SEC Basketball Media Day: Arkansas

In his second year at Arkansas, coach Mike Anderson will try to get the Razorbacks back into the NCAA Tournament after an 18-14 season. Arkansas is returning stellar shooting guard B.J. Young, who averaged 15.3 points per game in his freshman year.

Arkansas coach Mike Anderson:

On Phil Pressey:

I think that he is one of the best point guards in the country.  Obviously, we recruited him. I have known him all of his life.  Phil is the epitome of a point guard. He’s like a coach on the

floor.  More than that, he’s just a great, great kid.  I think that he just knows how to keep his team going—he just has a lot of strength.   I think that he is ahead of his time when it comes to playing basketball.  I am excited for him.  Of course, he is the one that has to go out there and play and prove it, but I believe that he will be up to that challenge.  

On Alandise Harris’ playing status:

We just found out that Alandise was not given the waiver.  Most importantly, he is there at the university. He will sit out this year and will red shirt.  We will certainly use him at our practices to help our guys get better. He has been given the chance to really concentrate academically. So, he will not be eligible this year for play.  He will use this year to sit out in residency. Hopefully, he will be ready to go next year.  

On current SEC team predictions:

There are no divisions anymore. It is sort of a one‐tier standing. I always say that those predictions are kind of a report card from what took place last year. I think in our case we’ve added some more players to our basketball team. I thought last year was our initial year of getting started. We did some good things; we did some not so good things. I think all of that is probably based on potential and obviously we have got to do a lot of things in terms of putting together the pieces. We have got to bring our old guys and mix in our new guys to evolve and develop — that’s going to be the biggest challenge. Through that, hopefully we can put a team out there that’s going to have the opportunity to compete for an SEC championship.  

Courtesy of SEC Digital Network