University of Tennessee Athletics
Tennessee vs. Florida Postgame Quotes
January 09, 2002 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 9, 2002
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TENNESSEE HEAD COACH BUZZ PETERSON
"It's hard to imagine that the same type of thing happened again, but Nelson stepped up and made the big shot, and that's it.
"We fought, scrapped and played hard. If we keep it up and show this kind of intensity, we will win some games. You saw a bunch of white jerseys going after loose balls tonight.
"This was a good Florida team. What an effort by both teams. I feel for the guys in our locker room. We had to stop them, but we had bad luck. There are some tired bodies in our locker room.
"One thing we didn't do well tonight was shoot free throws. We missed 15 of them. We had things going our way with Haslem out of the game. You have to wonder if we have some sort of mental block.
"We've got to stay together. Something good has got to happen and it will, if we keep playing like this."
FLORIDA HEAD COACH BILLY DONOVAN
"This is one of our most special wins, particularly with what we had to overcome. Tennessee is very good and Buzz is doing a terrific job. We were dead in the water and found a way to win. We hung in there.
"Hamilton and Nelson deserve a lot of credit, they made a lot of shots.
"This was a character win. It tested our will. I don't know if we deserve it, but I feel fortunate that we won. We made some big shots down the stretch, like White's three and Brett's three. The players made the plays. We kept our composure. It's the kind of situational stuff we've been working on because there are so many close games in this conference.
"Hamilton was absolutely unbelievable. He played so well and was so focused. It was just a great game. Nelson didn't make an easy shot. He missed some good looks, but he made the big play. I didn't know if it had a chance to go in, it was a difficult shot. It gave us a new sense of life.
"We took care of the basketball better than we did against South Carolina. I thought both teams were exhausted the last five minutes and then into overtime.
