't executing like we usually do. That took a toll in the game in the final minute or whatever, whatever time they had left.

Q. For Marcus, how good a look did you get on that final three and just your thoughts on that final shot?

MARCUS THORNTON: I felt like I had enough space to get it off or whatever, and I thought -- like I shoot every shot, I thought it had a chance of going in. Obviously it didn't. You know, it just went off by a little bit. But we had another chance, and I think Chris got fouled but they didn't call it, so whatever happened, happened.

Q. You're coming here on a great streak of scoring. Did South Carolina do anything different to you than they did the last game?

MARCUS THORNTON: Well, towards the end of the game they tried to go box and one, you know, keep a man in my face or whatever. They was able to free up open players on my team, and that's all it was, just a box and one.

THE MODERATOR: We'll excuse you. You can return to the locker room. Thank you. We will continue on with questions for the Coach.

Q. The same thing I asked them about the turnovers, did South Carolina do anything different or better, or you talked about they play a lot of kind of tricky defenses. What did they do to get you guys out of rhythm?

COACH PIERRE: I think he made some pretty good adjustments. They made some 1-3-1 zone and they normally don't do that. But we were prepared for it, and we got some good looks. Any time we shoot 50 percent from the floor and 78 from the line and make some threes, our defense is usually good enough to not only be in games, to win the game.

I thought on the offensive end, they made some timely baskets, they got some open looks that they didn't get the first time, and also, I see where we only blocked one shot. And I think the one blocked shot was because last time we played them, they forced it inside and their big men inside challenged Chris and Anthony, whereas tonight they kind of slid them away from the goal, and when they slid them away from the goal, they hit those 14-foot, 15-foot jump shots. Holmes hit some timely baskets throughout the game.

Q. What are you feeling right now? Do you feel that you're at the end of something, or do you really know how to feel at this point?

COACH PIERRE: Well, you know, I feel for our players because they were very excited, looking forward to playing in this tournament. You know, I tried to tell them, and I did tell them, that the score is tied at zero-zero when it starts in the win-loss column, and you've got to go out there and win the game because it's just not going to happen. So I feel for them.

But like I told them in the locker room when the game was over, they came a long way from a 1 and 7 team to be in a position to have some momentum late in the season and in the Southeast Conference, and to win your last five out of six games and be able to be in this position, this is the only reason that you have a chance at beating -- winning the game.

We had our chances. The game was manageable. Just in the second half, in a stretch during that gain, made some big baskets and kind of separated and we didn't respond. But we still had a chance in the end to tie the ballgame.

Q. Can you talk about Anthony's progression this season, and at this point do you think it would be beneficial for him to come back next year and stay with LSU?

COACH PIERRE: Well, Anthony made some progress. I know we talked about the other team. He kind of rushed it early on as far as a couple of traveling calls. He had six turnovers and that's uncharacteristic for him, and Chris.

But as far as him coming back to LSU next year, I spent a lot of time with him and his family and his high school coach, and that decision is based upon Anthony Randolph and his family. I guess we'll all kind of sit down and discuss where he is. It's like anything else, he needs to continue to grow. He's got a lot of room to improve both mentally and physically, and I guess it's going to determine on exactly what his family wants to do.

My gut feeling, I think he will be back. But that evaluation process, I guess, will be over the next couple of months.

Q. How many times in your coaching career have you been at the end of a season and not really known what you're going to be doing next season?

COACH PIERRE: Never, because I'll be coaching somewhere (laughing). You know, one of the things about Butch Pierre is that I'm a very confident person, confident coach, now I'm a confident head coach in terms of recruiting, also. You know, I'm just going to get back home with my wife and my family and talk about things and see what happens.

Q. You took over a tough situation ten games ago, made a lot of great strides. Overall how did you feel about your head coaching job, and do you feel like you deserved to be back?

COACH PIERRE: Well, you know, like I said before, I thank LSU and the administration for giving me this opportunity. I loved it, I enjoyed it. Even though it was a time of adversity working there, you never want to see that happen to anybody, Coach Brady, a friend of mine who I've been working with for 11 years.

Under the circumstances it was tough. A lot of times when guys become a head coach it's an easy transition for them because it's usually at a mid-major school and all the lights and TV is not showing on you, so you've got a lot of chances for error or to make mistakes. I didn't have a lot of opportunity to make mistakes. I thought I did well, and the kids did extremely well in adapting and being coachable. We made progress, and that's what coaching is all about, to help these young men become model citizens. In the meantime you have to win games, particularly in the Southeastern Conference and LSU because that's the highest level in college sports.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.

Game 2 - [E3] Vanderbilt 93, [W6] Auburn 82

ATLANTA (AP) -- Shan Foster played like the Southeastern Conference player of the year. A.J. Ogilvy was even better.

Ogilvy scored a career-best 27 points and Foster added 26 after being named the top player on the coaches' All-SEC team earlier in the week, leading No. 18 Vanderbilt past Auburn 93-82 in the opening round of the Southeastern Conference tournament Thursday.

The Commodores (26-6) shot 67 percent (33 of 49) from the field, falling just short of the tournament record. They advanced to face Arkansas in the quarterfinals Friday.

Auburn (14-16) will miss out on a postseason berth for the fifth year in a row.

Ogilvy, a 6-foot-11 freshman from Australia, teamed with Foster to provide a devastating inside-outside punch for the Commodores.

The big center made 12 of 13 shots, nearly all of them gimmes after he got loose underneath. He did step outside to hit one long jumper with his foot on the 3-point line.

Foster, the SEC's leading scorer, handled most of the outside shooting, making 6 of 9 from beyond the arc to add another notch to his brilliant season. The 6-6 senior reached 20 points in his sixth straight game and 19th overall.

Vanderbilt built a double-digit lead 5 1/2 minutes into the game, and was comfortably out front most of the first half with the Big Two leading the way. Foster had 19 points and Ogilvy 14 by halftime.

Auburn got a taste of what it was in for right from the start. Ogilvy scored on his first three shots, then Foster swished a 3. After Ogilvy slipped inside for another easy basket, Alex Gordon connected on a 3 that made it 14-4 and forced Tigers coach Jeff Lebo to call a quick timeout.

The Commodores shot 76 percent in the first half and tailed off just a bit over the final 20 minutes. They would have broken the tournament mark for field-goal percentage in a game if not for a botched dunk by little-used George Drake in the final minute with the outcome already decided.

Kentucky still holds the record (68.3 percent) from its 101-100 victory over Alabama in 1979.

Vanderbilt is trying to improve on a mostly dismal history in the SEC tournament, which included six losses in seven previous meetings against Auburn. The Commodores' lone championship came in 1951 - the only time they have reached the final.

Auburn, which trailed 47-36 at halftime, closed to 61-56 on a 3-pointer by Lucas Hargrove with 11 1/2 minutes remaining. But Vanderbilt scored the next 10 points to put it away, with Foster contributing a jumper and a layup before Gordon capped the spurt with two free throws.

Rasheem Barrett scored 20 points to lead four Auburn players in double figures. Senior Frank Barrett chipped in with 17 before fouling out of his final college game with less than a minute to go.

