Stan Heath Press Conference - Florida
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Arkansas plays host to No. 10 Florida on Saturday at 1:05 p.m. The game is being televised by Jefferson-Pilot Sports. The Razorbacks are 16-8 overall and 5-6 in the SEC. Florida is 22-3 overall and 8-3. Following is a partial transcript of head coach Stan Heath’s press conference.
“Florida is a team with great balance. Their bigs are mobile. They get up and down the court very well, and they pass the ball well. They share with each other. They are very good offensively and defensively.
“We have to try to slow them down a little. On different nights, different guys step up for them. Their players compliment each other very well. They get themselves easy baskets by running the floor and off offensive rebounds. They don’t take a lot of difficult shots, and when they do, they balance it with easy shots.
“They have tremendous chemistry. You can see that in the way they play. They understand their roles. There are no egos. There is a willingness to do the dirty work on defense and they share the ball.
“I feel like our guys will bounce back and respond. We have to make sure our minds are right and we do what we need to do to beat Florida. We have to win (games) and winning against a ranked team is a high priority.”
Ole Miss recap:
“We were poor on defense, poor rebounding, we were not great shooting and we were not great passing. If you add all of those together, it’s not a good recipe. It’s a recipe that makes you want to throw up.
“Ole Miss has some pride. They were at home and the game had some personal meaning to them with so many guys from Arkansas. There were too many areas we didn’t play well in. We had too many inconsistent minutes during the game. You get energized by scoring and making shots, and those struggles carried over to the defensive end.”
Bouncing back:
“I wear my emotions on my sleeve a lot, and the guys know that. A lot of that stays in the locker room. Ole Miss was an atypical game for us. I would say there were some similarities with the games against Mississippi State and Texas State. That was not our pattern or our norm. It’s not unusual in college basketball to go on the road and play your ‘B’ or ‘C’ game, and it come back to bite you. It’s unfortunate it happened with so much at stake, but we still have a chance and we’ll keep fighting.”
Point guard:
“I wasn’t happy with our play at the point guard spot. I’ll look at doing something with Eric Ferguson or Sean McCurdy. If Eric is in the game, Ronnie (Brewer) will be the point guard.”
Dontell Jefferson:
“He had turnovers at inopportune times. Sometimes kids try to do too much and it comes back to haunt you, whether it’s a kid coming up from behind or trying a 50-50 pass or having the defense react. He’s not happy about it, but we have to find a solution.
“The name of the game is possessions. We’re giving away too many and not getting enough.”
Rebounding:
“That is the most puzzling thing to me. I can see why some of it happens, but then I’ll see a ball in our grasp and someone tips it or someone goes after it harder than we do. I can see going for a shot block and not coming up with the rebound, but plays where we don’t box out bother me a lot.”
