Billy Donovan Half Quotations

I thought we played well on the defensive end to only be down at 11 at the half with the way we shot the ball. As well as we played defensively in the first half, we didn't do the things we needed to on the boards and on defense in the second half.

I thought we left a lot of points on the board in the first half, because we had 11 turnovers and we were shooting 52 or 53 percent from the field. Second half we only turned it over three times and we shot 52 percent from the field and that's why we had a 52-point half.

I thought the release by one of them there in the second half at the end of the game, his follow through did not look good on it and it came up short. Lee was in here (Sunday) night getting shots up. I've obviously got to be intelligent here because I've got a player burden in Brewer and we're down to eight scholarship guys. It's not like every day Lee can run and bang and go up and down the floor.

I was a little concerned with our foul trouble and our turnovers late. In the second half we did a much better job of taking care of the basketball.

We were able to work inside out. We had a little better balance in the second half and we still continued to defend the three. That was a big concern for myself going into this game.

We tried to make them score outside their offense. We gave up 10 offensive rebounds in the first half, but in the second half I felt like their frontcourt was fatigued.

We missed so many easy baskets around the rim at first. We did a much better job in the second half of getting the ball inside and rebounding. As a coaching staff, we have to keep our guys upbeat and not let them get frustrated.

We didn't have the ball movement and the player movement that we had had in the course of the year. But I thought the defense and rebounding in the first half kept us somewhat close. I was pleasantly surprised that we were only down 11.

Offensively, pretty much the entire game, I thought we played very well. But we played an exceptional half defensively in the second half. We were just fair at best in the first half.

It's hard to win on the road when it's 42-20 (Arkansas' favor) in free throws shot. That's a big discrepancy. But Arkansas made only 5 of 12 free throws in the first half and that kept us in it.

That's something we'll have to look at on film. You look at the last two minutes of the game but sometimes you don't look at how it got to that point. The offensive rebounds Tennessee had in the second half really hurt us.

The biggest thing with the NCAA Tournament is to try to get across to your guys that there's a lot of drama and a lot of changing of routines. Any road game, we've never come in a day and a half early. We have to go to a mandatory shoot-around, we have to go to press conferences. When we go on the road to Alabama, no one cares we're in town. This is an event. For some guys, that can add pressure.

The big focus for us was the three-point line. I think we were able to hold them without a three-point shot for the first 35 minutes. We shot 34 percent in the first half, but the fact that we shot 40 percent from three-point line in the first half gave us a five-point lead.

The second half was a back-and-forth basketball game. Give Arkansas credit. They made some plays and their kids played hard and I thought it was a great college basketball game that both teams had a chance to win at times.

You can't get many assists if you don't shoot the ball well. I thought our player movement in the first half at times was poor.