Rick Barnes Last Quotations

I told our guys before the game that the key would be what we got from our bench. I watched our last game (KSU) where we bogged down on the offensive end. Obviously, A.J. came up big. They did a great job of double-teaming the post.

I thought our guys did a good job of staying aggressive the last couple of minutes. We probably didn't make as many good decisions as we needed to be making in that situation but, overall, when they made their run and got back in it, we stayed with it. We pushed it back out there and made some free throws at the end. I'm happy with the fact that we had only seven turnovers and the job we did on the boards.

The major reason for our score is we had four of our five seniors leave school early last year to chase their dream of playing professionally. I'm not sure the score is a true reflection to the commitment and success we've had when it comes to education in our basketball program.

You're always going to be disappointed when you don't win. It's over and done with. Our No. 1 goal now is the NCAA tournament. We're one of 65 teams and we hope to be the last one standing.

Daniel Gibson 's demeanor throughout the whole game was good. What he's done the last couple games is what he's capable of. Everyone's happy and proud of him.

I was worried coming in because it was a team we know. I am not sure what happened on that last play because we were switching everything. It was a great day. Wow!

Because of what we've been able to do the last couple of weeks, I think they've got confidence knowing we can play a number of different ways.

He went over in August last year and he was due back over here the middle of next month.