South Carolina basketball coach Frank Martin had plenty of nice things to say about UT coach Rick Barnes and the Vols basketball team after Tennessee defeated #24 South Carolina 78-69 at Thompson-Boling Arena Saturday afternoon. UT handed SC only it’s second loss of the season. The Vols improved to 10-9, 3-4 SEC.See the quotes below in his postgame press conference transcript.

South Carolina head coach Frank Martin

(On if there was a change in Tennessee’s offense in the second half)
“I tried to be real positive at halftime, but I knew that we were lucky we were even in the game. I’ll tell you what’s awesome, is for Rick Barnes to be in our conference. I think it’s awesome. To see him animated and excited, and his kids playing so hard, it’s great to watch. It’s great to watch, but I knew at halftime we were in trouble. We had no fight. We got outplayed with the exception of Michael Carrera. We didn’t get outplayed, we got out-toughed. It’s a shame, but that’s on me. I’ve got to do a better job. Obviously, I haven’t done a very good job here.”

(On if Michael Carrera had the toughness he was looking for)
“Yeah, yeah. Their guards just completely destroyed our guards. On defense, we couldn’t guard them. We couldn’t keep them out of the paint. We’re lucky they missed some shots in the first half. On offense, we couldn’t dribble the ball past the half court line. We couldn’t pass it. It’s hard to run any offense when you can’t pass. We just jogged around. Michael’s playing with stitches on his chin, a bloody nose, and he’s the guys that’s coming up with loose balls, taking charges, and getting rebounds for us. Nobody else would.”

(On the injury to Michael Carrera’s chin)
“There was a loose ball, and him and Armani (Moore) kind of just fell on each other, and his chin hit the ground. It cut his chin open, and we had to stitch him up. It is what it is. I’ve said it plenty of times: if I’ve got to go in a foxhole, I want Carrera with me. I don’t want to take anything away from Tennessee’s kids. They just took it to us, and we had no answer for their discipline, their toughness, their aggressiveness. We had absolutely no answer.”

(On a previous comeback providing a false sense of security)
“You play to the buzzer, and you coach to the buzzer. We’re in an eight-point game and we come up with a steal, then we miss a breakaway dunk. (If) we score that dunk, it’s six with about 1:50 to go, then get another stop and give yourself a chance to maybe get the ball to tie the game. It just wasn’t meant to be. It was unfortunate. We didn’t have it today. That’s two of our last three games. I was worried about today. It’s our fourth road game in six league games. Between travel and playing in foreign arenas, I was concerned about today.

“I know Rick (Barnes). When you know coaches as people – and obviously their players have been in the league, so I know what the players are about – I knew that the way that they played against Vanderbilt the other day was not going to be acceptable. You’ve got experienced players that are a good team, with a coach that’s just not going to accept guys not doing things the right way. I knew we were walking into a hornet’s nest today.”

(On knowing he would be let down today)
“Not let down. I kind of knew what was coming from Tennessee. I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to answer the bell. We tried to act like we were answering the bell, but we didn’t have enough fight in us.”

(On Sindarius Thornwell’s performance)
“I got nothing. He’s one for his last 25 from the field, I know that. If he doesn’t play better, it’s going to be hard for us to win.”

“He’s had a real good year for us. He came off probably his three best games of the year, and then all of a sudden the last few games he’s one for 25, 26 from the field. They’ve both been road games. Free throws, he was 3-for-8 against Ole Miss. Today, I think he shot two free throws, and the only two free throws he shot, he missed them both. We’ve got to get more, not just from him, from all the guys. The starters right now, we’re just not getting much from three or four of our starters. They’ve got to play better.”

-South Carolina Athletics