“They’re a very good team. They have experience. They have athleticism. They have size and they present problems for their opponents because of those things I just mentioned. I mean, when you have experienced guards in college basketball that always helps you. When you have guys that have been through the wars of the SEC, that helps you. And you can tell (they’re) well coached. They’re disciplined.  (They) play very hard. They are doing what they do well, and that’s something as a coach you – I would imagine for them – they feel good about.”

“We’re going through practice today. We’ll see where everybody is. Regardless of who plays, as you know, we’ll put our best team out there.”

“I’m not sure. We’ll see.”

“I mean, yeah, we’ve had guys out. We’ve had guys out of practice. I mean, it’s a college basketball season and those things happen. You just look across the country at teams that are losing good players for the season or losing guys for games. It’s a bit of a thing of attrition. For us – I think in the big picture we’ve been generally lucky when you talk about some of the guys other teams have lost.”

“I think he comes to work every day. He has a good attitude. He has a competitive spirit that you must have here, number one to survive, number two to excel. I think when you come to work and you come to practice with that attitude, you’re going to get better. When you reject the process at times, you might go backwards. And even if you’re not going backwards, those around you are going forward. I think Tai is a guy who has come to work and has embraced it and is tough. You gotta tip your hat to him, but at the same time you gotta say, ‘Let’s keep going. We’ve got a ways to go.’ ”

“I thought we had some good possessions out of it. Our guys were talkative and active in it. I thought it was a bit of a game-changer for us that gave us some life there in the first half. Coach is asking our guys to be empowered on the floor. They were during that zone. They took it on and took that challenge. I think, as a staff, you know, Cal would say that’s a good thing.”

“I’m not sure. This is my third year. I feel like it’s been (College) Game Day down there every year, maybe not. They have great fan support. I think it’s a tough place to play because of the guys that are in the uniforms. That has a little bit more to do with it than the fans or arena. They have very good basketball players and are very well-coached. That’s something that presents a bigger problem at times rather than however many thousand folks that are there for that game.”

“I think you’re always concerned about your players. In terms of hitting a wall, I’m not sure what that might look or feel like. I think what we’re concerned with as assistant coaches and as a staff is that we’re doing everything that we can to put our guys in a position to be successful every day. As a program, you’re (asking): Are we getting the right amount of rest? Are we getting the right amount of food? Are we getting the right amount of treatment and controlling the things that we control versus something that might not be there?”

“I think when you have a young team everything is a new experience. Just like the other day De’Aaron (Fox) was out, Sacha (Killeya-Jones) was out. We had another starter get in foul trouble early on. Those types of things, it’s new. Then we get down double digits and we stay down double digits. Those are all learning experiences that, as we’re growing as a basketball team, you have to look back on that. I think as we met yesterday, and as we were on the floor yesterday, you had to feel good about that, of what we did the other night. I don’t think anyone around here is looking at that as a bad thing – what we had to experience the other night. It was something that taught us lessons, and at this point in the season, wins or losses, you’re going for lessons learned. Our guys are embracing every day those lessons and then growing from them.”

“To be honest with you I don’t even know who’s in the game. Whoever, I would say, has the best quarterback, and that’s probably debatable. I think Tom Brady is a tremendous player in terms of his preparation. I think as a coach you always appreciate guys that prepare as much as you do. His attention to detail – I feel like in the things that I’ve read; I never played football, I’ve never coached football – I feel like it’s something that’s impressive. The things people say about them and their organization.”

“I think at this point in the season you have to do everything better. You’ve always got to guard the basketball. I think you’ve got to limit the other team’s paint touches. You’ve got to limit transition. Some of the things that have hurt us in the last couple games have been points when you don’t even have defense back. Live-ball turnovers where they’re going two on zero, one on zero, three on one, whatever it might be. You want to give yourself a chance to get a stop, so I think defensively in the half court it’s attention to detail, it’s communicating, it’s all the things we’ve been saying since October, and that every coach is telling their team. You can’t let that slip. I don’t think we’re in any much of a different place than anybody else in the country is defensively. You have to get better just like you do offensively.”

“Yeah, I mean, you have to communicate on defense period. I think in the zone for them to say that, that’s good. As a coach, as I’ve said earlier, Cal is wanting these guys to feel empowered, and be empowered and take on that responsibility. If they’re talking more in the zone than they are in man maybe that was a sense of desperation on their part. We’d like to think they’d have that same sense of desperation in man-to-man as well, but that’s all growing. That’s all something that we’re trying to do every day and turn that into a habit is growth.”

“I would say it’s probably the hardest place to play in. I mean, the environment is so humid. You get in the gym and the fans are right on top of you. Did they build a new arena or something? (reporter: they remodeled it). Yeah, I thought that’s what I saw on the film. It looked different. But yeah, it’s just a hard environment to play in. With College GameDay too being there, I mean, it’s going to make it that much more tough. We’ll see.”

“Just gotta be prepared, take the fight to them right from the jump. They’re going to be ready for us. I think they’re a top-25 team. They’re good. They can beat you. Just gotta show up.”

“Yeah, just one of those things. Even away from the gym, I have friends that are getting sick and stuff so it’s just one of those things that’s going around. But we had the lodge sanitized, the stuff around here has been cleaned. Just taking that extra precaution I guess.”

“It just depends. I think right now we’re just kind of in a little tough spot. But we know what to do. All of our fixes I feel like they’re simple. We just gotta get out there and do it. I stand by my statement that we’re the most talented team in the nation and we can go as far as we want to carry ourselves. But like I said, we just gotta crack down on some things and we’ll be alright.”

“Yeah, it kind of showed we have fight and when it comes down to it we can win games. Just need to not let it get to that point. Just from the jump be on teams, and when you have a lead stay on that lead. So, we can do it, we just have to.”

“I’m not sure about who they have this year. I just don’t really look into a lot of the teams until we play them. I know Kasey Hill, point guard, he’s a nice player. I think last year they had some big kid, I think he’s back (John Egbunu). He’ll dunk on you. I don’t know. It’ll be a tough game I think.”

“I think it was my freshman year they had – I can’t remember who they had on their team – but they had a really good team that year. It was like a top-three team maybe. It was a veteran team, played well together and we played them I think three times that year and didn’t beat them. We came close the last time, but that was probably the toughest I remember Florida being.”

“They’re like literally right on top of you. Their bench is on the court and the stands are like that. It’s super close. I don’t know, sometimes you hear stuff and sometimes you don’t. But you just play the game and you’ll be alright.”

“He said it’s cold. He said it’s pretty cool. The first game he came to was the overtime one. He just said how crazy it was and how much fun he had.”

“He said to just make sure I’m having fun. Just keep having fun and work hard and just become the best player I can be. That kind of stuff.”

“Yeah. I’m definitely having fun.”

“We were just talking and everyone had each other’s backs. I was in the back of the zone talking, yelling at people. We were just all on the same wavelength and just wanted to get back in the game real bad. We were just fighting and that’s what brought us back.”

“It just came up as the game went along. It started working for us and if something starts working then we gotta keep doing it.”

“Yeah. I don’t think Cal likes zone very much. So yeah, he gets Coach Barbee to do it. It’s a bit different.”

“Just where I come from, New Zealand, it’s built off real strong, scrappy players. Like Steve Adams (of the Oklahoma City Thunder), you look at him and he gets how many technical fouls called on him every game. It’s just crazy.”

“Yeah. It’s hard for me to not foul as much when you’re trying to scrap and play as hard as you can. I try my best.”

“No, he’s leaving tomorrow, actually. So that kind of sucks, but he came for like three days and just left.”

“He did. He brought some Tim Tams and some different chocolates and stuff from New Zealand. So it’s not very good. I have a lot of snacks up in my room now I’m going to have to finish off.”

“Definitely. The more you get used to it and the more confident you get, the more you can impact the game. So I’m definitely feeling a lot better.”

“Yeah, definitely. We’re going to go out and try to win every game we can. So obviously this game’s going to be a big game and we’re going to treat as such and we’re going to come out and just do the best we can.”

“It’s just kind of annoying at times, having cleaners in your room and all that kind of stuff. It’s just a bit different, having them all around, but it’s all good. You gotta do what you gotta do and you just gotta get through it.”