Post-Game Quotes Texas Tech Preview

Arkansas vs. Oakland

Dec. 2, 2005

Post-Game Quotes

Arkansas Head Coach Stan Heath:

“I am really impressed with our team tonight. We set the tone defensively and forced 27 turnovers and had 18 steals. That is great hustling and great effort. This is our most complete game, especially from an offensive standpoint. The shooting was great tonight. I will take that any night. If I could, I would bottle it up and carry it with me from game to game. We really shot the ball well and we need to take it with us when we travel away.

“Our guys were comfortable and setting each other up. We had 20 assists tonight. That is a good team effort. I don’t have too many complaints tonight about offense or defense. They are done with finals and that is a huge weight off their shoulders. Their focus and energy was high and we could see it out there on the floor.”

On Texas Tech:

“Their team is well-coached and very competitive. It is important for us to find their key guys, limit their touches and know where they are. We need to go down there and execute. We need to knock down our threes like we did today.

“They have already sold over 14,000 tickets. It will be a great environment. The players from Little Rock are very excited. Several guys are born and bred Arkansans and many of them have family down there. There are going to be lots of fans. It will be a great crowd and we are playing a great team. It’s a good matchup and we want to protect our home court. This is a short turnaround time but we have a good feeling from tonight and we need to make sure we are ready on Saturday.”

Arkansas Forward Vincent Hunter:

“We had a long practice this week and I think that really helped us. We were able to get the open shots off. Coach always tells Gary (Ervin) that it starts with him. He does a good job of getting our offense going.”

“I knew Darian was going to make it (the three-point shot to end the first half). He always throws those up in practice and makes them.”

Arkansas Guard Patrick Beverley:

“The last couple of games I felt like I was letting my team down. I wanted to come out today and play my role for the team. We were able to hit the open shots and played well as a team tonight. The time off for finals gave us a thirst to play and I think we were all ready to play hard. We had great energy tonight and a lot of people stepped up.”

Arkansas Guard Gary Ervin:

“We played smart tonight and didn’t make a lot of stupid mistakes. We fed the ball inside when we could and got some points out of it. Patrick (Beverly) was hot-handed tonight. It is good to know we have a shooter like him. We got it done defensively as well.”

Oakland Coach Greg Kampe:

“They stole the ball from us big tonight. Eighteen steals, I’ve never heard of that many. We couldn’t make a shot. It’s tough. This is as bad a game as we’ve played. Give Arkansas credit. We actually guarded them in the half court pretty well. When we had the opportunity to guard them, we guarded them well. Giving them the open threes and transition, we are going to give them some shots. Second half, we played poorly. If that doesn’t change, it’s going to be a long year.”

(on the turnover by Billings near the end of the first half)

“It’s like someone had a voodoo doll. I don’t know why he fell.”