We've got to take away 3-point shooting and not get fatigued by the shot clock. They make as many shots under 12 seconds as any team you're going to play. |
We've played in spurts, not always a full 40 minutes. |
We've probably had five complete games all year. I truly expect, though - and I hope it happens, and it needs to happen - for us to have a bust-out game where we put together a lot of longer stretches of the kind of basketball I think we are capable of. |
We've proved that we're ready now. Whether we're ready to win Tuesday night on the road remains to be seen. Do I think we're good enough? Yes. |
We've seen guys like Kevin Freeman emerge and become MVP. We might see Rudy Gay emerge. |
We've taken the quality of teams and just increased them in quantity. I don't think anybody truly understands how difficult this league will be day in and day out. |
Well, 1,100 basketball games I've been fortunate to be involved with (and) I've never been quite involved with something like that. It was just an incredible game fought by two teams who gave it everything they possibly have. And I don't know if the teams could have gone another minute. I thought it was an incredible display of what competition is all about. |
Well, to state the obvious, we're happy to be here today. We survived an incredible basketball game between two incredibly competitive teams. I think that game could go up as Exhibition A of what this tournament has been. |
Well, to state the obvious, we're happy to be here. We survived an incredible basketball game. |
What Louisville needed late in the game was experience. That's what we had, some guys coming down the stretch who know what to do. We turned our defense up in the last 4 1/2 minutes of the game, we took care of the ball, took good shots and made good decisions. This was a grind-it-out game. |
What really hurt us a lot of times is another team playing well and us not playing so well. |
What they need down the stretch is experience. It's what we have. Our experience and our toughness won this game. |
What this is for 64 teams is a great opportunity. It's a great opportunity for Connecticut. It's a great opportunity for us and it's a great opportunity for Albany. Both teams have something at stake. Both teams want to move on. There is no feeling like it. I've been a 16, a 15, a 1, and I've been all places in between. Each one is exciting. |
What we want to do is come back here in April holding up a trophy. But we're going to need your help. This has got to be an impossible place to play. |
When games are built up, sometimes, they don't fulfill their promise. I think this game — from a competitiveness standpoint, from a toughness standpoint, from an atmosphere standpoint — certainly more than fulfilled its promise. |