Rod Barnes Quotations

We're going to play in the NCAA Tournament. So this is not their last go-around with me, OK ?

When we can go inside to Curtis, he's good at scoring with the basketball. I've really focused this year on our offense. We're a little behind on defense.

We were in a tournament with all of our guys. All of a sudden, we come back and ... we're determined. We win 27 games (in 2000-01).

We did not do a good job rebounding on offense and did not play good defense. We turned the ball over early and they took advantage of our mistakes.

We've stayed with the older guys for a long time. Not that we're going away from them, but we've got to do something different.

We're having some turnovers that have nothing to do with anything except passing and catching. Sometimes when you have a tough-go of it the way we have as far as turnovers, it becomes a little mental.

Whenever you play Mississippi State, it's obvious it means a lot. You don't take that lightly. What I don't do is, I don't put our whole season into it. But when you look at the schedule, obviously, every year, as soon as you get the conference schedule and you look and see when you play Mississippi State. That's what rivals are all about.

We're giving a lot of guys opportunities. We've stayed with our older guys for a long time. Not that we're going away from them, we're just going to use (the freshmen).

Last year, we had Tommy Eddie in the post, who was 6-7. Kendrick Fox started and was not really a post player.

Some nights, we'll have guys that look like all-conference. It's been difficult. We are going through some growing pains. I take it personally. We need better leadership on the floor.

My level of respect for him just took a whole different level, to make that trip and then drive back and then practice and then play today and then fight in a rival game.

I don't know about ending the streak. We just want to come out and continue to play well.

I didn't look out there today and think we were overmatched. Without the turnovers, I don't know how many other teams would beat us.

I coached today like I always coach. I was coaching to win and that is what I am going to do. I will reflect on what has happened after this is all over. I don't have time for that right now. We cannot allow what has happened or what will happen distract from what we are doing.

I expect him to be back. He won't get a chance to work out with us, but we expect to have him back in uniform.

If we lost that first game at Alabama, our kids would be questioning themselves. We accomplished that. To come back and play an experienced team like South Carolina and win, it helps with our confidence.

He has really helped us and been a good backup point guard, but we have got to get him back playing well. I challenged him after the Mississippi State game. He has lost some of his aggressiveness. He was attacking, knocking down shots and running the team. The last few games he has not played as many minutes as we need him to play.

He gave me a look before he shot them that didn't make me feel too comfortable. He frowned.

He'll go down to me as one of the quietest, toughest guys in our league. To me, he's the player of the year in our league. Glen definitely has the numbers, but when you move a guy to a new position and he's exceptional at it, that's pretty special to me.

We're obviously going into this game feeling better about ourselves. I think our guys will be excited about playing. By the time we get there, they'll (State) be ready to play, and our kids realize that.

What you do as a family, that determines your character and what kind of person you're going to be. We can either lay down and we can accept this or we can get back up and fight. I told them I choose to fight and I believe they're going to choose to fight.

He's always done what LSU is looking for. To me, he's the Player of the Year in this league. Glen definitely has the numbers, but what Darrel has done is pretty special.

He's been given more opportunities and he's taking advantage of that. So it will be exciting for him to go back, but I don't think it means as much as his freshman and sophomore year. I think it's big to him, but it's not like he's not going to sleep before the game or be all intense about it. He wants to win because I think Bam just wants to win.

We looked like we lacked confidence and we were tense taking the shots.

He was good, not great. You could tell he had not had live action in the last two games. But I saw some aggressiveness.

I thought Arkansas did a good job of defending. I don't think it was one particular person. I think their zone affected us and allowed us not to get the ball inside to where we were capable of getting it.

I thought their zone affected us. It kept us from getting the ball inside the way we're capable of getting it.

I think we have the makings of a special team. But there are so many teams in our league that are better than we are, I believe, at this particular point that we've got a lot of work to do. But if we continue to work hard, this team could be an NCAA team, but we're so far from that right now.

I think we will get support. I think it's not where it needs to be, but it's gotten better. We're looking forward to having a good crowd. I think the rivalry (with LSU) from football might carry over to basketball. It will take some time, and wins, but it's better than it has been in years.

It has been difficult the last few years to beat Mississippi State. And it will be difficult (today). The great thing about it, a lot of our guys have not been a part of those losses. A lot of our new guys, they've never played Mississippi State.

