March 5, 2009

Recap | Final Stats | Notes

South Carolina Head Coach Darrin Horn
Opening Statement…
I think this game came down very simply to, what we’ve been talking about all year, it’s the most important part of any team, especially ours with our makeup, we’ve got to be good defensively and we’ve got to rebound the ball with all five guys. That did not happen tonight. The tone of the game was set in the first half when both teams were scoring too easily. We were not where we needed to be defensively and then did not do the job off the glass. We gave up too many easy points in transition. In the second half, offensively how poor we were defensively started showing. We had too many one-pass shots and didn’t move the ball as well as we needed to.

On Tennessee scoring quickly after South Carolina…
We weren’t good defensively. We gave them too many easy baskets tonight, really from start to finish.

On rebounding…
When you’re not good defensively, you get yourself in the position, like we were tonight, where you can’t get the rebound.

On the Tennessee defense not allowing Carolina to score, and drive in the lane…
I don’t want to take away from Tennessee, but I don’t think that had anything to do with it. We did not play offensively the way we are capable of. The times that we did get things set the way we wanted to, when we could have driven the ball from the wing, we were unaggressive with it. Again, not that they didn’t play well, but that’s more on us, in my opinion.

On going in to the SEC tournament….
I’m not worried about the resume. We just want to play like we’re capable of. The last two games we haven’t come out and played like we need to. We’ve said from day one, when you don’t do the things you do well, it’s hard to be good. I’m more concerned with doing that and playing that way then doing anything else.