Mark Gottfried Last Quotations

Last year we felt we had a team could really make some damage in this tournament, and we didn't do it. So for our returning players, I think there is a little bit of the attitude that we want a chance to do this a lot better than we did last year.

If, in fact, South Carolina had won, my hope would have been that the last team on the board, regardless of conference, would have been the one eliminated, not a team from our league. I don't know that anybody knows the answer to that question. I don't think it's important at this point in time.

Really in the last two, three or four years we've been as aggressive as anybody in the country with our non-conference schedule. I hope that doesn't hurt us. I hope that all of a sudden that's not used against you, because we could have played three easier teams in December and we'd be 20-9 and everyone will be celebrating.

I thought I was in for another Patrick Sparks like last year the way he was shooting it.

I think he realizes he needs to be more aggressive. He didn't have to look for his shot as much last year because we had ( Kennedy ) Winston and ( Earnest ) Shelton . The team needs him to be a scorer and he's done that.

That was the good of Jean Felix. I think in his last two games he was 2-of-15 from the field. Today's some of the best we've seen from him. He did a great job shooting the ball.

That was the good (side). There was no question. The last two games he was something like 2-for-15 from the field. But for us to be good, we have to give him the shots when he's open. You just have to take the bad with the good. He had one of those performances that's phenomenal.

They've got a number of young players. We have a bunch of young players as well, so there's probably going to be more freshmen on the floor than we've had in the last number of years playing in this game.

His last two games he was 2-for-15 from the field. He really concentrated on his shooting. For us to be good you can't take the shots away from him. He got loose against the zone and made a couple of shots, he got off to a real good start and I thought that was the key.

The last four games, Darrel Mitchell has averaged about 26 or 27 points a game (actually 24.5), and we felt like against a zone he would find too many holes and get loose. We went to the zone once in the first half and he buried a 3 on us. I just felt like with Darrel Mitchell, right now, at the level he's been playing, we just needed to be body to body with him for 40 minutes.