Barry Gebhart Quotations

West Memphis is always among the top three or four teams in the state every year. It seems like they never have to rebuild.

We ran some plays for him, and he made some tough shots in traffic.

I didn't order awards, because I didn't want tonight to be about awards. I wanted it to be about a collective group of guys that may be together for the last time.

I hated that they had to go out on such a sour note when they had done so much for our program, our school and our community. They generated a lot of excitement for the community with their run to the championship game last year. I know they were set on bringing that back this year.

He understands how defenses move and shift. He's got several offensive skills and he's able to put a lot of pressure on a defense. He's a great shooter and one of our better passers.

I thank the parents for sending me the finished product. These guys were truly ambassadors for our program. I can't tell you how many teachers have told me what a great group they've been in the classroom. That same attitude that made them successful in the classroom made them a success on the court.

Our strength is our defense. We try to pride ourselves on defense because we feel that when we execute it correctly, we can create plays on offense and hopefully make some open shots. These past two days, we've really shot well though.

Marcus was more aggressive than we were on defense. You can't allow a great player to dictate what he wants to do. When that happens, you're in trouble.

We executed much better in the third quarter and got Lewis isolated. We made some adjustments offensively and got Lewis some quick buckets. But I never felt real comfortable because Bentonville took us out of some things. But our kids were persistent enough to get what we wanted.

Trevor is doing fine. He's feeling pretty good.

We didn't do a good job on him the whole game. In the first half, he drove to the basket and made free throws. In the second half, he made jump shots. You just have to give him a lot of credit.

You look at the other team and try to figure out who's capable of beating you. Obviously, we're not going to shut anyone down, but we tried to slow those guys down.

We'll stay with our normal routine. There won't be much of a difference in our practice schedule. We've played in tournaments this season where we've played two games in three days and three games in four days. This week will mimic the state tournament later this year.

We started to run and jump at them. We did it from different places, so they couldn't tell where the jump man was coming from.

We have good shooters. It's just a matter of them getting comfortable and getting their feet set.

We've had 11 games away from home now. I know the kids are anxious to play in front of their home fans finally.

We got out of rhythm in the second quarter. We had a pretty good lead and then all of sudden, it got away from us. They ended up leading by 6, and it was a 12- or 13-point swing. Heading into that second quarter, I thought we were on the verge of taking control.

We did a great job on the glass, blocking out and going to get the ball.

Brad was very solid. He was on the floor for the last quarter and half. He did some good things offensively and defensively and got on the boards.

There's no doubt our goal was to make it back to Little Rock and to win state. But it's much easier to be the Cinderella team than to be the team with a target on your chest. Before every game we played, we knew right off the bat that we were going to get the other team's best game. Over the course of a 30-game season, that starts to wear on you.

I've been told that if we get them on the wrong night, and they are shooting well, then we'll get their best shot. It seems like we always get everybody's best shot.

It would be nice if everything always came up roses in life and you were the Cinderella story all the time, but sometimes you're on the other side of the coin. It's our fate tonight to be in that role.

It will be a little harder this year. Teams didn't know a lot about us last year.

It's a different look. We normally don't play teams with four guards, but I'd like to think we're versatile enough to match up against it.

Its hard to lose any game and especially one that's so close. The fact that we didn't come away with the win doesn't lessen what these guys did last season at all. They've been a classy, hard-working bunch all year long. They played with a lot of courage and a lot of determination. I couldn't be any more proud of them. I wouldn't feel any better about them even if we'd won that game.

I had so many options on this team to work with. I said to myself so many times, if maybe I did this or that we could've won. We were in every game this season. The most we lost by was 5 points, and that was in overtime.

I'm not sure we did anything well tonight but compete. We hung in there and kept playing and kept playing. We played good defense all night and never gave up. Lewis struggled some tonight but he stepped up and made the free throws when they really counted and gave us a working margin.

I'll take what we got in the last 10 seconds every time. Lewis' shot seemed to roll around every end of the basket, and Colin's shot looked like it was in.

I just felt like, if we could ever get up two scores, we'd be in good shape. But we just couldn't get a score and a stop.

He's one of the two or three guys we run plays for to go one-on-one or come off a screen to make people guard him in space. And when he gets his feet set and gets himself gathered, he shots a very high percentage from the outside.

He's very solid around the free-throw line at the high post. But he also understands that our opponents and who's in the game for us will dictate his role on the floor. He's a guy who can get in a zone and be great offensively at different positions.

He's always under control, both physically and mentally. He just knows what he's doing and knows what needs to be done at all times. That's what you want from a point guard, because its hard for a team to stay under control when its point guard isn't.

All of these guys sacrificed individual awards for what was best for the team.