The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss-UCSB Postgame Quotes
3/19/2008 | Men's Basketball
Ole Miss Head Coach Andy Kennedy
On Eniel Polynice’s injury
“We really didn’t know that EP wasn’t going to play tonight. He hurt his knee against
On UC Santa Barbara
“UC Santa Barbara is an excellent basketball team. They set a school record for wins this season. They have the all-time leading scorer after tonight in Alex Harris. He needed 12 points tonight and he had that in the first half. That is really EP’s biggest contribution for us is our defense. We put him on the other team’s best perimeter player. Going into the game tonight, I was very concerned because I knew how good they were. They have an unusual defense. They switch everything. It confused our guards at the start.”
On the play of the bench
“Without EP, we had to go deeper in our bench. We started David, while a sophomore, is really a freshman in terms of playing time, Chris Warren, who is a true freshman, and Trevor (Gaskins), who is a true freshman. Today was a big day for Rodney (Jones) also. He is caught up in a numbers game for playing time. Tonight, he had his opportunity and he stepped up.”
Ole Miss Center Dwayne Curtis
On the slow start
“I can take the blame for that. I should have posted harder. They were playing some good defense and running me into the post. Everytime I touched the ball, they pretty much swarmed me.”
On the difference between the first half offense and the second half
“Just attacking more. In the first half, we were a little passive. So attacking in the second half more was the key. We just started to play hard. We weren’t thinking about the first half.”
Where did you find your motivation and skill tonight?
“Rebounding. We are a rebounding team.”
UCSB Head Coach Bob Williams
On the game:
“I was surprised at how well Ole Miss shot the ball from the 3-point line in the second half. We knew that if we had a chance, then we had to shoot 50 percent or better from the 3-point line. We shot well early on, but we didn’t stay hot. Their size was a bit much for us in the paint.”
On Ole Miss:
“If they would have shot the ball in the previous 10 games like they did tonight in the second half, they would be playing in the other tournament. They got more physical in the second half and turned up their defense a notch. We still got open threes, but we just couldn’t knock those down. They get a ton of their points on the offensive boards, and we’ve had to resort to getting our points from the 3-point line.”
On the play of Rodney Jones and Chris Warren:
“We were surprised by No. 1 (Jones). He looked good, very active, very athletic and strong. He stepped up for them. We wanted to pressure (Chris) Warren for the whole game. We had no choice but to put pressure on him. We knew Ole Miss could pick us apart with their size on the inside.”
