Postgame Quotes vs. Alabama

OLE MISS HEAD COACH KERMIT DAVIS

Opening statement…
"Give them a lot of credit. They played harder defensively than they have all year on tape. They beat us in every area. We chased them and did not guard them. They get notoriety about shooting threes, but they had as many points in the paint as they did from deep. Herbert Jones is one of the most respected guys by coaches in our league. I am a big, big fan. We reverted back to things that were not fundamentally sound on defense."

On the officiating…
"There were a lot of fouls called. We struggled to get into a rhythm. I will follow SEC protocol and do what I do every week: make a phone call to Mark Whitehead, make a phone call to Dan (Leibovitz), who is over basketball, send in all the clips and then they will respond with some feedback. We will do that first thing in the morning. From there, it gets sent to the officials and they have a chance to comment. I cannot even remember now [what the original foul that Tyree had] but Breein reacted. I know he did not say anything derogatory, but he was assessed a technical foul and then not long after they threw me out. I was not that animated in the second half, so it caught me by surprise. My wife would not want me to get fined. Let's talk about Mary Ann winning that car (putt for a car contest). That's the best thing I saw in the second half. You hate it [the game's flow] for the fans. You want the game to have rhythm."

On KJ Buffen…
"He had some growing abdominal issues at Missouri, but he said it was his back. And you know he is a cat who can play. Everything structurally is fine, but he just hit a specific spot and it was too much back pain. He just could not go."

On getting thrown out before…
"This is my third Division I game getting thrown out of: one at Idaho, one at Middle Tennessee State. A little bit better accommodations here than (when I was) at Middle with the TVs showing the game. There it was at Louisville, Freedom Hall, when Rick Pitino was coaching. I got thrown out of that one, and some I deserve to be thrown out of, I told Rick I was sorry because I did not want to get thrown out. I went into this old dressing room, no TVs, and I finally started walking around the concourse and our team was playing their tails off. We were right there playing better than before I got thrown out. Some guy in the box waves me over, asked if I wanted to watch the last five minutes, and I said 'yeah' and he offered me a Kentucky Bourbon. I said I better not since I was watching the team play. But today, I just watched it in the back."

ALABAMA HEAD COACH NATE OATS

Opening statement…
"I thought our guys answered the bell after our last game we had. I thought we had a lot more energy and our guys showed some leadership to get themselves ready to play. I thought our start to the game was really good. Defensively, we struggled a little bit in the second half but our offense kept us in it. Obviously, a lot of fouls, but I thought our guys did a good job attacking the rim. The free throw column was even. We got to the rim a lot more with a lot more two-point field goals. I thought Kira (Lewis Jr.) was really good, but our offense, having the scoring that we got with five guys in double figures, was huge. Twenty-five assists on 37 field goals, the ball was really moving and I thought we did a good job of attacking their defense. They're one of the better defensive teams in the league. I thought our guys really came with some energy tonight."

On Herbert Jones' defense…
"We chart all those hustle points, deflections, charges, loose balls, and we give out a hard hat at the end of each game. He won it this game. He's a tough kid. He wanted it in the 22 minutes he played, and we tried to play him as much as we can on defense, but offensively he was good too. Got some offensive boards, set some good screens, caught a pick and roll and laid it in. Before he broke his wrist, he was leading the SEC in assist/turnover ratio. So, a 6-foot-8 guy who is handling it and making decisions, it was disappointing for him to break his wrist. I thought he was headed for a really great year, but he still brings so much value, so you have to play him. I've known Kermit (Davis) for a while and before the game, he said he's got so much respect for the kid out there playing with a cast on his wrist. I think all the coaches in this league respect him for who he is, and he obviously brings a lot of value to our team."

On the bounce back win…
"We talked about when they started to make a run there in the second half in that timeout we called, we have to get some stops here. At that point, they were 12 of 16 in the second half shooting 75 percent. In that second half, our defense wasn't very good. We kind of buckled down and got some stops. That was big, after you're up. We've had this happen this year, when you're up close to 20, up 15 against Tennessee, up 21 at Florida, we've had that happen too often. We said 'let's show some maturity and get some stops because there's no way we're losing this game if we get stops.' We picked our defense up and stepped it up in that last eight minutes."

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Players Mentioned

KJ Buffen

The University of Mississippi Athletics