The Tigers, who struggled to deal with Vanderbilt's superior size, also lost Quan Prowell to fouls. He picked up his fifth with nearly 12 minutes remaining in a futile attempt to block a shot by Ross Neltner.

Gordon had 14 points and Neltner 10 to add a little balance to the Commodores' offense.

Game/Tournament Notes

Vanderbilt Notes

Auburn Notes

Vanderbilt Postgame Quotes

THE MODERATOR: We'll ask Coach for some overall thoughts on the game, then we'll go to the student athletes for question and answers. Then they'll return to the locker room and we'll finish up with Coach.

COACH STALLINGS: Well, it's always an interesting game when you play Auburn because there are challenges, and obviously there are challenges for them, too, and we were able to utilize our advantages I thought today, namely these two guys here, and especially A.J.

I thought our team did a great job of moving the ball and being patient with it and getting it inside. We really kind of made an emphasis on not taking, at least with some guys, not taking quick threes early in the clock and being more patient and trying to get the ball to A.J. as much as we could. I thought our guys really bought into the game plan and executed it very well. So that was really kind of the difference in the game.

We were able to get Prowell in foul trouble and he's a very good player, obviously having to play out of position, and when we were able to get him in foul trouble, even though it caused us problems defensively because now they had five -- really had five guards in the game, still, we had enough advantages on the offensive end that we were able to kind of hold our own.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Shan and A.J.?

Q. Shan, you always seem ready to shoot the ball when you get it, but when you were getting ready to shoot you were just open more than somebody would have expected in a game like this. You had some pretty good looks there. Were you surprised by that?

SHAN FOSTER: Definitely. I haven't gotten many open shots this year, but we knew that they were going to come out and play a lot of different zones, so if we got the ball moving and moved ourselves a little bit, then we would get open shots as a team. My teammates did a great job of finding me when I was open and I was able to knock down a few shots.

Q. Talk about the rematch with Arkansas. Obviously a real tight game in Fayetteville. Talk about losing to Arkansas four in a row. I know you guys have won a lot of games the past couple years, and I would think you would want to make up for that?

SHAN FOSTER: Well, they're a great team and they're definitely well-coached. I think they have one of the biggest big men in this league, and they do a good job of pressuring and doing a lot of different things. Unfortunately we haven't had great success against them, but we look forward to a great game tomorrow. We know they're going to be amped up and ready to play, and we will, too.

A.J. OGILVY: Really looking forward to coming out and having a good game tomorrow. Obviously the game didn't end the way we wanted it to in Fayetteville, but they're a good team and it'll be a great contest.

Q. How much of an advantage did you sense you had today inside against a team that's probably the smallest in the league? Did you sense you were going to be able to have your way in there today?

A.J. OGILVY: I don't know if I had my way. As soon as we came out I had a couple good looks and I was in pretty good position. Prowell got into foul trouble, they had some issues trying to get good players in there, and my teammates did a good job of getting the ball to me in easy scoring position, so that was the biggest asset.

Q. What part of your game has improved the most this year? What was the most difficult transition you had to make to American College basketball?

A.J. OGILVY: I think definitely my defense I think has improved the most. Obviously coming over here and playing against more agile and more athletic players, I had to learn to move my feet better and to play in the college system I obviously have to be a pretty good defender, so I obviously had to improve that a lot.

Q. For both of you guys, did you feel like Auburn would wear down or that they did wear down? Obviously you knew their numbers situation. It looked like you guys went on like a 10-0 run there midway through the second half. Did you kind of feel like maybe fatigue started to set in for them right then?

A.J. OGILVY: Down the stretch they were still making a lot of plays, and it was a game that came down to the last few minutes. We knew if we were able to get them into a close game, we're pretty good at finishing out games, that hopefully we would come out so tried to wear them down, and I don't know if they got fatigued or not but, went on a couple of good runs and we were able to come away with a win.

SHAN FOSTER: Just to piggy back on what A.J. said, I'm not sure if they wore down. They came out the second half, especially late, and made a lot of shots, made a lot of contested shots, made big plays. Just felt like we had a few advantages and we were able to execute.

Q. This question is for A.J. I think Jeff Lebo compared -- he said watching them go against you reminded him of watching him take his six-year-old kid to the hole. Liken or compare that to what you'll be seeing, Arkansas has got five guys 6'8" or taller?

A.J. OGILVY: It's obviously a very different game playing against guys a little bit shorter, but they were obviously really athletic and able to get around the post really well. There was a lot more swiveling and stuff like that involved. Obviously Arkansas is going to be a bit of a different game, a lot more physical, and hopefully we just come out and play well against them.

Q. You've talked all season about how tough you feel like you guys are to beat when both you guys have kind of got it going from the inside and outside. How encouraging was it for you today to come out and do that and just kind of have that inside-outside combination? You've got to feel pretty encouraged about getting the postseason started that way?

SHAN FOSTER: Definitely. Definitely feel like we have an advantage inside with A.J. and the things that he's able to do and bring to our team. Whenever he's playing the way he did today the way he's capable of playing, then it makes it easy for a lot of other guys on this team to jump up and make shots. That was just a case of what happened today, and hopefully it'll be the case every time we play.

THE MODERATOR: We'll excuse you. You can return to the locker room. Thank you very much. We will continue on with Coach Stallings.

Q. How much grief do you anticipate giving A.J. for missing -- getting his only shot that he missed today blocked on a dunk?

COACH STALLINGS: Well, there's no anticipation necessary. I already jumped him in the locker room and said I can't believe that you couldn't make all your shots. All you had to do was make one more dunk and you would have been 13 for 13 (laughter). He got a good laugh out of it, actually. It was kind of nice, nice to see him laugh.

Q. Someone mentioned already, seemed like they were making shots, you were making shots until a point with about maybe ten minutes to go in the second half. You maybe turned up the defensive pressure a little bit and forced them into some sloppy play. What do you remember about that stretch?

COACH STALLINGS: I think that we were able to get some stops and some rebounds, and our offense flowed pretty much the whole game. So when we were able to get stops, we were able to extend our lead, and then -- so we'd get them for a them and then they'd make shots for a them and we'd get them for a while and they'd make shots for a while.

I thought offensively except for right at the start of the second half, I thought we had a pretty good flow the entire game. We're capable of being a good offensive team, and when our defense and our rebounding is good enough, then we usually have a chance to win.

Q. What has A.J. improved the most?

COACH STALLINGS: Actually when I leaned over to him, I think the question was what was the biggest transition. When we were walking from the locker room here, he said I can't believe how much media coverage there is for this. So I leaned over to him, and I said, don't say media," because he was talking as we were walking from the locker room to here about how this was really like the biggest difference to him he thought was just how much media exposure and things that there were.

But anyway, what has he improved the most on? I think he's improved -- I was really surprised to hear him say defensively (laughter). I hope it's defense. I hope that's it. That's all I'll say.

Q. Just wondering if you could talk about the rematch with Arkansas, getting them here on neutral floor as opposed to Fayetteville.

COACH STALLINGS: The venue hasn't made that much difference. They've pretty much had their way with us. It doesn't matter, neutral floor or -- they beat us on our court last year, came here and beat us, they beat us on their court this year. They seem to play well against us and we seem to struggled with them. We'll see what happens tomorrow. We had a chance to win the game over in Fayetteville, and they just made a couple more plays at the end than we did. But took a pretty good shot from them over there because they shot the ball extremely well, so maybe we can induce them to miss a few shots tomorrow and give us a little better chance. But they were awfully good that day at their place.

