The 7 Best Things Russ Smith Said On Thursday

On Oregon's young guards:

"I have tremendous respect for Dotson's and Artis' game. And the guy that comes off the bench, Lloyd, he's fascinating."

On facing a team that's going to press them:

"I like it, because we have a speed demon at the point guard. So hopefully we can see a lot of that. And then Kevin Ware is another speed demon, along with myself."

On Luke Hancock's press-breaking prowess in practice this week:

"Luke almsot took 10 seconds to break the press, but he got it through. Luke was always at 9.7, but he ended up breaking it. Having Luke up the court, and being able to dribble against the pressure is cool."

On whether or not he knew that Oregon has won a national title:

"Oregon? They Have?" (Yeah, they won the first one) "Oh, I did not know that. The only thing I did know about Oregon was when they had Aaron Brooks and I think they went to the Elite 8. I remember I was in Oregon last year and I met a member of that team and he showed me his ring." (Oh, is that right?) "Yeah, it was green. It had the green-layering. It was pretty cool."

On preparing for this game like one would prepare for Oregon football:

"Since I've gotten to college, I've gotten the chance to watch football. I never watched football before I met Rakeem Buckles. So watching Oregon, I can definitely see the resemblance."

On Coach Pitino and Andre McGee saying they brought more pressure in 2009:

"Old heads always going to have something to say. I mean, I can't even--Coach P said he never even had a turnover in college."

On his summary of Friday night's game:

"Pretty much whoever gets more confused is going to lose the game."

Check out more from Russ in this video from Mark Blakenbaker: