Feb. 10, 2010

Recap | Box Score | Notes

South Carolina Head Coach Darrin Horn
Opening Statement
For us it’s a terrific team win and team effort. Devan has been so good and special that sometimes when our entire team is putting forth in the games we have won what the team needs to win, (it) has gone overlooked. Tonight was a good example. Our guys continued to fight and play and find a way to win. So many different guys (were) making plays. Obviously Brandis (Raley-Ross) will stand out tonight. He was huge and made a ton of shots in the second half. Lakeem Jackson had huge offensive boards late down the stretch when we needed them. Sam Muldrow (had) another night when he’s solid. Even the guys who didn’t score gave us good things.

We’re really fortunate to get the win. I think the crowd was great. A good total team win tonight – a really good win for our program.

On Brandis Raley-Ross
I don’t think there’s any question. I told him at first media time out of the second half, where we got a turnover, Devan penetrated and threw him the ball in the corner. (Brandis is) leading the country in shot fakes. He shot faked a couple of shots. I told him after the break if he passed on another three (I’d get on him).

On the team’s energy
For the most part (the energy) was good. The second half was much better. Fact of the matter is you’ll have more when you (do well) offensively.

Our theme tonight was to compete play as hard as we could and play the next play regardless of it’s its going great.

On Florida committing a season-high 20 turnovers
I don’t’ think we were tremendous (defensively). I’m sure they think they could take care of it better but at times we were active and did positive things as well. It’s a little bit of both.

On Florida fouling with two minutes to play
That’s what they chose to do. You can question (Florida coach Billy Donovan) but I’m not. Billy has two rings and is a hall of famer.

On Devan Downey
He looked good to me. Twenty-four points, four rebounds – a couple of them big rebounds in traffic – and four steals. Was he as explosive as he could be, I don’t’ know. I don’t think he didn’t show up. You’d probably have to saw a limb off for him not to play.

On the Florida series the past two years
They’ve been really good games. A lot of our games are like that in the East (Division). Our crowds have been good at both places. They’ve been good basketball games. They’ve been fun to be a part of.

On Sam Muldrow
Sam has been really good for a couple of weeks now. Not turning the ball over was great. I thought Sam was outstanding. He gave us presence. Again it goes back to the total team effort and continuing to build our program. There’s a guy that’s playing really well for us.

On the win
This one was huge for a lot of reasons. How we played Saturday and coming out playing with pride is sort of redeeming in terms of how you play. The fact they were ahead of us in division play and a (potential) NCAA team (was big).

Florida Head Coach Billy Donovan
Opening Statement
In a lot of ways the game was left out on the free throw line for our team. I thought there was a huge disparity in the game. We did a pretty good job of not fouling. Their total number of free throws exceeded ours by one because we were fouling so late in the game.

On guarding Devan Downey
I thought we did a really nice job on Devan Downey. He got some other guys involved and maybe wasn’t as aggressive as he was in Gainesville. He really bided his time a little bit and decided when to go and when not to go. I don’t want to sit there and take credit for doing such a great job stopping him, because I’m not so sure we did. He was a little more patient and got more guys involved.

On turnovers
We had very careless turnovers. The way they were running around, we shot such a high percentage and got layups and easy shots. Then there were times we really made plays that weren’t there. We had charging plays where we needed to make a more simpler play. The third thing is it’s hard to win on the road (when you) go 10-for-23 from the line. I’m not saying we would have won the game if we shot better, but clearly if you look at their percentage from the three-point line and the field, they didn’t’ shoot a very high percentage. It was our careless in some situations.

On poor free throw shooting
I don’t know if it’s a lack of focus. There is a certain level of focus on free throw shooting. I know as a player if I went to the free throw line and was 1-for-6, I would feel like my focus level wasn’t where it needed to be. That was certainly uncharacteristic of our team. I don’t think we played a great game. I thought it was a game that was there for the taking for us and there for the taking for them.

On South Carolina getting back into the game
At the start of the second half we got out to a great start. We had a play where the outlet passes weren’t really crisp. It was just things that went on through the game that allowed them to hang around and allowed them to kind of play pretty well down the stretch. They shot well from the three-point line down the stretch. They didn’t make a three in the first half and they made six in the second half.

On fouling late in the game
I don’t think we were trying to foul at 2:03. I think Boynton was trying to trap him. In that situation we wouldn’t try to foul Downey. At that time I think we had fouls to give, so in that situation I wanted to give a couple of fouls and get close to the bonus and maybe have them take the ball out of bounds and see if we can get a steal on an inbounds.

On containing Downey, Muldrow and Raley-Ross
I felt like coming into the game, there were a couple of things we didn’t want to happen. One was, we needed to take care of the ball and get wide open looks. The other thing that was key in the game for us was I think when Downey gets 30 or 35 and there’s no other double-figure scorer, they’re easier to play against so to speak. When they have Muldrow and Raley-Ross playing well and Downey’s average goes from 30 to 20 and other guys are stepping up, they become real difficult to guard, in my opinion. I thought Muldrow played a good game, and I thought Raley-Ross played a good game … the key for us was to try and eliminate another double-figure scorer.