Q. When you say they've had their way with you, is there any particular reason that you would care to share in a public forum?

COACH STALLINGS: They have good players. They have long, athletic, good players, and -- last year they were really a horrible match-up for us, and this year I don't feel like that the match-up is as bad. Last year I thought it was. They were one of the most difficult teams in the league for us to match up with last year.

Anyway, we'll see what happens tomorrow. I wasn't -- we had a chance to win over there, and we know that. Knew that -- know we had a chance to win. We were in that game -- it was a one-point game with ten seconds to play or something, and we were there the whole day. We'll just see how it goes tomorrow.

Q. When you get 27 out of A.J. and 26 out of Shan and just look at the way the offense operated today, is that as close to what you would have envisioned with the inside-outside tandem?

COACH STALLINGS: Well, I thought that certainly when you look and A.J. is 12 for 13 and Shan is 9 for 14, the proficiency is awfully good. But I thought the key to that today was we really made an emphasis with our team not to take quick threes and make a few extra passes and see if could put the ball in A.J.'s hands. And I think as a result not only did A.J. touch it more but Shan touched it more. Our team bought into that, they did it, they executed it, and the best news was they did it with a smile on their face. I don't think we had guys out there resisting and thinking things that selfish players thing. I think that they embraced it and they got the ball where it needed to be, and as a result we had a very good offensive performance.

Q. Just following up on that, has that been a problem here of late?

COACH STALLINGS: Not a problem with the players, it's been a problem with the coaching. I have tolerated too many quick bad threes early in the clock from guys that don't make a high enough percentage to warrant that. You know, it will probably come as a great shock, I didn't put any restrictions on Shan (laughter). I told Shan if it feels round, you can shoot it (laughter).

But other guys, need to make a couple extra passes. Now, did that, and we still had some guys step up and make shots later in the clock, which is exactly what I want. But as a result, A.J. gets a bunch of touches. And those touches are good for our team. The more touches he gets, the better off we play usually, or the better we play.

Q. I've heard some coaches say in the quarterfinal game the team that won the day before and kind of got used to playing here has an advantage. Other coaches say, well, the team didn't have to play and is well-rested or better-rested has an advantage. Do you have any thoughts on that?

COACH STALLINGS: Not particularly. I generally think that the team that plays the best has the advantage. That's kind of the way I look at it. That's -- I'm not trying to be evasive on the question, but I have no opinion on whether it's an advantage to play the day before or have the rest or whatever because you can go back through the history of the tournament and figure out the percentages, and probably the team that didn't play has won more games because they were the better seed and the better team, probably. Now, I don't have any statistical data to back that up, but I think what will happen tomorrow is if Arkansas plays better they'll win and if we play better we'll win. I think that's what will happen.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

Auburn Postgame Quotes

THE MODERATOR: We'll begin and ask Coach for some overall thoughts on the game and then we'll take your questions just for the three student athletes and then we'll excuse them back to the locker room.

COACH LEBO: Well, I thought Vanderbilt's game plan was fairly simple and something we struggled with because of our size. They went inside on us pretty consistently, and Ogilvy scored a ton in there, and Quan Prowell got in foul trouble and really had to play the majority of the game with a 6'6", 190 guy at the center position. The kids battled hard. They shot the ball extremely well. Offensively it wasn't an issue for us, it was just having a hard time stopping them on the other end. Their two big guns really hurt us in this game.

Q. Talk about battling Ogilvy inside.

FRANK TOLBERT: I mean, it's tough. He's, what, 6'11", 260, 280, and it was just tough because I'm just so small, and it's just as much as I can do to keep him from getting the ball. It's just a tough job down there.

QUAN PROWELL: It was a tough match-up being the way that Vanderbilt moves the ball. The position we needed it to be in by the time we got the ball, it was already rotated to a different spot. So he got his angles on us, and he's a big body so he's tough to get around.

Q. Quan, could you just kind of talk about your foul trouble and also that last foul where I know you were coming into the game with four fouls and probably trying to stay in a little bit longer than you ended up staying in?

QUAN PROWELL: Yeah, that's been something that I tried to stay away from all season is foul trouble. I just got a few calls that changed the game a little bit, and on the last foul I came in -- I don't know what I was thinking, I should have just let him go. But just got caught up in the game and forgot about the fouls I had.

Q. The first half you all shot the ball well. They could not hit their first ten shots. Were you kind of thinking, are they ever going to miss because we're shooting the ball pretty well?

FRANK TOLBERT: I mean, Vanderbilt, that's one of their strengths. They're a very good shooting team. We were making shots, they were making shots, it was just a matter of continuing to play. We felt that they wasn't going to be hitting them like that the whole game, but it seems like they were. But you've just got to keep faith and continue to play the game, and hopefully the ball will bounce your way.

Q. Rasheem, it looked like you played one of your better games today, I guess coming back to your hometown. Is there any satisfaction in that?

RASHEEM BARRETT: There's never satisfaction in losing. There's always something you can do better. I mean, I played pretty way around the game, but obviously I didn't do good enough. We didn't do good enough as a team.

Q. Can you talk about your two seniors? You've had some snake bit-teams over the past couple of years, but can you talk about your two seniors and what they've been able to provide?

THE MODERATOR: This is the time period just for the players right now.

Q. Then this is for the seniors, too, and just their time at Auburn.

FRANK TOLBERT: My time here was great. Even though it didn't end like I wanted it to, I mean, I enjoyed the times I had here. The coaching staff was great, I made a lot of great guys in my teammates, from past to present. So I mean, my time here was great.

QUAN PROWELL: I enjoyed my time here, too. Just being around the fellows and coaches, you know, I love them like they were my true family, and I hope we continue to have this tie that we have these couple years I've been here. I loved it.

THE MODERATOR: We'll excuse the players. You can return to the locker room. Thank you for coming. We will continue on with Coach.

Q. Talk about your two seniors, Coach.

COACH LEBO: They meant a lot. It was an emotional locker room after the game. Those two guys I don't think have missed a practice. I think Frank might have missed one and we might have kept Quan out because we made him stay out of a practice, but they set the tone for us. Frank is one that's been here for four years, a guy I didn't recruit. When I took over the job, guys were flying out the door, and he was one that stayed. I've got a lot of respect for frank, I've got a lot of respect for what he's meant to this basketball program, and I just love him as a kid. I mean, he's just a terrific kid.

Those two guys, you go to war with those. Those two guys really have sacrificed probably more than anybody this year with our injuries. They had to play out of position. Frank Tolbert and Quan, I planned on playing Frank at the two and Quan at the three and some even Quan at the two guard, and now all of a sudden they're thrust into a situation where they're playing power forward and center the whole game. I don't know if people quite understand the sacrifice -- when you're a senior, to have to do that. I would think about my own career, if I had to do that, it would be very, very difficult. Very difficult. They never complained, they never wanted it any differently. They said they'd do anything to help this team, and they ran out of gas. The team ran out of gas at the end. Those two gave so much night in and night out, and they battled every single night, never complained, and they never came to see me. I've just got a lot of respect for both those kids.

