Stan Heath Team Quotations

One of the announcers, Seth Davis, picked us to lose the game. I think that's something that grabbed our attention right away. We don't want to just be a happy team just to get into the tournament. We want to go there to win some games.

I don't think people clearly understand how good our league is. We're the third-ranked conference in the country. We just aren't top-heavy. There's not someone that looks like a Final Four team right now, but someone could play their way into that. Instead of being top-heavy, we have a lot of good teams.

He is a handful. Chris has played very well in most of their big games. I feel in some ways that I've got one of the best defensive centers in the country in my team in Steven Hill. I know Chris is going to be hard to stop, but he's going to face a kid that relishes defense, relishes shot blocking, relishes shutting somebody down. And if he (Chris) does well, it's going to be because he earned it.

We've been very consistent. No team has shot over 40 percent against us in conference play. We were right on our average here in the first half, and then they shellacked that in the second half.

Steele has been the best we've seen so far. If he had a Duke jersey on, he'd probably be in line for a (NBA) lottery pick. The kid does a little bit of everything. He can score, he can pass and he runs the team so well.

Our team can play with anybody. The question is, can we beat anybody? Other teams are going to make runs. We have to finish plays, make free throws and do the other things we were doing early in the season.

Our team played very well at Alabama. That was one of our better road games. We could have made better choices. Where do we go from here? We go to Auburn and get a win.

We need a big jump there. Our team should be a plus-five rebounding team.

We have got great momentum going into the tournament now. We'll play these guys again, and I really think Georgia is a much better team than they showed today. I really expect their guards to step up in the tournament. Next time is going to be a lot tougher.

Uno. That's the highest ranked team we've beaten, the best win we've had. There were a lot of heroes.

It would have been really hard to be 0-3 at this particular time, no doubt about it. They were tense. They wanted those last two wins and we didn't get them. But this team now, I think, will feel better about itself.

We've had some tough breaks go against us. And yet, I know my team is still fighting and fighting and fighting. We're much improved. We're a better basketball team.

Auburn is a difficult team to play because they have so many different defenses. We wanted to make sure we had a high energy level. I thought we responded pretty well in the second half.

A lot of veterans back from an experienced team last year. Obviously I know when you have an experienced team like that what kind of damage they can do in the tournament.

Ronnie has an unselfish nature. But we need him to still be aggressive (on offense). You can't let the other team take you away.

Ronnie understands that his value to our team is not just in scoring. He's still an impact guy, whether he scores 20 points or 10. He's a humble kid who is trying to get better, and fun to coach.

I'm just really proud of our team for not breaking under the Florida pressure. We may have bent a little bit, but we held strong.

I like our chances. I always thought all this team was missing was one big win, and we got that marquee win over Florida to turn things around.

I know a couple years ago when we were there, we were kind of starry-eyed. ...We've got an older team now, and we've got a team that I don't think is going to be looking around the arena. We're going to go there hungry, we're going to go there ready to play and we'll see what happens from there.

I'm really trying to keep our team focused on what's in front of us. Knowing that we still have destiny in our control. We still have it in our hands.

I'm disappointed in the loss, but I'm more disappointed in the way we played. Give Ole Miss credit. They played like a team in the hunt for it all.

I really don?t know what Tubby told them at halftime. But that certainly was a different team in the second half.

Georgia is the leading team in the SEC, in conference play, in steals. We have to be smart. We need to rebound the ball, get a good running game going and get stops on defense.

That kid, if his team is in first place or on national TV all the time -- or if he's playing with a Duke uniform on -- they're talking about this kid being a lottery pick. That kid does it all. He plays for 40 minutes every single game and doesn't take possessions off. That's special.