Rick Stansbury Quotations

The pluses are that (Gordon) is a good player. He is going to be one of the better players in the league. If he gains more experience he will be really good, he has had some difficult times and has been providing good leadership as a freshman.

We're going to play a very good team that has one of the best front courts in this league. It won't be very easy for us.

We're beat up and awfully sick. We've got our work cut out for us.

We know Auburn is similar to us in a lot of ways. They're so much better at home than on the road. At home, they seem to be able to be in the game. We know it'll be a difficult challenge for us.

With this team, something is new every night. He got pretty fatigued. We got to do a better job of resting him.

We're playing hard out there, and that is the thing you have to do when things aren't going your way. There are just some things that we have a deficiency in, and all we can do is keep plugging away and getting better in those areas.

We hope we won't have to go to that third point guard (Slater) very often.

When those two guys give us eight or nine points, it makes us better. If we can get 16 out of them, then what happened tonight, happens.

LSU is the team to beat in the entire SEC, not just in the West. ... As long as they stay healthy and avoid an injury, they're as good as anybody around.

I wish we could just forget that first half. But we have to approach every game the same, whether we are 1-7 or 7-1. It's a 16-game season.

I wish we could just forget about the first half. Unfortunately, we can't separate it that much.

I don't get into the streak that much. I think that's more for you guys in the media, and the fans. It's all game to game, year to year. Different teams. We're a totally different team than we've had in the past.

I don't know why (Kentucky's) kids make shots. Shooting gets contagious, and Kentucky has started getting contagious four games ago.

I hate it for him. And it's made it more difficult for us. It's obvious he would've been our leading scorer. But some things, you can't help.

He was around the basketball all night long.

He had to play into this role. There's a lot of responsibility that comes with (it). Your best player needs to be your hardest worker. Once he realized that, he's been more consistent.

We took it to them a little bit. We turned it up a notch defensively.

He's a load. They've gained some experience in the last two years, and Curtis is a presence. We're still a team in progress. Our cohesiveness is not where it needs to be, this time of the year.

When they shoot the ball they have a chance to beat anybody. When Kelley shoots it the way Kelley shot it tonight, they're very difficult to beat.

We lost the only advantage we had, which was ability to play small. We don't have another small guy to go score in transition.

I thought our kids came out the second half and played at that other energy level. We made a lot of plays for Charles Rhodes.

Lawrence has a chance to be the national player of the year, and with that comes another degree of responsibility. He's not naturally a vocal guy. He has to step up and become a vocal leader, and lead by example every day.

I said two weeks ago they are the best team in the country.

Our kids understand. They know where we're at. We've got three home games left, and two games on the road. We're just trying to fight to get better. They're fighting for their lives every game.

Our team is not very good right now. It's been one thing after another with us. There's no magical speeches after that game.

Rod's done a good job with this team. They're much improved.

Reggie needs to not always look for the 3-pointer. He's got to play off that dribble, take it to the hole, which he's done more lately. A mid-range game opens up the 3-point shot. It makes him a more versatile player. And he needs to be a screener, because screeners get open. But it's getting better.

That was huge. Richard had a little bit of his swagger back tonight.

That was very important. It was huge for our basketball team, being so young, to go in with the lead.

I was proud of our team's effort. The Florida basketball team presents many problems.

When State and Ole Miss play, it's always a battle. It always seems to be a close game. They won the first game. We have to find a way to play better here at home.

We jumped out on a 16-0 run, but I thought it was our ability to defend, too. We turned it up a notch defensively in the second half.

We put a total game together on defense and offense. We guarded. We didn't get beat off the dribble, and we neutralized the post.

Those kind of plays hurt, especially as youthful as we are.

When we received the call that he wanted tickets to a game, we went right to the MSU compliance office. It was all approved. That's why we did it.

We left everything we possibly could on the floor.

We wait to get down 20, get embarrassed, before we decide to start playing.

We've had to regroup in the past. The difference between that is we're having to regroup with a young team. It's not like we're sitting around with a team that has expectations, or a team that has experience. You're going to get better in some areas, but I know it's going to be hard.

We all understood how good George Mason is. For us to have a chance, it would take a special effort. We got a special effort.

Urgency is the next game, and the next game was Ole Miss. If it had been somebody else, would we have played that hard? I don't know. But tonight, there was a special effort, and we had to have a special effort.

We had a guy who was dominant. The more responsibility we've put on (Rhodes), the more he's accepted.

Those three guys have all made winning plays to help them win three games in a row. And those were games they could have all been beaten in.

Bruce has done a tremendous job with this basketball team. I don't think anybody expected them to be where they are right now.

Both young men are good people, but unfortunately things just didn't work out for them here. We wish them both well in their future endeavors.

Even though we hadn't won, we've gotten better. We all understood we had some deficiencies in some areas. We understand we had to battle. We've gotten better. Tonight, we took another step.

There's no team in the country, anywhere, that a coach got their kids to play harder than Rod Barnes did.

Our teams will turn it over. You just hope they don't lead to baskets.

(South Carolina) was the aggressor most of the game.

South Carolina's the one team that probably handled us easier than anybody all year long. They took it to us in Columbia three weeks ago. They're a very experienced team. We've got to be ready.

South Carolina is the one team that really thumped us. No question, we'll play a lot better than the first time we played them.

That's where the game was. That little run they went on they showed their maturity, we showed our immaturity. You've got no chance on the road against a quality team when you can't have some poise in those situations.

You've got zero chance if you spot somebody 20 and have to fight back in the second half. I thought our kids fought back and responded, but you can't get down 20 points and come back on a roll.

This is a totally different team, so there is no reason to remember. This team was not part of that. That has nothing to do with us playing over there (tonight).

They shot 40, we shot 13. That's enough comment I can make. You can write in between the lines what you like.

This is a difficult thing we're going through. We're not used to this. The kids can very easily get down, quit working and have attitudes, but this team didn't do it. We took a very good Ole Miss team tonight and did something to them that no one's done to them.

They've continued to work hard and good things happen to them.

They played awfully well and deserved to win the game. The thing that sticks out, to me, is the number of offensive put-backs they had. They had way too many for us to win on the road. They got six of their baskets in the first half on put-backs.

You can't have those on the road. I told our kids, we can't accept this. It's not something we should get used to. But there are some positive things.

They're good. Darrel Mitchell is the key to that basketball team, though.

It was a special effort. For our kids to have the attitude and energy after losing some games when they're not used to it, it tells you a lot about the makeup of this basketball team. We put together 40 minutes, from start to finish.

It's tough to go on the road and not make your free throws and have unforced turnovers. Our margin of error is too small for that to happen.

It's obvious, you can't turn the basketball over as much as we did and beat a quality team like LSU.

It's an important year for him, and I'm glad to see his team do well, believe it or not. To win every game every year, that's not going to happen. ... We've had a lot of success against them.

It's going to be difficult. We're going to play a really good basketball team. But we're looking forward to playing them.

It sounds like an old, broken record, but it's a 16-game season and I know it's a little different being 1-7 at this point, but you can't approach games that way. The only way you can be consistent in the way you approach things is to keep the focus on working hard.

It sounds crazy. But he finds a way to get it up in there.

It's much easier at home to be able to find that poise that you have to play with. On the road, it has to be something from within to keep that composure and toughness. At home, you have a much better chance of recovering from a deficit.

It seemed like every big play that had to be made down the stretch, Duke made those plays. That's why they've been so successful though the years.

It's very obvious that we're not quite as good without Lawrence Roberts. But we knew coming into this game that we didn't have him, so we can't make any excuse.

They are one of the hottest teams in America. I don't think anybody expected them to be where they are right now.

The new (NIT) criteria, I don't know if anybody knows what it is. We'll have to wait and see.

(The NCAA) has a right to check into any rumors they want. We've been here for 16 years and have never had a problem with anything.

Any time you play Kentucky it's never easy. They are coming off a big win and are playing with a lot of confidence. They've won a couple in a row and they know that we are struggling right now. But it is always tough playing Kentucky.

Arkansas will have a lot of emotion on Senior Night, so we better have some poise.

I needed more than one. When they got three or four stepping up, I needed more than one.

I'm awful proud of that win, especially because of the effort. I thought it was our ability to defend. I thought we took it up a notch (in) that second half.

If we can come out of there in any form of survival, that's big.

He's probably gotten more opportunities than a kid who's a bad person. Walt's not a bad person.

I don't know it they're harder to guard, but they have better chemistry (than last season). I don't have the key (to beating them). They are 15-0. I don't think anyone has the key.

I don't know if I have ever been more proud of a group of guys. These guys have had every opportunity to lay down all season long. I think it's very obvious when you look on paper who was supposed to win this game.

I didn't know what kind of growing pains we were going to have in November. But we're getting better.

Georgia plays hard and has a lot of perimeter depth. They have a lot of big bodies on the inside, and they've been in most games everywhere they've played.

I doubt he plays again this season, with a groin muscle and pneumonia.

I don't think Vanderbilt's the place you go to heal up very often.

He brings the same attitude every day. Everything you'd want in a player from a mental standpoint, he has it.

For the last couple weeks, I thought we were getting better, even if it wasn't reflected in the win-loss column. We put a total game together tonight, both offensively and defensively. We needed our bench to play, because Ole Miss plays a lot of guys. We had a special effort.

For the most part, we couldn't have done a better job on Steele.

For the first time all year long, that team whipped us.

The good thing is, there is a system in place where you can't make mistakes.

The difference was our inability to take care of the basketball and guard their key players at critical times. They've got so much firepower.

You want to feel like some teams, like us, have a chance.

The foul line was the difference in the first half.