Q. Right after Quan fouled out, I think you guys hit a three-pointer to cut it to five and then Vanderbilt scored ten straight. Was that a depth fatigue thing right there do you think?

COACH LEBO: Well, everything you see -- we played six guys, of which five of them -- one of them only played 11 minutes and probably our most important. When Quan goes out our whole front line is gone. We were playing 6-6 and no subs at that point. We were fatigued, and the way we have to play -- we did what we needed to do offensively, but the fatigue and not being able to manufacture anything easy. They can get an easy one and throw inside to Ogilvy and he can throw an easy bucket. We can't manufacture anything easy. We can't get those. Whether it's an offensive stick-back, whether it's a post-up move, we have to rely so much on our spread and being off the bounce. Most of the time we were good enough. We scored a lot of points. They had to go small when we were scoring a lot of points and they would put some of their bigger guys on the bench and we didn't have to worry about them as much. It was hard for our kids against Ogilvy in there. He's got savvy, he's got great hands and his body is so big. It kind of reminds me of playing in my backyard against my six-year-old son. I can score on him whenever I want (laughter).

Q. Having played Arkansas and Vandy back to back, I was wondering how you see that match-up on a neutral floor tomorrow?

COACH LEBO: It should be a good one. The one thing that it will be depending on really how Vanderbilt shoots that ball from their key spots. Gordon I think is one guy that has been -- from the three-point line has struggled a little bit. He's got to shoot the ball well for them. Arkansas's side and strength inside, I think they'll be obviously able to handle Ogilvy much better. With their depth and shot blockers and size inside. So it'll be an interesting game tomorrow.

Q. When do you start thinking about next year and the potential for success that you have with all the guys coming back and only losing two?

COACH LEBO: Well, probably in about two days is when you start thinking about it. But we'll take some time to reflect on the season, a very tough, difficult, trying season with a lot of curve balls in it. We've got to get back healthy, we've got to get our best players back on the floor. We've got some areas where guys coming back have to get better. Our depth has to improve obviously, and that will start here pretty soon.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.

Game 3 - [W5] Alabama 80, [E4] Florida 69

ATLANTA (AP) -- Mykal Riley's 3-point barrage ended Florida's three-year run as SEC tournament champions, leaving the Gators' NCAA tournament hopes in doubt.

The Crimson Tide (17-15) was dominant in the first half but had a 28-point lead shrink to 6 before recovering to beat Florida 80-69 Thursday night in the first round of the Southeastern Conference tournament.

Alabama ended Florida's streak of 18 consecutive postseason victories over two years while giving the Gators (21-11) their first SEC tournament loss since the 2004 championship game. Florida is in danger of missing the NCAA tournament after winning two straight national titles.

Riley tied the school record with eight 3-pointers and finished with 26 points. The senior guard snapped Florida's momentum with back-to-back 3s after the Gators pulled to 57-51 with 9:02 left.

Alabama will face Western Division top seed Mississippi State in Friday's quarterfinals.

Richard Hendrix added 22 points for Alabama, while Marreese Speights led Florida with 15.

Alabama had 14-0 and 11-0 runs in the first 11 minutes to lead by 25 before Florida reached double figures. The Crimson Tide took their biggest lead, 42-14, with 4 minutes left in the first half, then struggled to put the game away.

The loss leaves Florida with a nervous wait until Sunday, when the NCAA tournament field is announced. Florida has played in nine straight NCAA tournaments.

Florida won at least 20 games for the 10th straight season, but it has four straight losses and a shaky RPI ranking at No. 65.

Florida suffered a dramatic reversal of its domination while winning the last three SEC tournaments. The Gators beat Georgia, Mississippi and Arkansas by an average of almost 20 points on the way to the 2007 championship in Atlanta.

Al Horford, a star of last year's Florida team, attended the game but all he could do was watch. He's now a rookie star with the NBA's Atlanta Hawks.

Florida beat Alabama 90-83 in Tuscaloosa on Jan. 8, but the Crimson Tide opened strong by scoring the first 14 points in the rematch.

Hendrix hit the first basket, and followed with a steal to set the pace. Riley had three 3-pointers in the first five minutes while Hendrix and Alonzo Gee, who had three first-half dunks, led the inside attack.

Alabama didn't rest on its opening run. After Alex Tyus scored for Florida to make it 19-5, the Tide ripped off 11 straight points to push the lead to 30-5.

Florida managed only two field goals in the first 10:55.

Alabama led 46-23 at halftime and was up 55-30 after a 3-pointer by Riley, but Florida stormed back by scoring 21 of the next 23 points. Chandler Parsons hit two 3s during the run and wound up with 13 pounds.

Riley ended Florida's comeback with two 3-pointers, and the Gators got no closer than eight points the rest of the way.

Gee had 13 points for Alabama, which held a 45-29 advantage on the boards but committed 17 turnovers.

Game/Tournament Notes

Alabama Notes

Florida Notes

Alabama Postgame Quotes

THE MODERATOR: We're ready to continue on with Alabama. We'll ask coach Gottfried for some overall thoughts on the game, then we'll go to questions for the two student athletes.

COACH GOTTFRIED: Let me say, first of all, I thought -- I'm really happy it was a good team win. A lot of guys contributed in a lot of different ways. Defensively especially, I thought some guys stepped up and made some great defensive plays in the first half. I thought the first half was a terrific half of basketball obviously. And you knew they were going to make a run, make some shots. I didn't know they'd make that many, make that kind of run. But our guys did a great job of keeping their poise, not losing their poise, but obviously we're excited about winning and we hope we can stay here in Atlanta for a long time.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for the athletes.

Q. Could you talk about how good you felt shooting the ball tonight, and in particular how did you get open for those threes late in the game and how big did you feel like those shots were?

MIKE CONLEY JR.: They was real big. It was a screen, you know, coming off the left side or whatever, and I was open. Yamene fouled me or whatever, but it was real big to shoot those threes and make it.

Q. For Richard, when they were able to cut the lead down from 55 to 30, they got it down to about six points. Was there ever any nervousness, any concern? What was the attitude of the team in the huddle and you on the floor?

RICHARD HENDRIX: I think the attitude was just trying to protect the lead and playing to win instead of playing not to lose. We had to make adjustments and get a run of our own and just close the game out instead of worrying about them making their run. We just had to do what we had to do.

Q. It seemed like your blocked shot down there on Speights was one of the big plays that led to Mykal hitting a three at the other end. Just sort of talk about that play and then your defense as a whole?

RICHARD HENDRIX: I just saw them going down the lane and it looked like he had a wipe-open lay-up and I gave it all I had and stretched out and I got a piece of it. Mykal knocked down the shot and that was a big momentum swing for us.

THE MODERATOR: Fellows we'll excuse you. You can return to the locker room.

Q. I know this probably sounds crazy in a way, but how difficult is it to play when you have a big lead like that early and maintain that intensity throughout the game?

