The University of Mississippi Athletics
Trent Johnson Postgame Quotes
1/17/2009 | Men's Basketball
Opening Statement
"Obviously we played extremely well. I don't think we could have played a better first half of basketball. We try to pride ourselves on doing three things pretty well, and that's defending, rebounding and taking care of the ball with a sense of urgency. For the most part I feel we did a good job of that. I feel for Coach Kennedy and his kids because as a coach in this business, I've been in his position before when you have two or three of your best players injured, and that's something you don't want to see happen. You want to see all of your kids in uniform and able to compete. He's doing a good job keeping them ready and competing at a high level. I am happy for our group. We've been frustrated with our performances on the road. We feel very fortunate, even though we played well, to go on the road and pick up a win in this league. It's a good thing."
On LSU's experience vs. Ole Miss' youth
"I think from the standpoint of Tasmin Mitchell, Chris Johnson and Garrett Temple, those guys have been around, so there's the experience factor there. It wasn't like we were coming in here thinking if we didn't play well, we would win. This is the same group (Ole Miss) that had a chance to beat Florida on the road and they beat a really good Arkansas team, so we knew we had to be at our best. That's really hard to do every game in and every game out, but we tried to go inside-out. People have put a lot of pressure and double teamed Tas (Mitchell), and he did a really good job of finding the open man, so hopefully we can continue to do that."
On defense early in the game
"It was a combination of our position defensive-wise. I think Marcus did a good job, but I also think they had some uncharacteristic turnovers, but that's what happens when you're playing with youth. Again with our defensive position, I thought when we had the tendency to chase the ball and gamble, I thought some guys stayed home because I thought they respected this team coming in here knowing that if we gambled, we would be in the same position we were in when we played Alabama on the road."
