The University of Mississippi Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Auburn
1/30/2018 | Men's Basketball
Ole Miss Head Coach Andy Kennedy
Opening statement...
"They just looked faster than us all night. I thought we were scrappy enough to hang around in the first half because we didn't give them a lot of second shots. When the game was still in play, despite our inability offensively to make plays at the basket - I think we were 4 for 12 in the second half - we just weren't making plays and making poor decisions that related to penetrate-and-pitch and stepped out-of-bounds a couple times, which obviously you can't do to beat the No. 11 team in the country. I just don't think we are fast enough to the ball. When we had it to a four- or five-point game they had multiple possessions from attempts off the backboard. We tried to go small because of our foul trouble. Bruce (Stevens) fouled out in 13 minutes. We just could not secure our defensive glass."
On turnovers...
"Deandre (Burnett) has six and he really has been good with it all year. He is one of the tops in the country in assist-to-turnover, and then Breein (Tyree) has five. It comes down to decision-making and contact. These games are hard to win. We played through some contact, and I thought they knocked us off our spot a little bit, and we didn't handle the game the way we needed to."
On what makes Auburn difficult to handle...
"They spread you. They are fast. What they don't have, are watchers. At times, we kind of get locked into the ball, and then a guy is shooting a layup and the guy that is guarding the guy who shot the layup still doesn't know that guy is his man. We're not aware. We told them we had no chance to win the game if we couldn't transition on defense. Our transition defense wasn't that bad, despite given multiple opportunities to score in the second half. (Giving up) 19 offensive rebounds with 17 turnovers, you're not going to win that game."
On what separates them from the rest of the league...
"Shot making. I think they are just playing at a different speed then others at this point. They just look faster to me."
Auburn Head Coach Bruce Pearl
Opening statement...
"You play an Ole Miss team you better buckle your chin strap. Nobody plays harder. I anticipated they would have come out defensively and really extend at home and try to turn us over. We worked really hard with our preparation and things that we need for overplay. They didn't. That change bothered us. I guessed wrong and Andy (Kennedy) guessed right from a standpoint of keeping us off balance. I thought our defense was really good, obviously. We turned them over, which disrupted them. They typically take care of the ball. I thought the offensive rebounding for both teams was key. I thought our guys did a really good job as a team. It is a great win for us to be able to come in here. I haven't won in here in 10 years. That is a long time in this matchup. We are pleased to have gotten the win."
On all five starters being locked in and active throughout each night...
"It is something you teach, but it is not something every team has. I think it is trust. I think it is relying on teammates and we have pretty good chemistry from that standpoint. That is a great compliment. Not every team can pull that off and not every team I have had at Auburn has pulled that off. I think the other thing to is when everybody is equally bought in and committed, you have two or three guys in the gym all the time, sometimes as a coach you want to reward those guys. Even as a player I have earned that, but with this team, everyone has earned that. When you look at the shots, it is balanced. There is good balance in our stat sheet."