COACH GOTTFRIED: Well, it's actually -- you get in a tricky spot there because you want your team to stay aggressive but you don't want to take quick shots and play into their hands. I think Richard made a good point. I think we were right, we were stretched there in the second half where we were kind of holding on rather than playing basketball. We had a couple timeouts there where we were able to just kind of mentally challenge them a little bit, that we've got to keep playing.

I thought Riley's three there -- we got stuck on 55, 56 it seemed to me there for a long time, couldn't get off of that. I think when he hit a three there, one of those threes, I know it kind of gave us some oxygen back in the tank where we could stretch it out a little bit more. You've got a big lead, you want to keep pushing ahead, you try to play it smart, we ended up turning the ball over too much in the second half, but we had some poise down the stretch.

Q. You said you expected Florida to make a run but not quite the kind of run they did. Just talk about that stretch for you and what you were thinking to maybe stop that thing.

COACH GOTTFRIED: Well, they were shooting the ball well, and we had some breakdowns defensively that we did not have -- first half we guarded them really well. I think our guys, everything they tried to run we did a great job. Second half I thought defensively, we just -- mentally we just seemed just a little bit lost on a few trips, which led to penetration, which led to a three. They were knocking them down.

I still felt like we were always in good shape. I didn't fear at any point that all of a sudden the game is turning against us. Like I said, we got stuck on in that 55, 56 range and then Riley hit a big three. That one kind of -- I think just our whole team, it kind of energized us again because we had a long stretch where we didn't make a basket. We had a lot of turnovers. I think our guys did a great job regrouping after that run and then finishing strong.

Q. You guys now get Mississippi State. How big of a factor is it to now allow Varnado to control the paint on the defensive end?

COACH GOTTFRIED: Let me say this about Mississippi State. I think they're really, really good. I've said that many times. I think that they have a lot of ingredients. They've got a point guard that's stronger than any point guard in the country, great shooters in Hansbrough and Stuart, got a phenomenal post player in Rose, and then you've got the best shock blocker in the nation. They've got all the parts. We've played them tough this year twice, haven't been able to beat them. But we just have to be ready to play again like we were today.

Q. The start of the game I thought your guards, just a lot of energy with Hillman and Hollinger just flat up and down the floor. How did you get that out of them for this game?

COACH GOTTFRIED: Well, there wasn't any magic dust we put on them. If we did we would have used it a few times this year. I thought our guys the last couple days did a great job in practice of really focusing in to what Florida was going to run. We made a lot of shots, which was big. But we also defended them well. They didn't score very much early. So I thought just from a team perspective, we had a great approach to the game.

I think we've -- for our team this year, we've had a lot of struggles, but one thing that we've never done is really fold the tent or pout or really get down. I mean, we've stayed positive, positive with one another. We had two great days, Monday and Tuesday, before we came yesterday. So I just think all those kind of things helped us a little bit.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.

Florida Postgame Quotes

THE MODERATOR: We'll ask Coach Donovan for some thoughts on the game.

COACH DONOVAN: Well, I thought Alabama played a terrific game, and they certainly shot the ball very well. I thought coming in, the key to the game for us was going to be to try to slow down the three-point line. You know, Riley had a great game against us shooting the ball last time we played them in Tuscaloosa, and I knew he had been shooting great against Vanderbilt and in particular in overtime with how well he shot the ball. And then Hendrix has been doing what he's been doing all year long. We really didn't have an answer for those guys, and they hurt us. Them going 8 for 15 from the three-point line and then 52 percent from the field. I think the last three games for us we've shot the ball very, very well, but defense has been a common theme and a common problem for us. And when we've shot the ball very, very well, we've hung around good teams. And I think when we haven't shot the ball well, like we didn't particularly shoot the ball well today. I think our defensive weaknesses really get exposed.

Q. Chandler and Alex, can you just talk about that first half? You guys were down 25 points, 14-0 real early, and just kind of what was going on there, what you were talking about?

CHANDLER PARSONS: Yeah, we didn't come ready to play today. They were hitting shots early. We weren't playing any defense, and it's tough once you get down too deep. It's tough to crawl back. But Coach Donovan has been stressing all year long about defense, and we're not going to beat anybody playing defense like that. Granted, Alabama played a lot better, but we've got to defend a lot better.

ALEX TYUS: Our main goal was just to try to get stops down the stretch. We wanted to mainly just cut the lead down, you know, around ten minutes left we wanted to get the lead to ten. Then with five minutes left we wanted to get into single digits, just maybe make a run at the end. We knew we couldn't do it all at once, but Alabama played great and they just kept coming back, so hats off to them.

Q. Chandler, how ill was Calathes? He seemed like he was a little off?

CHANDLER PARSONS: He's a little under the weather but Nick is a competitor. It's not going to interfere with the way he played. You've seen Nick at 100 percent, you've seen Nick ill. He's a competitor and he's going to play hard no matter what kind of sickness he has. It wasn't about any individual, it was about us getting did you know to quick and not being able to come back. When you do that against any team in the SEC it's almost impossible to fight back?

Q. Chandler and Alex, you guys got it to within six and had a couple possessions in a row where you could have cut it down, and it just seemed after that y'all kind of hit a wall. Would you talk about that?

CHANDLER PARSONS: We definitely made a big stretch there in the second half and I thought we played well. We started making shots and we started to defend just a little bit better. But playing against these high Division I teams in the SEC, no game is easy. I thought we fought back well, but there's no team we can beat out there once we play that bad of defense and get that far behind.

ALEX TYUS: Yeah, Coach Donovan has been telling us about pushing through the wall, and that was our main goal. Once we got the game closer we wanted to push through the wall, and we failed to do that. Alabama played great. We made a little run, and we just couldn't push through the wall like Coach Donovan has been telling us.

Q. This is for both players. This was a learning year for a lot of guys on this team. What do you take from your first year in the SEC that will help you in years to come?

CHANDLER PARSONS: I mean, people say we were young, and granted, we were, but age shouldn't have an effect on anything. We've just got to learn just to play hard every possession, and really, we've just got to defend better. Offense will come to us. We've got great guys. We've got guys that can put the ball in the basket. But we're not going to do the things we want to do playing defense like we did this year. It's just upsetting that it's this late in the season and we haven't really stepped up on defense and really taken control of that end of the floor.

ALEX TYUS: Yeah, just the main things, we needed to make those habits. We've been making the same mistakes as we did earlier in the year, and we can't do that this far in the season. Those other teams have corrected those mistakes, and we just can't keep making the same mistakes. I think we learned a lot that whole game, not just shooting or scoring or rebounding and doing our own thing. I think we've learned that there's a lot more to winning, and it reflects how we play.

Q. Can you talk about when you guys were down 42-14, you look up at the score board, what's running through your mind?

CHANDLER PARSONS: That's shocking. With everything that we're playing for, for us to allow ourselves to get that far behind, and we just -- it's a learning process, but I mean, it's late in the season. Having this happen this late, and just to look up there like that, and there's nothing we can do. There's no 20-point shot so we just had to keep fighting back and pull within six points, keep making little runs like that. Alabama capitalized and it was too big of a margin to come back from.

THE MODERATOR: We'll excuse the players. Questions for Coach Donovan?

Q. It seemed especially in the first half and even early in the second half you weren't real thrilled with Marreese's defense and sat him down. At this point in the season, I know I asked you this question after Mississippi State, but are you surprised at that?

