In the MVC, we don't have the budget or resources that Pitt or Kansas has. But we have awfully good players, and great coaches, and communities that love basketball. |
It was a long day. It was even worse today. I thought it would get better as it got closer but it actually got worse. The hours and minutes got longer. |
It's a couple of things. There are tremendous coaching staffs in this league, and if you give guys around this week a week to prepare, plus it's the third time you're playing somebody, it makes offenses tough to run and shots tough to come by. |
It's a great feeling, probably as good a feeling as I've ever had. It's just beautiful. These guys have been working their tails off. They dropped a lot of sweat and a lot of hours and they deserve the moment. |
It's bittersweet. When we get back home and sit back and look at our body of work for the year, I think this team, this program can be extremely proud. Now it's the goal to continue to build on it. |
It's unconventional in that much of my learning came as a player. I had to be a student of the game. What I brought to the table, I was the point guard playing for those guys. If I had been assistant to those guys, people would look at me differently. I brought a lot of pieces and nuggets from them. |
Just as we talk about fast-break offense, we work on fast-break defense. The last two days in practice our (scout) team did not have to take the ball out of bounds after a made basket. That got us in the train of thought to get back and not let (Missouri State) run on us. |
My players have a lot of pride, and we talked about how we lost two games to these guys. I think they took it in the manner, 'You know what. I've got some pride. He's not going to get the better of me tonight. |
Obviously, ISU will be primed for revenge and wants to get that bad taste of the last game out of their mouth. |
One of the things we put on our board when we talk about pressure is when we see a level of frustration, it's time to turn it up a notch. Our pressure did frustrate them some. |
Really, I think a lot of the fallout occurs from lack of knowledge. From people that haven't seen a [Valley] game or half a game. |
Relief, a tremendous amount of relief. ... Joy and excitement. |
Somebody asked the question what changed in the last three or four weeks with this team. It's the mentality. We haven't let our offense dictate who we were defensively. Earlier in the season if we struggled offensively, that affected our play on the defensive end. I don't care what happens on the offensive end. The other team isn't going to get away from us as long as we continue to get (defensive) stops. |
Sometimes you want something so bad . . . and you know, there are some young men that are visibly and physically upset in that locker room. Maybe it was out of the desire to want it so bad that maybe we didn't come out with our A game. |
That was an awfully good basketball team we played. And I think in order to win this game, we had to play our 'A' game. The reason we didn't is because of what they do and how they play. |