Postgame Quotes vs. San Diego

OLE MISS HEAD COACH KERMIT DAVIS

Opening statement…
"I was really impressed with San Diego's team, I was really impressed with them on tape. After we got beat by Cincinnati, I started watching them. I told a couple of their players walking off the floor, Pineiro and #3, you know Carter, I said, 'I hope you guys get in the (NCAA) tournament.' They're the kind of team that can win a game in the tournament because of their maturity level and their fifth-year seniors. They're older, mature, and they compete and for us to have that team down 16. The quality of play was really terrific, especially that one stretch in the second half. Our immaturity showed up in the second half, we were relaxed the last minute and 20 seconds. That's why I always say it, fans saying, 'why is the coach going crazy he's up 18,' well that's why. We all understand how games can turn, especially against a team like that. We shot the ball from the free throw line well, a lot of guys played well. Proud of the freshmen, so I think we'll look at this in March and say that's a really good win."

On balanced scoring…
"The ball moved. Against Cincinnati, we had three assists. It's hard to have any balance when you just dribble and shoot all the time. Cincinnati makes you do that a little bit, but tonight for the first time we played against an abundance of man-to-man. Our ball movement was good, we had 20 assists which is a great number. I think the ball got out of each other's hands. We played inside out. That's the total reason why it happened."

On Terence Davis' night…
"A lot better tonight, I really thought that's the way he would play. We tried to open up the game, give him a post-up, and just get him at the rim. He just missed it. He scored 20 points and made one three, that's a good sign. He's got to get to the free throw line more. Nine assists is a career high for TD, which is great, and so we're a work in progress, but I knew he would bounce back because he worked so hard in practice those two or three days."

On Breein Tyree's play…
"He's been good. He's our loudest voice in the gym. His leadership has gotten so much better the last seven or eight months. His voice, you hear it all the time in stretching to helping other teammates, talking defensively. I told him he hadn't been a very good rebounder. I said if guards are getting five or six rebounds you'll start making shots. Your game will play, so he had six rebounds and he's playing really well right now."

On Blake Hinson…
"I told him, you look at Blake's stats (from last game), he shoots six times and all six were threes. You've got to be able to score at all three levels and get yourself to the free throw line. I did a better job I think of saying that, I got really direct with him about it. I said 'you're going to make a lot of threes before you leave Ole Miss, but we got to get you in that second or third level' and tonight I thought he did that. He made some pull-up jump shots, got to the free throw line. I think by far that was the best game he has played."

On KJ Buffen…
"We had Dom (Olejniczak) and Bruce (Stevens) in foul trouble, and KJ, his basketball IQ for that young kid, he should be a 2019 recruit. He's young, he just turned 18. He can play all five spots on our team, he knows he's got a basketball IQ that's off the charts. He reminds me of this Upshaw kid we had at Middle Tennessee. He saw the game, it was easy as far as mental stuff with him. You can see he made a three, and that was good to see him get going, and he can compete in the post too. He's been playing so much because he can at multiple positions. It's such a great feeling when you can put him at the three, four or five. When you do that, your minutes will just go up. Now he's starting to feel a little more comfortable with him even at the five when Dom or Bruce get in foul trouble."

On shutting down Isaiah Pineiro in the second half…
"We have this term, 'second in the air,' it's an old Rick Majerus term. I got it from Rick when I was at Utah State and he was at Utah. We had like five-second air. We'd jump and he'd get around us, and I thought in the second half our 1-3-1 was really good. I probably got out of it too early. We got up 14 or 15, and I was afraid about three-point shooting and wanted to get into our man-to-man. We really made them take time off the clock and got him out of rhythm. He's really good. I envision Blake and KJ being like that in a couple years. That physical, tough and being able to score at all three levels."

On end of the game…
"It's just immaturity. Not taking care of the ball, we started dribbling then lost the shooter, and in the first half I kept taking people out. We're all in favor of straight line driving, but first side offense was 29 percent. Second, third, fourth side offense in the first half was 60 percent. When the ball gets to the third and fourth side, we're a really efficient team, Breein (Tyree), Devontae (Shuler) and TD (Terence Davis) would all take off dribbling. And then the second half, we were up 15, in the huddle some guys grinning and almost thinking it was over, you could kind of sense it coming. Our maturity level has got to get a lot better."

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Players Mentioned

KJ Buffen

Terence Davis

Blake Hinson

Breein Tyree

The University of Mississippi Athletics