COACH DONOVAN: You know, obviously for Chandler I think to say the team wasn't ready to play, I've got to take responsibility for that because I think that's my job. That's disappointing to hear. But I don't know if going into an SEC Tournament as a young kid, as a freshman, one, if he knows what he's talking about; and two, if he felt -- I don't know how you can't just yourself be excited. I think that that's kind of the way Marreese came out.

I'm not surprised. A lot of these guys talk a really, really good game, a lot of them do. You know, I think it's a matter of -- I think our deficiencies, so to speak, that have affected our team are exposed and I have not been able to, as a coach, get them to focus on it, improve it and make it better or buy into it or whatever words you want to use.

No, I watch it every day. I watch it every day, so I'm not surprised at all. There was nothing that was uncharacteristic for me as a coach watching our team play out there today. You know, I think, like I said, the reason we got down by so many points is because we didn't shoot 53, 54, 55 percent as we did in some of these last couple games. And I think that if you look at just the shooting percentage by Alabama today and the three-point shooting percentage, it isn't a whole lot different from what Tennessee or Kentucky or Mississippi State shot. It's just that we got so exposed because we shot such a low percentage that we really didn't give ourselves an opportunity to win the game by getting down so many points.

I think our guys are pretty competitive that they would have fought their way back, and I think Alabama maybe contributed a little bit to that. It's hard to keep a team, I think, really focused and motivated when you're up by 20-something points like that.

Q. You knew this was going to be a different year, but how would you characterize this year, looking back? I know this game just ended, but was this a year where you thought they would get better? Was it disappointing the way they finished the season?

COACH DONOVAN: I think every year is challenging in a different way. You know, it's hard for me to be excited going forward because I don't see things getting fixed, you know? Again, we're 31 games into the season, and I'm not going to sit up here and talk about youthfulness or what we don't have or what we lost or those type of things. What you want to see is you want to see a group of guys really understand what it takes to win. And sometimes you've got to go through some things to understand what it takes to win.

It's in front of our guys, what it takes to win, and like I said, for whatever reason, I haven't brought it out in them. They're not committed to it. But I'm not necessarily really that excited about these guys being sophomores to be honest. I don't see that being -- I think people's initial thing is, well, they're going to get older. I never believe in that. I don't think people change a whole lot, and I don't think you've seen the basketball team change at all this year. So it's hard for me to get overly thrilled or excited.

I think if you see guys really get better and battle and compete you say, you know what, they're just young, they're inexperienced. We have some, I think, talent issues on the defensive end of the floor, foot speed-wise, that sometimes is not all their fault. But also, I think, too, we have a commitment issue, which to me bothers me as a coach because I just got done coaching a group of guys the last two years that were so committed. And to be with this group, I don't think just because they're going to be another year older that all of a sudden, quote-unquote, everything gets resolved. I don't see that.

Q. What players in particular are you talking about, Chandler, Mo?

COACH DONOVAN: I'm not going to get into particular players. I never look at our team as individuals, I look at it as our team. It's our team. When I say team, I throw coaches in there, I throw players in there. It's all of us. We're all together. But I would say that all these guys are young, they're all young. It's not like we have any older guys except maybe Walter. But I would say that just because this group, all of them, are a year older doesn't mean they become a year better. I've never been a big believer of that old adage, the best thing about freshmen is they become sophomores. I've never bought into that motto. They're wiser, they're more experienced but the same issues are still in front of them, and until they address those issues it doesn't really make a difference how old they are.

Q. Late in the second half when you had it down to six points, they just went flat from that point out. Was it a case, do you think, of they just kind of ran out of energy there and didn't have any more in the tank?

A. I thought Alabama made some really momentum changing plays. We got it down to six a couple times and we had an opportunity to get it inside there. A big play in the game was we made a big pass to Chandler and Hendrix was behind him and he really didn't see him and Hendrix blocked the shot, and that took it to Riley to three from 7 to 10 and that was big. Then we fouled Riley one time one 3-point shot that was a big play. We got it to six, they made some momentum changing plays.

I thought our post defense in the second half with the way our post guys worked was a lot better than it was in the first half, but, you know, does it take 25, 26 points to get down to say, okay, now I'm going to play defense? Dan Werner, I thought Marreese worked a whole lot better in the second half. But we need to be able to work like that the whole game.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.

Game 4 - [E6] Georgia 97, [W3] Ole Miss 95 (OT)

ATLANTA (AP) -- Dave Bliss banked in a shot with 0.4 seconds left in overtime, giving Georgia a 97-95 victory over Mississippi in the Southeastern Conference tournament Thursday night and perhaps ruining the Rebels' hopes of getting into the NCAA tournament.

Georgia (14-16) also gave a much-needed victory to embattled coach Dennis Felton, whose future is being questioned after the Bulldogs finished last in the SEC East, closing the regular season with a 76-62 loss to the Rebels last weekend.

This one was much closer.

Ole Miss (21-10) sent the game to overtime when David Huertas was fouled on a 3-pointer and made all three free throws, and the Rebels looked to have forced another extra period when Chris Warren sank three after a virtually identical foul with 5.5 seconds left in OT.

But Georgia inbounded the ball to Corey Butler, who had fouled Warren. The walk-on guard made up for his blunder by driving nearly the length of the court before dumping the ball off to Bliss for an open 10-footer. He banked it in softly off the glass, sending the Bulldogs on to face Kentucky in the quarterfinals Friday night.

Huertas scored 29 points, connecting on 7 of 11 from 3-point range to help the Rebels rally from a 13-point deficit in the second half. Dwayne Curtis added 26 for Ole Miss.

But Terrance Woodbury scored 25 points, Sundiata Gaines added 22 and Georgia put another win on Felton's shaky resume, perhaps helping his case when athletic director Damon Evans decides on whether to bring the coach back for a sixth season.

Georgia appeared to be in control when Gaines hit two free throws for a 63-50 lead with 12:58 remaining in regulation. Led by Huertas, the Rebels bounced back to outscore the Bulldogs 18-2 over the next 4 1/2 minutes for a 68-65 lead.

The sophomore guard from Puerto Rico accounted for 12 of the points on four 3-pointers, the last of which hit the rim, bounced off the backboard, hit the rim again and dropped through_ the ultimate shooter's roll.

Georgia withstood the Ole Miss run and appeared to have the game back in hand when Billy Humphrey hit a pair of free throws with 43 seconds left to make it 81-76.

Huertas hit another 3, and he got the ball back after Gaines missed a free throw with 15.5 seconds to go. With his team trailing 84-81, Huertas went up for a shot behind the arc and drew the foul from Humphrey, then calmly stepped to the line and swished three straight free throws.

The Bulldogs had a chance to win in regulation, but failed to get off a shot in time.

Ole Miss broke out to a four-point lead in overtime and appeared to be in good shape to add another win to its record, which certainly would have boosted its chances of reaching the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2002. But the Rebels couldn't hold on.

Georgia reclaimed the lead and went up 95-92 when Gaines sank two free throws with 10.1 seconds left. In a replay of regulation, Warren sped down the court, went up for the 3-pointer, leaned into Butler and drew the foul. Three straight free throws tied it again, but Butler got a chance to redeem himself.