Our kids played really well against LSU. But they have to play even better against Florida.

My wife made the statement that she felt like the kids were pressing, because I was pressing. She said, You've got to relax and have fun.' Once they saw that coach was relaxed and wasn't yelling and screaming, they relaxed and played well as a result.

I won't have to pick up the paper and read that it's nine in a row.

I think Coach Pearl has done a great job. There's a lot of excitement at Tennessee and their kids are playing hard and playing well. It's become one of the toughest places to go and play.

I thought Kentucky played a great second half.

We expect those guys to really come out and get after us.

Those guys are talented; they're young; they're inexperienced. They need some maturity.

We just didn't play well in either half. We were up by 14 in the second half, but I didn't think we deserved to have a lead like that.

We get a chance to find out where we really are. We had a disappointing loss against Georgia and now we're on the road again at Arkansas. This is the first time this year that we've taken back-to-back road trips. We've played well. This will be a definite challenge for us.

We're not the most confident team by our play right now, but we've got to fight through. We're going to keep fighting.

We are going to work hard and be focused and ready to play.

We still have confidence - not as confident as we were, maybe, two weeks ago, but still confident that we can win.

We're a team that's gotten off to a good start. But we've got to come to play every night, or things will change in a hurry.

To be a championship team, you've got to have some urgency about every possession. There's got to be a certain amount of focus that you've got to have every time down the floor.

To be a championship team you have to have a sense of urgency on every possession. You've got to be able to play freely, but you've got to say, Man, we can't throw it away.' There is a certain amount of focus you have to have every trip.

We won three in a row, we lost three in a row and we can very easily win three in a row again. What we can't do is take steps back. Even though we didn't win, we made a step forward today.

We stayed there for a while talking to him, just letting him know we were there for him.

We wouldn't want to leave tonight and travel to Alabama. We've got to play better than this (against Western Carolina) next Tuesday.

We run a lot of things offensively through Dwayne. When he's out, we've had doubts.

We had a couple of times when our guys could have squeezed off shots when they chose not to. We've got to work our way out of this and gain our confidence back.

When you have a young time like we do, it's going to affect them. Sometimes when you have an older team you may have a situation where guys have been there, and it becomes a rallying cry for everybody.

We've got to be a team that bounces back.

We've just gone to two places and got beat pretty badly. We go back home, the last time we were at home we played a great game. We're one game away from a regular-season winning season, and that's something we haven't done (since 2002). We get the opportunity to do that Saturday.

We're the third-youngest team in the league, and it's starting to show. We're in a rebuilding process and we've still got a few missing pieces. We lack in confidence --kind of like my first season here. This is an unforgiving league. But one of these games, we're going to put everything together.

We were fighting an uphill battle all night.

You can't come to the floor and get 19 turnovers against one of the top 10 teams in the country and expect to win. It just doesn't happen.

Those two are probably playing as well as any two wing men in the league, and maybe in the country.

We just make a phone call to the construction sites to make sure to water down the area.

We were passive in the first half, and they were aggressive. After they built their lead, we settled down and realized it is not as tough of a press if we take care of the ball.

We missed some easy shots and had great opportunities and came up short. Obviously, we're lacking some confidence.

We changed our lineup in the last game. We turned the ball over way too much. I think we've played good teams that cause turnovers, but we've started to lack in confidence.

We did a good job of executing, offensively. I've kept telling this team, once we come together, we might be able to surprise some teams. But we still have a long way to go.

We didn't know going into the game that he would play as well as he did. We talked about him being a good shooter when he entered the game, but who would have expected that from him?

Bruce Pearl has done a great job of getting those guys to buy into what he is doing. If we had responded with some intensity and aggressiveness early on, it would have been a much better basketball game. After we got into the flow of understanding how hard they play, we were just too far down.

Being without Dwayne, we didn't play as well as we would have liked.

(Curtis' absence) had a lot to do with it. A lot of times we get it inside. And then there's his presence, whether we throw it to him or not, the defense has to be concerned about him.

Dwayne was close to his brother, but he's handled himself. He has stayed strong. I admire the guy because there's no way I could've gone through what he's gone through.

There's gonna be ups and downs, for lots of teams.

