Jan. 29, 2011

Recap | Final Stats | Notes

Auburn at South Carolina • Postgame Quotes • January 29, 2011

South Carolina Head Coach Darrin Horn
Opening Statement
We’ve said from day one that there would be some games that felt like year one and I thought it looked like it today. It looked like a young team that somehow thought we had done something and thought it was an easy game. We got off to a decent start and then we did not guard at all. We collectively did not rebound well. We did not get the presence from some guys that are important to us. Credit Auburn, they played terrific. They did a great job inside against us especially. A team that was getting around 56 points gets 79 and they were getting to the foul line and making foul shots. They also shot a much higher percentage than they have all year. So, credit them for making the plays to win the game today.

On the offense
I don’t think the loss had anything to do with offense. We made some shots and got to the foul line. We had some put backs and we had that three possession stretch where I think we had about six offensive boards. We just did not guard anybody. We cut it to five and had a chance and then we just let them come down three-straight times and score. After that, the lead was back up in double digits. It had everything to do with defense.

On the upcoming road trips
I’m not really worried about our games coming up. We’ll be fine. I am more worried about our team being focused on the things that they need to be focused on. We had the expectation that there would be some bumps in the road with a young team and it looked like it tonight. We are going to find out a lot about them coming up here. We really want to be about the things that we say we are. It doesn’t mean we are going to win. We just did not play South Carolina basketball today at all.

South Carolina Player Quotes
Ramon Galloway-Sophomore-Guard
On the team’s performance today
The energy level was just not where it was supposed to be today. Coach emphasized it in practice and we did not perform today.

Sam Muldrow-Senior-Forward
On the post defense
We were not moving our feet today. We need to play good post defense and we have to box out.

Auburn Head Coach Tony Barbee
On a strong start to the second half
It was important, but it’s like I told the kids we have to fight and be tough through the drought offensively. I knew the drought was coming; the kids knew the drought was coming. I thought we didn’t let that affect us mentally on the defensive end of the floor. They made the run with eight minutes to go, and we didn’t hang our heads and pout like it was over. I thought our kids played to win today. Our defense was key in holding a really good offensive team to 34%. I’m proud of our kids. This is a tough place to play against a really good team.

On getting through the rough stretch to begin SEC play
It’s hard, especially with a young team, to go through the losses that we’ve had while playing as well as we had. We had to keep them upbeat and positive. The one thing we’ve done as a staff is to stay positive because the players will feed off of you. It’s great to get the win so they understand I’m not just making them work and driving them without a reward at the end.

Auburn Player Quotes
Josh Wallace-Sophomore-Guard
On the team’s mood after the game
It was great. It feels good to get that bitter taste of losing out of our mouth. It’s something that we don’t want to taste again, so we’re going to try to keep it going from here.

Kenny Gabriel-Junior-Forward
On coming out strong in the second half
It was really good because you don’t want to get down double digits coming out of (the) Arkansas (game). Today, I think we came out with a little more fight in the second half and got the `W’.