He did, driving past most of the Rebels' defense to find himself with only Curtis standing between in the way. The defender committed to the guy with the ball, and Brewer calmly dumped it to Bliss for the winning shot.

Game/Tournament Notes

Georgia Notes

Ole Miss Notes

Georgia Postgame Quotes

THE MODERATOR: We're going to start and ask coach Felton if he'll give just some overall thoughts of the game and then we'll go to Dave and Sundiata and get some Q & A with them.

COACH FELTON: Well, it was an extremely hard-fought game. I thought both teams really, really went after the win. I was pleased with how we came out aggressive and maintained our aggressiveness for the vast majority of the game. And then it was really gratifying to see so many of our players step up and make a tough, hard-earned plays in a timely manner from beginning to end.

But Ole Miss, they would not go away, they would not make anything easy for us. Every time we thought we had it, they found a way to make another play. The two fouls on three-pointers was -- obviously made it really, really tough on us, but I was proud of the way our team kept our heads up and kept going after the victory until they got it.

Q. Dave, can you just walk us through that last shot and what option were you on that play, [] and when did you realize it was coming to you and the shot itself?

DAVE BLISS: Yeah, the play was actually designed to get the ball into Yata and hit him with a quick back screen coming up the court. But two of their guys ended up going to Yata and Corey was wide open on the other side and just brought the ball, and I kind of spaced off a little bit and made a great pass to me and I hit the shot.

Q. Dave, this is more about your next opponent, but facing Kentucky again for the third time this year, a little bit has been made about some run-ins with Ramel Bradley on the court, to the point where he even said he didn't think you liked him. Could you just talk about that for a minute, and do you like him?

DAVE BLISS: I could care less what he thinks. I'm just out there playing. I've got no personal issues with anybody. I mean, if you guys want to make a big deal out of that, that's your choice. I mean, I'm not going to say anything more about that.

Q. I think you were 11 of 11 from the free-throw line in the second half. When is the last time that happened, and how nice does that feel?

SUNDIATA GAINES: It's probably a long time since that happened. But I was watching Bob Knight, ESPN, and he said the main thing for teams winning and guys making plays is concentration. That's something I tried to do today. I concentrated at the line. I knew that every free throw was crucial, and I didn't want it to be my last. I wanted to go out there and make every free throw.

Q. Y'all had some problems finishing games this season and just last week you had the seven-point lead against them and it went away, and then tonight you had a 13-point lead and then you had a five-point lead with less than a minute left and they kept coming back. Did the doubt ever enter y'all's mind?

SUNDIATA GAINES: Definitely. There was no doubt in our minds. We knew that they were going to play hard. They're playing for their postseason, as well. We knew they weren't going to let down. The game is full of runs. For our team to actually finish up the game, which we haven't done in a long time, I think that's real special going into our next game.

But when you be persistent and keep attacking and just doing it all around, a team effort, things work out for you, and it worked out for us tonight.

THE MODERATOR: Fellows, you can return to the locker room. Thank you. We'll continue on with questions for Coach Felton.

Q. Could you describe the play, the inbounds play that created such a strong, unobstructed path to the free-throw line for Butler?

COACH FELTON: I think it was David that told you, it was a play -- actually what Corey did, it was designed to get the ball in to Sundiata's hands to make that sort of play. But they double-teamed him. We ran an out-of-bounds play where we threw it out of bounds to Billy, and Billy was -- I mean, Yata, who was the original inbounder, we were hoping that that would create space for him to step back in and get it on the move and push it back up to make that kind of play. The play wasn't designed for any particular kind of person to shoot, it was just designed for Sundiata to shoot and players run with him and for Sundiata to make the play, to get us a shot.

They took Sundiata away. In doing so, that left Corey not only open to catch it but open with space. And I don't know if he heard me, but I just screamed at him to push it when he got it. I don't think he heard me. I think he just had good presence of mind to push the ball up the floor. And obviously we used all of the five and a half seconds we had, and David made a terrific shot. For a second I thought David was going to get a lay-up out of it, but he kind of stopped short on the catch and ended up having to make a little bank shot. We wanted the similar thing the last time when we had it with 7.1 seconds, and we did get it to Sundiata, but he was just a little bit more conservative in terms of how aggressively he pushed it up the floor than we wanted him to be.

Q. Could you talk about playing Kentucky tomorrow night and do you prepare any differently, if at all, because Patrick Patterson is not going to be in the lineup?

COACH FELTON: Well, I have an assistant coach who is in charge of that scout, and I haven't looked at them yet. I haven't -- I've gotten to know them just only through some dialogue with my assistant, and I know that I'll get familiar with them tonight.

I know some things that will be extremely important is guarding those two senior guards. I know that they're just playing -- they're playing off the charts in order to -- in order for Kentucky to continue to be successful the way they've been since Patrick has been out with the injury. And I know that Stevenson, with the increased opportunity and the increased responsibility, has stepped up and played very well.

I don't think that they're doing that much differently other than that I understand they're using the ball screen more in order to give those two guards some more opportunities to create and keep the ball in their hands.

The good thing is, Ole Miss is almost an exclusively a ball-screen team, and we worked all week to get better against the ball screen than we were last Saturday, and we defended it extremely well tonight. And that was a big reason for running. It won't be that far -- it won't be a departure from what we had to guard much tonight if they are ball screening more.

Q. Strictly from a basketball standpoint, just watching that game and the free throws that Ole Miss hit, Yata hitting 11 of 11, everything that went into that, how good a game was that and how gratifying was it to come out at the end?

COACH FELTON: I thought the game was played at a very, very high level. I thought both teams played -- I thought both teams played extremely well. Neither team made plays to lose the game as much as they did to win the game, and you know, it was tough to deal with those two three-point shot fouls. And I think our players really, really had to suck it up to manage through those particular types of plays to still come back and win.

I mean, I feel really, really fortunate that we were able to make that last shot and not have to play another overtime because we don't have nearly the depth to turn to that Mississippi has, and we had several of our top guys with four fouls, including Sundiata and I think Terrance.

But I thought the game was played at an extremely high level. Just glancing at what went on with all the games in the first round, I thought our game with Mississippi was probably played at the highest level of any of the games.

Q. What kind of impact do you think a win like this will have not only on your critics but on athletic director Evans regarding your future?

COACH FELTON: Well, you know, I didn't know I had any critics. They just haven't surfaced as far as I'm concerned (laughing). How could I possibly sit here and do Damon Evans' thinking for him? I would tell you that's a question best suited for Damon.

Q. So many teams in this tournament are kind of playing for their postseason lives. There's so much more on the line. Do you think that Kentucky is already in, and do you think that you'll have more to play for than they will tomorrow night?

COACH FELTON: Well, personally I think Kentucky should be in the tournament right now. I mean, there's no doubt in my mind I think that they've earned their way to the tournament with an at-large bid. But I don't think there's -- they can't feel that way for a second, and I'm certain that they don't. I'm certain that they feel very, very desperate to get another win and another win to get there. But personally if I were making the selections, definitely they've earned their way in and they deserve to be in, but of course my opinion doesn't count and Kentucky's doesn't, either. I think they're going to be desperate to win just like this Mississippi team was.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

Ole Miss Postgame Quotes

THE MODERATOR: We'll ask Coach Kennedy for some thoughts on the game and then we'll take your questions for the two student athletes.

COACH KENNEDY: I thought it was a tremendous game. I wish I could have enjoyed it. Unfortunately I couldn't. But both teams came and played extremely hard, and they made one more play. I give Georgia a lot of credit for the way in which they attacked us throughout the course of the game. I thought at the beginning of the second overtime for the first time in quite some time, I thought we had momentum on our side, and we couldn't take advantage. I give Georgia credit.

Q. Dwayne, if you could, could you take us through the last few seconds and how they were able to get the break that they got?

DWAYNE CURTIS: Yeah. Well, it was either me stopping the ball or letting them score, and I had to try to make two plays in one, stop the ball and try to get back to Bliss, and he just got it off, and he didn't even come down with it. He just got it off in the air. It was kind of fast.

Q. Your shot was really on tonight. Take us through your game and talk about how you felt out there?

DAVE BLISS: I mean, just like Coach tells me every day, get your feet dry, and every time you're open, let it go, and that's what I did tonight. I mean, you fall today, try to make plays for the team. They just made more plays than we did at the end. That's why they came out with the W.

Q. David, the three free throws at the end of regulation, Coach Kennedy called timeout after the second free throw. What did you think about during the timeout? What did Coach Kennedy tell you during the timeout?

DAVID HUERTAS: I just tried to relax, breathe, exhale, tried to step up and make the free throw, try to win the game.

Q. Dwayne, assess where you're at for the NCAA Tournament now? Is this still a situation where you feel you can still get in somehow or is it something where you might on Sunday not even watch now?

DWAYNE CURTIS: I don't have any comment for that. I'm sorry, I'm just overwhelmed. I don't have a comment for that.

THE MODERATOR: Fellows, we'll excuse the student athletes. You can return to the locker room. Thank you very much. Questions for Coach Kennedy?

Q. I guess the same question that I asked Dwayne for you.

COACH KENNEDY: I think you know the answer to that. I think we all know the answer to that. Realistically, I mean, I can say it, we're not going to the NCAA Tournament. You know that, I know that, everybody knows that.

Q. Andy, a loss like this obviously can affect a team one of two ways. Just what do you think about your kids, how they'll react to this, and what was the locker room like immediately afterward?

COACH KENNEDY: They're devastated, and they should be devastated. I was telling them, we preach all year about being good stewards of your opportunities, man. I mean that both throughout the course of the game such as tonight, they had opportunities and we had opportunities, and typically the team that leaves the fewest plays on the table is the team that's going to win. We also talk about life and how life is going to give you opportunities and how you have to make your own.

I thought this team did a tremendous job of putting ourselves back in a position where tonight's game had tremendous significance for us. Unfortunately we didn't get it done, and as a result we're very, very disappointed in where we're going. It'll take a couple of days. It'll take me longer than that, but kids are resilient, and we'll have an opportunity to play again somewhere some day, and hopefully we'll prolong the season as soon as possible, most especially for those four seniors.

Q. Along the same lines, about your postseason destination, I would point out to you there's about 20 or 25 bubble teams that were going into this thing maybe for three, four, five spots depending on how you look at it, and a lot of those bubble teams lost today.

COACH KENNEDY: No question.

Q. You and the two Arizona schools are the only ones out of that whole cluster of teams that have five wins over RPI top 50 teams. I'm not saying your going to the tournament but, I'm a little surprised you don't hold onto that last vestige of optimism because of that statistic.

COACH KENNEDY: I appreciate your optimism, but I'm just trying to be a realist, and for us to be 7 and 9 in the league and not to do what we needed to do -- many people, there was a number, to get to The Finals, you have to win two, you have to win three, but I know we have to win one in order to stay in the equation.

Q. Could you discuss the inbounds play there at the end?

COACH KENNEDY: Just couldn't contain the ball. Obviously you want them to -- you want them to catch it and go in away from their basket. They made a play in the open floor, didn't contain the bounce, he was going full speed at the rim obviously. Our players were very tentative because they didn't want to foul so they're backing off while still trying to stay in time. He made a tremendous shot. I haven't seen anyone take, but 16, 17 footer off the glass. Was it inside the lane? About 15, 16 feet, right, it was kind of a catch, and he kind of just shot it in.

For us, I thought our opportunity -- they controlled the game. They had the momentum for the most part. We got it to around eight, seven or eight, with about eight minutes to play, which was very reminiscent of where it was last Saturday in Athens. We closed the game very strong. And then I thought for the first time in an hour and a half, two hours, we had the momentum, and we just didn't get it done. We missed free throws, and we gave them the ball. We had possession of the ball a number of times, and we gave it to them. I'm a big believer in you get what you deserve, and I thought tonight that Georgia deserved to win.

Q. Could you talk about David's win, and it's 31 games into the year and this is the best he's played?

COACH KENNEDY: He's played well over the last two or three weeks. He's had his moments, but I think he's really settled in. He made open shots for us tonight and three big free throws and then Chris followed that up with three more big free throws at the end of the first overtime, made shots for us, kept us in the game. We really only had two guys that responded offensively like we needed them to from a percentage standpoint. He certainly was huge for us.

Q. There's been a little bit of a perception this year with the SEC that the league is a little bit down as opposed to most years. What are your impressions now having gone through the whole gamut of it?

COACH KENNEDY: I think initially -- and again, I've said this, and I hate to put so much of this on Kentucky because it's unfair to Bill and it's unfair to Kentucky but it's reality. People when they think about SEC they look at what Billy has done because Billy Donovan has made Florida such a national power with what they've done the last few years and they've got a whole new cast of characters because those kids are playing professionally. People had to get to know these young Gators, and then Kentucky had a very un-Kentucky like November and December based on injuries and a number of things. Immediately people said the league is down.

If you're going to count this RPI, which I think is way, way, way out of control, and hopefully something will be done with that in time, but last year we were the No. 2 rated RPI team in the country, this year we were No. 4 rated RPI league in the country. Granted, we don't have Florida who was a national power for the last two years. There's still some very good teams in this league top to bottom, everybody has got good coaches, everybody has got good players, and it is such a fine line between winning and misery, and fortunately we're on the bottom of that line.

Q. What did you mean when you said RPI is way, way out of control, too much stock put in it?

COACH KENNEDY: People are smart, not me unfortunately, but a lot of those coaches they figure that thing out, how to schedule. I think there's just been so much placed into that number that it needs adjusting.

Q. You may have addressed this. The two times that your two guys stepped up and made the three --

COACH KENNEDY: For a team that doesn't shoot free throws, granted, the two guys that made them are our best two free throw shooters. Chris had a very un-Chris Warren type night, with you that's a freshman. It's our fault for putting so much dependence on him at this stage in his career. He didn't play the way that we've all known, at least guys that have seen us play a number of times know he's capable. We hurt ourselves in a number of areas, and in a game like this when it was back and forth and both teams were stepping up and making play after play after play, those things at the end of the day have a tendency to settle, and unfortunately we left too many plays on the table, and I give Georgia credit, tremendous effort and really fought us, fought us, fought us and made the one last play.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.