Post-Game Quotes
ARKANSAS vs. Florida
Feb. 2, 2008
POST-GAME QUOTES
Arkansas Head Coach John Pelphrey:
“We certainly feel very fortunate that we won this game. I have tremendous respect for Coach Billy Donovan and the Florida team. They are a really good basketball team and the highest scoring team in the league; for our guys to hold them to (61) points makes me really proud of them. We are playing as a team and I am very happy about it.”
“Any time we are at Bud Walton Arena, we have a chance to win. Our fan base is one of the best in the country and it was absolutely awesome in here today. Our team has really just played hard, especially our defense and our rebounding. The spacing has been very good, we are sharing the ball well and we have been able to score some points.”
“We have been talking a lot about unselfishness. The first part of this is the physical commitment. The second part is the heart and attitude of the team. They have been very unselfish, and that’s been really important.”
Arkansas Players
G, Gary Ervin
“We’re actually playing Razorback basketball now. It’s tough on defense. In these last two home games we came out with an effort on defense.”
On defense…
“That’s one thing you can always control. You can’t control night-in-and-night-out how many shots you’re going to make, but you know going into the game that if you stay tough on defense you’ve got a chance to win the ballgame.”
F/C, Darian Townes
“We’re just going out there and just playing, and we want to send a message out that we can win games. And we’re just coming out here to fight. We’ve got a week off to prepare for Ole Miss. It’s supposed to be another tough game, and we’ve got to keep going the way we’ve been going.”
G, Stefan Welsh
“They did a great job of passing the ball. We knew they were one of the better offensive teams in the conference. We wanted to come in and make them put the ball on the floor and make them do things they weren’t comfortable doing.”
Florida Coach Billy Donovan:
“The Arkansas kids played great tonight. One of my concerns coming into this game was that they were going to be bigger, faster, stronger and older–and that was the case. But I really thought the difference was their size in and around the basket.”
“[Sonny] Weems has always caused us problems. He’s a terrific shooter and he’s one of the better defenders I’ve seen in this league.”
“There were times when we were physically overmatched. You have to give [Arkansas] credit. When they come out, they look like an NBA team physically and we look like a very mature high school team.”
“When you shoot the ball like we did, I think of it as really good defense and poor shooting by us. Playing against a team like that only makes us better.”
“I’m proud of John [Pelphrey]. He’s done a terrific job with these guys here at Arkansas. This is a great opportunity for him. When you have two friends going against each other like this, I don’t think of it as me against him. It’s more of just Arkansas against Florida.”
Florida Players
G, Walter Hodge
“(Arkansas) has great athletes. As a team, you go through off nights, and you have to stay focused and play defense—that was the difference. They have two seven-footers inside, so it was tough to get shots inside. We got good looks (from 3-point range), and didn’t make them.”
G/F Nick Calathes
“We just didn’t get stops on the defensive end. We got great looks, but it was just one of those days where we didn’t knock (our three-point shots) down. Give (Arkansas) a lot of credit, but we weren’t tough enough.”
