The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss-Oklahoma Postgame Quotes
12/2/2000 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 2, 2000
Ole Miss Head Coach Rod Barnes:
(On the game)
"I told them that this is what you come to college for, to play great basketball games. I am so happy for this team. We have worked so hard the last two days. We have stressed a lot of things. Since Louisiana-Monroe, our focus has been to win this game."
(On the Rod Squad)
"I cannot say enough about our students. I have said all week that they needed to come out and they did. They would not let us down."
(On Aaron Harper's play)
"He's one of the better shooters on the team, but he had not been shooting well. As a result of his hard work, he gave us a great performance tonight."
(On the rest of the season)
"Tuesday's game will tell us a lot about where we are, and if we can keep it up. I believe we can, but we still have a lot of work to do."
Ole Miss freshman Aaron Harper:
(On his three-point shooting)
"In high school they used to call me a zone buster. I guess that was my purpose again tonight. I was happy to come off the bench because I had not been playing well."
Ole Miss senior Rahim Lockhart:
(On the physical play)
"The game was pretty physical down low, but we will see that all season."
Oklahoma Head Coach Kelvin Sampson:
(On the game)
"We did not have enough mental toughness, and we never got control of the game. Our defense was not good enough. We were expecting more of an offensive game. We did not play smart, but give Mississippi credit. They did a nice job tonight."
(On playing on the road)
"We were on the road and we only got to the line 10 times. We got into a lot of foul trouble and we could not find a rhythm. We had a lot of offensive fouls and moving screens that got us into trouble. We learned a lot. This was a tough road game. We have to adjust better to playing on the road as we go along or this could be a long season."
(On Ole Miss)
"Congratulate Rod Barnes. He did a great job with his team tonight. Their kids really stepped up and played hard. They did a great job. They played hard and deserved to win this game."
Oklahoma junior Daryan Selvy:
(On Oklahoma's intensity)
"Our intensity was not good tonight. I do not know what was wrong with us. This is our first loss of the year. Hopefully we can use the next week of practice to get our intensity level back up, come together as a team and rebound from tonight's loss."
Oklahoma senior Jameel Heywood:
(On the game)
"We did not really play well tonight. We did not execute offensively or defensively. Ole Miss is a good team, but we thought we could win. It was an intense game, but we have been in situations like this before and we should have been able to handle it better and come away with a win tonight."