The thing that has helped him, our guys are so close. This is a close-knit group. I think that's one of the reasons why he came back. Most kids in that situation wouldn't have played today. But he made the commitment to come back, and I think the guys were excited to see him and really welcome him.

I've never been one to quit, not necessarily quit. I started the season with these kids, and unless there was someone above me, not allowing me to do that ... I couldn't do that.

(Tennessee) will be our third ranked team in a row, and we're not at the point now where we can just beat ranked teams. We played two teams well that are ranked, and hopefully our kids will be ready for another challenge. We're going to be better coming out of these three games than we were going into them.

Sometimes we all need a wake-up call. He realizes if he'll just go play his game, it'll take care of itself. I'm sure he wants to prove himself. He wants to get something done. He's probably a little hungrier than he was before.

Sometimes kids will rally around a situation like that. Sometimes it goes other way. He would want us to go up there (to Kentucky) and play well and that's what he said to our players and coaches.

After he got in there, he was comfortable. He wasn't afraid. He loves big games and all that kind of stuff.

That's huge. One thing about this league is that it's so tough when you get off to a bad start.

You're always concerned and I'm concerned about our kids. But you know, let's win. And not win to change anybody's perception of what my job situation is. I've just always been a guy that, when I set goals, stays focused on accomplishing it. I still see that winning season out there. All the other things, whether I'm going to be back, all that, you just learn that all that counts is Saturday.

They've done what they need to do to get to this point. It's something to be happy about. But we've got to continue to try to get better.

They told us it could go either way. As of (Friday) I didn't know if he had the surgery or not. His father said they would contact us after the game and let us know how everything was going. Then we got a call last night about 9:30, maybe a little later than that.

They tried to trap him, make things tough on him.

All of my energy, and all of my focus, has to be on our players. I got into this business for students, for their welfare and their well-being. As long as I am coaching, that is how it's going to be. I'll deal with my emotions later.

A lot of things happen from your point guard. If he looks like he's in control, your whole team is more confident.

There were some turnovers that they had nothing to do with. It was just passing and catching. You can't do that against a top 10 team and win. It just doesn't happen.

They're putting up numbers on a consistent basis.

It's a tough task for us. I'm sure their guys will be prepared for this game. We've just got to play better.

It's mental at this point. We're at a position now where kids know the plays. Mississippi State was more aggressive. ... Mississippi State attacked us, and now I've got to get our guys ready from a mental standpoint to attack Kentucky.

For 18, 19 minutes it was a really good basketball game (but) their team making 3s separated us.

It snowballed on us. We couldn't stop it.

It snowballed on us, and we could not stop it. It was one of those days when things don't go right for you, and they go for the other team. I just thought they played better than we did.

It's one of those things that happened and happened at a tough time. But we've got to deal with it. ... We've got to go without him on Wednesday and lift each other up. He would want us to go out there and play well.

Darrel's been scoring in this league ever since he's been in this league. He's a quiet guy that many people don't think about, but he's making buckets, shooting 3s and hurting defenses for a long time.

The best thing about them is they have totally bought into winning. They don't care about their stats; they just care about doing what it takes to win.

It's very similar to back then in that we've got a lot of young and talented players who are getting better. I have to say this team is a little bit of a surprise to me right now. I thought we would eventually be good, but we have handled adversity a lot better than I thought we would. And that's similar to the way it was when we had Michael and Keith and all those other guys. This group probably has more confidence at an earlier stage than that group did.

It's time to get back up and get started back to work. We will look to pull out another win and this is our first opportunity to get that win.

They beat us up pretty bad. It's a tough draw for us, but after the game against LSU, I feel better about our team's state of mind. I think they're in a better state than the last game against Kentucky. That's when the uncertainty (about Barnes' future) started. Words have been spoken. A lot of those questions are behind us.

They were a lot more physical when we started our offense. They double-teamed Todd and tried to trap him. They attacked him, and that hurt us at times.

After that game, I just wanted to wake up and see that everything is OK. We have to get back to work.

At the end we were playing like a team that hadn't won in a while. We did everything we could to give it away.

Arkansas played well on defense. It wasn't one person who stopped us. Their zone was very effective.

I'm not going to take those questions today.

I'm not going to get crushed. I may bend, I may lean over, but I'm not going to fall.